Gandhiji and the Three Monkeys

Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of Nation, believed in simple living and high thinking. He used to live with a very few things. Some of the things which he always kept with him were – tin cup and spoon, a pair of sandals, his glasses and … a set of “no evil monkeys”. 

image courtesy: Google images

Gandhiji was the leader of the freedom movement of India. Many people from all over the world used to visit him. He would often advise them about something or the other.

One day, a group of visitors came from Japan. “Gandhiji, we have brought you a small gift,” they said. “It is no bigger than a child’s toys, but it is famous in our country. “To Gandhiji’s delight, it was a set of three monkeys.

Gandhiji asked them, “What do these three monkeys tell us?”

One of the visitors said, “Gandhiji! The first monkey has its mouth covered with its hands. It shows ‘speak no evil’.”

Another visitor then spoke, “The second monkey has its eyes covered with its hands. It shows ‘see no evil’.”

“The third monkey has its ears covered with its hands. It shows ‘hear no evil’.”

Gandhiji was very happy to learn about the three monkeys. He himself believed in truth and non-violence. He said, “These monkeys are indeed one of the most valuable gifts I have ever received. They actually teach us the truth of life.” 

From that day, Gandhiji kept the monkeys always with him. In one of the meetings, he pointed out at the monkeys and said, “Each of these monkeys tells us how to live our life properly. The first monkey tells us not to say anything harsh. Never say anything bad to hurt your fellow beings. The second monkey tells never to look for faults in others. And the third monkey tells us never to hear any evil.

Speak no evil, see no evil and hear no evil.

Sindbad The Sailor

Hundreds of years ago, there lived a young man named Sindbad. He was a merchant. In order to sell his wares, Sindbad had to often sail around the world. Most of his voyages were full of exciting adventures.

image courtesy: Google images

        

On one occasion, Sindbad had to go to China with a cargo of dates form Arabia. When he was returning, his cargo met with a tempest. The mighty waves overturned the ship. Luckily, Sindbad escaped unhurt and managed to reach the shore. It was a strange land with huge white rocks all around.

“Oh, thes white boulders seem so sommth!” Sindbad wondered. As he went to one of the rocks, a huge eagle landed next to him. And then… to his awe and surprise, he found that the white rocks were nothing else but the eggs of the eagles. “So.. Iam in the land of giant birds,” Sindbad mused.

He crawled behind a huge eagle and fastened himself to its leg. The huge bird took off in the sky and soon landed in a valley where there were gems and diamonds all around. Suddenly, a piece of meat fell beside Sindbad, and a diamond got stuck onto it. He got reminded of the story of the valley.

The natives of the valley used to throw meat so that the gems could get stuck on them. When the birds carried the meat to their nests, the people used to collect the gems and leave the meat in the nests. “The birds may swoop anytime,” thought Sindbad. He quickly collected as many gems as he could.

Tying the diamonds in his waistband, he waited near the piece of meat. As soon as an eagle landed there to pick up the meat, Sindbad tied himself to the bird’s leg. The huge bird took off in the sky… and off went Sindbad flying high. The bird landed in another valley. Sindbad untied himself.

People of the valley were startled to see him. And when they came to know that he was Sindbad, the sailor, they were pleased. For some days, he stayed with them, telling them about his adventures. Then one day, he took leave of them. “Another voyage awaits me,” he said. And Sindbad went on his way..

His voyages continued…

The End.

The Reward of Honesty

Serivan was a seller of pots and pans. He had a merchant friend, named Malli who was very greedy and mean. One day they crossed the river Televasta and reached the town of Anuradhapur. They settled between themselves to go about in different parts of the town.

In the same city there lived a poor family which has once been quite rich. The only survivors in the family now were two women, a young girl and her grandmother. Life was hard for them.

Lying among the old pots and pans in their house was golden bowl. It was out of use, so it looked dirty. Malli went past their door, crying, ‘Exchange your old pots for new!’

The young girl said, “Let’s buy a new plate, grandma! There is a pot seller in the street.”.

“But we have no money to pay for it, my child,” replied the old woman.

“Why, we can offer this old metal bowl in exchange,” said the girl.

Malli was called in. He examined the bowl and scratched a line on its bottom with a needle. His suspicion was right. It was pure gold. But he wanted to get it for nothing. He threw it on the floor, saying that it was useless and worthless. He got up and left the house.

The young girl was sad at the seller’s rudeness. But her grandmother wondered why he had behaved in such an insulting manner.

