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Cover Story |
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Beyond Just a Thread |
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Saint Thiruvalluvar, a famous saint from South India, used to make his ends meet by weaving saris meticulously. He once took a sari woven by him to the market. There was a young man who had doubts about the saintly nature of Thiruvalluvar. The young man asked him what the price of the sari was. The saint replied- “Four rupees!” To provoke the saint, the boy tore the sari into two halves. He then picked up a half and again, asked its price. The saint reasoned that since this is only half the sari, he would charge him two rupees. Astonished at the lack of reaction, the boy went about further tearing the sari and asking for its price, seeking a reaction. At one point, there were only tiny bits of cloth left. The boy gathered the bits into a ball, threw it at the saint and asked, “What is left in it of the sari that I should pay for it?” The saint kept quiet. Frustrated at still not getting a reaction, the boy threw two rupees at the saint and said derisively, “Here is the true price of your work!”
The saint said politely, “Son, you haven’t bought the sari; I can’t accept money from you.”
The boy was stunned. Tears welled up in his eyes and to redeem himself, he begged for forgiveness.
In a kind voice, the saint said, “Son, your two rupees will not undo the damage you have done. Did you ever think about the effort put in by all the families in growing cotton, making threads and weaving them into a sari?”
The boy asked, “Why did you not stop me? Why did you let me commit this sin?” The saint replied, “I could have stopped you. However, the reciprocal generation of life’s lessons would not have happened without our exchange. You would have never ruminated on the integrity of the sensitivity lying within the thread.”
(Integrity of even a thread and through that of a cloth is recalled for so long by our society. Wouldn’t the subtle meanings lying underneath be lost otherwise? May the sensitivity sustain……Ed.)
Translated and adapted from Bhatt, S., (2012). ‘Anhad Bani’ Navneet Samarpan, 33 (2), p.2.
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| Volume No. |
Honey Bee 23(2) 2, 2012 |
