A sheep was going along with a herd of sheep in the jungle. As it chanced, the shepherd led the herd in a new direction and one sheep found itself alone, separated from all its companions.
It found itself filled with fear in the dreadful forest all around it. It was fair game for every beast that roamed the forest. If it was afraid of a leopard, it was no less afraid of a fox. Even the rustling of leaves and the blowing of the wind through the trees filled it with fear. It was seeing visions of an approaching death even while alive. It saw as its future the face of Death.
It wished to live but could not find any means to save its life. The fear had made the sheep lose its voice. It was afraid that if it let out the slightest sound some wild animal would hear it and come to kill it. Its heart yearned for the shepherd and its companion sheep. It had no sympathizer in the forest nor anyone with whom it could share its sorrow.
It was convinced that it could not survive on its own in this jungle because all the animals there were much stronger than it.
Therefore it decided upon the best way to die. It wished to die an honorable death. It knew that it could not live merely on the thought of being able to live. Therefore instead of the struggle for existence it decided on a death before which it could surrender itself completely, and it had to find such a death soon.
Suddenly a thought came to its mind and it stopped for a while and appeared to become happy. It was filled with a strange contentment. It had thought of a grand way of dying.
It saw the cave of a lion and walked slowly towards it slowly and then sat down in front of the lion’s lair. It had seen death everywhere in the jungle but it appeared pleased at this death. Not every sheep had the destiny of dying at the hands of a lion.
It had found a means of winning a victory over its self by giving itself completely over to the lion in an abject self-surrender. It waited with patience waiting for the lion to come out and eat it. It thought of this death as being no less than life. It said to itself:
“If I must die then let death come to me at the hands of the lion!”
And it sat there in peace waiting for the lion to come out.
Just then a leopard walks over there and looks at the sheep and begins to eye the sheep as its meal. The sheep was not the least bit afraid and lifting its head towards the leopard it says to it:
Sheep: "You know who I am and you should tell me who you are!”
Leopard: "You are a lamb and I am a leopard!”
Sheep: “But why have you come here?”
Leopard: “I have come to eat you!”
Sheep: “But why?”
Leopard: “ Because I am hungry!”
Sheep: “But don’t you see where I am sitting and whose meal I am?”
Leopard: “(Taken aback)." Yes! This is the cave of the lion and the lion is asleep inside it!”
Sheep: “Then recall that I am the meal of the one who is sleeping inside the cave! If you dare to raise a hand against me you can well imagine what the consequences will be for you, when the lion wakes up!
On listening to these words of the sheep, the leopard soon scampered away, deathly scared.
In a like manner, many wild beasts of the forest came close to the lamb but ran away out of fear on seeing it sitting outside the lion’s lair. The sheep was greatly pleased and thanked providence. It said to itself:
“If I had not come and surrendered my life to the lion, by sitting at his doorstep, today I would have been food for all these ferocious beasts of the forest!"
And the sheep continued to count the benefits it had reaped from surrendering itself to the lion and laying itself down before the mouth of the lion’s cave. Not a single beast dared raise an evil eye on it. Even though all the beasts were much more powerful than the sheep yet they were powerless before it.
But for how long were these precious moments of life going to last? In the end the sheep had to die at the hands of the lion. The sheep remained alive before the lion’s den for several hours, but it knew it had no hope in the hours to come. The sheep knew that the moment the lion came out of its den he would finish her.
And finally the moment arrived. The lion woke up and came out of his cave and saw the sheep lying meekly there. The lion was greatly pleased! Its food had come before him by itself without his having to go out in search of it. He lept towards the helpless sheep to devour it.
The sheep immediately bowed its head before the lion on seeing him come towards it and said:
“O Thou, the King of the Jungle! I am thy food! Please come and eat me!”
Here is a strange scene. The lion is coming towards the sheep and the sheep is going towards the lion.
On seeing the sheep come towards him, something happened to the lion. Quite spontaneously, instead of advancing further it began to retreat backwards!
Sheep: “O King of the jungle! Why do you not eat me? Are you not hungry? Am I not your food?”
Lion: “I am very hungry. And yes, you are my food! But I cannot eat you!”
Sheep: “And why not?”
Lion: “Because you are lying at my door! You have taken refuge in me! If I kill you now, I shall feel dishonored before all! You shall then be called a brave lion and I shall be called a coward! All the beasts shall say: ‘The sheep was brave because it went to the lair of the lion to be killed by him. And the lion was a coward who killed the very sheep which had taken refuge in him!’”
Sheep: “Sire! But if you do not eat me then the wild beasts of the forest will most certainly do so!”
Lion: "No, they will not!"
Sheep: “And why not, Sire?”
Lion: “Because I have placed you under my protection! Come and walk alongside me into the forest!”
The lion walks through every corner of the forest with the sheep by his side. All the beasts of the forest watch them together and believe that the sheep belongs to the lion, and to attack it would spell their doom at the hands of the lion!
For several days the lion continues to take the sheep along with himself through the forest, leading every beast in the forest to believe that the sheep belongs to the lion and to harm it in any way would bring the wrath of the lion on them.
And then one day the lion says to the sheep: “I am a beast who walks in leaps and bounds, and you a small animal who barely crawls along the way. We are incompatible. We cannot be together all the time.
“Go, and, from now on walk alone in the jungle!”
Sheep: “O Thou the King of the Jungle! Hast thou become tired of protecting me that thou art letting me go alone to be devoured by these wild beasts of the forest?”
Lion: “You misunderstood me! I have not taken away my protecting hand from over thee!”
Sheep: “Then why are you sending me into the jungle alone?”
Lion: “Because I am convinced there is no one in the forest who dare devour you now!”
Sheep: “Sire, but why not? They are all more powerful than me!”
Lion: “That is true. But all the beasts know now that you are mine and therefore to harm you in any way or to kill you is to incur my wrath and to go against me, which they dare not do!
“Go, fearlessly into the forest! There is none who may kill you! They all know that my protecting hand is over you!”
The sheep was very grateful and very happy and began roaming in the jungle fearlessly and freely in every direction. And in every direction that the sheep goes it finds the ferocious animals scampering away at the sight of the sheep, with their tails between their legs.
Therefore, if a sheep can, by delivering itself to the lion, and laying itself down before its cave, attain such great strength that no beast of the forest can do it any harm and instead runs away at the sight of it, then one can imagine how great a strength man can attain by surrendering himself before God and, laying down before His Door, pray for His protecting hand and His Mercy!
No troubles or difficulties of any kind, either in the material world or in the spiritual world, can then touch such a man. Nothing can make him fall. Rather everything in the world begins to go according to his wishes, and the disagreeable things in life vanish from his life forever.
In this way he shall spend his life in the world like a flash of lightning and in this way shall understand the secret of Victory over Self and attain salvation in this life and the world to come.
Too agar meraa bane saaraa jahaan meraa hai phir
Too agar meraa naheen to phir koyi meraa naheen
If Thou art mine, then the whole world belongs to me
And if Thou art not mine, then no one is mine
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