OUR SWORDS AND SPEARS
Pic.: Chetna Shetty
How to use our knowledge is, in deed, more
important than how to gain it!
Once, Mulla Nasrudin had proceeded on a long
journey to another town. As advised, he had carried with him a fine sword and a
spear for his safety. When it was dark, a robber, armed barely with a stick in
his hand, attacked Mulla and sped away, robbing him of all his belongings,
including his fine sword and spear!
On
reaching the town he had journeyed to, Mulla began to narrate to everyone his
misfortune. But, whoever heard Mulla’s tragic story, were left amused. “Mulla,
how in the world could a thief, with just a stick in his hand, rob you off when
your hands were armed with such a fine sword and a spear?”
“That’s
exactly the problem... and, I am trying to explain it to each one of you,”
Nasrudin said vehemently, “Tell me, how could I fight that thief when my hands already
had so much to carry?”
“You
don’t understand,” Mulla justified!
Well, as it is said, our justifications don’t
change our realities! Like Mulla, we are on our respective journeys, armed with
our swords and spears. Someone has cautioned us, “Please carry them for your
safety... Who knows?”
And, like our
Mulla, when we reach the other town, robbed off our swords and spears by a
silly thief, with just a stick in his hand, the people out there will ask us
this: “Friend, of what use are those swords and spears?”
Do we hear our
own justifications?
GERALD D’CUNHA
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