Once upon a time there lived a holy man in a village. He was quite old, wise and was loved by everyone in that village. The holy man would gather the villagers around every evening and address them about meaningful things in life. Sitting around a tree where he sat, they would all listen to his words of wisdom and contemplate on what was said.
It would start off with a few minutes of meditation in silence. All one could hear is the wind blow against the leaves and the river flowing down stream. One day a cat came disturbed the silence by running around everywhere and made everyone lose concentration. On seeing this, the holy man asked one of his disciples to catch the cat and tie it until the end of the gathering. The same cat came again the following evening similar time as the previous day and disturbed the silence. The holy man once again asked his disciple to tie the cat until the end of the gathering.
This started a new trend in the daily routine in the evening. The cat would come, the disciple would tie it and let it go at the end. It was not long after, that the holy man passed away. One of his disciples started to address the villagers every evening under sitting under the tree while the cat being tie. This went on for a quite a while and then the cat died.
At the following gathering they didn't know what to do. They had been tying the cat for such a long time and now there was none to tie. As they had forgotten the reason as to why, they just replaced the cat as they had been tying a cat for such a long time. Now the gathering would still take place, a cat would still be tied, but it would be without meaning.
*THE END*
Similarly, there are lots of things we do in our lives that are without any meaning. We do alot of things just because they had been done in the past. Once in a while we should challenge the reasons behind and not just do things without any meaning.
3 comments:
Loved this story. I so agree with the notion of challenging ideas, actions, and other things done, that we do not know the meaning to. In our culture we see so much of that. There are rituals performed at weddings, funerals, religious holidays, that people have no idea why they are doing it, but they do it because it is done.
But challenging these notions and actions comes with a price. It is frowned upon and the elders just want you to shut up and do it anyways. I have been there, and been told that I am too modern, and that I should just perform the rituals like a good girl. Sad it exists today.
Couldn't agree more! I am forever ranting on and on about this very issue, but you are right, it comes with a price.
Thank you Anon for your thoughts on this topic. I couldn't agree more, revolution does come with a price.
What you have to decide is if the price is right.
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