The Story of a Little Drop in the Ocean

I was a little water droplet in the vast ocean of life. My little brother droplet and I played a lot. We jumped up the ocean to see the world outside and enjoy its beauty. I had been part of this ocean since birth but wanted to get out of it.

Once as we played, both me and brother were energized by the great Sun god and we turned into water vapours and became parts of a big grey cloud. We moved over great distance and came over to another ocean. Now I found that only the name of the ocean had changed, but it remained the same as much as the ocean in which I was born. I wanted to be different and looked at the right moment. I saw an oyster with its mouth open waiting for someone to come. Seeing this cooled my heart and I immediately became a water drop again and descended down towards the oyster and lodged myself in it. My brother seeing me jumping down followed me but landed in the sea. I never thought this difference in decision would mean so much ultimately.

The oyster in which I took my place closed its mouth and sank down into the depths of the ocean. I enjoyed the new life of individuality inside the oyster. As days and months and years passed by, the oyster wrapped me with its secretion and my body grew in size with each envelope. Now I had a lustrous coating reflecting the outside.

I used to think of my little brother and wondered how he was doing. But I spent most of the time enjoying my growth and new veils that cover me. Suddenly one day, a diver picked up the oyster and cracked it open and picked me up. I was all splendour and pride reflecting the whole world. Soon I was taken to a market where a jeweller acquired me. He drilled a hole through my body which gave me intense pain. A thread was passed through me and I was dangled on as a jewel, where I stayed for some time. I enjoyed the attention, and swayed from one side to another. But alas I lost my balance and the thread tore and flung me on the floor, where I dashed with great force and broke to pieces. I cried at my dismemberment and wept bitterly. I became parched in spite of me being a water droplet. In this time of calamity I remembered about the only close relation of mine—my little brother who merged back with the ocean and is in a state of total bliss. Scattered and broken, I was destined to get back into the ocean— the place from where I started my journey.

Now replace the ocean with Brahman, droplet with a Jiva or individual consciousness, the oyster as a new birth, the secretions as the wrappings of Maya and the thread as the bondage with the worldly pleasures. We will soon discover that each one of us is that droplet which wants a different life and separate identity and forgets about the Brahman and ends with the gains and pains of life. The younger brother droplet is the realized Jiva who has found his unity with the Brahman.

Reflections on Life's Diverse Colours : S PANCHAPAKESAN

Courtesy : Vedanta Kesari

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