The Monkey and the Crocodile: Sri Sathya Sai tells a Story

Sri Sathya Sai Speaks

Accusing anybody amounts to sin. They are not ‘others’ but are Divine in the true sense. You think of them as others. No. God Himself is over there. Everyone is God. There are none like ‘others’ in this world. You must not criticise or hate anyone. In this world we receive help from everyone in one way or the other. You must express gratitude to all. 

Swami has told a small story based on this earlier. A crocodile was spending its time in a lake. Along the shore, there was a big tree. A monkey used to live on top of the tree. The monkey ate all these fruits on the tree and threw the remains down. The crocodile used to eat the leftover and felt elated. As time passed, the crocodile as well as the monkey both grew fat. They became very good friends. The crocodile once said, “Oh monkey! I am just enjoying the banquet given by you. You must thus visit our home one day and accept hospitality”. The monkey, however, was very intelligent. He became suspicious about the crocodile’s intentions. We just make fun of a monkey, but it is more intelligent than man also. That’s why Rama’s servant was Hanuman. The monkey accepted the crocodile’s invitation. He asked the crocodile, “How am I supposed to come to your house? I cannot get into the water and you cannot get out of the water”. The crocodile replied, “Friend I have a huge body. You can sit on it and I will take you to my home”. The monkey agreed and sat on the crocodile’s back. 

As they neared the other shore, the crocodile revealed the secret to the monkey. He said “Oh friend! My wife, from a very long time, wanted to eat your heart. So I got you here”. The monkey thought and said, “I will be delighted to make your wife happy. But why didn’t you tell this to me when we left? I hung my heart to a treetop, since I felt it may fall down while jumping from one tree to another. So let’s go back and collect it”. The crocodile was a brainless brawny creature. They both reached the shore. The monkey told the crocodile that it would go up and get its heart while the crocodile waited. Saying so it climbed up the tree in a jiffy. The monkey then said, “Oh crocodile! What a fool you are! How is it possible to keep anyone’s heart outside one’s body? Get lost. I don’t want friendship of such a creature. Why should I make friends with such a dumb creature? My friends should think of my happiness as well as my sorrows.” The crocodile is like the modern educated people. The moral of the story is that unlike the crocodile, you must be devoted to people around you and see the God in them and pay the tax of gratitude to God. 

Source: Pay the Tax of Gratitude, Discourse 3, My Dear Students Volume 4