Shri Nathji often said: Even one worldly desire is enough to separate man from God.
And once again he used a very beautiful parable to illustrate this. There was a man in a certain town who was reputed to have the legendary ‘Paaras Patthar’, the philosopher’s stone, in his possession.
A Paaras was said to have the unique property that it could convert iron into gold with a single touch.
As word spread, people came in a large crowd to the man’s house to see the precious stone. The man brought out a small iron box and said to the people; The philosopher’s stone is kept in this box.
All at once there was a cry:
He is telling lies! How can the Paaras remain inside an iron box without converting the iron to gold! The box is still made of iron; this means that the philosopher’s stone has had no effect on the iron! Therefore it must be a fake!
The man became thoughtful. The people were right. If the Paaras were indeed genuine then why had it not turned the iron box to gold?
He opened the box and looked inside. The Paaras was indeed there. But why had it not converted the iron box into gold? He looked inside the iron box carefully – and suddenly he discovered the reason why.
Between the philosopher’s stone and the iron box there was a very thin tracing paper. The paper separated the stone from the box. No contact was possible for as long as the thin tracing paper lay between the philosopher’s stone and the iron box–and therefore the iron was not converted to gold!
This was how one desire–no matter how small–separated man from God.