Puran Chand Sharma
In this mortal world we find that all the usual operations of the human beings are carried out on the principle of profit, loss and compensation. In the event of some loss being caused to the fellow travellers as a sequel to the fault, negligence and any kind of wrong doing of the other person, then the person is legally liable to pay the damages or the loss incurred by the other party. However , there are some type of losses which cannot be compensated or indemnified in terms of money or reasonable compensation. Sometimes while navigating through the muddy waters of this phenomenal world we become so haughty and arrogant that being inebriated by the fake and unreal pleasures of the human kingdom wilfully inflict loss on others and project ourselves as if we are capable of paying indemnity for any kind of loss as sequel to our monetary richness. A short moral story would certainly enlighten our path while accomplishing our universal odyssey and can prove to be a potent game changer :-
“Once there lived a weaver in a village. His only source of livelihood was to sell his woven clothes to make both ends meet. He was calm and composed, never lost his temper despite grave provocation. Once a bevy of children hit upon a plan to do mischief with the poor weaver. They approached him with a view to see as to how he would resist his anger. One of the boy in the group belonged to a very rich family, whose parents possessed huge wealth. On reaching close to the weaver ,he enquired about the cost of one SARHI. Weaver said, ” cost of one Sarhi is Rs. 10/- .” On hearing this, high headed boy tore the new sarhi into two pieces and arrogantly spoke that ‘I REQUIRE ONLY HALF PIECE OF SARHI AND NOT THE WHOLE OF IT’. He further asked , what would you charge for it. The weaver very sweetly said, Rs.5/- only. Thereafter that mischievous boy cut the remaining piece into two and asked for the price. In reply thereof, weaver humbly replied it is Rs. 2.5 only. Soon after, he mercilessly and savagely continued to cut the entire SARHI into numerous tiny pieces and resultantly the entire well woven Sarhi was spoiled and rendered into a kind of discarded trash. In the end he spoke , ” These torn pieces of Sarhi are of no use to me, therefore , I am not interested to buy them,” The weaver stayed calm and said , Dear son , you apart, these torn pieces of Sarhi are of no use to anyone else as well. On hearing this , the haughty Boy felt ashamed and said that I have caused huge loss to you, therefore, I would pay the full cost of the of the whole sarhi. Then the saint weaver said, ” when you have not purchased the Sarhi, how I can charge its price from you? This statement of Saint weaver ignited the ego of that boy and he started boasting of his family’s colossal wealth and riches , simultaneously addressed the weaver as very poor man making him realize that if I pay the cost of the damaged Sarhi, it will not affect and impact me at all but how you would sustain this loss. It shall make your life more miserable. But the Boy did not come round and insisted for indemnification of loss. The weaver saint smilingly spoke, ” you can not compensate this loss, just think!! A farmer had to put in tremendous hard work to produce cotton for this Sarhi, then my Better Half worked very hard to clean this cotton to make it worthy of weaving into a lovely Sarhi. After going through the strenuous process, it was ready for dyeing /colouring which I did religiously and meticulously weaved it into a charming Sarhi. Listen my child, the concerted efforts of the farmer, my wife and all others connected with this noble work would have fructified if some one in the society would wear it with all the humility and grace. But you tore it into pieces, no amount of money or wealth can make good this loss and its indemnification in terms of money is next to impossible in this perishable world. These words being uttered by the weaver were fully charged with magnetic mercifulness and gentlemanliness.
The so called uncultured boy was visibly shaken from head to toe and the electric current of positive transformation got instantly and powerfully triggered in him. The tears rolled down from his eyes he prostrated on the feet of the saint weaver, who lifted him , deeply embraced him in his arms and gently thumping his back pronounced these inspiring words, ” Dear sibling!! Had I accepted compensatory amount from you, it would have been sufficient enough for me to smoothly get on with life but your life might have been shattered on similar pattern of that Sarhi having been slashed into pieces by you. It was grossly wasted and rendered useless for one and all. My one Sarhi has been spoiled , I shall make another one but once one life is ruined out of sheer arrogance and inflated ego, from where you will manage another one. Your self realization and sense of repentance for the immoral act is the most valuable asset for me. The saint’s divine thought process and perseverance transformed the life a very haughty and obnoxious child. “
Our country BHARAT , since ages, has been a blessed land of Gods, Seers , Sages ,Rishis and Thinkers. We have imbibed their value system and traditions in our ethos through various forms, fetes and festivals . The inspirational moral of the story is ” If we change , the whole world would change.” The inference drawn is ‘ Self correction or reformation is the greatest service in this temporal but complicated world.’ However, in normal course we observe that vast chunk of people want all others to change except themselves. This trend can be reversed if we turn our focus on preserving the cultural and traditional treasure of our values and beliefs which seeks to promote cultural cohesion and national spirit among children and youth. This is crying need of the hour. Jai Bharat