There was a poor man who wanted some money; and somehow he had heard that if he could get hold of a ghost, he might command him to bring money or anything else he liked; so he was very anxious to get hold of a ghost.
He went about searching for a man who would give him a ghost, and at last he found a sage with great powers, and sought his help. The sage asked him what he would do with a ghost. “I want a ghost to work for me; teach me how to get hold of one, sir; I desire it very much,” replied the man.
But the sage said, “Don’t disturb yourself, go home.”
The next day the man went again to the sage and began to weep and pray, “Give me a ghost; I must have a ghost, sir, to help me.”
At last the sage was disgusted, and said, “Take this charm, repeat this magic word, and a ghost will come, and whatever you say to him he will do. But beware; they are terrible beings, and must be kept continually busy. If you fail to give him work, he will take your life.”
The man replied, “That is easy; I can give him work for all his life.”
Then he went to a forest, and after long repetition of the magic word, a huge ghost appeared before him, and said, “I am a ghost. I have been conquered by your magic; but you must keep me constantly employed. The moment you fail to give me work I will kill you.”
The man said, “Build me a palace,”, and the ghost said, “It is done; the palace is built.”
“Bring me money,” said the man. “Here is your money,” said the ghost.
“Cut this forest down, and build a city in its place.” “That is done,” said the ghost, “anything more?”
Now the man began to be frightened and thought he could give him nothing more to do; he did everything in a trice.
The ghost said, “Give me something to do or I will eat you up.” The poor man could find no further occupation for him, and was frightened. So he ran and ran and at last reached the sage, and said, “Oh, sir, protect my life!”
The sage asked him what the matter was, and the man replied, “I have nothing to give the ghost to do. Everything I tell him to do he does in a moment, and he threatens to eat me up if I do not give him work!”
Just then the ghost arrived, saying, “I’ll eat you up,” and he would have swallowed the man. The man began to shake, and begged the sage to save his life.
The sage said, “I will find you a way out. Look at that dog with a curly tail. Draw your sword quickly and cut the tail off and give it to the ghost to straighten out.”
The man cut off the dog’s tail and gave it to the ghost, saying, “Straighten that out for me.” The ghost took it and slowly and carefully straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go, it instantly curled up again. Once more he laboriously straightened it out, only to find it again curled up as soon as he attempted to let go of it. Again he patiently straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go, it curled up again. So he went on for days and days, until he was exhausted and said, “I was never in such trouble before in my life. I am an old veteran ghost, but never before was I in such trouble.”
“I will make a compromise with you;” he said to the man, “you let me off and I will let you keep all I have given you and will promise not to harm you.” The man was much pleased, and accepted the offer gladly.
This parable was told by Swami Vivekananda to indicate the power of the ego. The ego is like the “curly tail of the dog.” The more we try to reduce its size, the more it comes back with a vengeance. Sages in ancient time realized that any direct way of attacking the ego to subdue it would backfire. That is why the system of yoga was developed that does this work indirectly. Patanjali’s was one such approach in what is now known as Raja Yoga. And the yoga of postures or “hatha-yoga” was one of the 8-limbs that his system proposed.
Most of the current problems faced by us as humans, at a personal or a global level, can be traced back to our lack of expertise in taming the ego. That is why the parable of the curly tail of the dog is important as it gives us an insight into the tricky nature of the ego. This in turn shows the importance of tools such as yoga that have been specifically developed to tackle this issue and that we can leverage to solve the many global and personal challenges we face.