A
wise man is one who has deep understanding of people, things, events or
situations. He has the ability to apply his understanding and take decision
which results in greater good and least loss for all. He has to exercise
restraint and have self control to overcome passions and emotions so that
universal principles, knowledge and reason prevail on him and influence and
guide his actions. He has insight. He observes everything keenly. He has
understanding of human nature. He has ability to rise above his own needs,
desires, and applies his intuition, knowledge and discernment to arrive at the
right decision.
All
of us have a level of knowledge and understanding. But when it comes to our
needs and desires, we do not have self control. At times our lack of control
makes us take decisions for which we have to pay heavy price at once or later. When we take impulsive decisions and fulfil our desires, we are called
fools. We are the ones who pay the price of our follies and at times make others
also pay for our hastiness. We see
objects of desire in the shops or online stores and buy them and overdraw
ourselves. We repeat such behaviour again and again and collect things which
are of no use and for which we cannot afford to pay. We are greedy and over eat
and make ourselves sick. We give in
easily to our urges and lust without thinking of the consequences. This is a story
about fools who followed hunger of desires.
There
was once a caravan of several hundred carts which travelled to far off lands
selling merchandise. They had a wise leader who took care of them. Once they
had to cross a dense forest. The leader called all of them and warned them not
to eat anything if it was not familiar to them and also seek his counsel before
eating. After a while they came to a village and outside the village was a
tree. It looked exactly like a mango tree. The tree was heavy with fruits. But
unlike the mango, the fruits of this tree were poisonous.
Seeing
the tree laden with mango fruits, many of the travellers who were very hungry
and greedy for food, quickly climbed the tree and plucked the fruits and
ate. Others remembered the warnings of
their leader and were cautious. But seeing the fruits being plucked fast and
eaten by their friends, they decided to pick a few for themselves and eat
before all of them were finished. Yet a few more were wiser. They examined the
tree cautiously and waited for their leader to come. When the leader came, he
examined the tree and said the fruits were poisonous.
The
travellers were terrified. The leader asked them to drink strong solution of
salt and vomit out the fruits as much as they could. Then they were given
raisins, cane sugar paste, sweet yoghurt and honey to cleanse their mouth and
taste buds. The greedy and foolish ones who ran first to the tree and over ate
could not be saved. The poison had done its work on them. Those who ate a fruit
or two could be saved.
In
the past, caravans had come to this village and many travellers had eaten the
deadly fruits and died at night. In the morning, the villagers came out and
buried the dead body in a secret place and looted the caravans. In the same
way, the next morning, the villagers came to the caravans to loot them. To
their surprise they found most of the travellers alive. They went to the leader
and asked him how he knew that the tree had poison fruits. The leader replied:
this tree is easy to climb and is next to a village. It cannot be laden with
fruits unless the fruits were poisonous and none wanted to eat them.
It
is amazing that such life saving wisdom is based on common sense. All saw the
same tree but could not understand if the fruits were safe to eat or not. In
life, we are surrounded by many such poisons parading as sweet and safe objects
of desire. Our urges are overwhelming and we have no control over them, we do
not think if it is safe for us to indulge and we rush
headlong and act. Then we suffer terribly.
The
wise are lead by common sense. The fools follow only hunger.
