Tuesday, July 7, 2015

SHORT STORY: KARMA AUR AKARMA (ACTION AND INACTION)

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By kamlesh Tripathi






Long time ago there lived a man, who wanted to prosper in life, very fast. He went to a saint and expressed his desire. Saint smiled at him and gave him two coins, and asked him to drop the coins one after the other, so that he could fulfil his desire.

     The person felt extremely happy about his own sensible thought as his desire, was soon to be accomplished. And, before the saint could give him any other valuable advice, the person, while the saint was watching him ran away from there.

    And after running a distance when he was out of his sight, he halted, and dropped a coin to test. Just then, in front of him, and as he was watching a golden chariot came and stood, and invited him for a ride. In the chariot at a particular place it was written ‘Karma,’ and excited and delighted the young man sat in the chariot. And as he sat the chariot took to supersonic speed when the youth noticed there is no control lever in the chariot. For some time he enjoyed the high speed of the chariot but soon he got nervous, as he was not sure about where he was going and his destination. He had no answers to his questions but the chariot was still moving at supersonic speed. He got scared.

    When he was pondering to save himself from the high speed of the chariot, he saw a button on which it was written ‘stop’. With great hope he pressed the button. And immediately the chariot stopped. When the person jumped out of the chariot and heaved a sigh of relief.

    The journey had tired him. And after some rest when he was re-energised, with some renewed hope and strength he eagerly decided to drop the other coin, and as he did that another chariot came and stood in front of him on which it was written ‘akarma’ and it invited him for a ride. But this time the youth was less scared of the chariot when he entered.

    But to his surprise this time the chariot was stationery, but around the chariot everything was moving at a very fast pace and he was unable to see anything. And this moving of things at a fast pace started troubling him, and he felt giddy.

    When he could not withstand all this, to save himself he pressed the ‘stop’ button. The moving of everything around him stopped immediately. The person jumped from the chariot and ran towards the saint. He complained to the saint that by using the coins he has made no progress in his life.

    The saint looked at him pensively, when he decided to explain and said, ‘most people in the world want fast progress for themselves and that too without any directional and sustained effort. While some are just the opposite. But neither hard work alone nor idling or inaction can give us progress.

    Saint further added, ‘Every, karma of ours should have an objective. And there should be a particular procedure to do that karma and there should be a continuous effort, and in this, factors that help are wisdom, intelligence, and sound ideas. And, when all these factors combine, then only we attain worldly and spiritual progress.

    This story conveys a message that ‘karma’ and ‘akarma,’ both without an objective and continuous efforts are like a vehicle that does not have a control levers for direction and control.


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