Alexander, the Great (356 - 323 BC) had a wonderful and gorgeous horse, Bucephalus, which carried Alexander through several battles to create the mighty Greek empire. There is a legend about the taming of Bucephalus as described by Plutarch, the Greek historian and biographer.
When Alexander was only twelve years old, Philoneicus, a Thessalian brought a wild horse before King Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander. He wanted to sell it to King Philip. But the horse was uncontrollable and unstable. No one could tame it.
Alexander observed the peculiar behaviour of the horse and noted that it was behaving abnormally as it was scared of its own shadow. Every time it saw its shadow, it got frightened and became uncontrollable. Alexander volunteered to tame it. King Philip promised to buy the horse and gift it to Alexander if he could ride it.
Alexander knew that it was shying away from its own shadow. So he stroked it gently and slowly turned its face towards the sun and led it forward, so that its shadow was behind it and it could not see its shadow. The horse became tame and Alexander easily mounted on it and rode happily. He named it Bucephalus and used it in all his conquests till its death.
Our shadow becomes visible to us only when we turn away from the source of light. The shadow grows in size as we move away from the light.
The shadow of our sins haunts us as we turn away from God, the light of the world. As we move away from God, the shadow of sin appears to grow to alarming proportions and frighten us. But if we turn towards God and repent, our sins cannot scare us. God, our merciful Father will forgive our sins.
The saintly sages of ancient India
“ASATO MA SAD GAMAYA,
THAMASO MA JYOTHIR GAMAYA,
MRITHYOR MA AMRITHAM GAMAYA.”
{Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28}.
This popular prayer in the Sanskrit language can be translated as:
“Lead us from Untruth to Truth,
Lead us from Darkness to Light
Lead us from Death to Immortality.”
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© By Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India, , Prof. Mrs. Rajamma Babu, Former Professor, St. Dominic's College, Kanjirappally and Leo. S. John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath, Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally, Kottayam-686507, Kerala , India
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