I've just read a few chapters and there's this one story that really struck me. It's about a man who once made a holy vow and now he's faced with a situation where he has to make a decision whether to keep or break his vow. The story also applies to us when our principles and values are put to a test. The moral of the story will help us see through our actions - are we sincerely doing an action out of virtue or vanity? Read on to find out -
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A holy man was meditating under a tree when a young man suddenly approached him.
The young man pleaded, "Help me. A man has wrongly accused me of stealing. He's bringing a crowd and if they catch me, they will chop off my hands."
The young man climbed the tree and hid behind the branches. He begged the holy man - "Please don't tell them where I am hiding."
The holy man saw a vision of a saint telling him that the young man was telling the truth, that he was not a thief.
Shortly after, the crowd of villagers reached the tree and the group leader asked the holy man, "Have you seen a young man run by here? Where did he go?"
Years earlier, the holy man had taken a vow to always speak the truth. He did not want to betray the young man but this vow was sacred to him. Thus, he pointed up where the young man was hiding. The villagers caught the young man and chopped off his hands.
When the holy man died and stood before judgment, he was condemned for his behaviour on the incident about the young man.
"But," he protested, "I had made a holy vow to speak only the truth. I was bound to act as I did."
"On that day," came the reply, "you loved vanity more than virtue. It was not for virtue's sake that you delivered the innocent man over to his persecutors, but to preserve a vain image of yourself as a virtuous person."