Short Story Moral – The Moringa Tree
Photo credit: Stefanomas from morguefile.com
Once there lived a great and kindhearted Zamindhar named Raj and Geetha, his wife, in a greeny land called Valambur. The Zamindhar Raj had owned the whole village. So, all the villagers including the children worked under him. Since, the school was far from the village, no one sent their children to the school. So, the whole village didn’t know the smell of education except the Zamindhar family.
The entrance gate was the only entry to that village. Near to the gate there was a Moringa tree. It stood alone. Not even a grass grew in the shadow of that Moringa tree. But no one knew the hidden secret of that tree.
All the villagers liked Raj. But the only sorrow for the Zamindhar’s family was that no children were born to Raj and Geetha. They went to many temples, but no good things had happened.
One day there was a severe rain in the village with a lot of thunders and lightening. It happened due to the arrival of the great sage, Vamana. The flowers blossomed under the feet of him while he was walking. All the villagers sought His blessings and they also suggested Raj and Geetha to meet the sage.
The Zamindhar couple went to the sage to meet him. They told their story that they had no children. The sage understood the reason with the help of his third eye (Gyan eye) and he advised them to meet him on full moon day at midnight 12 with some pooja items.
The couple went to nearby town and bought all the pooja items which the sage told. But while they were crossing the Moringa tree near to the entrance gate, there was a heavy storm which couldn’t be tolerated. But, they crossed the gate very hardly. Whenever they crossed that tree, they faced the same.
They feared a lot and ran to the sage and told the happenings near the gate. Then, the sage narrated Raj’s ancestor’s story.
Long ago, the ancestor of Raj named Chakravarthy had done a great mistake. Chakravarthy had only one son and he wanted his only son to be a scholar in that village. But he came to know that another poor boy of his own village was also studying along with his son. He disliked it. The poor boy grew more intelligent than the son of Chakravarthy. As Chakravarthy disliked it, he forced the parents of that poor boy to stop his education. The poor parents had no other way other than to obey the order of Zamindhar. Even the son of him requested to allow the poor boy who was his best friend, to the school. But these were all like “the words that fell on the deaf ears”.
But the son of Chakravarthy wanted his friend who was a poor boy to be equally intelligent as himself. So, without the knowledge of his father, he taught everyday lessons to his poor friend.
On one day, Chakravarthy came to know this news. He never wanted a poor boy to become an educated person like his son. He became so angry. He killed the poor boy that night and buried near the entrance gate. Then he planted Moringa tree in that place. Because of this sin, there were no plants near the gate and also there were no child for Raj. Now the spirit of the poor boy became so rude.
The full moon day came. The couple went to the sage. The sage chanted many mantras and he did a pooja. He gave a yellow cloth to Geetha to tie around the tree on new moon day and also he warned to her to go alone. This news was spreaded the whole village like a rapid fire.
But one family in that village had no belief in such these things. They bought some Moringa leaves to cook. While they were smashing the leaves it turned into red instead of green. Yeah! Its none other than the blood. Suddenly all the members of that family got paralyzed.
New moon day came, Geetha was in full of fear and took the yellow cloth then went to the Moringa tree. While she approached the tree, there was a heavy rain along with thunder and lightening. While Geetha tried to tie the yellow cloth around the tree, a red flamed eyes suddenly opened on the tree. Geetha was shocked and she stood like a stone.
The Moringa tree began to spoke with her. It spoke with horrible voice,”Don’t be afraid of me Geetha, I need your help. I was killed by your husband’s ancestor. He never wanted anyone to study other than his son. The situation has to be changed. Construct a school in this village and educate all the children equally. Then only my spirit will become calm. Then beautiful child will born to you. After that you tie this yellow cloth around me”. The eyes were disappeared.
Immediately she ran to Raj and told everything. The very next morning, Raj started to build a school. Within few weeks he built a big school and gave free education to his village children. After the school had been opened, Geetha went to the Moringa tree and tied the yellow cloth around it. The tree thanked Raj and Geetha for their good deed and it vanished.
The paralysed family too became normal. All the villagers were very happy to educate their children. Atlast, a handsome boy was born to Raj and Geetha and they lived many years happily.
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By Amirtha
