Ramana Maharshi Devotee Silentgreen Narrates A Spritual Story "Meeting With A Crocodile"

I met a crocodile lying on the banks of a river peacefully. Many birds and insects were pecking on its body but nothing seems to be disturbing its peace.

I asked him: "Hello crocodile, do you do self-enquiry?".

The crocodile replied: "What is that?"

I told the crocodile: "When any thoughts rise, ask yourself, 'To whom does the thoughts arise?' the thoughts will subside to your heart."

The crocodile laughed and said: "Generally no thoughts arise in me at all, except during food time. If I do self-enquiry and subside even that thought, how shall I eat? I will die."

[I thought: I always thought of self-enquiry in terms of subsiding existing thoughts. But this crocodile seems to have no useless thoughts at all; then what is self-enquiry for it?]

I said: "You will not understand all this. By doing spiritual practices, we rise to great spiritual heights. Our scriptures mention about 'Stitha-Pragna', a stage where a saint is not disturbed by anything; heat or cold; joy or sorrow etc. Do you understand?"

The crocodile laughed again and said: "You watch me for one year. In summer or winter, in rain or storm. I will lie peacefully like this. Those things do not affect me. You are saying about joy and sorrow. I find no difference between them. Those things normally do not arise in my mind at all."

[I thought: I always thought of 'Stitha-Pragna' (a man of steady wisdom) in terms of not getting affected by external conditions. How then is he different?]

I said: "Our saints meditated in places full of insects. Even ant-hills developed on them. Birds pecked on them and they were not aware of these things."

The crocodile laughed even further: "Insects. Anthills. Birds. You can fill my body with bees. I will not get disturbed. Birds peck me all the time. Another crocodile can lie on me criss-crossed. I will not get disturbed. You can keep bags on my back. I will not get disturbed. If you put bags on the back of your saints, will they still continue to meditate?"

I gulped.

[I thought: I always thought enduring harsh conditions during spiritual practice is a sign of spirituality. How then is it different?]

I said: "You do not understand all this. I have read of saints doing penance underwater."

The crocodile said: "I have never met such an ignorant person like you. Don't you know we can live underwater for hours? You can put half my body in water and half in land. You can put my tail-side in land and head-side under water. I will still remain peaceful. Have you come across any saint who meditated with trunk in land and head inside water."

I was overwhelmed by the audacity of the crocodile.

[But still I thought: I always thought that doing extraordinary penances is a mark of spiritual progress. How then is it different?]

But since I do spiritual practices and know that anger is bad I resisted my anger somehow.

The crocodile seem to have understood my state and to make me more angry deliberately asked: "Are you feeling angry?"

I turned by head to hide my red face. Then somehow controlling my anger said: "Anger comes from ego. We should not be angry."

The crocodile said: "What is this ego?"

I said: "The ego gives rise to anger, jealousy, hatred and makes a person bad. Jealousy makes one person hurt another for his own good."

The crocodile said: "We do not feel all those. Don't you see one crocodile lying on the back of another with perfect friendship."

I retorted: "How boastful! If I go near you, will you not eat me?"

The crocodile said: "That is because you are my food. Not because of hatred. After all we have to live. Supply me enough food. Then come near me. I will pat on your back with my tail."

Imagining the pat I shivered.

I said: "I do not require your pat. We chant God's name and get pats from God."

The crocodile said: "Chanting? Why?"

I said: "You will not understand all this. It gives lot of peace of mind."

The crocodile said: "Peace of mind? What disturbs you? Can't you see how peaceful we are?"

[I thought: That is correct, the crocodile has never chanted and seems to be so peaceful. How then are spiritual practices different?]

I said: "We are the Self. We always identify with our ego. We always identify with our bodies. That is our problem. We need to remove our ego. Then we will be free. We will get mukti. Do you understand all this?"

The crocodile said: "Just come near me. I will end your ego in a moment and along with it your body. And since you are already the Self, Self will remain as it is. I will give you mukti right now. I have also not tasted human flesh for long. So it is beneficial for both of us."

[I trembled at the proposition of the crocodile, but also thought: The crocodile surely has a point. If I die this moment, the ego and the body will end this moment and the Self remains as it is. So will it not mean liberation?]

Seeing me tremble, the crocodile rejoiced and said: "Don't worry. I will not harm you this time at least. Anyway you are quite far, so there is no need to fear."

I retorted back: "You are thick-headed. Like you are thick-skinned, so you are thick-headed too. Don't you know that ending life like that is suicide and suicide is bad?"

The crocodile said: "Then sleep like us. We sleep for hours without dreaming. The ego subsides and the Self remains as it is. You will have no more thoughts."

