REALIZATION IN THE FOREST

Long before men had formed countries with their gods, there lived a strong woodcutter named Kabinda. Each morning he would leave his village and go into the forest to chop wood. In those bygone days, the earth had many forests and few men. On this particular day, while cutting wood, Kabinda heard the sky explode with thunder and lightning. Torrents of endless raindrops attacked the tall green trees. Kabinda was afraid of the violent sky and ran deeper into the forest seeking shelter. After running for half an hour during the blinding rainstorm, Kabinda ran into a long dark cave. Near the cave there were skeletons of human corpses. Kabinda stopped running and sat down in the dark cave to catch his breath. Exhausted from running he fell asleep for the rest of the day. When he woke up refreshed, he was about to meet a new challenge that would change his life.

Kabinda explored the dark cave. Suddenly he saw two flashing eyes and a huge mouth roaring screams that meant death. Kabinda did not want to find the answer behind this terror. He instinctively ran out of the dangerous cave. Slowly the roaring sound died down as Kabinda reached the light of the cave’s entrance. A man with golden skin was seen at the foot of a huge forest tree. Kabinda asked the forest hermit his name. The golden man, with a serene smile, told Kabinda that his name was Mugesin. Kabinda wanted to know how Mugesin came to live in this deep uninhabited forest. Then the forest hermit told his tale.

Many years ago, Mugesin was a rich merchant in another village. He had wealth but not real happiness. Mugesin wanted to know what is the power that gives meaning to life. Mugesin then left his village and asked this question to everyone he met. A woman at a well told Mugesin that he would have to find the answer alone in the deep forest. So Mugesin walked with courage deeper and deeper into the forest. At last he reached a tall tree which became his abode to seek truth. Many wild fruits grew on this tree and a quiet stream flowed nearby. While sitting under this tree in his quest for truth, Mugesin heard a loud terrible roar coming closer and closer to devour him. But Mugesin, unlike Kabinda, decided to face this deadly terror straight on and not run for his life. In the face of Mugesin’s determination to continue his search under the tree, the roaring terror realized that it had met its match and slowly went away leaving Mugesin’s life. After many seasons of living in the forest Mugesin gained illumination, and his body began to shine with a golden bronze color. Mugesin had realized the inner peace that pervades this universe.

Mugesin told Kabinda to be courageous, return to the cave, and seek for the light instead of merely shelter from the rainstorm. Kabinda made the cave his home and only left it once each evening to eat fruits and drink cool water from the nearby stream. Kabinda heard the same loud roar of death in the cave, but this time he became iron willed and remained seated in his search for truth. Kabinda thought that if Mugesin could defeat the terror of life, he could also conquer it. Slowly, after many months, the terrible roar was no more heard in the dark cave. In fact, a strange glowing light was illuminating his cave day and night. The light shone from within Kabinda. The roar of death now became mystic ringing music in Kabinda’s ear. His eyes shone with radiant ecstasy. The truth that an infinite Spirit of light and peace pervaded this universe dawned within Kabinda’s awakened consciousness.

The next morning, after Kabinda left the cave as a liberated forest sage, several former village friends met him. They now saw a different, radiant, and wise Kabinda who no longer was a simple woodcutter. Kabinda told them the truth he discovered in the cave and his meeting with Mugesin under the tree. But none of Kabinda’s village friends could ever see Mugesin. Mugesin now had attained a level of spiritual existence beyond this material world and, only in rare moments of grace, would he appear again on earth to help a single brave truth seeker such as Kabinda. Kabinda spent the rest of his earthly life in the forest cave instructing now and then the few seekers that came to receive his guidance.