The Physician’s Knife

 

Amar was a village boy who had been suffering so much from a boil on his back that he attempted suicide.  His mother and close relatives were all trying to alleviate his pain by using hand-fans or even by orally blowing on the swelling boil.

   One of his neighbours advised that the boy should be given some anaesthetic drug to save him from such unbearable physical agony.  Still another person recommended that it was better to relieve him eternally from such a painful experience.  His argument was that the boy has been suffering terribly because was alive, so, if he were dead he wouldn’t be in pain anymore.  The result would be complete solace to both the disease and patient.

   Unnerved by such advice, the wise father of the boy immediately sent for an experienced physician, disregarding his son’s so called well-wishers.  When the physician advised that a minor surgery be formed on the boy, the relative including the boy’s mother, grandmother and others started weeping all in a row.  The ignorant boy also started abusing the physician in the most vulgar words, saying, “You have come to kill me.  Leave me alone right now, or I must send for the police to arrest you! Why don’t you strike the knife on your own body? Would you go and lynch your own son? I would rather take a dose of poison before I surrender myself to your hands for certain death.”

   Turning a deaf ear to the boy’s delirious outburst, the physician held him tightly while he pressed and executed the surgical operation on the boil.  After a while, the boy was completely relieved of all agony and gradually became well within a few days.

 

PURPORT

Just like a real physician, quite often the real spiritual masters and saintly persons also dissect some of the knots in the obstinate mind of living entities by way of apparently distasteful injunctions and instructions varying on the degrees of entanglement. But the suffering entity is hardly inclined to agree with such injunctions and instead, misapply a lot of harsh words to those saintly persons blaspheming them as their enemies and extremely merciless executioners.

   So-called relatives and friends of such suffering entities strongly advocate against such a surgical operation to avoid the apparent pain and uneasiness.  Some such pseudo-friends even in the name of impersonalism advise one to commit suicide to get rid of the rut.

   In fact, none of these ways can be fruitfully undertaken for eternal welfare of an entity.  The constitutional position of a living entity is only realized after disentanglement from all unworthy mundane attachments with the help of saintly injunctions sincerely followed.  This enables one to enter into the  province of devotional service which is the only way to eternal bliss and peace of mind.