Since I posted a story with a moral in my last post, I thought why not continue in the same vein and post a few more stories with morals...actually Moral Science period was my favorite in school...I am not sure if they have those classes in schools now...I believe they should...
Anyways...Punyakoti was not from a Moral Science class but I read the story in the form of a poem in Kannada class. It was such a moving story that I started crying bucketfuls when my teacher was reciting the poem. The rest of the class was laughing at me and me being in 3rd grade, I was very embarrassed and at the same time wondering how come the other girls were not affected by the sadness in the poem.
So coming back to the present, the lyrics of the poem are so beautiful and touching. I feel this is one of the most beautiful poems of all time... For people who do not understand Kannada, the story is about a Cow named Punyakoti who gets trapped by a hungry Tiger. The cow promises the tiger that she would definitely become the tiger's next meal but first she would want to go see her little calf to feed her and also bade her last goodbye. The tiger doesn't trust the cow but the cow makes a solemn promise to return. She then goes over to her calf, feeds him and requests all the other cows to take care of him as their own child. She tells them not to trample him or stab him with their horns as he is soon going to be an orphan. (never fails to tear me up...this part..sniff..sniff)...
So finally the cow goes back to the tiger and surrenders herself at his feet. The tiger is amazed at the cow for keeping her promise and feels so ashamed of his behavior that he ends his life by falling off a cliff...
So that is the end of the story and the moral of this story is obviously...no matter what...even when it comes to the matter of life and death you have keep your word. So enjoy being true to yourself and to whoever you have promised. On the other hand, just to be safe...don't make a promise...! ;-)
I think the most difficult thing is being true to oneself. We generally make so many little promises to ourself like I promise to start eating healthy, I promise I will read that book next week...but do we always keep them? This is a very difficult question and many a times we convince ourselves sub-consciously that it is okay to not keep the promise today but maybe do it tomorrow. A lot many people including myself waste a lot of precious time making promises to ourself but never keeping them. The effect of this in addition to losing out on a lot of benefits which may be tangible are, we slowly start eroding our stock of personal integrity which causes more harm than good...I think I will stop here for now...but mull over this...
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