A TOUCHING STORY

A boy was born to a couple after eleven years of marriage. They were a loving couple and the boy was the apple of their eyes.

One morning, when the boy was around two years old, the husband saw a medicine bottle open. He was late for work so he asked the wife to cap the bottle and put it in the cupboard. The mother, preoccupied in the kitchen, totally forgot the matter.

The boy saw the bottleand playfully went to it and, fascinated withits color, drank it all. Ithappened to be a poisonous medicine meant for adults in small dosages.

When the child collapsed, the mother hurried him to the hospital, where he died. The mother was stunned; she was terrified. How would she face her husband?

When the distraught father came to the hospital and saw the dead child, he looked at his wife and utteredjust four words.

“I Love You Darling.”

The husband’s totally unexpected reaction isproactive behavior. The child is dead. He can never be brought back to life. There is no point in finding fault with the mother. Besides, if only he have taken time to put the bottle away, this would not have happened.

No point in attaching blame. She had also lost her only child. What she needed at that moment was consolation and sympathy from the husband. That is what he gave her.

Sometimes we spend time asking who is responsible or who’s to blame, whether in arelationship, in a job or with the people we know and miss out on the warmth in human relationships we couldreceive by giving each other support.

After all, shouldn’t forgiving someone welove be the easiest thing in the world to do?

Treasure what you have. Don’t multiply pain, anguish and suffering by holding onto forgiveness. Let go of all your envies, jealousies, unwillingness to forgive, selfishness, and fears and you will find things are actuallynot as difficult as you think.

If everyone could look at life with this kind of perspective, there would be fewer problems in the world

SHARING IS CARING:TWO NECKED BIRD

Long time ago there lived a special kind of bird which had two necks but shared a
common stomach.


One day, one of the heads found a jar of nectar, and on seeing this the other head alsowanted to taste the nectar but the first neck refused to let it have it.

Enraged, the other neck soon found a jar of poison and consumed it. The poison reached the common
stomach and both the necks died.

Story moral: You should Share good things with others.

THE THREE FISHES:

There were three big fishes living in a lake who were very close friends. All three of them were very different from one another. The first one believed in fate. He thought things cannot be changed and what had to happen will happen no matter what. The second one was intelligent. He thought he knew how to solve a problem if he had one, with his intelligence. The third one was the wise one. It thought long and hard before acting.

So one day, the wise fish was happily playing around in the water, when it overheard a fishermen talking to another. "Look at that one, what a big fish... This lake is full of big fishes like this one. Let us come tomorrow and catch them."

It hurriedly swam to it's friends to tell the news. "Let us get out of this lake before those fishermen come back. A canal I know can take us to another lake," the wise one said. The intelligent fish said, " I know what to do if the fishermen come and catch me." The fish which believed in fate said, "Whatever to happen will happen, I was born in this lake and I am not going to leave it."

The wise fish didn't want to risk its life, so he took the canal and went to another lake. The fishermen came back the next morning and cast their net. The rest of the two friends were caught in it along with many other fishes.
The intelligent fish thought of a way to escape, it acted as if it were dead. The fishermen threw him along with other dead fish back into the lake. But the other fish which believed in fate was still jumping in the net and the fishermen struck him dead.

Story moral: Intelligence wins over might.

THE SWAN AND OWL:

Long time ago there lived a swan who used to spend time in various playful activities on a lake. Once an owl visited him in the forest and requested him to be friends afterpraising the swan a lot. The swan agreed to be friends with him and they used to spend time near the lake for many days.

But the owl soon got bored of the place and told the swan, "I am going back to my home in the Lotus wood, and if you ever want to visit me you can visit me there." The swan, after many days once decided to pay a visit to the owl in the Lotus wood. On reaching Lotus wood, it could not find the owl, who was hiding in the dark hole. The owl asked the swan to take rest till daylight was over and told him that he could come out only at
night.

The swan decided to take rest. It so happened that a group of merchants were passing by the wood the next day early morning. The merchants chanted some hymns, and to that the owl replied with a hoot. Thinking that this was a bad omen, the merchants decided to shoot the owl down. The owl sensing danger had fled and took refuge in a nearby hole near the shore of the lake.

But the swan did not move. The arrow from the merchants came and hit the swan and it was killed.

Story moral: Friendship has to be between equals.
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THE DAY DREAMING PRIEST:

Long time ago there lived a priest who was extremely lazy and poor at the same time. He did not want to do any hard work but used to dream of being rich one day. He got his food by begging for alms. One morning he got a pot of milk as part of the alms. He was extremely delighted and went home with the pot of milk. He boiled the milk, drank some of it and put the remaining milk in a pot.

He added slight curds in the pot for converting he milk to curd. He then lay down to sleep.
Soon he started imagining about the pot of curd while he lay asleep. He dream that if he could become rich somehow all his miseries would be gone. His thoughts turned to the pot of milk he had set to form curd. He dreamt on; "By morning the pot of milk would set, it would be converted to curd. I would churn the curd and make butter from it. I would heat the butter and make ghee out of it. I will then go to that market and sell that ghee, and make some money. With that money i will buy a hen. The hen will lay may eggs which will hatch and there will be many chicken. These chicken will in turn lay hundreds of eggs and I will soon have a poultry farm of my own." He kept on imagining.

