The Lion's Roar

A lioness was jumping from one hillock to another. While doing so, she gave birth to a cub. The cub fell into a flock of sheep that was passing by. He got mixed up with the sheep and started to live and behave like them. He had no idea that he was a lion. He had never roared like a lion; sheep don’t roar. He had never been alone. They are always in crowd, which is cozy, safe. They are afraid of being alone.

Then, the cub started growing up. It was a strange phenomenon. Mentally, he identified with the sheep but biologically not. Nature takes it own course! He became a beautiful young lion, but because thing happened so slowly the sheep also got accustomed to the lion as he got used to them. The sheep thought he was little crazy – did not behave, kept on growing, pretending to be a lion! HE couldn’t be a lion. They had seen from birth, they has d brought him up, given him their milk. And though he was no-vegetarian by nature, this lion had lived like a vegetarian because sheep are vegetarian. He ate grass with great joy. So they accepted the fact that he was bigger and looked like a lion. A very wise sheep said, “It is just a freak of nature. It happens once in a while.”

The lion himself also accepted this. The very idea that he was a lion was improbable! He was surrounded by all those sheep, and sheep psychoanalysts: “You are just a freak of nature. Don’t worry. We are here to take care of you.

One day, an old lion passed by and saw this young lion among the sheep. He couldn’t believe his eyes! He had never seen or heard of such thing, that a lion was in the middle of a flock of sheep and no sheep was remotely afraid. And the lion was walking exactly like the sheep, grazing on grass. The old lion forgot he was going to catch a sheep for breakfast. He felt so strange that he tried to catch the young lion. But he was old and slow; the young lion escaped. Though he believed he was sheep, the presence of danger eliminated all such identification. He ran like a lion, and the old lion had great difficulty in catching up. But finally the old lion got hold of him and our young sheep-lion wept and said “Forgive me, I’m poor sheep!”

The old lion said, “You idiot! Come with me to the pond.” “Look at my face and look at yours. Look at my body and look at yours.” In a second, there came a great roar! All the hills echoed it. The ship disappeared; he was a totally different being---he recognized himself. His identification with the sheep was not a reality, just a mental concept. Now he saw the reality. The old lion said, “Now I need not say anything. You have understood.”

The young lion felt a strange energy, which was dormant till then. He could feel tremendous power, though all this while he had been a weak, humble sheep. All the humility, all the weakness, all of it simply evaporated.

Joshu: The Lion's Roar - Osho