Tuesday, November 14, 2006

...of wolves and soul

A father got a story in his mail box, which was doing rounds on the net:

"One evening, a grandfather told his grandson about the conflict that goes on inside each one of us.

"The battle is between two wolves," he said. "One wolf is called Evil, and it is anger, jealousy, lies, arrogance, guilt, false pride, superiority, and ego.The other wolf uses almost the same letters in his name, which shows how close they are to each other. This wolf is called Life, and it is love, peace, truth, hope, humility, kindness, and compassion."

The grandson thought about this for a few moments and then asked, "Which wolf wins, Grandpa?"

"The one you feed," the grandfather replied.
"

He liked the simplicity of the story, and forwarded it to his college-going 20-year old daughter.

Next day he got this response:

"But those are human "failings". One is incomplete without feeding either, because one is only attempting to starve the other, which makes it angry, as per logic, and then it'd come back with a vengeance to EAT you.

No?
"

Long back, Goethe's Faust had responded to Wagner:

By one impulse alone are you impressed.
Oh, never learn to know the other!
Two souls alas! are dwelling in my breast;
And each is fain to leave its brother.
The one, fast clinging, to the world adheres
With clutching organs, in love's sturdy lust;
The other strongly lifts itself from dust
To yonder high, ancestral spheres.