The Importance of Small and The Power of Insignificant
A beautiful parable for our times, courtesy Sh Anand Sharma who sent this to me in an email. Extracts follow.
*** The Importance of Small and Power of Insignificant ***
Those Hindus who have studied Ramayan or listened carefully to the particular episode of construction of Setubandh Rameshwaram, may recollect that there is one instance when the big monkeys were carrying in big stones from far away places to the site and then after getting touched by hands of Nal and Neel, arranging them to make the floating bridge.
A monkey saw a small squirrel wetting its body in nearby sea, then rolling in the sand, and then rushing to bridge construction site, and then shaking body, then again rushing to sea and repeating this cycle. The big monkey got curious and invited attention of others who collected to see this amusing exercise of a small squirrel.
One of the big monkeys asked the small squirrel; “Hey, little squirrel, what’s wrong with you? Have you gone mad? What are you doing?” The little squirrel replied; “I am worshiping my Lord Shri Ram by trying to give my humble co-operation in making of bridge.”
Listening the reply every monkey started laughing and called others too, to enjoy the biggest joke. Every body started making fun of the little squirrel and said, “See, how big stones we are collecting from far away places and bringing to sea beach, and our so big army of great monkeys is working ceaselessly to make such a long bridge. Leave aside co-operation, your few gains of sand are not even visible when dropped on stones brought by us.”
Seeing the cacophony and stoppage of work, Shri Ram arrived at the spot to inquire what is going on. He was explained the endeavor of small squirrel with ridicule laced humor. Shri Ram stepped forward, lifted the squirrel and put in his left palm. Caressing gently the squirrel by right hand, Shri Ram said, “I acknowledge your service and I am pleased with you.”
In Ramayan, Shri Ram has placed his hand and caressed only three. One is Vulture King Jataayuu; who did his duty without being asked. The second is little Squirrel; who did duty without being asked. And the third is Hanuman ji, who did duty without being asked.
The other noticeable and common thing between all those three worshipers of Shri Ram was that none of them expected any thing in return. The army of monkeys were working on behalf of their King Sugreeva who had an obligation of becoming King by help of Shri Ram, and he was repaying it by joining the job.
The other example is in Mahabharat. After the RaajSooya Yagna by Yudhishtir, in which all great Saints of Bharat participated, King Yudhishtir was surprised to see a mongoose whose half body was normal and half was golden.
That mongoose was rolling over and over on the earth where great Saint sat and kept their feet. As thousands of great Saints had attended that RaajSooya yagna, mongoose was extremely tired but did not stop rolling body at the earth where those Saints kept their feet.
King Yudhishtir followed that mongoose in the Yagna-Bhoomi and requested him to stop and tell what was that matter and reason for rolling body on earth of entire Yagna-Bhoomi.
The mongoose said, “O Great King Yudhishtir, there was a poor Brahmin family who had not eaten for four days. When they collected a little wheat flour and made bread, a guest came and they offered their bread to guest. I happened to pass over that few grains of wheat flour dropped on earth while making bread and my body became golden. Unfortunately the flour on the earth was not enough to make my whole body golden. So I am looking for great Saints whose Charan-raj (dust of feet) could make me fully golden. But I am very sorry to say that even in your RaajSooya Yagna where all great Saints of Bharat participated, none could match the greatness of sacrifice of that poor Brahmin.”
(The) above two examples from Ramayan and Mahabharat teaches us “Importance of Small” and the “Power of Insignificant”.
…The Importance of Small, and the Power of Insignificant can not be ignored. Remember, Shri Ram was pleased with Vulture King Jataayuu, the little Squirrel and Shri Hanuman ji; only because they did their Bhakti (Pooja = Duty = Dharma) without being asked for and without expecting any thing in return.
Anand Sharma
March 24, 2009
*** End ***
Image courtesy: Wikipedia
A very inspiring piece.
Sometimes, those who work for their nation or for a cause become tired after some time, dismayed at the lack of results, sad that they will not be able to see the results.
Great turns in history are not taken in one generation. It takes a lot more than that. We should understand that this circle of events is much larger than our own lifetime.
I would love to quote here, Gopal Krishna Gokhale:
“…we, the present generation of India, can only hope to serve our country by our failures. The men and women who will be privileged to serve her by their successes will come later.”
@ Pankaj: Thats a wonderful quote…Thank you.
very simple and yet it conveys so much…
A quick question in mongoose story you mentioned RaajSooya yagna, I do vaguely remember hearing the same story in the context of the Aswamedha Yagna. Could you verify the Yagna in question?
DD: I will try and ask Sh Sharma…
In the meantime, here is the story of what happened to the mongoose afterwards!
and some information about Yagya/Yajna
Shantanu bhai, for one moment when you said Anand Sharma has written this. I thought you meant Anand Sharma of Congress. What came to my mind was “mar gaye, ab kya bakwaas likhi hai”. You know, after effects of that repugnant and derogatory affidavit by Congress in Apex Court.
But Beautiful post. Thanks!
The very fact that Mr. Sharma didn’t forget to put Shri before God Shri Ram won my heart. In today’s world when people call treacherous criminals as Shri Mohamed Sahabudin while it hurts in their guts to put the title of Shri (which as per our shastr should be & has been used very sparingly) before our Gods names. It was nice to see him do justice with Purushottam Bhagwan.
Think of it as title of Lord in UK but with higher respect than that. Why? Because there are people like Lord Ahmed in UK who threatened to barge & bomb the UK Parliament with over 10000 fanatic Muslim youths. You can Google what was the reason. That is one of the reasons why I detest calling our Gods as Lords. But that’s just an opinion.
Today people just use Shri loosely for lack of a better term I guess.
Anyways, very nice post.
Thanks Satyabhashnam. The credit must go to Sh. Anand Sharma. I will send him an email drawing his attention to the various comments here.