THESTORYTELLINGMONK
Welcome to the World of Metaphorical Storytelling
“The shortest distance between a human being and the truth is a story.”
- Anthony de Mello, Indian Jesuit priest (1931-1987)
In every culture in every age, scriptures and spiritual masters have communicated subtle truths through powerful, entertaining and unforgettable stories... albeit often in an encoded form. These wisdom tales have been used for entertainment long enough. Now, a spiritual teacher from our age and our culture has collected the best of these wisdom tales from his travels around the world and after years of meditation and contemplative study, he finally offers them with their mystical truths explained.
In September 1999, Yogi Sarveshwarananda Giri, known affectionately by his students as “The Storytelling Monk”, was telling stories around a bonfire in Brasilia, capital city of Brazil, to a group of children and their parents. The story of the Wooden Sword came up. [This classic Jewish tale describes a poor man who, through his unshakable faith in God, always finds the resourcefulness to make his life better and better, although his outer circumstances at the hand of an apparently cruel king tend to get worse and worse.] The next evening, R., 15, one of his students, came to Yogiji in a state of great excitement. “Swamiji, your story saved my life today!” he exclaimed. Breathlessly, he explained that he was meditating in a park that afternoon, when he heard footsteps approaching and some rude voices demanding, “What the [expletive] are you doing here?” Without even opening his eyes, R. knew he was in trouble. These voices belonged, no doubt, to drug addicts looking for an easy prey to rob and roughen up. All of a sudden, the Wooden Sword story popped into R.’s head, with a clarity and a force that caused him to say calmly, as he opened his eyes and smiled at them, “I am looking for my Father.” The three thugs were momentarily taken aback. R. then proceeded to announce, “And you know what—my Father loves you too.” For the next few minutes, R. was able to parry verbally with his monumental would-be attackers. Eventually, their restlessness and dark designs got the better of their conscience, and they made a move to get hold of his meager possessions—a jacket, watch, and wallet. At that very moment, a policeman rode up out of nowhere on his bicycle, and inquired, “Everything all right here, boys?” Without missing a beat, R. got up and, gathering his belongings, coolly answered, “Yes, officer, I was just saying goodbye to my friends. I will walk back with you now, if that’s all right with you, sir…”
This anecdote, and countless others, finally inspired the author to gather these powerful stories into a collection accessible to the general public. Having carefully hand-picked these wisdom tales from all over the world, the author sat with them in meditation under the guidance of his spiritual preceptor, Paramahamsa Hariharananda (“Baba”, as they affectionately call him), and tried to live them in his every waking moment. He has now arranged them as a multi-varied bouquet capturing the essence and fragrance of every major religion. This site contains also many personal anecdotes gleaned from his many years of intimate association with his God-realized teacher. As any spiritual seeker soon discovers, the very life of a realized master is a metaphor for divinity, “the prototype of God’s thought” as Baba once confided.
But these wisdom tales with their commentary also offer a way for deciphering God’s mysterious signs strewn across the universe. God, in whichever name He is known or unknown, has always had five jobs, after all: to create, to preserve, to destroy, to conceal Himself, and to reveal Himself. This special type of writing known as mystical or sacred literature has recorded faithfully this five-fold activity. Indeed, with the right method and the right disposition, these stories can be coaxed to reveal layers upon layers of meaning.
This site does for wisdom tales what Bettelheim’s best-selling The Uses of Enchantment did for fairy stories. It acknowledges their surface meaning and goes deeper into their core to reveal their spiritual meaning.