Advice from Old People

Once in old times young king of country thought that old people are unnecessary and burden to country as they are weak and unable to do any productive work. All his courtiers consisted of young people and they agreed with him.

Soon King passed an order that all people above sixty must be killed as they have already lived their lifetime. So all the old people of the country were killed.

In the country lived a young man who had great respect and love for his father and he didn’t wanted him to get killed. So before soldier came he hid his father into a cellar.

After some years a terrible drought overtook a country and people had to suffer from troubles and sickness. Famine was so severe that even stores of food grains were fully exhausted and not a single grain of seed was left to sow in land.

Everyone in the country looked worried but no one could think of anything to better country situation.

Young man who hid his father.. used to go his father for advice whenever anything troubled him. So even this time he went to his father and told him about situation. Old man thought for a while and said, “Don’t worry.. Take your plough and plough up the path in front of our house and then rake it over.”

Young man did same. After rain came sprouts of wheat started to come out of that ploughed area. Young man was surprised to see that even without sowing any seed sprouts came out.

Everyone around him noticed sprouted ground. King came to know about it and called young man to his court to know about his secret.

Young man hesitated and then told king that his father advised him to do so. King was shocked to know that as according to rule all old man were to be killed in country. King called old man to his court as he wanted to ask secret for this.

Old man came and told him, “Your Majesty, wheat sprouted there because i knew from my experience that people used to carry crop on that way and some seed must have dropped on the ground on their way.

I was quiet sure that some seed may be lying underneath and if plough we can get some sprouts and same happened..”

Listening to this king realized his mistake and understood that how much an old person’s experience matter and their wise advice can help young to overcome difficult situation.

After this incident the people of that country did not kill their old people. They loved and respected them. The treated them as a valuable treasure for the nation.

Moral:

Old people are Store-house of knowledge and their wisdom and experience helps us to come over crisis and difficulties. We must Respect and Love them.

Give them feeling that We look forward to them for their advice and guidance in life. Make them feel wanted, respect, loved and cared for. We should keep your elders well and earn their blessing in life.

Falcons on Branch

Once upon a time there lived a generous, kind – hearted king. He was fond of birds and animals and had a huge bird sanctuary in his reign. He disliked harming the animals and birds and even did not kill them for the sake of eating meat.

Owing to his generosity and kindness towards birds, he was gifted two beautiful falcons by his fellow businessman. Those two falcons belonged to a different place and lived in a different climatic condition. The king thanked the businessman and ordered the head of the bird trainer to provide all the facilities to those beautiful falcons and make them feel comfortable in their country. The head trainer took the birds and provided all essentials to help the birds adapt to the atmosphere. Gradually, the birds got adapted to the country’s atmosphere.

One day the king wanted to see the falcons fly as he heard that one of those falcons fly to great heights at a very high speed.

The king was quite surprised and rewarded the bird trainer with handful of gold coins. He inquired about the other falcon. The bird trainer stated with regret that the other falcon did not move even a step from the day one and just sat on the branch. The trainer also added that he tried everything best he could do and still he failed to make this bird move.

The king consoled him and told the trainer that he would bring someone more experienced than him or an old man who knew about falcons.

The king announced about his requirement to make the falcon move and fly. Hearing this announcement, an old man reached the King’s palace and assured him that he would make the bird fly like the other one.

The king asked the head trainer to take the old man to the sanctuary to train the falcon and he told that he would visit them the next day to see if there was any change.

The next day, the king was very surprised to see the other falcon fly like the first one to great heights in rapid speed. The king was too happy and rewarded him handful.

The king asked what he had done to make the bird fly in a day. The old man simply replied, ‘I just cut down the branch of the tree where the falcon used to sit.’

Many of us are like this. We have wings to fly, we know how to fly, and where to fly still we sit doing nothing or doing something that makes us inferior to others.

Moral:

Don’t try to walk when you have wings to fly!

Farmer and Boulder in Field Story

Once in a village lived a farmer who used to work in a big field. In middle of his field there was boulder stuck in land which used to get in farmer’s way while working.

Farmer would work cautiously around that boulder but still there were time he would stumble because of that boulder and fell.

Whenever farmer fell, he would think of getting that boulder remove from his field but then got scared of thinking how big that stone was and how deep it might be stuck in land. He thought he couldn’t do it alone and it would take lot of time. Thinking all that he would leave that stone as it is.

Like everyday, in morning farmer went to his fields to work but again same thing happened, once again farmer’s foot got stuck on that boulder and he stumbled and fell over. His plow also broke because of that stone.

