Be the generous Lion

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In India it was not uncommon for people to go to the forest in search of God or
the supreme being, it was more of a customary practice where a person would
renounce the living pleasures and go to the forest to meditate. They would
adopt a simple life with no belongings and eat off the forest or visit the
neighboring villages to seek alms once a day to satisfy the hunger.

One person from a particular village  named Gopal decided it is time for him
to move onto the forest in search of God, so just as any good man would do he
renounced all his wealth - passed it onto his family , charity and for other noble
causes and with no baggage enters the forest. He finds a big tree which looked
very comforting so cleaned up a small area and setup camp. After a few hours
of meditating he opened his eyes to the faint roar of a Lion, terrified he quickly
climbed up on the tree and saw that a mighty lion dropped a piece of meat on
the ground and starts to walk away. Few minutes later a crippled fox with no
front limbs crawls its way towards the meat and starts eating it. This surprised
our monk, he thought it was just a coincidence that the fox found this meat and
starts to make camp atop the tree in fear of the lion.

The next day around the same time he hears the lion the dropping the meat
again, following which the crippled fox enjoys its lunch- this continued for a
few days. It occurred to him that the lion was basically feeding the fox as it
could not hunt on its own and he attributes this to the cosmic power of the
forest. The all giving forest would provide lunch for him and since he ate only
once a day it was perfect, he wouldn’t need to stop his penance and the food
would arrive in whatever form so its all great, Just eat and mediate away!
This discovery made him feel real good, so from the next day he stops making
his usual trips to the village to collect food , he felt bad for the families who
waited  to feed him as it was considered a pious thing to donate food to
alm-seekers(beggars) but he now has the forest to feed him so he was OK
not going into the village.

After two days of waiting the seated mediation turned to sleeping meditation
and by the fifth day he had no strength left to move much at that time a passing
 by monk hears the cries of Gopal and comes by to help. He was a fellow
monk as well and had no food or water to share but offers to help Gopal to the 
village but to his surprise the idea was rejected. Gopal gathered strength to 
share his vision about the 'giving forest' and narrates the story about the lion 
and the crippled fox and sums up saying that it is God's sign of testing his grit in
mediating and once God is pleased - food will be on its way.

This surprised the passer by monk, so he proceeds to ask Gopal 'Why he chose
 to be the crippled fox in this story but not the generous lion that would even
 feed a helpless fox?'  had he chosen to be the lion he would have not only
 saved himself but others as well who may need help but by choosing the
 handicapped fox brought him to this stage where he is now dependent on
 others to "rescue" him.

(Adapted from a story told by Sadhguru in the Inner Engineering class)

Location: Birmingham, AL, USA

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