A long time ago there were two monks. They had grown up together and were best friends since childhood. They did everything together from eating to prayers and all the chores and were very close to each other. Once day one of the monks fell sick and died a couple of weeks later. The other monk was very saddened by this and in a few months he himself passed away as well.
The first monk was reborn in heaven after his death while the second one remained on earth and became an earthworm. The monk who was born in heaven enjoyed all divine pleasures for years and experienced extreme bliss. After some time, he remembered his old friend from a previous life and decided to find him. He searched all through the heaven but could not find him. He searched various realms of gods, devas, kings, men and animals but was unsuccessful in his mission. Then he started searching within plants and insects and finally found his old friend who was now an earthworm.
He went to the worm who had his house in a piece of dung and said "hello old friend, do you remember me. I am your buddy from the previous life. I am here to take you to heaven with me. We can enjoy so much over there." To this the worm replied, "go away, I don't know who you are". The monk tried very hard to explain to the worm how he meant nothing but a better life of his old buddy but the worm wouldn't give in. The worm insisted that he was happy where he was and he did not care for heaven or whatever it was the monk said. To this the monk though, if only I could take him with me once to heaven and show him how wonderful it is, he would be ready to go with me. The monk started pulling the worm from the dung the worm lived in, but the more he pulled, the more firmly the worm attached himself to the piece of dung.
Moral of the story: How many of us are attached to our piece of dung?
Life as a human is a blessing. A human being is gifted with intelligence which has enabled him to rule this planet and make his life very comfortable. Only humans have the ability to understand that life is merely a journey which takes us towards death. Each once of us has a conscience which helps us distinguish right from wrong, good from bad. Animals on the other hand are only concerned with their survival. They don't feel guilty when they kill for flesh or mate with their own blood. All they are concerned with is eating, sleeping, sex and defense. They do not have the intelligence to think about god, and self realization. A hog who is drooling in stool and mating with his mother thinks he is very happy, he fails to realize the abominable condition he is in.
We should not spend our life like animals. Given the gift of intelligence of the human brain, it is our obligation as a human being to search for the self , search for the goal of life and to find freedom. It is only in this form that we can at least think about it if not completely know it. A life in this direction and search is thus a success but a life lived only for sensual pleasures, is like that of an animal. The great rishis of India have said that self realization is a bliss that is incomparable to any sensual pleasure you can ever imagine. Unless we experience it ourselves we should not give up this path. Someone once asked a great rishis what self realization felt like and where it took you. To this the rishi replied, that it did not take him anywhere. He was still exactly where he was, it merely changed his direction. It was like he was facing away from the sun and staring at darkness and ignorance and worried all the time and now he was simply facing the sun and experiencing the light and knowledge.
Religious people often say that since they are on the religious path, they know about the self and hence they are better than those who do not. No doubt religious people are on the right track, but to say that they are better off than other is a stretch. It is like say there is a treasure under your house. Just knowing that a treasure of hidden underneath is hardly of any use if you cannot reach it. But then again since you know you have the treasure, you might just one day try to dig it out.
Religion is not the only way to reach this goal of our. Great sages of the past have attained self realization without taking up any particular religion. Not everyone is religious and religion is not the only way to attain this supreme goal. There are four ways to achieve it: Karma Yoga (path of action of those engaged in work), Bhakti yoga (path of devotion for those devoted to religion), Jnana Yoga (path of knowledge for intellectuals) and finally Raja Yoga (path of exercise for the physically active and motivated )
