Explaining the metaphor

In the crowded streets of the city, wandered a poor lonely beggar for alms.

The large city described here represents the Universe. It is crowded with infinite souls. The soul is lonely as it suffers its journey through a begin-less and an unending time all alone in this universe. Until the worldly soul enters the protection of the Lord he lives like a beggar devoid of the Right Faith, Right Knowledge and Right Conduct

“Oh, my brothers and sisters! Have some mercy on this hungry man. For God’s sake, please lend me some food”.

The soul is in a constant pursuit for happiness. He begs for material possession which he believes would give him great happiness. But the promise of happiness from materialism is only a mirage. He does not know what he seeks lies within his own soul.

There was no man more miserable than him in the entire city..

In the process, the soul accumulates bad Karmas, the fruits of which gives him great sorrows and miseries.

Due to prolonged starvation, his belly sank deep on his body like a crater on the moon.

Even after indulging in several sensual pleasures, there is an insatiable desire for more and a continuous discontentment as a result.

He was so shrunken in size and had a weird countenance. A small slimy creature with deep yellow wrinkles and pair of large black eyes..

While the material desires remain unfulfilled, he lives in a state of restlessness and stress. Today, depression is a major issue and these material desires are the main cause.

He is human-like but distorted to a parody and represents the worst-case embodiment of the human race.

The soul in its purest form is the powerhouse of infinite energy and happiness and total knowledge. As it accumulates Karma, this soul distorts itself beyond recognition. The worst-case embodiment of that is seen with crime, war, terror, drugs, alcoholism, depression etc..

The stench from his body reminds one of a garbage collection van.

Greed, selfishness, cruelty, betrayal and other evil intentions are akin to garbage emanating foul-smell.

It seemed as if all the worst pathogens have come to life on his body. His body was a showroom of various illnesses — high fever, insanity, itching, leprosy, dim vision etc.

The following are a few diseases which the soul acquires:

high fever - craving of materialistic pleasures

insanity — arrogance of success.

itching —uncontrollable attraction towards the other sex.

leprosy — a feeling of disgust, fear, hatred, envy etc. causes people to stay away from him.

dim vision — not being able to see the right path.

Boils and swellings all over his body adorned him with a rosy makeup.

His near-ones are like the boils for which man resorts to dishonesty as a means to earn money. While the money thus earned is enjoyed by the family, the bitter fruits of sins committed by the man will have to be suffered by him alone.

He was a laughter show for the mischievous kids, a playground for worms and flies, a statue of pity for the nobles and a banner of inspiration depicting the bitter fruits of one’s bad karma.

By his foolish deeds, he becomes a laughing stock in the society. The wicked and cunning people constantly hover around him looking for an opportunity to rob him off his wealth. The learned and noble sage sympathise with him and looking at him, the wise followers of Jina are further inspired to follow the virtuous path.

A dented dirty bowl filled with food rubbish and a torned ragged cloth fluttering on his body were his only asset and wealth.

After various attempts to accumulate wealth and a chance success for a few, intense feelings of sadness is all he is left with.

He could only earn slammed doors and insults from his day-long tiresome job of begging. Sometimes he would receive hurled stones and stick thrashes as a bonus. Barking, biting and chasing him, the dogs welcomed him in each street

Even though he gives it all, success never finds him and failure is a constant companion. The worldly soul lands himself in undesirable circumstances like debt or rejection. Even though theory of Karma is quite evident, the blindness of misguided rationalism does not allow him to see the obvious. The dogs represent the foolish perspectives that repeatedly bites him.

Even then, propelled by the fire of hunger, he goes on begging from one house to another in the hope of getting some leftover food..

They believe that more is better and have inadvertently subscribed to the idea that happiness can be purchased at a department store. The passion to possess and excess possession leaves him too distracted to enjoy the moment.

By chance, a few morsels received in alms would make him dance with joy.

We live in a world that idolizes success. People who live simple lives are not championed in the same way. While most people are chasing after success, glamour, and fame, a few who achieve it misguide the rest into this same consumerism.

As if others would steal his treasure, the food bowl, he would quickly take it to a dark hideout raising suspicion amongst the onlookers.

But with success comes the fear of failure and fear of losing everything.

Even after cramming it down, his hunger would not be satiated but only increased.

The lifestyle they have chosen requires them to portray a certain external image dependent upon their circumstances. They are tossed and turned by the most recent advertising campaign or a new fancy product.

The eaten decayed food would cause him terrible pain.

The worldly soul immersed in the materialistic pleasures forget nature’s justice and is thus grinded and crushed by terrible sorrows and miseries.

The rotten food, in fact, is the booster of existing diseases and cause of several new diseases that his body got infected with.

The wealth acquired nourishes existing diseases of the soul like greed, arrogance, deceit and anger. The overflow of money (rotten food) gets him into new addictions and vices (new diseases) like meat, liquor, drugs, prostitution etc..

Wandering relentlessly through every inch of the city. Suffering through pains and miseries, many years elapsed…

The worldly soul wanders through many births as a result of the karma acquired. He attains innumerable forms in sequence one after another — of animals like deer and donkey or of birds like crow and cuckoo or insects like ant and earthworm etc or human-beings like farmer, fisherman, mason, merchant, servant, slave, sick, weak, alcoholic, drug addict, deaf, dumb, blind or lame.

Thus the worldly soul has passed time-immemorial traversing every inch of the Universe without any spiritual progress.

Stay tuned for the next part where we learn how the beggar hits a massive turning point in his life. Follow Muni Speaks!