Philosophical stories of ancient-2

The narrow bridge and the goats......

( it is a fable from an old scripture called "panchatantra", where animals are as intelligent as humans and can talk. This scripture is full of wisdom, depicted through characters of animals, an enjoyable book for children and valuable for elders due to the wisdom that explained within.)

A very very narrow bridge was made connecting two high mountain tops. The bridge was like a narrow wooden plank thrown across the two mountain tops and had neither railings nor even ropes for protection. From the bridge, looking below, long way down, within the abyss ran a mighty river flowing through giant boulders.

One day, a mountain goat came along and wanted to go across the bridge to the other side of the mountain. The goat started walking over the narrow bridge. Mountain goats are sure-footed animals and are fearless mountain climbers.

At about the same time, another goat started crossing the bridge from the other end. The two goats came face to face in the middle of the bridge. As the bridge was narrow, the two goats could not go past one another. And there was no way the goats could make about turns.

The second goat spoke arrogantly to the first one: "You are obstructing my path. Get out of my way, you silly goat! I am in a hurry to go to the other side."

The first goat said: "I was the one who first stepped on to the bridge and therefore you should back off."

The second goat retorted with menacing eyes: "I am the strongest goat around. I have never lost a fight with other goats. Look at my big horns and think again. Either you quickly get out of my way or else…!"

The two goats started fighting. Their horns locked and it was indeed, a strange sight to behold. High up above on a narrow bridge two goats could not come to terms with each other. They threw caution in to the air and as a result there occurred a battle between two fools. Both goats lost their balance and fell to their certain deaths.

After one week, by a strange co-incidence, two other goats started crossing the bridge from the opposite ends. Same thing happened again and the two goats met in the middle of the bridge.

The first goat spoke most politely: "I beg your forgiveness sir! It was too late when I found out that you were also crossing the bridge from the other end. Anyway, I am much younger than you are. I have been taught by my teachers that I must respect my elders and that we should be gentle and kind to all creatures.

Furthermore, I remember the advice that when confronted with any problem, first offer a prayer to the Lord and seek His guidance. Problems and solutions always go together. Think of a bath-towel. If one end of the towel is where problems like to reside then the other end of the towel is where solutions reside. Both ends go together wherever the towel goes. Problems and solutions are inseparable. One has to merely search for the solution."

The second goat said: "And what might that (solution) be?"

The first goat said: "Let me sit on this bridge with my head turned to one side so that you can slowly and carefully step over my back and cross over. I will then get up and be on my way."

Thus the two goats crossed the bridge safely.

Comment:
other than solving the problem, Another aspect of this story is to be polite and use intelligence at the face of a problem would help you in finding solution of the problem. So if you have a quarrel with another guy and you can not back of, still think hard there may be other way to solve the problem without harming each other.