A washer man and his five donkeys
(How real are our boundaries?)
Faced with a difficult
situation, most of us get busy thinking about why we cannot overcome that
difficulty. Mostly we think more about what additional difficulty we will face
in trying to overcome the difficult situation. Hence, we stop taking any action,
make many compromises and just live with the problem.
But, how real are
these difficulties? Please read this story of ‘Washer man and
his five Donkeys’ to know how real are
many of our problems.
Once there was a
washer man who had five donkeys. Every day in the morning, he will load his
donkeys with the clothes he had to wash, take these donkeys to a river, spend
his day washing the clothes, load the donkeys again in the evening with washed
clothes and come back home.
During the day time he
will tie his donkeys by their legs with ropes to a tree which he
will bring with him in the morning.
Many times in the
evening he will stop at a tavern, have a drink or two before going home. On the
days when he will reach home drunk, his wife will get angry at him.
On one such occasion
when he reached home extra drunk, his wife had a big fight with him. Next day
morning when he got up, he was very upset. He loaded the donkeys hurriedly and
left for the river for his day’s work.
However, when he reached
the river he realized that he had brought only four ropes for five donkeys.
Obviously, it was not possible to tie five donkeys to the tree with four ropes.
He was standing and thinking about this problem when a wise man passed
that way.
The wise man saw the
washer man who was worrying about this problem and asked the washer man about
his problem.
The washer man
explained his problem to the wise man.
“To which tree do you
tie your donkeys” Asked the Wise man.
The washer man showed
the tree to the Wise man.
“Tie four donkeys to
the tree with ropes. For fifth donkey, simply do the action of tying it to the
tree. Go and do your work without any worry.” Said the wise man.
“What do you mean? The
fifth donkey will simply run away in two minutes!” Protested the washer man.
“Don’t worry. Have
faith in me and do what I tell you. Take it from me that your fifth donkey will
not run away. You will find it where ever you will leave it.” Advised the Wise
man.
So, much against his
judgment, the washer man tied four donkeys to the regular tree. He just did the
action of tying the fifth donkey to the tree and went away to complete his
work.
And; he was surprised
to find that as the wise man had said, all the five donkeys, including one
which was not tied, were under the usual tree. He loaded the donkeys, untied
the tied donkeys and prodded them to start walking.
But, now a new problem arose.
The four donkeys which
had been tied with ropes started moving, but the one which was not tied will
not move. The washer man tried all tricks including beating the donkey but the
donkey will not move!
He was standing near
the tree and thinking about what to do when the wise man passed that way again.
“What problem you have
created for me! O Wise man cried the washer man! The fifth donkey is not even
budging from its position. Please tell me what I should do.”
“Have you un tied the
donkey?” Asked the wise man.
“What do you mean
untied it? As you had suggested, I never tied it.” Said the washer man.
“The rope, my dear friend, is not tied to the
leg of your donkey. It is tied in its mind. Hence, as you had done the
action of tying it in the morning, until you do the action of untying, it will
not move.” Said the wise man.
So the washer just did
the action of untying the donkey and it started moving immediately.
How many imaginary ropes and chains are we
carrying in our mind? How many of these chains are real and how many of these
chains are imaginary; like the donkey had?
The honest answer is
that most of the our chains(problems) are just imaginary. Only very few are
real chains (problems). But the tragedy is that it is not the real chains which
hold us back but these imaginary chains which are real cause of our failures
and not meeting most of our challenges head on.
Isn’t it!
Sarwan Singh
Sarwan Singh
@sarwan_singh
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