Sunday, February 17, 2008

Two Sculptors

Once a king was looking for the best sculptor in his kingdom. Two excellent sculptors presented themselves to him and he needed to give them a test to decide who was best.
He asked them to carve an image on two opposite walls of his palace. A curtain was hung between the walls so that they could not see each other’s work. After many months, both sculptors reported that they had finished the work and the king could view it.
Both the works were covered with curtains. First, one curtain was raised that revealed a beautiful image and everyone clapped in appreciation.
Then the opposite curtain was raised, here there was no image on the wall - instead the wall had been polished so finely that it gave a perfect reflection of the opposite image. In fact, it looked sharper than the original, as so much effort had been made in polishing the wall.
The second sculptor won the contest.

The story illustrates an interesting Vedantic tenet:
Really, we do not have to conjure up an image of ‘God’ in our minds. All we have to do is polish the mind - just remove the blemishes. Purify it. That is our task. God already exists. It is just that he is reflected more clearly in a pure mind.

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