Teacher

An old frail woman crying on the top of her voice came running towards the hermitage of Buddha. She was wailing and shouting, calling out the name of the wisest man of the village. In a moment Buddha came out to address her.

Old woman : I am devastated! My life has turned upside down! You have to do something for me.

Buddha : Tell me in exact detail, what happened?

Old woman : My Young child has died of an unexpected disease. He was the bread earner of the house, I'm alone and old now, why did this happen to me?

Buddha made her sit and eat food. Then he asked her what she wanted of him.

Old woman : I have heard that you are the enlightened. They say you are the lord. I will only accept your prowess if you bring my child back to life.

For a moment Buddha remained silent. Then he spoke -

Buddha : I will do as you say. I will bring your dead child back to life. But you will have to do something in return for me.

Old woman : I’ll do anything.

Buddha : I need the record of the number of deaths in the village in each house. So from today you will go to each house and find a house where nobody has died till now. Find me such a house, i’ll resurrect your son. My disciples will take care of you till then.

She leaves the place in a hurry. Everyday she goes to houses and inquires about any death that has happened there. To her dismay every time she ends up hearing a sad story about a past death that happened there. Months pass, she has now been to every house, heard a lot of sad stories and deaths. Finally she comes back to Buddha empty handed.

There Buddha makes her to sit and teaches her that death is inevitable part of life. That one should not hold on to this sorrow. It should not make us stop living. Everyday people die and get born. One should get on with living no matter what.

The woman understands the point. She accepts her child's death and agrees to move forward. But then she asks Buddha one final question -

“Why did you not tell me this wisdom when I first came?”

To which Buddha says - “ When you came here I saw you were troubled. No logic or wisdom would have appealed to you. No point explaining anything to you. You were suicidal, had no purpose to live. So I guided you to a teacher more senior than I - Experience. Looking at others sorrows made you humble. Now you have a purpose to live. Now you are in a state to understand me.”

Assigning her work to do and feeding her in return, Buddha gave the old woman a purpose to live. Thus bringing a dead person back to life.