A long time ago, before the time of the written word, learning used to be transferred from teacher to student by word of mouth. It was during that time that the following incident happened.
Yudhishtir was not the best student in his class but he usually learnt his lesson well and in time. One day the teacher was teaching the students about anger.
“Always keep your anger in your control”, the teacher said and the boys repeated after him.
“This is your lesson for the day and tomorrow I want you all to have learnt it by heart”, said the teacher.
The next day, before he taught them a new lesson, the teacher asked the students if they had learnt their lesson. Everyone except Yudhishtir nodded their head in affirmative. The teacher noticed that and asked him, “You have not learnt it?”
“No, I could not.” He replied.
The teacher was irritated but he knew that Yudhishtir was a good student and ignored this lapse on his part.
The next day, the teacher asked Yudhishtir again if he had learnt his lesson, and got a no as the answer again. The teacher was infuriated and he warned Yudhishtir to learn the lesson or else…
But day after day passed and Yudhishtir did not learn the lesson. The teacher got angry at him and one day he eve beat him up with a stick as punishment but even that failed to make Yudhishtir learn the lesson.
The teacher had finally given up on Yudhishtir’s learning that particular lesson, so he was surprised when one day Yudhishtir came to him and said, “I have learned the lesson, my teacher”
“What lesson?” he asked.
“Always keep your anger in your control.”
“Oh, good! But tell me what took you so long to learn such a simple lesson?”
“Oh great Sir,” he replied, “It was not simple for me, I tried and tried and I was not able to control my anger. Every day you scolded me and I felt anger rising within me. How could I lie to you about learning the lesson when I had not? It was only yesterday that I felt that I could control my anger.”
At these words the teacher became speechless and ashamed of himself for hitting the boy for not learning the lesson, when in fact he had learnt it in a way that no other could. This boy Yudhishtir later grew up to be a great King, known across all the lands for his truthfulness and righteousness.
It is rare to find people who practice what they preach. And yet that is the basis of all knowledge. Education is not just the acquiring of knowledge but the application of that knowledge in real life. Only someone who follows the principles he preaches religiously can be said to be truly educated.
On an entirely different note, I have decided to post the novella I wrote for NaNoWriMo on my other blog. I don’t think it stands a chance of ever being published in book form, so I decided to do the next best thing - post it on a blog, so that at least a few people can read some of it, and maybe even tell me what they think of the effort.
Yudhishtir was not the best student in his class but he usually learnt his lesson well and in time. One day the teacher was teaching the students about anger.
“Always keep your anger in your control”, the teacher said and the boys repeated after him.
“This is your lesson for the day and tomorrow I want you all to have learnt it by heart”, said the teacher.
The next day, before he taught them a new lesson, the teacher asked the students if they had learnt their lesson. Everyone except Yudhishtir nodded their head in affirmative. The teacher noticed that and asked him, “You have not learnt it?”
“No, I could not.” He replied.
The teacher was irritated but he knew that Yudhishtir was a good student and ignored this lapse on his part.
The next day, the teacher asked Yudhishtir again if he had learnt his lesson, and got a no as the answer again. The teacher was infuriated and he warned Yudhishtir to learn the lesson or else…
But day after day passed and Yudhishtir did not learn the lesson. The teacher got angry at him and one day he eve beat him up with a stick as punishment but even that failed to make Yudhishtir learn the lesson.
The teacher had finally given up on Yudhishtir’s learning that particular lesson, so he was surprised when one day Yudhishtir came to him and said, “I have learned the lesson, my teacher”
“What lesson?” he asked.
“Always keep your anger in your control.”
“Oh, good! But tell me what took you so long to learn such a simple lesson?”
“Oh great Sir,” he replied, “It was not simple for me, I tried and tried and I was not able to control my anger. Every day you scolded me and I felt anger rising within me. How could I lie to you about learning the lesson when I had not? It was only yesterday that I felt that I could control my anger.”
At these words the teacher became speechless and ashamed of himself for hitting the boy for not learning the lesson, when in fact he had learnt it in a way that no other could. This boy Yudhishtir later grew up to be a great King, known across all the lands for his truthfulness and righteousness.
It is rare to find people who practice what they preach. And yet that is the basis of all knowledge. Education is not just the acquiring of knowledge but the application of that knowledge in real life. Only someone who follows the principles he preaches religiously can be said to be truly educated.
On an entirely different note, I have decided to post the novella I wrote for NaNoWriMo on my other blog. I don’t think it stands a chance of ever being published in book form, so I decided to do the next best thing - post it on a blog, so that at least a few people can read some of it, and maybe even tell me what they think of the effort.
6 comments:
pretty damn cool post, with a pretty damn cool lesson in there ...
by the way, has anyone ever told you that background is awesome?! kinda freaky, but awesome!
hi..nice blog !! keep it up !
Hello there, thanks for bidding in my rent a blog.. cool layout. Love the panther..Cheers
Happy blogging
snappz: Thank you for liking the post and leaving a comment.
aayush: Thank you!
Musa: Thanks for commenting!
How wonderfully zen!
heading on to neobluepanther.com
woot!
ps. i like the stories you spin ^_^
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