Reading Helps

Reading Helps – Short Story with Moral Lesson
Photo credit: jeltovski from morguefile.com

Let’s flip the pages of History and go back to the 1650, when a king named Subramanya used to rule the kingdom of ‘Satyam’ in the eastern coast of India (now TAMIL Nadu). He was a firm believer of Chanakya’s teachings, the great philosopher who wrote “The Arthashastra”-a treatise which is meant for guiding a king on how to govern his kingdom. Subramanya always dreamt of being “The king of people” and to lead his kingdom to prosperity. So, he chose to read “The Arthashastra” every day and try to learn new things about governance. He was very popular among the masses as he implemented the principles written in the “Arthashastra”.

He had a younger brother, ‘Veera’ who also wanted to rule the kingdom used to feel jealous of his popularity. By any means, hook or crook, he wanted to take over the throne from his brother.  On a new moon day, Veera hired two men, ‘Muruga’ and ‘Dasa’ to enter Subramnya’s room and steal the book of Arthashastra. When those two entered the room, Subramanya woke up suddenly. In panic, they attacked the king with a sharp knife and killed him by stabbing on his chest. The blood of Subramanya spilled over the book. They ran away from the spot and In order to hide any kind of evidence they put the book in a thick green metal box threw it in the Bay of Bengal.

Now let us travel time and come to the year 2005. Mr. Vishnu, A 47 year old Singapore based business man who was running a hotel named ‘Vishnu’s’ for tourists coming from across the world. Vishnu’s business was incurring huge losses because of his own decisions and actions. Vishnu used to rudely treat his employees. All his employees even the best ones lost faith in working with him and left the business. Vishnu, a strong believer in God, was a devotee of Lord Balaji. He thought that his problems will be solved by visiting the Balaji temple in Tirupathi. So, He decided to fly to Chennai on his private jet. While flying over the Indian Ocean the jet found itself in trouble.  The pilot screamed, “The plane is going to crash.” The Pilot lost control and the jet went straight into the ocean.

The pilot sunk and died in the crash. While, Vishnu survived, swum and reached a lonely island in Nicobar. The island once upon a time used to be a tourist destination. But, because of the wrath of Tsunami in 2004, it was no more the same. Its beaches became so lonely that only waves used to come for eroding the sand. Sunrises and sunsets were not witnessed by anybody. The Coconut trees used to wave their branches only for themselves. Vishnu got scared, and, with no communication tool with him wondered,

“How will I get back home?”

He was feeling hungry as it had been 6 hours he reached the Island. It was afternoon time with scorching Sun right above his head. Vishnu walked along the wet sand. He threw stones on a tree and made a Coconut fall down. After satisfying his hunger, He thought of ways to escape or at least finding ways for calling some help.

After covering quite a distance, he found a strange box, the box which sunk 355 years ago. The box, from the depth of the water body had come along with the waves of Tsunami and settled on the beach sand. He went near the box and opened it with anticipation. He found the book on Arthashastra written in Sanskrit. He went through the book deeply and absorbed the following:

1. Truthfulness: As it was mentioned by Chanakya, A man must be truthful to others and to himself. Vishnu realized that he used to lie to himself about having greater than life self image.
2. Purity: Chanakya believed that a king must be pure and must have a clear mind. Vishnu realized that he was an impure person as he used to feel jealous of others success.
3. Non Hatredness/ Non cruelty: Vishnu understood that sometimes he used to be very rude to his employees. He even used harsh words while scolding them. That’s why many employees i.e. the waiters, Stuarts and even the manager of his hotel resigned.
4. Forgiveness: He never used to forgive his employees for their mistakes, instead, he used to punish them by cutting their salaries.

He realized the mistakes he had done in his professional life and decided to change himself and his attitude towards others. Back there in Singapore, his family members got worried as they got no response for their call given to him. They immediately informed the police over there. Singaporean Police informed about the same to the Indian Coast Guard. The Indian Coast Guard got alert and started their search for Vishnu. Within 4 hours, they found Vishnu and took him along with them. Vishnu thanked the Indian Coast guard and flew back to Singapore.

Vishnu thought of shifting his business from Singapore to India i.e. the Island where he was stuck. He studied the history of the island and realized the business opportunities the beautiful island can fetch him as a tourist spot.  After 3 years of struggle, he set up a beach-side hotel in the island and named it ‘Kautilya’ (named after the great Chanakya). Vishnu had a change of heart and now he became very friendly with his employees. He used grant them bonuses during festival seasons. His new employees were very happy and used to willingly work towards the development of the Hotel and the beach. Slowly and steadily, his business grew and lots of tourists from across the globe came to visit the island and enjoy the beach side natural fantasies. And story continues…

Moral: Reading makes you feel nice, but the implementation part makes you feel wise.

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