The mystery of the missing 10th child

This is one of the articles in a book I have written on spirituality. The book is available on Amazon.com.


The Spirit Of Spirituality

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Some of you may be wondering whether I gave up spirituality and decided to be a mystery book writer and compete with the likes of Perry Mason. Not true at all. This is an interesting story which strongly illustrates some of the spiritual concepts.

There were 10 students who were walking in a forest. All were youngsters, with the oldest being about 5 years old. It was getting dark and they wanted to quickly reach home from their first day at school. They had to cross a small stream to reach home. The eldest boy crossed first and then waited till all others crossed over. Just to make sure all had crossed, he started counting. He counted 1, 2,3 and suddenly he froze. There were only 9 boys. He counted again and again and came with the same number. Perspiring and heart pounding, he declared that one of them was missing and started searching frantically in the forest. It was getting darker and he kept on shouting for the missing 10^th person with absolutely no success. Dejected, he sat down and started weeping for the missing boy.

A passing elder seeing the boy weeping asked him the reason. He counted the kids and found 10 were there. He told the boy not to weep since all 10 were there and went on. The boy happy that all were there, started counting again and saw there were only 9.

Most of you would have guessed what was happening. The little boy was not counting himself and he was weeping for the missing boy who was himself. He searched everywhere for himself, but could never find and became more and more dejected. When a passer boy counted and said he himself was the 10^th guy, he was elated for some time. But soon that elation vanished because he just did not understand the concept that he was the 10^th guy. Every time he counted 9, and kept on searching for the 10^th. Only when it conceptually dawned on him that he was the 10^th guy, he had found himself and there was no agony or sorrow anymore.

Let’s apply the principles of this story to ourselves. We forget our true source of happiness which comes only when we find “ourselves”. Since we never find ourselves, we keep going round and round in circles searching for that elusive “me” who will make us feel happy. Since we do not find ourselves, our true identity which is the source of all happiness, we are always in agony and sadness.

Of course some of us are lucky in that we meet a spiritual teacher who looks at our agony and out of compassion tells us that we are searching for ourselves in wrong places. In the first place, we have never lost ourselves. Just as the young boy, out of sheer ignorance was not able to realize that the missing 10^th boy was he himself, we also, out of utter ignorance, never realize that our true self is nowhere outside to be found. We go to temples, go to meditation classes, say prayers and anything that we are told in hopes that we will find that eternal self.

However, just like the boy lost all his sorrow and agony only after he gained knowledge that he had found “himself”, we will gain that eternal peace and happiness only when we find ourselves, when we gain knowledge of the Self and realize that we are the eternal consciousness. This is conceptually different from gaining knowledge of things in the material world. Gaining knowledge of a car does not make me get the car or become a car. However gaining knowledge of the Absolute not only makes me get the Absolute, which means nothing but becoming the Absolute in terms of ever lasting peace and happiness, which is my true nature.

As readers may be aware, 3 of my books on spirituality are available on Amazon.com.

I invite readers of my blog to try any of the books and give me feedback so that I can make changes in the next edition.


1. My Humble Understanding  Of Spirituality


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

2. Attain Infinite Bliss

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

3. The Spirit Of Spirituality

The Spirit Of Spirituality