Hello all, this story is a tale as old as time as far as we are concerned.
I stumbled upon this writing many years back and it touched my life in a way that I felt was very beneficial to me. This writing was lost or incomplete to me for a long time, as the original place that I found it has since been disbanded. The place I originally found it was disbanded because the original owner wanted to distance themselves from their previous life and leave it behind. After some real digging, I managed to find and piece together what it was that once touched me so. The ending quoted commentary below is their original following commentary on the below story as well. However, since the originator of where I found this does not which to be affiliated with their previous life, I will not quote them or point to who it was so as to respect their wishes. I hope this writing touches you as it has touched me.
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A Hindu story of the God who forgot themself:
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There was once a great God in the heavens.
Not only was he a God, but he was the king of Gods.
A very great God indeed. Indra was his name and he was the God of the weather.
One day in the heavens, Indra was with some of his staff, lesser Gods, when he chanced upon seeing some pigs rolling around in filth.
Indra felt for the dirty pigs and wanted to save them and enlighten them. He concocted a plan to show the pigs the light.
But to show light to pigs you cannot just be a beam of light, the pigs will be frightened.
Indra decided to go to them as a pig. He would be in the body of a pig and from here he would show them the true way to live.
So Indra became a pig and he descended to the earth to live in a pig sty with the pigs.
After a long while the heavens were not being run properly because Indra was not there to bear his responsibilities. Much of the heavens became in disarray.
His comrades became curious to his progress. But more than curious to his progress, they needed Indra to return to his duties of ruling.
After some time pondering what to do, they decided to call upon Indra and convince him to return. What they found horrified them.
To their shock, their great king was happily living as a pig. He had lost all knowledge of his true nature.
He had taken a pig wife and had several piglets with her. Each day he would play with his piglets by rolling around in slop and loving it. When the farmer would throw slop in the sty, Indra would rush to eat it heartily.
Seeing this horrifying scene, his fellow Gods could no longer tolerate his behavior and they came down to confront him.
“Sir” they said, “what are you doing? You are our king but you are rolling around with pigs in filth. We are ashamed of your habits.”
To their shock their great king responded, “Who says I am a God? I am a pig! Living like a pig is great. What fools you are up there looking down, you don’t know the joy of life as a pig. You talk of Gods this and that but sirs I am a pig and I love it. You must become pigs, then you will see the pure joy of it.”
They responded, “Sir, we cannot let you continue like this. You are a great God, king of kings, you must leave this pig life and come back to us. You have great work and responsibility.”
Indra said, “Nonsense! I am a pig not a God! Leave me, I will play with my piglets now and then we will happily eat our slop. They are waiting. Be gone.”
His staff were flabbergasted but they devised a plan.
Since Indra was so intent to play with his piglets they decided to kill his piglets so he could not play with them any longer.
One after the other they killed the piglets. Indra cried and cried and became very emotional at the loss of his piglets. But he looked to his pig wife and decided to create more piglets to play with.
The staff had no choice but to kill the pig wife and take her from Indra. Indra began crying and moaning at the loss of his pig family. He was greatly distressed. Soon, his pig friends and relatives suggested he take another wife. And the whole pig-business started again.
The Gods were now completely at a loss with this for no matter what they did he would not return to his true form. For him, truly, he was a pig.
Narada, the wise sage who was passing by and happened to see all this said, “Why did you kill his wife and kids? His attachment is to his body. Destroy the body”.
The staff had no choice, they had to kill the body of the pig that Indra was in. So, the Gods cut his body into two halves. As soon as the pig’s belly was split, Indra’s soul came out and looked at the body of the pig in shock and horror.
His staff said to him, “Sir, not only were you in this body of a pig but you wanted to stay there. You were convinced you were a pig and even you were happy living as a pig.”
Indra said “I see my true self now, I will have no more of this pig business. I will continue with my real work. Let’s go.”
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“The story of Indra leaves one to wonder
Perhaps you were meant for something more and perhaps you just forgot.
Perhaps there is some addiction that clouds the mind and helps you to forget.
‘Alcohol to the point of vomiting, overeating food, sex obsession, frequent masturbation, narcotics to avoid reality, video games all night, social media all day, and videos always in the background. That’s what I really should be doing!’
Perhaps your true nature is lying dormant while you live in filth.
Perhaps someone is yelling at you to ‘WAKE UP! WAKE UP!’
but you are saying ‘No, no, I am not meant for more. I am nothing but a pig. This is the life I deserve and I am happy enough with it.’
Perhaps many bad things keep happening and you don’t know why.
Perhaps someone or something is trying to reach you any way it can.
Perhaps Indra is you, and you have forgotten who you are.”
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Wishing you all the best,
FCP 🙃
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