The Honey of Ignorance

Once there lived a saint in Rampur village of India. He used to deliver speeches for the welfare of humanity on a regular basis. One man, named Duvidhalal, heard about the saint and decided to attend his speech. The next day, he started travelling to Rampur village. But, by the time he reached the venue, it was very late. The speech was over and saint had left for his home. Duvidhalal searched for the home of saint. On reaching there, he requested the guard to allow him to meet the saint. The guard was hesitant to allow him to enter. However, the saint came out and asked Duvidhalal the reason to meet him. Duvidhalal said, "Respected saint, I have heard that you deliver speeches for the sake of humanity. I came here to get benefited by your speech. I always feel doubtful and depressed in my life. Nothing seems to be alright. I always feel myself surrounded with darkness. What should I do?" The saint said, "I can understand your pains. If you wish, then come to attend my speech tomorrow evening. I will answer your question there. Remember, I will begin at 4 PM tomorrow and the program will be for an hour."

The next day, Duvidhalal came to the venue five minutes earlier. The saint came at scheduled time of 4 PM. He sat on his seat. Then, instead of speaking anything, the saint took the box of honey. Then to the very surprise of the audiences, he started rubbing honey all over his body. Some bees started getting attracted towards honey. Seeing the bees around, the saint took a stick and started trying to disperse the bees around. Then, he took some honey and again put it on his body. This kept on happening, and more and more bees kept on coming. All the people around were confused seeing the saint doing such a strange thing. Some people thought, 'He can not be a saint. He is a crazy person. Does not he know the bees are getting attracted due to honey and still he is rubbing the honey on his body!! No matter how hard he tries, the bees will keep on coming.' Some people thought, 'It is some sort of leela (divine play) of the saint. We can never understand his leela. We should only enjoy what he is doing.'

On seeing whatever the saint was doing, Duvidhalal's mind was filled with doubts. Finally, one hour passed and the saint left. Duvidhalal again reached near the home of saint, and started requesting the saint to meet him. The saint came out and asked him, "How was the day's event?" Duvidhalal replied, "But you did not say anything. You only kept on rubbing honey all over your body and when bees started coming, you tried to disperse them with a stick. How can you disperse those bees away from you when the honey was on your body. And not only this, you kept on rubbing more and more honey. One hour passed and you left. I could not understand anything."

The saint smiled hearing all this and said, "Dear Duvidhalal, you did not understand my message. Just like I came to deliver speech at a fixed time, everyone takes birth in this world at a specific time. Then they start rubbing the honey of ignorance soon after that. Then the bees of doubts, hatred, discrimination, anger, lust, false pride etc. come and start troubling the human beings. But the human being, instead of getting his life free of ignorance, takes the stick of arrogance and ego, and tries to disperse these bees away. All through their lifetimes, the human beings keep on rubbing the honey of ignorance and more bees keep on coming. Then the person does not even realize when the clock of life reads 5 PM and he/she leaves the world. Dear Duvidhalal, leave the honey of ignorance. It might give the illusion of sweetness to you, but it is the source of all your doubts. Attain the knowledge and be free of all doubts and enter the world of clarity."