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Kids Org. Two Stories One Moral Sadhu and dacoit By H.V. Seshadri There was a village. It was target of regular attacks by dacoits. The villagers were afraid and did not know how to deal with the problem. One day, a sadhu came to the village. The people told him about the dacoit problem and requested him to help them. The sadhu said he would do a special yajna to solve the problem. He asked them all to donate Rs 5 each to buy the necessary things. The villagers happily gave him the money and the sadhu vanished after collecting the money. After a few days, he came and said ?Rs 5 is not enough, give me Rs 10 more.? The villagers asked him, ?Where is the yajna going on?? He replied, curtly. ?In the thick of the jungle.? The villagers gave him Rs 10, a little reluctantly. They even started wondering if he was indeed a sadhu or a dacoit in the guise of sadhu. The sadhu reappeared a few days later, and now, demanded Rs 20. The villagers were now certain that the sadhu was indeed a dacoit. They all went to their houses and came back with all kinds of arms and weapons like stick, rod, axe, knife and asked the sadhu ?tell us the truth, where the yajna is on, otherwise, we will kill you.? The sadhu smiled and said, ?Come, all of you sit down. My yajna is over and you all can take back your money. He returned the money. The villagers were surprised. They asked him, ?The yajna is over, how?? The sadhu said, ?You all picked up arms to kill me. Do this to the dacoits, when they come. The brave youth of the village should come out of their houses, armed, with cries of ?har har mahadev.? And then you see the miracle.? People understood what the sadhu said. The next time the dacoits came, the young men faced them with war cries. The dacoits ran away. When the same thing happened two-three times, the dacoits stopped their attack on the village. Moral: By showing the courage that is hidden inside us and by the strength of unity one can overcome any problem. It increases the self-confidence also. K K K Boatman and Pandit ONCE, very long ago, there lived a learned Pandit, in a village. He was invited to the neighbouring village to give a sermon. Between the two villages there was a river and so the Pandit approached a boatman to help him cross the river. The boatman said that due to heavy rains the river was flooded and advised the Pandit to come once the rain stops. The Pandit explained his urgency to reach the other side of the river and requested the boatman to take him there. The boatman agreed. On the way the Pandit asked the boatman, ?Have you heard about the Vedas or the Bhagavadgita?? The boatman said, ?Since my childhood I have been ferrying people to and fro. So I didn't get the time to acquire knowledge of the Vedas or the Gita.? The Pandit said, ?You have wasted one quarter of your life.? He then asked the boatman, ?Do you know anything about the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.? To this the boatman said, ?No?. Again the Pandit said, ?You have wasted another quarter of your life.? Then the Pandit once again asked the boatman, ?What do you know about the Puranas?? The boatman replied that to help people cross the river is the only Puran that he is aware of. To this the Pandit said, ?Another quarter of your life has been wasted?. The Pandit advised the boatman, ?Now with remaining one fourth of your life you should try to acquire as much knowledge as you can about the Vedas and other scriptures.? Suddenly the water started making its way into the boat. The boatman asked the Pandit to jump into the river and start swimming towards the shore. The Pandit said, ?All my life I was learning about the Vedas and other scriptures. I didn't get the time to learn swimming.? To this the boatman replied, ?You just said that three quarters of my life was a big waste but I am sorry to say now you are going to lose your full life.? And the boat drowned along with Panditji's entire knowledge of various scriptures. It is not that the learning and wisdom acquired by Panditji were a waste. It is the treasure of our heritage. Moral: The knowledge that we acquire through various scriptures will be a big waste of time if we fail to learn the art of living. It is rightly said in Sanskrit, /eksZ j{kfr jf{kr%] i.e. if we take care of the society and follow dharma, dharma will take care of us. Substance: Both these stories give us an immortal message for making our lives better. Organised social life is essential for any society to protect its dharma and preserve its culture. This is called nurturing of social values. And without protecting social values, it is difficult to preserve individual values, family values and the larger community values. (The writer is Akhil Bharatiya Pracharak Pramukh and senior leader of RSS.)

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