Strawberry Story: Classic Vedanta

Vedanta sculpture- yes, I Wikipedia-ed Vedanta.

Once there was a king who was driven out of his kingdom by five enemies that overpowered him and he had to run for his life.  As he was running through the jungle he fell into a well but he got entangled in a vine and was dangling on the side.  As he looked down he saw alligators waiting to eat him.  As he looked up he saw two mice--one black, one white--chewing away at the vine which supported him.

At that moment of despair a drop of honey fell on his lips from a honey comb above the well.  The man tested the honey, closed his eyes and forgot everything except that sweetness.

The five enemies are the five senses which draw us away from our god-like nature into the material world.  The well is our death which waits for us.  The black and white mice are both the days and nights that use up the minutes of our life, and the yin and yang of our existence.  The honey (or strawberry) is joy and bliss which make use forget our fear and sorrow.

from Ann Dobkins Butler