The Only Solution

Once there was a man, who indulged himself in malicious gossip about a Sadhu. He approached the Sadhu one day and told him, “Swami I misspoke a lot of things about you. I have spread wild rumors against you through malicious gossip. Now I have come to realize that you are a very good person. Please forgive me for all the sins that I have committed and provide me with a remedy which can absolve me of all sins I have committed”.

The Sadhu said “Take a pillow from your house to a junction where several streets meet and rip the pillow of all the cotton inside it. After doing so come back and see me’. The man did as the Sadhu said and he went back to inform him about the same.

The Sadhu said, “If you are really interested in a remedy which could absolve you of all your sins, then I suggest you go back to same place, pick all the cotton you had ripped off from the pillow, stuff it back into the pillow case and bring back the pillow to me’. The man was confused and he asked the Sadhu “how can I collect the cotton which I ripped off from the pillow yesterday and stuff it into the pillow case as they have all got dispersed?”

The Sadhu said, ‘Yes. You cannot reclaim the cotton that got dispersed when the pillow was ripped. In the same way there is no remedy that will absolve you of your sins. The only solution for the problem is to abstain yourself henceforth from committing any sins’.