The Happy Sage
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Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, TN 2/10/2013 Review: Review of Abhimanyu’s death and Jayadratha’s defeat Moral of the “Edison Factory Fire” story? Moral of the “Bad Tempered Shopkeeper” story? Review Proverbs Wisdom Story: The Indian Test There is an Indian tribe with a unique way of maturing their young men. When a boy is coming-of-age, he is brought into the deepest darkest forest. When it grows very dark, his blindfold is removed and the person who brought him there leaves him alone. The boy will be considered successful and accepted as an adult in the tribe if he doesn’t scream or cry until the next morning. The night was very dark, the boy couldn’t even see his own hands and he was afraid. Frightening sounds emerged from the deep recesses of the forest – the wolves’ howls and the wind in the branches. He became more fearful, but he knew he must keep silent, not screaming nor crying, so that he could pass the test. A second seemed like hours, an hour was like years, and he could not close his eyes to sleep. Cold sweat trickled down his body. As the morning sun at last started to show itself, he became joyful. He looked around and was shocked to see his father standing not far behind him. His father had a bow and arrows and a machete was sheathed in his waist. He had looked after his son the whole night in case any snake or wild beast came to harm him. He would shoot arrows from his bow before any beast got too close to his son, praying all the while that his son would not cry or scream. Moral: God is often at our side, watching and helping, even if we do not realize it. Wisdom Story: The boy and the footprints Page 1 of 2 Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, TN 2/10/2013 Mahabharata (Part 15): Drona’s defeat Duryodhana was furious and blamed Drona for not being able to keep his promise and, therefore, he should now step down. Drona promised to end the war the next day by killing Arjuna. Krishna was alerted. He conferred with the Pandavas and revealed a secret that would allow Arjuna to win against Drona. “Drona once promised to himself that he would stop fighting if his only son Aswathama was killed in the battle field. As Aswathama was practically invincible, Krishna would have to trick him in to believing this. Yudhishthira would have to tell a lie that Ashwathama was dead. As Yudhishthira never told a lie, Drona would believe him. Drona would stop fighting and Dhrishtadyumna would get the chance to behead Drona.” On the following day, Drona attacked Arjuna, his former student. Arjuna successfully defied his attack and fought with equal strength. When the time came to act on Krishna’s plan Yudhishthira was hesitant to lie to Drona. Bheema acted promptly. He killed an elephant with the same name Ashwathama and Yudhishthira informed Drona that Aswathama is dead without clarifying that it was not his son but an elephant. As soon as Drona dropped his arms, Dhrishthadyumna beheaded him and Drona was dead. On the other side of the battlefield, Bheema killed Dushashana to fulfill his vow for insulting Draupadi. Ashwathama hearing of his father’s death at the end of the day was furious and promised to kill Dhrishtadyumna the next day to avenge his father's death. Proverbs: You should learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself! A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its clothes on. - Winston Churchill. The wind of anger blows out the light of intelligence. Page 2 of 2 .