PureInsight | March 23, 2008
[PureInsight.org] The Takla
Makan Desert is one of the largest deserts in China. It is
situated in the south of Xin Jiang province. It is said that the
name "Takla Makan" comes from an ancient language in which it meant
"the vanished hometown."
There is a legendary story about it. In far remote ancient times,
the place was not a desert. Rather, it was a rich and beautiful
village with green fields. People in the village were happily
enjoying abundance and luxuries. They were so rich that they
spent money profusely. Gradually, they were losing the tradition
of working hard and liking to help other people. They became
miserly, greedy and heartless.
One day, two senior heavenly immortals were entrusted with a mission to
descend to the human space to inspect the people's moral states and
lives. The two immortals transformed themselves into two
beggars. They went into the village and begged for food. To
their surprise, the rich villagers refused to offer them food.
Even the animals were fed with the best food. The beggars were
ill treated. Before they reached the end of the village, the
villagers had become very impatient with their begging for food.
A group of people surrounded them, tied them up and detained them in a
decrepit hut.
In the evening, some leaders of the village held a meeting to discuss
how to punish the two beggars. Every single one of them had his
own idea on how to torture the beggars. The ways of torture that
they could think of were cruel and evil. They had enjoyed all
sorts of amusements on Earth and had become bored. Nothing but
punishment of the beggars could bring them new excitement and
amusement. So, they decided to use savage torture on the two
beggars.
A young man from the village heard about the two beggars being
caught. He came to have a look when he overheard the horrible
decision of the savage torture. The young man was very kind and
he was worried about the fate of the two beggars. Heedless of the
risk of being found out by his villagers that could put himself in
danger, the young man sneaked into the hut and released the knots tied
around the beggars. He told the beggars about the savage torture
that would lead to their death that night. He asked them to run
away as far as they could.
The heartless torture broke the two immortals' hearts. They were
aware that the heavenly rule would wipe out the evil villagers and a
punishment from the heaven would soon fall on the village. They
advised the young man to take his family and to leave the village as
soon as possible. The young man realized that these two beggars
were actually immortals. He knelt before the two immortals and
begged for forgiveness for his villagers. The immortals could not
help, because the heavenly rule set out that good and bad were always
rewarded. They sighed and disappeared.
In order to save the villagers, the young man knocked on the doors of
every household in the village throughout the night. He told them
that the doom was coming and advised them to leave the village in a
hurry. But the villagers could not tear themselves away from the
luxurious life and none of them could endure a life of hardship,
wandering from place to place. So they complained to him for
disturbing their sleep. Some villagers even venomously abused
him.
The time was pressing. Since he was unable to persuade the
villagers, the young man had to take his family running away. The
whole family ran as fast as they could without looking back.
While they were running away, the village was slowly disappearing in a
sea of sand until it was completely buried and gone. When the
family had run far away and stopped to take a rest, they looked back
and saw nothing left but a desert reaching far away in front of
them. They named the desert "Takla Makan," which means "vanished
hometown."
It's easy for human beings to forget things. Many legendary
stories actually happened in the past. But people have gradually
forgotten them and regard these events as only stories.
Consequently, the tragedies that happened in the past have been
repeating again and again till today. People are attached to the
desire for material possessions and abuse the natural resources.
Human beings are actually destroying the environment that they rely on
to survive. They are destroying themselves. Moral
degradation and degeneration are leading to the punishment of human
beings.
Translated from
http://xinsheng.net/xs/articles/gb/2008/2/12/42545.htm