"I will sell all the hens of my poultry and buy some cows, and open a milk dairy. All the town people will buy milk from me. I will be very rich and soon I shall buy jewels. The king will buy all the jewels from me. I will be so rich that I will be able to marry an exceptionally beautiful girl from a rich family. Soon I will have a handsome son. If he does any mischief I will be very angry and to teach him a lesson, I will hit him with a big stick."During this dream, he involuntarily picked up the stick next to his bed and thinking that he was beating his son, raised the stick and hit the pot. The pot of milk broke and he awoke from his day dream.

Story moral: There is no substitute for hard work. Dreams cannot be fulfilled without
hard work.

THE GREEDY JACKAL2:

Long time ago there lived a lazy jackal. Also in the hills there lived a hillman and a wild boar. One day when the hillman went to hunt, he saw the wild boar. He took a sharp aim with his arrow and stuck the boar. But the boar was only injured and it attacked the hillman and he died on the spot. Later the boar also collapsed due to the injuries and died.

The jackal happened to pass the site of both the dead bodies and the bowstring, and the jackal decided to eat them slowly. But he was excessively greedy and first wanted to eat the bowstring, before the other bodies.

As he tried to eat the bowstring which was tightly attached to the bow, it snapped and the end of the string pierced its mouth and the jackal
died on the spot.

Story moral: Too much of greed is harmful

THE MOON LAKE:

Once A large herd of elephants lived in a jungle. Their king was a huge, majestic tusker. He looked after them with love and care. Once, a severe drought hit the area. Birds and animals died of thirst. The wild elephants suffered for want of water. Their king knew that if they did not get water soon, many of them would die of thirst. He had to find water as quickly as possible.

He asked the elephants to go in different directions to look for water. One of them found a large lake full of water in another jungle far away. The king was happy. He ordered all the elephants to make their way to the lake. It was a beautiful lake. Close to it was a colony of rabbits. The elephants had to pass through this colony. Thousands of rabbits were trampled to death and thousands more were injured. The rabbits were in a panic. Their king called a meeting. "A herd of wild elephants is passing through our colony," he said. "They have already killed or injured thousands of us. We have to take urgent steps to prevent more deaths. I want all of you to think of a way to save our race." The rabbits started thinking of ways to stop the elephants. One little rabbit stood up.
"Your Majesty,"he said,"if you will send me as your messenger to the king of the
elephants, I may be able to find a solution." "By all means, go as my messenger and see what you can do." The little rabbit hurried out.

He saw a group of elephants returning from the lake. Right in the middle was the king. To get near him was impossible. I will be crushed to death, thought the rabbit. So he climbed up a huge rock.
"O, king of the elephants," he shouted, "hear me, please." The king heard his voice and turned towards him.
"Well, who are you?" he asked. "I am a messenger,"replied the rabbit. "A messenger? From whom?" "I am a messenger from the mighty Moon." "What is your business? Is there a message for me from the Moon?". "Yes, yes, your Majesty. But you must not be angry with me. Please remember that a messenger is never punished for what he has to say. He is only doing his duty." "Very well. Say what you have been sent to say. I shall not harm you." "Sir," said the little rabbit, "the Moon has this to say"

" You, the king of the elephants, have brought your herd to my holy lake and soiled its waters. You have killed thousands of rabbits on your way to the lake. You know that rabbits are under my special protection. Everyone knows that the king of the rabbits lives with me. I ask you not to kill any more rabbits. Otherwise something terrible will happen to you and your herd."

The king of the elephants was shocked. He looked at the little rabbit. "You are right," he said. "We may have killed many rabbits on our way to the lake. I shall see that you do not suffer anymore. I shall request the Moon to forgive me for my sins. Please tell me what I should do." "Come with me alone," replied the rabbit. "Come, I shall take you to the Moon." The little rabbit took the huge elephant to the lake. There they saw the Moon reflected in the still waters. "There, your Majesty, meet the Moon," said the little rabbit.

"Let me worship the divine Moon," said the elephant, and dipped his trunk into the water. At once the water was disturbed. The Moon seemed to move to and fro. The rabbit said, "Now the Moon is angrier than ever." "Why?' asked the king. "What have I done?" "You have touched the holy waters of the lake," replied the rabbit. The elephant bowed his head. "Please ask the Moon to forgive me. Never again will we touch the holy waters of this lake. Never again will we harm the rabbits whom the Moon loves so much." And the king and his herd went away. Soon there was rain and the elephants lived happily. It did
not occur to them ever that a little rabbit had fooled them.
Story moral: Intelligence wins over might.

PANCHATANTRA STORY: THE BRAHMIN,S GIFT

Once there lived a pious brahmin in a village. He used to perform religious rituals. On one occasion he was rewarded with a cow by a rich man for his service.

The brahmin started to bring the cow to his home. On the way, three rogues saw the brahmin bringing the cow. They were lazy and wanted to cheat the brahmin so that they could take away the cow. They hatched a plan.
The first person approached the brahmin and said, "Are you a washer man that you're pulling a donkey." The brahmin was annoyed at being mistaken for a washer man. He went on.

A little later he was met by the second of the rogues. The second person asked him why being a brahmin he needed to pull a pig. Now the brahmin was confused but he went on. Some distance later he was met by the third person who asked him why he was pulling along a wild animal.

Now the brahmin was totally confused and also afraid. He thought that it was a devil animal which took different forms. He ran away leaving the cow behind. The three tricksters laughed at the brahmin at having cheated the cow from the brahmin.

Story moral: Believe your own eyes than what you hear.