A big jack fruit tree in a man's courtyard was
full with fruits. From the bottom of the trunk up to the top most branch
it was dotted with fruits.
As though one possessed with an evil spirit,
the man rushes out towards the fruit several times. He touches the jack-fruit,
but the surface is uninviting. He abandons it in disgust.
Far away from home he had seen one palm tree.
Walking in the hot sun several miles, he stands near the tree. His craving had
reached its zenith. The few small fruits that hung on the top of the tree tempt
him.
He rushes forward. He falls on the bush of
prickly pears and gets injured by the thorns all over the body. Not discouraged
by this he tries to climb the tree. The scales that cover the trunk are hard
and knife-like. They hurt him. But he does not mind.
As he climbs, a swarm of poisonous ants that
sting like devils, sting him all over the body. He has somehow managed to reach
the top; such is his mad passion for the little fruits. The fruits are
surrounded by hundreds of bees. When he lays his hands upon them, the bees
angrily sting him.
In spite of this, he tries to grab the fruits.
Then and there he drops more than half the catch. With the remainder, he tries
to climb down. Several fruits drop off his hand before he reaches the ground.
He sits himself down to enjoy the few fruits left with him.
To his horror he discovers that the major
portion of these little fruits is hard nut; and then even the skin has to be
thrown away. There is little pulp in the fruit. In disgust he throws the fruits
away.
Instantly he comes back to his senses, and begins
to suffer with agony. The pain of the thorns, the bites of the poisonous ants,
the stings of the bees, and the cuts produced on his body by the sharp scales
of the tree - these seem to torment him all at once.
It is now past several days since he left
home. With his tattered clothes and bleeding body, he runs home .... to find
that his father had been waiting for him with the delicious jack-fruit.
The young man stumbles into the house and
falls at the father's feet. Without asking a question, the father gives him new
clothes, pulls out the thorns from his body, dresses up the wounds, all the
time feeding him with the honey-like jack-fruit. The young man's happiness is
now complete. Peacefully he sleeps on his father's lap.
Similarly, man ignores the fountain of Eternal
Bliss that is within the core of his own heart. He is frightened away by the
apparent initial difficulties to reach God. He does not care to cut open this
rough exterior and enjoy the highest bliss.. He is hungry. He runs away from
home and from this tree that yields the best fruit. Here he falls into the thorny bush of dishonor; there he knocks against the rock of failure. Lured by illusory pleasure he succumbs to
passion.
