Tuesday, February 25, 2014

The Kite Story



Apparently, when Alexander the Great came to conquer India, he met a sanyasi, who was actually a great sage. The sage’s name was ‘Dandamis’; at least, that is how Greek historians seem to have pronounced it. Alexander questioned the sage: “Do you believe in God?” The sage remained silent. Alexander said, “I cannot see, so how can I believe? How do you believe without seeing him?” The naked sage laughed. He took Alexander by his hand towards the marketplace. Alexander followed—maybe he was taking him somewhere where he could show him God.

A small boy was flying a kite, and the kite had gone so far away that it was impossible to see it. The sage smiled secretly and stopped there, and the king of the Macedons waited impatiently. The sage asked the little boy, “Where is your kite? Because we cannot see it, and without seeing, how can we believe it is actually in existence? So where is that kite of yours? How do you still believe the kite exists?” The boy laughed merrily and looked pityingly at the sage for asking such an absurd question. He said, “I can feel the pull of it.” And the sage said to Alexander, “I can also feel the pull of it.”

—Swami Chaitanya Keerti, “Taking God on Trust”, at chaitanyakeerti.com/pages/latest2001/latestaugust01.html as of 6 March 2012.

I obtained this from the following site (which has excellent biographical info on Dandemis – see my earlier post, July 2013: The Wisdom of Dandemis):

http://kevincarmody.com/vedic/dandamis.html




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