[I thought: The crocodile surely has a point. If a person sleeps dreamlessly throughout his life, then are not all the problems solved? There are no thoughts, no identifications, no control of the mind and the Self is as it is. Then what else is spirituality?]

I said: "You are lazy. You do not understand all these things. We are not lazy fellows like you. We go to office and work."

The crocodile said: "Is it. Does your saints also go to office and work?"

Once again I wondered at the audacity of the crocodile. I said: "You will not understand all this. Have you heard of Vedanta. We are all one, externally appearing different, but internally same. So you and me are essentially same.

The crocodile said: "Come near me and tell me that."

I shivered, but said: "Leave it, you will not understand all this. Do you know devotion? By surrendering to God, a devotee depends entirely on God. He eats when God gives food, otherwise not."

The crocodile said: "Who depends more on God. Humans or we? We do not get regular food. Sometimes I just keep my mouth open and lie down for hours. If fish enters my mouth I eat, else not. Is this not a greater display of dependency on God? Can you depend on God like this?"

[I thought: The crocodile surely has a point. Its life depends more on God than us. How then are human beings superior?]

I said: "You are part. You need to become whole. You need to lose your me."

The crocodile said: "By becoming whole, do we lose our separate memories and enter a common big memory? Or do we have the ability to read other's thoughts?"

I said: "Not exactly that."

The crocodile said: "Then why are you calling it whole when separation still remains? If I am able to read other's thoughts, I am interested. We need to find the thoughts of human beings beforehand to protect ourselves."

[I thought: The crocodile surely has a point. By becoming whole, still saints retain their own memories. Then what is this wholeness?]

The crocodile said: "You seem to be doing spiritual practices for long. What have you gained? Are you more peaceful than me? Can you do the penances I do? Are you more free from hatred and jealousy than me? Do you depend on God for food more than me?"

I did not know what to say. I said hurriedly: "I am getting late. I need to go now. Thank you for your time."

The crocodile roared in laughter: "Time? Except for food and procreation time, you can meet me anytime. I am free always. Are your saints as free as I am?"

I said: "You will not understand all this. In meditation we lose sense of time and remain still for hours?"

The crocodile said: "Is it? I often keep my mouth open and remain still for hours. Can you do like that?"

[I thought: The crocodile definitely has a point. I thought by remaining still for hours and hours is a sign of great spiritual progress. Then how is it different?]

I said: "You do not know manners. You should have bade me a goodbye."

The crocodile said: "Let me do that in our style."

Saying this the crocodile splashed its tail in the water and threw a splash of mud water over my face".

Then seeing my condition the crocodile said: "Sorry for that. I did not expect this much. We are not without manners.". Then with its tail it threw a big leaf towards me and said: "Wipe your face with this."

I felt helpless. I took the leaf and wiped my face, still trying to get acquainted with the new custom.

Then seeing my camera the crocodile said: "You can take as many photographs of me as you like. I do not charge. I keep no money. Money and clay are same to me. I do not have any possessions."

[I thought: "The crocodile surely has thrown a new light. I thought if a person has no greed of money in his heart that is a sign of great spiritual progress. But here the crocodile does not care for money at all."]

Inspite of my helpless condition I could not stop praising the crocodile for its final words: "Yes, you are like our saints in this respect. They renounce everything."

The crocodile said: "We are born renunciates. We were never bound by possessions. We do not have any encrumbrances. We are always free. We remain naked and sleep under the sky. Anyway thank you for your time."

[I thought: The crocodile has surely thrown a new light. I thought that when a person does not bother about any possessions and are free from encrumbrances, that is a sign of great spiritual progress. But here the crocodile also does not have any possessions. What then is the true sign of spirituality?]

I left the place but with lot of questions.

What then is true spirituality? The crocodile seems to show all the external characteristics and many internal too.

I ran to a temple, and standing before the deity said: "Lord, what is all this? I thought human beings are superior than animals. Now I find a crocodile superior to me?"

Then looking at the deity it seemed that God Himself is laughing after viewing the whole crocodile episode. Seeing the Lord laugh, all my concerns also vanished and joy filled my heart.

Source: http://www.arunachala-ramana.org/forum/index.php?topic=5292.msg14649#new

Readers are requested to read below note and articles also

As guru ramana says,we need to learn much from animals.

He even says tapas is very well known to monkeys and great intelligence is behind them.

Also we need to remember that Advaita should be in bhava and not in action.

So surely humans,animals way of living will be different but finally we should have inner feeling that every creature is BRAHMAN only.

Example: For ant one particle of sugar will be sufficient but not the same for humans.

http://prashantaboutindia.blogspot.com/2009/08/ramana-maharshi-says-it-is-not-true.html