2) She should expose the
moneylender as a cheat.
3) She should feign sudden
illness/severe pain and save the day to gain time to tackle the issue another
day.
4) She should pick a pebble and
sacrifice herself to save her father from debt and/or imprisonment.
Let us look at these suggestions
from the girl's perspective:
The first option puts her father
in jail. Hence, it’s an obvious no-no from a loving daughter.
The second option may not help as
the odds are heavily stacked against father/daughter in that hostile
environment. The effort to expose the moneylender as a cheat could easily
boomerang due to the widespread support he enjoys owing to being a rich and
powerful man of the area.
Feigning sudden illness may/may
not save the day because the job of picking a pebble can be executed in a few
seconds. Despite feigning illness, the other side can insist on the execution
of the deal in a few seconds. Also, once the third option is attempted, there
is no way to back out. If it fails (which
is the likely outcome), all would be lost.
The fourth option ruins the life
of a beautiful young girl and is a very weak option. Even a person following the path of devotion
should not be a weak person as the path of Godliness is not meant for weak
people.
Intellectually trained minds,
with ample time at their disposal, thought only of imperfect solutions. The
girl had to arrive at a decision while standing on her two feet within minutes, if not
seconds. What did she actually do? It is
not only an eye opener, but also provides a wonderful spiritual lesson.
She put her hand in the bag and
drew out a pebble, clasped in her palm, in a closefisted position. Without even
looking at it, she fumbled and let the pebble fall on the pebble-strewn path
where it immediately got lost among hundreds of other pebbles. Oh! How clumsy of me. I am so sorry! Making many such statements she profusely
apologized. The moneylender immediately suggested - never mind, let us do it
again. The girl interjected and said that it would not be needed sir. If you
look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which
color pebble I had picked. This was the master stroke. Since the remaining
pebble was black, it must be assumed that she had picked a white one. The moneylender dared not admit his
dishonesty. The other village elders had to accept the final outcome, despite
their original intention of helping the moneylender. The father was overwhelmed
and had tears of joy as both he and his daughter were free now.
The management gurus gave the
moral of the story — most complex problems do have a solution, sometimes we
have to think about them in a different way, generally referred to as “out of the
box thinking”. The answer satisfied most of the management students, barring
only a few. On being questioned that how do you develop this out of the box
thinking skill, unconvincing answers were given, such as: it comes by practice,
or by cultivating an unconventional outlook, or by deep thinking accompanied by
concentrated involvement in work. The
management gurus did not pay much attention to what the girl said on being
questioned as to how she was able to arrive at that extremely innovative line
of action. They just considered the girl to be an uneducated villager who had
accidentally chanced upon a successful course. The girl on being questioned
simply said that the “course of action just came to me”. She further added that
she had faith in God as the ultimate Master of the universe. The whole thing is
that simple but very difficult to comprehend and accept by our trained minds
which bank only on acquired intellectual knowledge.
Unfortunately, the efficacy of an
uncluttered, uneducated, simple and devoted mind is not properly appreciated by
the realm of management/material science the world over. This is what they don’t
teach at Harvard. It is extremely difficult for a conventionally educated mind
which is highly active in the material world to go beyond its boundaries,
despite having a scientific and analytical outlook. The flexibility that is
generally shown by them is only within the boundaries of material management or
material scientific knowledge. In other words, what is analyzed and understood
is within the limitations of mental function. Out of the box thinking, as
defined by them, is in fact nothing but “in box” thinking from a different
angle — 'old wine in a new bottle' as is commonly said. Only the packaging changes, without there really being any inherent
change. Real out of the box thinking requires a fundamental or inherent
change in the belief system. What is that change? It is the gradual build-up of
faith/belief in God/Guru/Self as the Ultimate Divine Being which is appearing
in this universe as all forms, names and ideas, including myself and all the
circumstances around me at any given point of time. If the movement of mind,
intellect and ego is around this faith, then that life will have a happy and
truly successful tenure at all times. Calmness, steadiness and fearlessness
shall descend in that life, like the girl of the story narrated above. Such a
life ultimately qualifies to become a perfect instrument of the Divine for Its
revelation. What is the use of a materially successful life which creates
excessive tension and fear in that very life? The more successful you become,
the more is your tension and fear.
Hundreds of highly enraged people
were charging at a girl to kill her for her sins. To save herself from the mob
she ran for help towards Jesus Christ and surrendered at His feet. Jesus heard
her plight, stood up in front of that highly enraged mob without any trace of
fear and spontaneously uttered that he who has never committed a sin in life
can come forward to punish her. This is spontaneity at its best. No amount of
intellectual knowledge and consequent mental conviction can produce this statement
in front of such adversity within seconds. No amount of physical strength could
have imparted such courage and conviction which was full of love and devoid of
any malice or hate towards the perpetrators. Let us not fool ourselves by
saying that it was possible for Lord Jesus but not for us. That way we would
lose the golden opportunity of re-training our minds to first accept and then
blend true spiritual science with the knowledge of material science prevalent
in the world. In this context, presented below are chosen extracts from the
book ‘Science of Oneness’ which is a compilation of spiritual divine speeches
of Prajnanpurush Sri Sri Babathakur (the Master) by Dr S R Rajderkar (Rajuda).
The excerpts have been taken from pages 28 to 32.
‘The present day crisis of the
world is that of proper education and proper security of life.’
‘Dharma, religion, according to spiritual science, is the sustaining principle. It is the
infinite process and technique of all-round development and balance of power
and knowledge of both inner and outer nature of man as well as that of the
entire creation. It contains the total essence of all manifestations.’ (This
spiritual science is termed by the Master as the ‘Science of Oneness’.)
‘Natural science provided us with
material advancement in numbers and it has given us two powers — physical and
intellectual. It is not all-perfect. In spite of having well development of
physical and intellectual powers, people are not satisfied and fulfilled. They
feel insecure for the fear of death. For the attainment of perfection, balance
and peace in life, spiritual science is needed. The ‘Science of Oneness’, if
truly followed and cultured, can save all from the calamity of death, from the
misery of bondage of transmigration. ….A scientific mind is essential for the
culture of the ‘Science of Oneness’, in order to achieve the highest end or
goal in life. If ‘Science of Oneness’ manifests a little in the heart of man,
he will be able to conquer anger, fear, desire, and acquire inner spiritual
power and knowledge with the fullness of its quality and quantity, and thereby
be fully established in peace.’
The Master has given the tool to
solve the “pebble riddle” in life of one and all, irrespective of any condition
or discrimination whatsoever. Even ‘a little manifestation’ of the ‘Science of
Oneness’ takes us to a highly peaceful and blissful state in this very life.
Now, it is up to us to accept It and then follow It in our day-to-day life to
get established in It forever.