Parable of The Suspicious Man Who Got Drowned

Two men are standing on a rock in an ocean, away from the shore. It is getting dark. Clouds are gathering in the sky. Even a sight of the shore is lost. Waves are lashing on the rock. The ocean is getting turbulent.

In that darkness a man appears before them. “Come with me, I shall take you to the shore,” he says.

The wise man readily follows him.

But the fool questions: “How will you take us across the waters?”

“I have got a boat with me,” says the newcomer.

“I am ready to come with you,” says the wise man.

“No, I won’t come,” says the fool; “suppose the boat is defective or the man is a dacoit?”

The wise man gets into the boat and safely reaches the shore, guided by the boatman. The fool is quickly swallowed up by the rising waves of the ocean.

Floating along in this ocean of Samsara, the Jiva, after great struggle, gets this boon of a human birth. The other shore of safety has not yet been reached. Time is fleeting. The evening of life has set in. Eye-sight is lost. The eye of wisdom is blinded by the gathering clouds of materialism and disharmony. Perplexed and prayerful the man stands on the rock of individual life.

The Guru comes to him with the boat of the Lord’s Name or of Bhakti. He beckons man to follow him and get into the boat and thus safely cross over to the shore. The wise man readily does so. But the fool has a thousand doubts and a million misgivings. He questions the bona fides of the Guru, and the validity of Bhakti. Very soon he is once again swallowed up in the huge ocean of Samsara; and, sunk in it, he has lost the greatest opportunity of saving himself, given to him by God.

Source: Parables of Swami Sivananda