Abraham Lincoln and the Pig

One cold morning, Abraham Lincoln was riding in a horse cart through the countryside on his way to an important meeting. The road was muddy after a night of heavy rain.

As he passed by a farm, he heard a loud squealing sound. He looked around and saw a small pig trapped deep in a muddy ditch. The pig struggled desperately but could not escape.

Lincoln stopped the cart. His clothes were clean, and he knew he would be late if he helped. For a moment, he hesitated. But then he climbed down, stepped into the thick mud, and carefully pulled the frightened pig out of the ditch.

By the time he returned to the cart, his clothes were dirty and wet. A friend traveling with him asked, “Why did you trouble yourself so much for just a pig?”

Lincoln smiled and replied, “I did it for myself..I could not have felt peaceful all day if I had left it suffering.”

The story spread across the town, and people admired Lincoln not just for his leadership, but for his kindness and compassion toward every living being.

The END

Discussion Points

In one of the most profound sections of the *Brihadaranyaka Upanishad* (Chapter 2, Section 4), the sage Yajnavalkya engages in a dialogue with his wife, Maitreyi, regarding the nature of love and the soul. He explains that the love we feel for others is not actually for their sake, but for the sake of the **Self** (*Atman*). He uses a series of examples to illustrate that all human affection is essentially a reflection of the love we hold for the "True Self" within.

When Lincoln was praised for his "selfless" act, he countered that his motive was actually selfish: he wasn't worried about what would happen to the pig so much as he was worried about his own peace of mind. He knew that had he failed to help, the mental guilt would have haunted him for weeks. He acted to alleviate his own internal distress.

If we look closely, we find that most of our actions stem from a similar origin. While this may appear selfish on the surface, a deep scrutiny of our thought processes leads us to the same conclusion as Lincoln. We act out of a need for internal satisfaction because kindness is our inherent nature. We do not need to "act" kind; rather, we must be kind to avoid the disturbance of our inner voice.

The secret to a balanced life lies in listening to this deep inner voice and performing good deeds for the sake of our own soul’s alignment—and then promptly forgetting them. By "forgetting" our good deeds, we keep our consciousness clean and prevent the ego from taking root. When we act because it is our nature, and not for external recognition, we maintain a state of spiritual purity.