The Man Hanging from the Tree – A Parable of Samsara

🌳 The Story

Once upon a time, a man was walking through a dense forest. He was lost, hungry, and thirsty, but still curious about what lay ahead. Suddenly, the ground beneath him shook. From the bushes emerged a wild elephant, trumpeting furiously and charging straight toward him.

Terrified, the man ran for his life. He spotted a tree with a low branch, grabbed it, and climbed up quickly. But as he reached higher, he slipped—and in panic, he clung to a branch that hung over a deep pit.

When he looked down, his heart froze. The pit below was filled with snakes, their hoods raised, hissing and waiting for him to fall. Above him, two **rats—one black and one white—**had begun to gnaw at the branch he held. He realized the branch could break at any moment.

As fear tightened its grip, the man noticed something else—a honeycomb hanging above his head. From it, golden drops of honey began to fall near his lips. Forgetting everything— the elephant, the snakes, the rats, even the danger—he stuck out his tongue and started licking the honey with delight.

At that very moment, a divine being appeared before him, seated on a swan, radiant with compassion. “Come with me,” said the divine voice, “I will lift you from this danger and take you beyond the forest of fear.”
But the man, lost in the sweetness of honey, did not even look up. He continued licking, enjoying the momentary taste.

A moment later, the branch broke. The man fell into the pit below.

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🪞 The Meaning

This ancient Indian parable reveals the human condition—our entrapment in the cycle of samsāra, the endless journey of birth and death. Each element in the story is a symbol from the wisdom of the Upanishads.

• The Forest – represents the world we live in, full of illusion and uncertainty.
• The Elephant – stands for Death (Mrityu), ever chasing us from the moment we are born.
• The Pit of Snakes – symbolizes the inevitable fate of rebirth and suffering that awaits the soul bound by desire.
• The Black and White Rats – are Day and Night, which together gnaw away at the branch of life, representing the passage of time.
• The Honey Drops – are the temporary pleasures of the world—wealth, taste, fame, relationships, comfort—sweet for a moment, gone the next.
• The Divine Being – is God, the Inner Self (Ātman or Paramātman), ever present and willing to save us from this cycle of fear, but ignored by the mind caught in illusion.

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🕉️ The Parable’s Wisdom

This story is not a warning to reject the world, but a call to awaken from forgetfulness. The man on the branch is every one of us. We know life is fragile. We see people grow old and die. Yet, we rarely pause to reflect on what this life is for.

Every day passes (one rat), every night follows (the other rat). The branch of life becomes weaker, yet we stay busy chasing drops of sweetness—small pleasures that fade away as soon as they touch our tongue.

We complain of pain, yet chase pleasure. We fear death, yet live as though it will never come. We pray to God, yet ignore the voice of Truth when it calls us. The story reminds us that awakening begins when we stop licking honey and start looking upward—toward the Divine.

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📜 Scriptural Echoes

This parable has been retold in many ways in Sanātana Dharma’s sacred texts.

• The Kathopanishad speaks of the soul standing at a crossroads—between Śreya (the Good) and Preya (the Pleasant). The wise choose the Good, the ignorant chase the Pleasant.
• The Bhagavad Gītā (2.14–15) reminds:
  “Mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ;
  Āgamāpāyino’nityās tāṁs titikṣasva bhārata.”
  “Pleasures and pains come and go; they are fleeting like the seasons. Bear them with patience, O Arjuna.”
• The Vivekachūḍāmaṇi of Śaṅkarachārya says:
  “Janma-duḥkha-jara-mṛtyu-duḥkhaṁ saṁsāra-sāgaraṁ.”
  “Birth, old age, and death form an ocean of sorrow—samsāra— from which only true knowledge can rescue us.”

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✨ The Inner Realization

When we understand this parable deeply, we realize it is not about fear—it is about remembrance.

The Divine (symbolized by Lord Vishnu in the picture) does not condemn the man for enjoying honey; rather, He waits patiently for the soul to remember its true home. The sweetness of honey is not evil—it is merely temporary. What harms us is our forgetfulness of the Eternal amidst the temporary.

Life offers both—the sweetness of honey and the wisdom of realization. The choice is ours: to remain distracted by drops of pleasure or to look up and grasp the hand that leads to liberation.

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🌼 The Message for Modern Minds

In today’s world, this parable is more relevant than ever. The elephant of death is closer than we think, the rats of time chew faster with every passing year, and the honey of worldly enjoyment has multiplied into countless forms—screens, food, fame, likes, possessions.

Yet, peace remains distant.

This story gently whispers:

“Wake up, O seeker! Life is short, and its sweetness fleeting. Remember the One who waits to lift you beyond the pit of fear. Taste not just the honey, but the eternal bliss within.”

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🕯️ Closing Thought

When we awaken to the truth that the Self (Ātman) is immortal and beyond pleasure or pain, the forest of samsāra no longer frightens us. We can live in the world, enjoy its honey, but without losing sight of the Divine who calls us home.

That is the true wisdom of Bharathiya tales — stories that do not end in fear, but in remembrance.