TORY OF PUNYA & PAVANA

On the top high hills of Mount Mahendra there was a town of sages -- like Hitaites
or Amise. Its huge mountain peaks have gone all the way up to Bramhaloka. On
hill a Desire tree under which celestials used to rest. Fountains,parks, peacocks, cuckoos, swan soundings, deers leaping, birds chirping. All animals were enjoying the peace. Many sages lived in the valley.

There was a couple, Dirghatapa by name who had two most handsome sons --
Punya and Pavana. Punya was bright, Pavana was dull. They used to paly on the
forest paths with other muni's sons.

After sometime the couple left their bodies. Panic arose in the heart of all the
family Pavana was crying bitterly. After performing all the last rites on the
fifteenth day, both brothers sat together.

"Dear brother, why do you cry? Our parents have gone to the planet of Bliss
eternal. They have gone to greater joy. Neither anyone was your mother nor
father, nor anyone will be. Out of ignorance upon many you assumed this
relationship. Not only with them but with many others. You had thousands of
mothers and thousands of fathers. Why don't you lament for them. It is a mirage.
Brother, see neither you are nor world nor these sights. Toss away these from
your heart. It is born out of your will. It is no truth. World is a river of mirage in
the desert. It evolves innumerable waves of good and bad, auspicious and
inauspicious, and submerges at last.

"As dust particles you see wavering in there so that many friends and parents
you had before. All the tears you had shed for them, if we collect them, will make
another Atlantic ocean. If we make one whole cemetery for them it will make a
whole continent turn into a cemetery. For whom do you lament, what for, what do
you derive?
"Many times you became a deer, you had parents and friends then also. Why
don't you cry for them too? You were an elephant, you had a family then too. You
were a tree once. Other trees were your kinsmen. You were a crocodile in a lake.
In Dasarna State you were a crow. In Tusarna State you were a Prince. In Bengal
you were an elephant, in Siberia you were a donkey. In Malava State you were a
snake and a tree. In Kosal you were a bramhin. In China you were a business man.
In Poland you were a woman. In Italy's Vatican garden you were a spiritual master.
In England you became a king again in the Druid race. In Egypt you were a
minister. In Gaul you were a laborer. In Himalayas you were a pond. In Kashmir
you were a lotus in Dale lake.

Dear Brother, as passionate clinging you evolved in your mind strong enough to
become your last thought at times of death those bodies you got. And there and
there you became involved in them, instead of trying hard to get free. You
developed relationships with wife, kids, mother-in-law, brother-in-law, their kids,
keeping your prestige up you remained busy. Terribly busy. And that foolish
busyness remained the matter of your dignity.

Never you felt ashamed to say yourself is too busy to do the right thing to search for the Self. You remained dull and a dunce.

"Brother, me too like yourself, I also went on transmigrating body after body
after body. In the same these forests I strolled as a camel. I remember being a
tree, bird, swan, king, deer; you were then my elder brother, for ten years we lived
together. But now I am awakened. I wish you too, wiping out your fantasy and
illusion, be enlightened."
Hearing these wise words of his brother, Pavana also became enlightened. Then
both hand in hand together strolled innumerable hills, dales and valleys. They
rested under many trees, drank and ate beside many rivers. Traveled to many
countries. At last when the oil is consumed,
Self became one with Cosmic-Self -- Bramha.