Parable 1- True Self

There was a king’s son, who, being expelled in infancy from his native city, was brought up by a forester, and, growing up to maturity in that state, imagined himself to belong to the barbarous race with which he lived. One of his father’s ministers having discovered him, revealed to him what he was, and the misconception of his character was removed, and he knew himself to be a prince.

So soul…from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahma.— The Sancbya Karika, trans. Henry Thomas Colebrook and H.V. Wilson (Oxford, 1837,72)

从前有个王子，自幼被放逐出境，由樵夫抚养；在这样的环境里长大成人后，他以为自己属于低贱的社会阶层。后来他父亲有个大臣发现了他，向他透露了他的身世，于是他对自己身份的错误认识便消失了，终于明白自己是个王子。

其实灵魂也是如此，它总是错误地认为它属于所处的环境，直到某位上师向它揭露了真相，它才明白自身就是婆罗贺摩。[梵天亦称造书天、婆罗贺摩天、净天，华人地区俗称四面佛（大乘佛教并无此佛与佛像），是印度教的创造之神，梵文字母的创制者。与毗湿奴、湿婆并称三主神。他的配偶为智慧女神辩才天女，故梵天也常被认为是智慧之神。

#SoulTrueSelf