Dilemma

Being a witness to all the chaos in our society, Raj was in bewilderment and often used to ponder about a fix for all the problems the world has. He has observed with much anxiety all the military wars among various countries, casualties from terrorism, crime because of utter greed and selfishness of inconsiderate humans, murders, theft, animosity, court cases, struggle for power and money and what not! He used to dream of a world when it will be full of kind, gentle and altruistic souls and thus there will be peace and happiness everywhere. But he couldn’t think of any solution for how to achieve that.

Once he was on a long walk back from a valley to his home town (You may like to read his story of how he got there) and he was thinking about these problems while walking. Passing through a forest he saw a lonely hut amidst a beautiful surrounding. In the hope to get some drinking water, he went up to that hut. A very learned and realized saint was living there who welcomed Raj with open arms. Not only he offered him water but also insisted to take his lunch with him. After they had lunch, Raj told this saint about what was going in his mind. Raj asked, “How beautiful this world could be if everyone becomes friendly with each other and is always willing to help each other? Wouldn’t it be like heaven? What should I do to make that happen?”

Saint praised his good intentions but added that just being kind and gentle won’t solve the problem. Then he proceeded to narrate an old story from his scriptures which is as follows:

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Even before the humans were born on this planet, there was a time when everyone was friendly to each other and everyone wanted to help others to their best. After a long spell of dry summer, the pond in that forest completely dried up. All animals and birds were very thirsty and used to travel a long distance to another forest for just quenching their thirst. So when clouds realized this, they came to their rescue and rained heavily every day. All animals and birds got happy but soon they realized that they can’t go out for finding their food due to continuous rain and thus they got hungry. But being hungry was slightly better than being thirsty. So they didn’t complain.

There was a small Jasmine vine which was climbing around a wild Madhuka tree. And after a long and tough summer spell, it was surviving with only one leaf dangling from it. When the rains stopped, a gentle breeze passed by it. Caressing the only leaf on the Jasmine vine, the wind wondered, “What’s wrong with you my dear friend? You look so wilted and shriveled!”

Leaf woefully told the wind that there is no Sun for past several days. So she can’t survive without any sunlight for long. Hearing this wind got a little sad as they both were very friendly for a long time. So she offered her help, “Tell me, I can blow away all the clouds from here. That will bring you the much needed sunlight. I’m very powerful for it”. Leaf gave a very wise reply. “Although you are trying to help me in saving my life but your action will certainly take my life away and make the clouds angry too”. Not getting this fully, wind got little puzzled, “I don’t understand what you mean. But I don’t want to see you die like this. If you are healthy, you grow a lot of beautiful flowers which fill me up with a sweet aroma. This increases my worth too when I deliver this pleasant aroma from your flowers to places far away”.

“You are already invaluable because without you, no life can exist. Everyone needs you to breathe in. So even if I die, you would be revered by all life forms”, replied the leaf.
“Yes, that’s true. I love all life forms, so I help them survive and I can’t see you die. You too are very important to this existence as plants are the only creatures who know how to produce food from Sun. All other beings depend on you for their survival”, answered wind.

Listening to this conversation between the wind and the leaf, a cloud interfered, “Sorry to bother you two, but water is also essential for survival of all life forms and I’m doing my part. I am not a villain here. I’m also giving the Sun some much needed rest. Why don’t you understand? I’m here to help everyone.”

“But can’t you see the leaf withering away? She is hungry because of you.” Thus started an intense altercation between the wind and the cloud and wind finally blew away with all her might to disperse all the clouds. Thus made the way for the Sun to shine on the Jasmine leaf. But when wind looked towards the vine, the leaf was no where to be seen. The wind was too strong for that little leaf and it had blown far away without any trace.” Now the wind understood why leaf was refusing to blow away clouds. But it was too late now.

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“So only being kind & gentle and willingness to help does not solve the problems. In fact, the bonding and attachment may create further problem. So the right knowledge and right wisdom is much more important than the right behavior. Because if you have right knowledge, right action will follow. So always seek right knowledge”, said the saint to Raj. Raj nodded and took his leave after thanking him and continued his journey further in search of the right knowledge.

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This is a contest entry for Marvelous Tales Contest #9 where the prompts given for this story were "Leaf" and "Wind".