There was once a
minister to a great king. The king, displeased with the minister, ordered him
to be confined in the top of [a very high tower. This was done, and the
minister was left there to perish. His wife came to the tower at night and
called to her husband.] The minister said to her, "No use weeping."
He told her to take a little honey, [a beetle], a pack of fine thread, a ball
of twine, and a rope. She tied the fine thread to one of the legs of the beetle
and put honey on the top of its head and let it go [with its head up]. [The
beetle slowly crept onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey, until at last
it reached the top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got
possession of the silken thread, then the pack thread, then the stout twine,
and lastly of the rope. The minister descended from the tower by means of the
rope, and made his escape. In this body of ours the breath motion is the
"silken thread"; by laying hold of it we grasp the pack thread of the
nerve currents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the
rope of Prana, controlling which we reach freedom.
SOURCE: The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda,
Volume-1 [Lectures and Discourses]
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