The next morning, Serivan visited that part of the town. Once again the young girl urged her grandma to get her a new plate. Most unwillingly, ht old lady called the potseller in. He looked gentle and honest. He too examined the dirty old bowl.

“Will you exchange this for a plate?” asked the young girl.

“Old mother, your bowl is pure gold, and worth a lot of money. I haven’t so much money on me.”

Both the women were astonished to hear this. “My son, it must be your touch which turned the bowl into gold. Take it! Give us anything in exchange,” said the old lady.

Serivan gave away all his new pots and also 500 silver coins which he had at that time. He kept with him just 8 coins to pay to boatman to take him across the river.

No sooner had Servan left the house than the greedy Malli turned up. He wanted to buy the bowl. The old woman scolded him for telling a lie in order to cheat her.

Malli began to curse Serivan for his loss.

“I shall have my revenge on that fool! Why did he undo my plan?”, he cried.

He rushed after Servian to the riverside. But the boat was already in the midstream. He shouted insults at Serivan, tore his clothes, los his balance of mind. His heart burst and he dropped down dead.

The End.

Tenali Raman and the Weightlifter

Tenali Raman and his wife were on their way to Hampi, the capital of Vijayanagaram. On the waythey passed through a village at the foot of a hill. The villagers had gathered in front of the village temple. Raman’s wife became curious and dragged her husband to the spot. Husband and wife pushed through the crowd to appear in the front row.

A body builder was exhibiting his strength. He was seen carrying a huge gunny bag on his left shoulder and twirling his moustache with his right hand.

“He is carrying a bog of 500 quintals of rice,” said the man standing next to Raman.

“This is nothing, I can carry a thousand times more weight,” said Raman in a loud voice.

Startled by this announcement, the body builder dropped the bag he was carrying. 

Everybody looked at Raman wondering whether a new champion had arrived.

Enjoying the attention, Raman addressed the crowd. “Why, I can carry that hill on my bare shoulder,” he said, pointing out the hill nearby.

The villagers gasped. Raman’s wife appeared tense. She had a suspicion that her husband had opened his mouth too wide. Meanwhile the body builder had recovered his wit. He laughed out loud and said, “Is that so? Let’s see you do it”.

The villagers were now excited. They had seen only Hanumanji carrying the Sanjeevani mountain - and that too in pictures. Now here was a man who claimed he could repeat the feat.

“I said I can do it. Did I say I’ll do it now? Asked Raman. “Carrying a hill requires a lot of preparation”, Raman added.

Turning to the weightlifter, Raman asked, “How long did you take to prepare for this feat of carrying the sack of rice?”

“Three months,” confessed the weight lifter.

“How long will you take?” the village Chief asked Raman.

“Six months”, said Raman without batting an eye.

Then Raman added. “I need to eat enormous amount of food to build my muscles. And I need someone to massage my body, daily”.

“And we need a place to live, we are outsiders”, said Raman’s wife.

The village chief agreed to provide the couple with a house and arrange the food supply. He directed the weight lifter to give Raman body massage daily.

“And we will meet here, exactly six months from now,” said the village chief getting up from the chair.

Raman’s wife was relieved. They did not have to wonder where the food would come from. For the next six months, at least.

Raman led a royal life in the village. Villagers supplied pots of milk, honey and curd. 

Cartloads of rice and ragi were delivered to their house. The body builder was available to cook food, and also give body massage to Raman every day.

The body builder who had become a Raman disciple by now asked Raman about the practice. “Would you like to begin with a small rock, then move on to bigger and bigger rocks?” he asked. Raman sent him away asking him to make ragi mudde (balls of steamed ragi flour).

Soon it was the D-day. The whole village assembled at the foot of the hill. Raman and his wife arrived in a decorated cart pulled by the body builder. The villagers received the weight lifter, Raman with a shout of joy.

The village chief gave a sign that the show could begin.

Raman stood in a circle with people seated all round. He sat in the warrior’s pose, Veeramudra, and announced he was ready.

The villagers were puzzled. The village chief became impatient. “What are you waiting for?” he barked.

“I’m waiting for your men to place the hill on my shoulder,” said Raman calmly.

Everybody gaped at Raman. The village chief shouted in anger “You said … “

Raman cut him short, “I said I will carry that hill. Even now I’m willing to carry the hill. I’m waiting for your men to place it on my shoulder.”

“But who will lift the hill?” asked the Village Chief in bewilderment.

“That’s your problem,” Raman said.

