The story relates to four poor men
who dreamt of becoming rich and prosperous.
In a far village, there lived four
friends. They were poor and wanted to grow rich. However, they didn't know how
to earn well.
One afternoon, they sat together
and thought about it. Thereafter they decided to leave their village.
The four men started their
journey. After few days of traveling, they reached a place called Awanti. They
bathed and offered prayers in the nearby temple. At the entrance of temple,
they saw a sage. His name was Bhairwanand. The four men bowed to the sage and
sought his blessings.
The sage asked them, "I have
not seen you all before. Where have you all come from and why?"
One of the men replied, "We
are friends and have come all the way to try our luck. We are poor and seek
your guidance in the matter".
The sage was pleased to hear this.
He smiled at them and gave them cotton wicks. He asked them to carry the wick
and move in direction of Himalayas . The sage
said, "Where the wick falls, you will find treasure. Dig up and carry the
valuables to your home".
The four men were happy. They took
the wicks from the sage and started their journey in the direction of the Himalayas .
The four men had hardly covered
any distance, when the wick fell from hand of one of them. He dug up and found
the treasure of copper. He asked his friends to take their share and returned
home with his share. Seeing him return, his friends called him nerd and the
three of them moved further in search of treasure.
After few days, the wick held by
the other men fell. He dug up and found treasure of silver. He asked his
friends to take their share and then returned home with his treasure of copper
and silver. The other two men took their share and continued further.
After traveling for few days, the
wick held by the third man fell. He dug up and found treasure of gold. He
shared it with his friend and took his share. He decided to return home with
the treasure and asked his fellow to return with him.
But the fourth man said that he
expected to find diamonds in the his journey further.
The fourth man continued walking
in hope to find the treasure, but the wick he was carrying did not fell.
After days of traveling, he saw a
blood bathed body of man who stood straight and had a whirling wheel over his
head.
The fourth man went and asked the
man, "Who are you? Why are you standing here drenched in blood with this
whirling wheel over your head?"
While the fourth friend continued
asking, the wheel swirled and settled over his head. He was shocked and yelled
in agony. He asked the other man, "Why have to shifted this wheel on my
head? Tell me, how can I get rid of this wheel?"
The man told the fourth friend
that the wheel was created by Lord Kuber, the God treasure to keep his treasure
safe from thieves and men who are greedy. "It is indeed a wheel of misery.
Under influence of this wheel, you will not feel hunger or thirst. It holds
time so that you do not age or grow old and there is no sleep and no death that
happens. The wheel keeps you under pain and misery".
The fourth friend asked, "How
long have you been carrying this wheel?"
The man said, “It’s been years
since I have been under this wheel of misery. It mounted my head when I came
here in search of diamond treasure during the reign of King Rama".
You will get rid of it only when
someone comes here with the magic wick as you came with and ask you the same
question you asked me". After this the man left.
Meanwhile, the third friend
reached his home in the village. He expected that the fourth friend would
return any time soon with his diamond treasure. Days past, but the friend did
not return. So the third man decided to go and look for his friends.
The third friend reached the
foothills of Himalayas where he saw a man
standing with whirling wheel on his head. He saw closely and recognized his
that the man was his own friend. He was shocked to see him and asked him,
"Friend, what is this? I am unable to understand !"
The fourth friend narrated the
entire incident to his friend and blamed his greed for what happened.
The third friend said,
"Friend, greed carves misery. I told you the gold treasure I found was
enough for both of us. But you choose to get more. Greed is not good!"
The third friend was sad. He left
the fourth friend much against his wish and low heart.
Moral: A bird in the hand is worth
more than two birds in bush.
No comments :
Post a Comment