Farmer got very angry as for years he had to face loss of his tools many time because of that stone. This time he thought that, he would dig out that boulder from that land and throw it out of his fields.

He immediately went back to village and came back with 4-5 people holding tools to dig that boulder out.

When farmer reached near that boulder he said to people who came with him to help him, “Friends, you see this stone, it has caused me much harm and today we will remove it from its root and throw it out of my fields.”

Saying this, farmer took shovel and started digging around that stone. He just made 2-3 strike to dig soil around that boulder and whole boulder came out of land.

Seeing this people around him laughed and one of them said to him, “What is this brother? You used to say that there is a very big boulder stuck in your field but this is just a big rock which was just lying here. You could remove it alone.”

Farmer was also surprise to see that for all these years, he thought that a big boulder was stuck there but today he found that it was just a big rock which could be remove easily by himself only.

He regretted and wished that he had tired to remove it already then he wouldn’t have to face this much all those years.

Learning:

Like farmer, In our life many times when we face small obstacles that looks too big to face, instead of dealing with them, we keep suffering. Therefore, it is important that we chose to fight those troubles without losing time.

When we chose to fight, we can see that in no time, that big trouble start resembling a small problem and we can remove it from our life and move forward.

Negative Attitude?

Once in village lived a man who was very lazy and didn’t liked to work. So he would always look for easiest way to feed himself.

One day he found a fruit farm and looked around. Not seeing any one guarding farm, he decided to steal some fruits but as soon as he climbed tree, farm owner saw him.

Owner ran toward him to catch him. Seeing him that man got afraid and ran towards forest and went inside forest to hide.

After sometime passed, he started to walk toward village. While passing by he saw that there was fox who had only two legs and was crawling on those two legs.

Man thought to himself, “How can this fox is still alive in such condition? This fox can’t run then how it is able to feed himself as well as save itself from other animals?”

Just then man saw a lion coming in his direction, He ran and climbed up tree. From there he saw that lion was holding a piece of meat in his mouth and seeing lion all other animals ran away except for that fox as it wasn’t able to run.

Man was surprised to see that instead of attacking that fox, lion left piece of meat there and left.

Seeing this that man realized God’s plan to feed that fox and thought to himself, “God is creator of all and he always have a plan to take care of beings he created. This means God must have something planned for him too.”

He left from there and then just outside village sat under a tree, waiting for someone to come and feed him too. He kept looking at road waiting for someone to come and feed him but two days passed and he was still without food.

Finally he couldn’t bear hunger and got up from that place and started to walk back to village. While waking back to village he met an old Sage.

He told him everything he had on his mind. he questioned, “Why is that God has shown it’s mercy on that fox and was so cruel to me?”

Sage gave him some food and water. Then smiled and said, “It’s true that the creator has a plan for everyone. You are obviously a part of the God’s plan. But Son, You took his sign in a wrong way. He didn’t want you to be like the fox. He wanted you to be like the Lion”

Moral:

God has given us Strength and Capability to do our part. We should always Learn to see things in Positive way and see yourself in Position to Help others who Need.

Puzzle to Open Door

Once a mighty King ruled a kingdom. He didn’t have any children and because of his age, he was worried about future heir of kingdom. So, he decided to hand over the reins of his kingdom to a qualified youth.

He conducted a merit test for selection of future successor.

For test, a magnificent palace was built and a puzzle was written on closed door of that palace. It was announced in whole kingdom that all the youth of kingdom are invited to solve that puzzle and open the door of palace.

One who is successful in opening the door will be given that palace as gift and will also be declared the heir of kingdom.

From the day of announcement, there was an influx of young people in front of that newly built palace.

From morning till evening, young men used to come there and tried to solve the puzzle written on the door but no one was able to solve it. Many days passed. Even most intelligent were unable to find a solution to that puzzle and gave up.

One day young from other kingdom were invited. Many famous and intelligent young one came but as day progressed, one by one all left.

In end only three people were left. Among those two were from other state and third was a simple young man from kingdom’s village.

While both young man from other kingdom were engaged in solving puzzle, young man from village was standing in corner looking at them. When King saw him standing like this he called him and asked, “Why are you not trying to solve the puzzle?”

He replied, “Your majesty, I have come here to see eminent people. If they find a solution then one of them will become the heir of kingdom. What could be more joyous than this? If they can’t find solution then i will try.”

