STORY: WASHERMAN AND THE DONKEY

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    There was once a lazy and a wicked dhobi (washerman) by the name of Nankau. He had an obedient and a long serving donkey at home. Whom, he used for transporting all the dirty clothes to the bank of the nearby river for washing in the morning. During the day he handed over the donkey to his friend who was a contractor on rent for transporting sand from the river to his construction site. And in the evening the listless and obedient animal used to return with is master with bundles of washed clothes on his back. Apart from making the donkey do all the work without any rest, Nankau even whipped him for small mistakes and at times he even starved him. But, he never complimented him for any good work. Rather considered him as the villain of his life that always brought him ill luck.

    One day Gopal a friend of the dhobi came to stay with him for a few days. During that time he noticed. How Nankau for no rhyme or reason used to whip the donkey and even cursed him loud and clear and that too off and on.

    One day Gopal asked Nankau. ‘My dear friend, what on earth is the matter with you? As I always find you quite irritable. And you often whip this poor soul, and that too in anger for no fault of his. Why do you do this? Especially, when he is so obedient and does all your work?’

    Nankau painfully replied, ‘Arrey yaar! This donkey has been very inauspicious for me. Ever since it walked into my life, I have been facing some problem or the other. Enough is enough. Somehow, I now want to get rid of him. I even tried selling him but no one seemed interested. Maybe, because, I’ve cursed and criticized him so much in front of people that no one is ready to touch him even with a barge pole.’

    During his stay, Gopal could assess the worth of the donkey. He told his friend, ‘Brother, just in case you are not happy with him. You could sell him off to me, and instead buy another one for yourself.’

     Nankau didn’t want the opportunity to lapse. He readily agreed to the offer and sold his donkey to Gopal. Who happened to be a kind master, and thereon, he looked after the animal quite well.

    In the meanwhile, Nankau, this time bought a mule. Thinking it will do more work than the previous animal he had. And, he could never forget that God forsaken donkey that he had and always cursed him, for all the misfortunes of his life. But now with the mule around, he was hoping his luck will improve and he will be a happy man.

    By now he had spent a few months with the newly acquired mule. As compared to the donkey the mule looked tougher, but refused to do, as much work as the donkey used to do. And in the changed scenario, Nankau didn’t have his donkey to curse and blame for his failures, each time things went wrong in his life—so the villain was missing. For the donkey was now someone else’s property. And the mule was too new to be held responsible for any ill luck. So, in other words he had no villain in his life whom he could curse for his misfortunes. And he didn’t have the audacity to blame and curse himself for his mistakes and this started worrying him beyond compare.

    One day when the mule was transporting sand from the river to the contractor’s site. The rear leg of the mule got stuck in the muddy waters of the river and as a result it could not move. Soon it slipped and fell down and fractured its leg, and within a few days the wound turned into gangrene and he died.

    Nankau was shell shocked at the mishap. He now had no means to transport the clothes meant for washing, and was now constrained to do it on his back. But he had limitations, as he couldn’t carry to many clothes. So he started losing business. And since the mule was now dead he was also deprived of the daily rent that he was getting from the contractor. So overall, he was at a loss of a lifetime.

    Suddenly, he realized, he had no one to curse for his misfortunes. Because, the ultimate villain of his life—the donkey, was sold off, by he himself, and so it was not influencing his life anymore. So, the big question, now in front of him was who was influencing his life if not the donkey?

    He decided to visit his learned friend Gopal for answers. Where, in his house he found his villain of life in a healthy and happy state as Gopal was taking good care of him. Nankau narrated the sequence of events to him.

    Gopal, first gave him a patient hearing and then said, ‘Dear Nankau, when I visited you last time. I knew you were a victim of your own circumstances. But you always wanted to play the victim card for every misfortune that you came across in your life. For which you always wanted a villain whom you could blame and where this speechless donkey came in handy.

    But the real solution to life is to look for the hidden donkey within you, before you start cursing any other donkey. And above all you are just a human being, who is bound to make mistakes. So, if at all, you want to blame someone for your own mistakes, blame the villain within you. And, for that, keep the villain in you alive, so that you don’t have to look for a villain outside, like this donkey.

    Nankau had got the message of life. He patted the donkey and returned home.

*****

STORY: BLESSINGS AND SUPREME HAPPINESS

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

    Once upon a time there lived a renowned scholar in the forest who had many bright shishyas (pupils). They were under his aegis for a long period of time, and were eager and impatient to learn the rare talent of Brahmagyan (divine knowledge) from their Guru; considering they had acquired enough mastery on other issues and what was left was only the divine knowledge.

