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November 11, 2005
A beautiful story from Rajneesh
I remember the following sweet story by Rajnessh but don't remember the exact title of the book.
Once upon a time, two people were traveling by a bullock cart. One was a highly learned professor in physics. The other was an ordinary drunken person. The cart was running towards downhill slope and is about to turn over. The professor sensed this and started planning on what to do. The drunken guy had no sense at all; he didn't even know that the cart is going to turn over. The professor calculated the path of the crash; he estimated the force of the crash. Then he did a recovery plan to minimize the damage to his body during the crash. The drunkard has no idea at all.
The cart crashed. Finally people recovered. The professor had more injuries than the drunkard. The professor started thinking what went wrong. He thought that it is unfair that he got more injuries even after planning for the crash while the drunkard came out unscathed even though he had had no sense at all.
What was the reason ? The story has subtle but profound lessons. Having planned so much, the professor started resisting the crash. But the body of the drunkard fully cooperated with the fall (probably because he had no sense). That was the reason for parity in injuries.
What is the moral of the story ? People while trying to achieve something end up resulting in the complete opposite results. When the people plan so much, they cling to their expectations and in the process it hurts more than helping. But the people who are flexible to cooperate with the environment get better results.
The story does not imply that we got to be unprepared like drunkard guy. But rather we should be flexible and "let go" of things instead of resisting the change. The Nishkama Karma of Gita tells the same; "don't expect the fruits of your actions". But most of the time, while expecting the results, we cling to the results and we hamper our own progress.
Posted by nachiketa at November 11, 2005 04:08 PM