Saying this young man went back and sat in corner, looking at those two young men. Whole day passed, but none of them could solve the puzzle. Whole day they tried to find way to solve the puzzle and open that door. At last they gave up.

After seeing this, young man sitting in corner got up and went to door and opened it.

As soon as door opened, people started asking him what did he do. How was he able to solve the puzzle and open that door.

Young man replied, “While i was sitting and watching everyone trying to solve that puzzle, a thought came to my mind that there might not be any puzzle to open the door. So I went and went first and pushed the door. The door opened. There was no puzzle to be solve to open the door.”

King heard his answer and was very pleased. As promised young man was given that palace as gift and was declared heir of the kingdom.

Learning:

Many times in life, we get caught in such a situation where we feel like we have a problem like a mountain in front of us and think that it solution must be complex and difficult. So, we keep getting entangled in it by making it bigger.

Later when problem get solved, we realize that it was very simple and very little effort was needed to solve it. Therefore, one need to think calmly and then try to solve problem.

Monk and Wealthy Man Story

 

Once there was very wealthy man who was suffering from severe eye pain. He consulted many doctors and tried their treatments but nothing helped. Even after consuming so many drugs to treat his eye, he still suffered from pain and that pain in eye persisted more than before.

At last, he heard about a monk who was famous for being an expert in treating such problems. He went to him and told him about his problem.

Monk understood his problem and said that, “You should concentrate only on green colors and try not to let your eyes fall on any other color.”

Man found this kinda prescription strange but he was desperate to find cure and decided to try it.

Wealthy man called for group of painters and purchased loads of green paint and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall to be painted green just as the monk had directed.

Just in few days everything around that man was in green. Wealthy man made sure that nothing around would in any other color.

After some days, monk came to visit wealthy man, millionaire servant ran with bucket of green paint and poured it all over him.

Monk asked servants reason for this. Servant replied, “You were wearing saffron and we can’t let our master see any other color than green..”

Hearing this monk laughed and said, “If only.. you had purchased a pair of green colored glasses for him to wear.. worth just few dollars..

You could have saved all these walls, articles and also would have been able to save a large amount of his fortune.. You cannot paint the world green.”

Moral:

It is foolish to shape/ Change the world, Let’s Shape ourselves first.. Let us change our vision and the world will appear accordingly.

Tribe and Researcher Story

Once a scientific researcher came to know about a tribe which lived in deep forest and consisted of only 300 people but all blind.

So, he went to forest and lived with tribe to understand them. He realized that they had no idea that they were blind as they had not known anybody with eyes, who can see.

Researcher pretended that he was also like them. Soon, he found the reason for their blindness. He found that there was a certain insect. If this insect sting an infant, he/she will become blind.

Insect was common and was there in every house, so it was impossible for any child to get away. Nobody could remember that they could see when they were born.

So, whole tribe lived normally. They managed to farm, bring water from well and do everything needed. They became adopted to this life.

Researcher remained with that tribe for long. There he fell in love with woman. He wanted to marry her so he asked head of tribe for permission to marry her.

But by that time tribe became suspicious of researcher. Although they were blind, they sensed that he was different.

He talked different, say things they didn’t know. He would say – Now, it is sunrise. Now whole sky is full of stars and many other things.

One day, they forced researcher to tell them truth.

Now, researcher had to be honest. He said, “I can see but you can’t. Although when born you were able to see but here lives an insect which destroys eyesight before child passes six months limit.

I can help you. I can bring in help to kill those insects and medical help that can cure you all, so that you can see again.”

After listening to him, tribe people refused his help. They said, “We are happy this way. We don’t want to change anything. We don’t want any disturbance.”

Tribe head said to him, “As far as marriage is concerned. You can marry only on one condition.”

Researcher asked, “What?”

Tribe head said, “If you want to marry her you have to destroy your eyes. You have to live with us and learn our ways. You have twelve hours to decide. If you want to keep your eyesight then you cannot live with us.”

That night he thought about it, “What to do? I wanted to help these people. I wanted to marry her and get her eyes cured and then bring back help but these people don’t want my help. They are perfectly happy in their blindness.”

Thinking this, he dropped all this idea and escaped from that village.

**Same is Situation in today’s world. We got habitual to live in our misery and suffering. 

When Enlightened man come and tell us Truth of our Life, it becomes danger to our consolations. They tell things that we are afraid to know. We don’t want to know who we really are because it may disturb everything in our life. 

He brings a new light, a new life, anew view to us but we don’t accept it because we have settled for what we know and it feel risky to bring change or learn about one self.