“Only Hanumanji can lift it,” said Raman’s wife.

The village chief joined his hands in salutation to Raman. “A man of your strength and determination should carry not a lowly hill, but Mount Kailas.” The villagers started laughing.

When they got back home, Raman asked his wife to pack, “We are leaving this village,” he said.

The End

The Stranger in the Garden

Once upon a time, there was a man who had a big garden. He had planted many fruit trees and cared for them till they bore fruits. Now he wanted to harvest the fruits and sell them to make money for his family.

One fine day, while picking the fruits with his son, the man saw a stranger sitting on the branch of a tree and picking fruits. The man became angry and shouted,. “ Hey you! What are you doing on my tree? Aren’t you ashamed of stealing?”

The stranger sitting on the branch looked at the gardener, but didn’t reply and continued picking the fruits. The gardener was very angry and shouted again, “For a whole year I have taken care of these trees, you have no right to take the fruits without my permission, so come down at once.”

The stranger on the tree answered, “Why should I come down? This is the garden of God and I am the servant of God. So you shouldn’t interfere with the work of God and his servant.”

The gardener was very surprised at this answer and thought of a plan. He told the stranger to come down from the tree. As the stranger climbed down the tree, the gardener tied him to the tree and began beating him with a stick. The stranger began to scream. “Why are you beating me? You have no right to do this.”

The gardener paid no attention and continued beating him. The stranger screamed, “Don’t you fear God? You are beating an innocent man. The gardener answered, “Why should I fear? This wood in my hand belongs to God and I am the servant of God. You shouldn’t interfere with the work of God and his servant.”

The stranger hesitated and then spoke. “Wait, don’t beat me, I am sorry for taking the fruits. This is your garden and I should seek your permission before taking the fruits. So, please forgive me and set me free.” The gardener smiled and said. “Don’t use God’s name to justify your ill-conceived actions.”

Then the gardener untied him and let him go free.

The End.

Choose Your Words Wisely

Once upon a time, an old man spread rumours that his neighbour was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After being released, the man felt humiliated as he walked to his home. He sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In court, the old man told the Judge, “They were just comments, didn’t harm anyone.” The judge before passing sentence on the case, told the old man, “Write all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home, throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.”

The next day, the judge told the old man, “Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.” The old man said, “ I can’t do that, the wind must have spread them and I wont know where to find them.”

The judge then replied, “the same way, simple comments may destroy the honour of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it. The old man realised his mistake and asked for forgiveness.”

Moral: Do not  blame anyone without knowing the fact or truth. Your words may ruin someone’s reputation without any fault of theirs.

The Ruby Thief

In the palace of Rubyland there was a ruby thief.

No one knew who he was, and the thief had everyone so fooled that the only thing known about him was that he lived in the palace, and that when you were in the palace you should always hide your jewels.

The King decided to find out who it was and he asked for help from a wise dwarf who was famed for his intelligence. The dwarf spent some days there, watching and listening, until there was another theft. The following morning the wise dwarf made all the palace inhabitants meet up together in the same room.

After inspecting them for the whole morning, and during lunch, without saying a word, the dwarf started asking them all, one by one, what they knew about the stolen jewels.

Once again, it seemed that no one had been the thief. But then, suddenly, one of the gardeners began coughing, writhing and moaning, and finally he fell to the floor.

The dwarf, with a cheeky smile, explained that the food they had just eaten was poisoned, and the only antidote for this poison was hidden inside the ruby that had been stolen the previous night.

And he explained how, some days earlier, he himself had swapped some false rubies for the genuine ones, and that he expected that only the thief would be able to save his life, since the poison was particularly quick working…

The cough and groans spread around the room and terror took hold of all present. All except one person…

A footman [servant] didn’t take long to run over to where he had hidden the jewels, from where he took the final ruby. Fortunately he would be able to open it and drink the strange liquid inside, thus saving his life. Or so he believed, because the gardener was in fact, one of the dwarf’s assistants and the poison was nothing more than a potion prepared by the little investigator to cause a few strong pains for a short while, but nothing more than that. And the footman, now found out, was arrested by the guards and taken immediately to the court.

The King, generously rewarded his wise adviser, and when he asked the dwarf what his secret was the dwarf smiled and said: I only try to get the person knowing the truth to reveal that truth.

"And who knew it? If the thief had deceived everyone…", said the king

No, your majesty, not everyone. Anyone can deceive everyone, but no one can deceive themselves.

The End