Vedantic Tales:
The Discipleship of Hari: The Lion

God. God. God, Hari repeated at night as though he were calling, but for what and to whom he did not know, nor did he expect anyone or anything to answer. It was as though the black emptiness inside him and outside him were calling of its own accord to somehow, impossibly, be filled.

And thus the days and nights passed, it seemed endlessly. Bleating, cropping, following; following, cropping, bleating; and the unspeakable emptiness that called out blindly: God. God. God.

Then one bright moonlit night Hari heard a snapping of twigs in the forest that bordered on the meadow. He turned his head toward the sound, and after a while he saw a form separate itself from the dark shadows and stand full in the moonlight. It had a massive head and slender body, and its eyes, looking at Hari, were two moons. Hari stared, for he had never seen a creature so beautiful, so serene, so self-assured. It stood as though it needed nothing whatsoever other than itself, and yet as though it possessed the entire earth. A quick flicker of thought, touched Hari's mind: 'Then there is something more.... something beyond what I know ...' It was like hope. But at the same time he thought: 'It must be a lion, the King of the Beasts.' And no sooner had he thought that than he remembered a lion was a thing for sheep to fear. And he was afraid. He rose to his feet, preparing to run, but at the same moment the lion disappeared back into the forest, leaving behind such emptiness that Hari gave a cry of pain. He felt an irrational longing to be eaten by the lion. 'Better to be eaten far, far better to be eaten by such a creature than to see him no longer. What a fool to have been afraid!'

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