A new twist to an old tale

 

 Change is the only constant thing in the world. The world is moving towards the four R’s which are re-cycle, reuse, refuse and reduce.We may add the fifth R to this by including re-tell.

Here is the story of the four men who travelled by a boat, retold.

Once upon a time, four men, a Brahmin, a farmer, a carpenter and a labourer travelled by a boat from one shore of a river to another. On the way, the Brahmin started conversing with his other boat mates. 

Slowly he realised that the other three did not know as much as he knew and he was more knowledgeable than the others. His ego ballooned and he started asking questions form the Vedas and the Puranas. He recited flawlessly from the Upanishads and the Gita. The other three men were left speechless. They felt belittled by the Brahmin who was at the brim of bloated ego.

 While they were traveling thus by the boat, suddenly the river started to swell and the boat was struggling to keep afloat. The hitherto confident Brahmin started trembling and his knee went liquid. He turned towards his co-passengers and asked them if they knew how to escape the rough weather. The three of them mocked him in unison and said that the knowledge that he possessed was of no use, if he did not know how to swim. Saying thus, they jumped into the river and swam to safety. The Brahmin meanwhile closed his eyes and uttered all the prayers he had learnt and jumped into the river. When he opened his eyes, he found himself being washed ashore. He wondered how he had made it to safety, when the other three joined him. They helped him to his feet and told him that he had managed to grasp a log that was floating past him. It was the log that helped him reach the shore safely. The Brahmin somehow felt that it was divine intervention that saved him.

He then thanked the three men who had opened his eyes to his folly. From the next day the Brahmin was seen at the river banks taking swimming lessons from his three friends!

By his action, the Brahmin finally practiced ‘Amaanitvam’or renunciation of vidya garvam, kula garvam, dhana garvam, etc. which took him closer to divinity!