The Cat of a Sage

Once upon a time, a sage lived in an ashram with his disciples. One day, a kitten lost her way and entered inside ashram. Seeing the hungry kitten, the sage fed her with bread and milk. The kitten started living in ashram only. But within few days, the sage started facing a difficulty. The kitten was now familiar with the people of ashram and used to play with them, including the sage. Now, whenever the sage went to meditate, the kitten started disturbing him by jumping on his lap, neck and shoulders.

A time came when the sage could not tolerate it any further. He called one of his disciples and asked him to tie the kitten to a nearby tree. The disciple took the kitten and tied her to the tree. Now this became a daily activity. Whenever the sage went for meditation, his students would tie the kitten and would release her only after the sage completed his meditation.

Several years passed and one day the sage died. One of his qualified disciples took the position of the sage in ashram. However, still whenever he had to sit for meditation, the cat was tied to the tree. But one day, there was a crisis when the cat died. There was an emergency meeting called between the disciples and the new sage. The question raised was regarding the process to be followed by sage to do meditation. They accepted that it was their tradition to tie the cat before the sage could sit for meditation. It was suggested that a cat would be brought from nearby village and they will tie the cat to the tree.

After much effort, they finally found a cat. Believe it or not, since then, many sages and cats have died, but sage still meditates only after tying a cat to the tree. The only explanation left for this practice is that this is a tradition being followed and all sages have followed it so this needs to continue without questioning it.