 Commentary on the Gospel of Thomas–9—by Swami Nirmalananda Giri
 Fishing Wisely
“And he said, ‘The man is like a wise fisherman who cast his net into the sea and drew it up from the sea full of small fish. Among them the wise fisherman found a fine large fish. He threw all the small fish back into the sea and chose the large fish without difficulty. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’” (8) The man
By just saying “the man” Jesus is being very oriental, for in the East it is considered an absolute that no one is really a human being until he has attained the state of consciousness that befits the human level of evolution. That is why in some texts there is insistence that all human beings or “everyone” or “the whole world” engages in praise and worship of God. Those who do not are simply not “human” in the evolutionary sense, though they are certainly moving toward that point. (We in the West must remember that in the oriental view even the “not yet humans”–in the parlance of Dr. Bronner–are divine and not to be despised or discounted.)
In the Gospel of Matthew Jesus is quoted as saying “the kingdom of heaven” rather than “the man,” but when we consider it, a human being is a kingdom of heaven, albeit an unrealized and unmanifested Heaven.
The wise fisherman
A wise fisherman is someone who casts the net of his consciousness into the sea of the cosmos and correctly evaluates whatever he draws up into it. Being wise, he seeks for “that one thing, which when known, all else is known.” To get to that he must not be satisfied with anything less than The One. This is extremely difficult, for to our presently small minds so many things appear to be tremendous, yet they are really very small. Since they fill the scope of our limited awareness we may thing they are infinite, but they are nothing in comparison to The Real Thing which we seek. This is the great pitfall of most yogis (at least of those who persevere). It is so easy to settle for so much less than is our destiny, to become satisfied with only the shadow of that which we seek.
Sri Ramakrishna told a story of a woodcutter who was working at the edge of a forest when a sadhu told him: “Go further.” He went further into the woods and found an iron mine. At first he rejoiced in thinking of how much more money he would make from working the mine rather than chopping wood. But the it occurred to him that the sadhu had not said to go find an iron mine, he had just said: “Go further.” He did so, and found a copper mine. Again he went further and found in turn a silver mind, a gold mine, and mines of increasingly precious jewels until he reached a mine of the most precious gems of all. We, too, have to keep tossing the “small fry” back into the sea until only the “big fish” of Divine Consciousness remains
Sri Ramakrishna also spoke of how in a deep pool there sometimes would be found one huge fish, a legendary fish that so many anglers tried to hook. But, being old and clever, the fish would elude the hook but get the bait. The fish, he said, was like Brahman Itself. Elusive, but worth the patient wait and the development of the skill needed to draw It to us. Give heed
“Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear,” because only those who toss the small fish back into the sea really choose the “large fish” we are after. Many try to hold on to both, but end up with only the “small stuff.” We must hold to The One to the exclusion of all else. It is really easy to do (“without difficulty”) if we lest go of all the fish, not keeping hold of the tiniest minnow or even a fish egg! Those who find it hard are holding on to something other than The One.
Let go!
1) Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.3 [Go back]
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