Parable of The Good-Natured Youth and The Beautiful Girl

There once lived a young handsome youth who was proverbially good to all. He never did an act, either directly or indirectly, detrimental to human progress and good. Once he went about on a tour. On his way, he met a beautiful girl and immediately fell in love with her. She, too, did not object to it. Without much delay and deliberations, the young man returned to his house with the girl. But, prior to the date fixed for marriage, the young man learnt all about the girl’s love for some other youth, as evinced by her through her actions. Without hesitation, he got her married to that man. A year passed by. The girl was about to forget the kindness of the good-natured youth. The youth, taking the help of a magician gave the girl a certain drug in the form of sweetmeat, on taking which she developed hatred for her husband; and abandoning him, returned to the good-natured youth. Thenceforth, they lived a happy life till the end of their life.

God and Guru are synonymous. They are comparable to the good-natured youth. All things that they do are always for the good of the individual and the universe.

The youth picking the girl is like God or the Guru choosing the disciple from the world.

The girl’s love for another man is akin to the devotee’s or disciple’s love for earthly things. God and Guru allow it in the case of their beloved devotee and disciple. But when the individual is about to forget God or Guru, they through their mysterious spiritual powers (comparable to the magician’s drug) turn the mind of the individual from all earthly objects and take him to their own respective abodes.

Their act of diverting the individual from worldly pursuits is transcendental, unquestionable. But, it is for the great good of the individual.

Source: Parables of Swami Sivananda