Sri Swami Satchidananda used this analogy to teach us about our self-imposed suffering from attachment. People in India would make a small hole in a young coconut to drink the water. Knowing there is soft, white coconut meat inside, a monkey would stick its hand through the hole and grab as much of this jelly-like coconut as it could. Forming a fist to hold the coconut, it would be unable to remove its hand and begin struggling and fighting with what it believed to be a coconut refusing to let it go. It would scream and fight until it collapsed, and the hand would finally loosen its grip and come easily out. If we sincerely reflect on our own painful struggles, we will ultimately see where we are holding onto something so tightly that we are hurting ourselves — a very humbling thing to discover.
