Don’t Think of a Monkey: And Other Stories My Guru Told Me

by Prakashananda

This is the first collection of 108 stories the author heard from his Guru, Baba Muktananda over the many years he lived with him. His Guru was a master story teller whose spiritual talks were sprinkled with such stories. They served as a teaching vehicle, sometimes in a humorous way, to convey certain spiritual truths, as well as the follies and antics of humanity.

Many of these stories have been narrated for thousands of years in India, as well as other parts of the Middle East, often modified by the narrator according to the needs of the moment. Muktananda loved stories from all traditions.

Some of Baba’s favorite stories were those relating to the comical character of Mullah Nasrudin. As Nasrudin is known to be a great traveler, we find that he is variously known as the ‘Hodja’, the ‘Mullah’, or simply ‘Nasrudin’ throughout the Middle-East, from the Mediterranean to India. He is referred to as either very stupid, or very wise, clever, and improbable in his exploits. I have therefore included a number of his tales scattered throughout this book.

268 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1995