     They were somewhat suspicious, thinking the Guru was not keen to teach them Brahmagyan the way to paramsukh (supreme happiness) for reasons best known to him. Somewhat, dissatisfied these shishyas were now desisting to move as per the guidance of their Guru and had started putting pressure on him for teaching them Brahmgyan. Their logic was, when they had surrendered themselves completely at the Guru’s feet, then why wasn’t the Guru teaching them the coveted talent that was the way to supreme happiness.

    One day the guru called all his shishyas and said, ‘don’t be under the impression that I don’t want to share Brahmagyan with you. But I only want to say that you all are not ready for it as of now. There is no point in pouring amrit (elixir) in a vessel which has many holes because the entire nectar will just flow out. Before pouring the nectar we need to close all the holes.’

    Upon hearing Guru’s words all the shishyas started whispering amongst themselves. The oldest out of them got up and said, ‘Gurudev we don’t agree to your logic that we are not ready for Brahmagyan yet.  For many years we have been staying with you and we have carried your message and teachings to many places.   People know us as your representative and even you have praised us for our work in the past. Besides Brahmgyan what else is left for us to attain? Your words are creating doubts in our minds, that you don’t want to share this divine knowledge with us, which is the only way to attain supreme happiness.’

    Guru for a moment went quiet as it saddened him, thinking his pupils were not humble, and on the contrary arrogant. He thought this distance between the pupils and the Guru will only weaken them and give them a feeling of defeat, and on the contrary nearness to Guru will increase the feeling of self respect.

    After a little while the Guru said, ‘dear students, possibly; I was wrong when I thought you all were not ready for Brahmgyan. I guess you all are adults, knowledgeable and ready for the divine knowledge. But I want to take a small test of you all.’

            After saying this he took out is basket of fruits and distributed one fruit to every shishya and requested them to hide it in such a place that when no one is watching they could eat it.

    All the pupils were a little surprised at this unusual and simple request of the Guru but since all of them were determined to learn Brahmagyan they decided to carry out his the instructions at any cost. They accepted the order of the Guru. After sometime all the shishyas returned with the belief that they had successfully obeyed the orders of the Guru. Leaving aside one who was a continuous laughing stock, and considered a simpleton in the entire group and many didn’t even consider him in their league.

    Guru was eagerly waiting, and with a lot of inquisition he asked about how they ate the fruit without anyone noticing them. Everyone narrated their success story.

    Then, was the turn of the simpleton, who was often ridiculed by his fellow students. Upon orders from the Guru he came forward on his wobbly legs with the fruit in his hand to tell his story. Guru displayed anger and said, ‘I had asked you to eat the fruit. Everyone obeyed my orders then why did you not have the fruit? What is the reason tell me?’

    Shishya said, ‘’Gurudev I wanted to obey your orders but I had no place to hide. You had instructed to have this fruit when no one is around. But wherever I went I felt I am not alone and God is around me, as you only told us God is omnipresent. Because of this I could neither hide myself nor the fruit. Kindly therefore forgive me because I could not pass the test.

    ‘No, my child, only you have passed in the exams. All the other shishyas only counted on the physical presence. They forgot about the omnipresent God who watches every action of ours and is a witness to all our deeds. When they don’t understand omnipresent God, how will they be blessed with Brahmagyan? Only you could recognise that supreme existence and that is why only you are entitled to receive the supreme divine knowledge—Brahmagyan.’

    This story is from the purans (religious texts) which highlights the point that we should only desire for something when we are capable of handling it. Guru knows when he has to bless his shishyas and when they would be capable enough to learn Brahmagyan the way to supreme happiness.

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SHORT STORY: THREE REFUGEES ... lessons of life

Copyright@kamleshsujata1

By Kamlesh Tripathi

Once upon a time during the partition of India there were three refugees who landed up in Calcutta. They had walked for many miles over the days and were tired and hungry. They were looking for some alms as they had no money to buy food.

As tired souls they looked around the streets, markets and nearby colonies but no one provided them with either money or food. Tired, they filled their stomach with tap water and walked across the road and entered a park to rest under the tree.

They were not known to each other even when they were together over the last few days. They were tired, hungry and even feeling sick; and so crossing the border, arranging for food, water, shelter and more appropriately survival, was the priority, over the days, they traveled together.

