The Houseflies!

“It is only when man is filled with godly thoughts that he will be rid of sorrow. Hence, what should be given up is worldliness. Then alone Aatmaananda (the Bliss of the Spirit) can be got.” (BHAGWAN BABA)

Two houseflies were hovering over a heap of human waste. They would sit on the mound of filth and enjoy the taste of it. Having had their fill, they would start buzzing around from here to there. A little while later, they found a bowl of honey. They sat on the edge of the bowl and slowly ventured on to the shiny golden syrup. Then they tasted it. Oh! It was heavenly! They satisfied their hunger and started flying around again.

Soon they smelt the familiar heap of human faeces and landed on it. In this fashion they kept on flitting from the honey to the faecal matter for a long time. They could not decide which one they liked better. While sitting on the honey they would remember the waste and while sitting on the waste they would remember the taste of the honey.

It so happened that a strong gust of wind came. One of the flies was then perched on the honey and its wings got stuck in the honey, so it could not move. It kept enjoying the taste of the honey long enough to forget the taste of the filth and realize that this is what she really wanted. She was in bliss!

The other fly meanwhile was deeply, entrenched in the dirt when the gust of wind came and its wings got smeared with filth, such that it got stuck in the dirt. To make it worse, someone threw some more dirt over the mound and the fly got trapped under it. It struggled while it remembered the honey, but it could hardly breathe now. Sometime later, this fly died.

This is a very ancient story. What does it really signify? We are the fly that flits from the Godly and eternal to the worldly and ephemeral. When we are praying or attending a Religious event, we stay for a while and then rush back to the world. We struggle to spend time in both things but find no peace in either. The gust of wind is the grace of God or the Guru. If He were to hold you and drown you in His love and Grace, you would have no interest left in worldly matters. But you have to seek Him… that is the least you can do!