Sometime ago, I remember Sri Bapa Rao gaaru touched upon 'candamaama' and
its stories for kids and exclaimed whether they may be for adults also.
That was absolutely true. There were really great messages in some of them.
I thought of posting a few of the stories that I still remember, which
showed great depth in the tought. As time permits now, I wish to go ahead.
Here is one such short story.
Once upon a time, there was a severe drought in a kingdom and the king was
quite a worried man. He was making all the efforts to tackle the situation
for the time being (drawing out the reserve foods). Apart from that, he
approached his 'aastaana vaidya' and persuaded him to look for a 'drug'
that can subside the 'appetite' fully. After a few months, quite amazingly,
the 'vaidya' was successful and sent the king a message that the next
morning he would present it to the king in the court.(kids' story! Isn't
it?) Further surprisingly, the 'vaidya' was murdered the same night and all
the drug he made was destroyed. The king was upset and thought of a
'foreign hand' in that and ordered an enquiry. Very soon, much to his
surprise, the culprit was found to be his 'minister' (mantri). Having known
the patriotic nature of the 'minister'quite well, the king gave him a
chance for the explanation. What the 'minister' said was the essence of the
story. 'The world runs because of peoples' work. People mainly work first
to feed themselves and their family, which is interconnected with the
welfare of the society. If the 'appetite' is controlled or 'subsided
permanently', there is nobody going to work and it would be a total 'choas'
in the world in no time as people may do anything they like without any
regulation. Though the effort of the 'vaidya' could be termed as a great
achievemnet from intellectual point of view, it is very destructive for the
society and mankind. So, the minister got the 'vaidya' murdered and the
'drug' destroyed'.
Leaving aside the murder and the drug, which can not happen really; the
basic concept of 'why people work?' and 'what happens, when there is no
basic and dire necessity to work?' are the major points highlighted in a
thought provoking manner in the story.
This story/point used to remind me many things later on.
'juTTeDU kaDupukai, corani cOTlu jocci
paTTedu kooTikai bratimaali'......... 'taaLLapaaka annamayya'
Afterall, don't all we NRIs fall in the same above category?
On the contrary, I used to remind myself of another poem of my elementary
school days. (part of the poem only)
'udara pOshaNa maatrakai yurvi meeda
kaaki cirakaala munna yE kaarya magunu?
So, one should have an ambition in life apart from feeding onself and the
family. However, the aspects of life do not stop there for some people. Do
they? Their ambitions creep very 'unhealthily high' (for others) to hold
control over their subordinates by neither fully 'feeding' them nor letting
them 'die'. Whatelse one can say, 'Eat to live, but not live to eat.'
With regards,
Prabhakar Vissavajjhala