GOSPEL OF RAMAKRISHNA
that all the things of the world are unreal and that the highest end and aim of life is the attainment of God. There was a wood-cutter who led a very miserable life with the small means he could Parable of a wood-cutter. procure by daily selling a load of wood brought from a neighboring forest. Once a Sannyasin, who was passing that way, saw him at work and advised him to go further into the forest, saying: "Move on- ward, my child, move onward." The wood- cutter obeyed the injunction and proceeded on- ward until he came to a sandal wood-tree, and being much pleased, he took away with him as many sandal logs as he could carry, sold them in the market and derived much profit. Then he began to wonder within himself why the good Sannyasin had not told him anything about the wood of the sandal-tree, but had simply advised him to move onward. So the next day he went on beyond the place of the sandalwood until he came upon a copper-mine, and he took with him all the copper that he could carry, and selling it in the market, got more money by it. Next day, without stopping at the copper-mine, he proceeded further still, as the Sadhu had advised him to do, and he
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