Their hunger was almost reaching a burst point, when a group of people from some charitable organisation came to them, having realised they were refugees, and gave a dozen bananas to each of the three. Seeing the bananas they were thrilled and started jumping in joy as if they had recovered a lost fortune.

And soon one out of them who appeared very hungry had all the bananas in one go and burped loudly, and decided to rest.

The second person had six bananas and decided to lie down, after keeping the balance six close to chest.

And the third person after having six bananas got up and told these two he is going up to the nearby market and will return soon.

The first person who had finished all the bananas was rather puzzled at banana-behaviour of these two; as hitherto they were cribbing, that were extremely hungry and when they got food to eat they didn’t finish. By now about half-an-hour had passed when he saw the third person walking back without bananas in his hand. Seeing the third person without bananas, number one’s inquisition started tickling him and he couldn’t resist when he asked the second person,

‘You were so hungry but you didn’t finish all the bananas, and why are you keeping these six?’

The person replied, ‘I have kept it for the evening. Who knows in this new city you might not get any food again so as a precaution I have kept it for dinner.’

‘And, what about you? You had gone out with six bananas but now you have none with you.’

‘Well I ate six and sold six and now I have money for two more meals.

The story conveys a worldly message. The first person ate all the bananas thinking some other Good Samaritan or God will not let him go hungry. The second person showed a streak of saving and cautiousness for the rainy day so he kept six for dinner and the third person had entrepreneurial drive so he ate six and sold six.

Introspect, what would you have done under such circumstances?

SHORT STORY: KNOW YOUR GURU

Copyright@kamleshsujata1

By Kamlesh Tripathi

Once upon a time there lived a Mahatma named Angiras in a forest. In his aashram he had many pupils, and all them, had a great praise for their Guru’s knowledge and wisdom.

Amongst the pupils there were some who learnt faster than the others, from the Guru and followed the route suggested by him. And these pupils were generally respected by other pupils.

But some pupils used to be jealous of these pupils. They used to forget that because of their own shortcomings they were unable to understand and comprehend the Guru in a wholesome manner. And soon they started suspecting that the Guru was using some mysterious ways to coach his favourite pupils for some special talent.

One day when the Guru was alone these students went up to him and asked, ‘Gurudev, it appears you are teaching something special to your favourite students. Why don’t you give the same knowledge to us also?

Guru, did not like the query of his pupils, but he peacefully replied, ‘I consider everyone to be the same and have imparted the same education and knowledge to everyone. And, if some out of you have progressed faster than others it is because of your own efforts. Who has stopped you from being proficient?’

Students did not understand what the Guru was trying to say. And, so after thinking for a while the Guru spoke again and said, ‘I am ready to give special attention to all the students who want it, but I have one condition. You will have to clear a small test for me. You will have to go to the nearby villages, and find a ‘good person’ for me.’ Finding the test to be simple and easy all the complaining students felt very happy. They quickly elected a representative who enthusiastically set out for the mission.

But unfortunately wherever he went and whomsoever he met were all involved in some form of sin, and after searching a lot he returned to the ashram empty handed and in a remorse tone he said, ‘Gurudev, I could not find even one person who had not committed a crime.’

Guru, in a morose tone said, ‘Is it so, let me see. Okay let me send someone out of these students about whom you all were complaining.’ Guru called a pupil and ordered him to go to the nearby villages and get him a bad person. The obedient pupil said, ‘As the Guru desires, let me try.’ And after saying this he left.

But the remaining students out there felt Gurudev had again committed injustice. As the pupil will get plenty of bad men, as the villages are full of bad people.

Guru requested them to keep their cool. And after sometime the pupil deputed returned empty handed and said with folded hands, ‘Please pardon me Guruji. I scanned the nearby villages but I did not find a single bad person.’ Rest of the pupils started laughing. He further said, ‘every person has done at least one good deed. And I did not find a single person who had not done one good deed. So, kindly excuse me.’ and after saying this he took his Guru’s permission and left.

Guru then told his complaining pupils, ‘My dear students. This is that borderline which differentiates between good and bad, right and wrong and positive and negative.

Your mind blossoms when in everything you see goodness. World is a mixture of happiness and sorrow. This depends on your mindset what you want to take from the world. People who are positive grow faster than those who are negative.

For a Guru all his pupils are dear. And if any pupil considers himself distanced from the Guru, then it is that student’s stupidity. The more you feel close to me the more you will develop and it will be seen in your actions.’

This story tells how we should face life and its challenges. Complete surrender to your Guru will lift you from all your sorrows. The story is from Upanishad.