This post has two articles one on why going forward is most important in life and another a story from Africa - I exist because we exist.
One moonlit night, a drunken man decided to cross a river.
At the river bank he stepped into an empty boat, sat down at the oars and
started rowing. He rowed and rowed all through the night. At dawn a great
surprise awaited him. Despite rowing with all his might, the boat had not moved
an inch!
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| Kasi Viswanathar Temple Gopuram At Tenkasi - Tamil Nadu |
He had forgotten to raise the anchor!!
Many of us similarly seek to sail across the ocean of
samsara unaware of the anchors weighing us down and hindering our progress.
Going forward is most important in life. Every moment we
either evolve or degenerate. Every day, we either go forward or go backward.
There is no station of rest.
Source - Vedanta Kesari Editorial March 2017
I Exist Because We Exist - Story
There is a popular African story. An anthropologist once invited children from an African tribe to play a game. He placed a basket of fruits and chocolates near a tree and assembling the children at a distance, told them, “Whoever touches the basket first can have all the fruits and chocolates.” When he signalled them to start the race, the children tightly interlocked their hands and ran together! They gleefully reached the tree, and sat down to share and enjoy its contents.
The astonished anthropologist asked them why they all had run together. If they had run in competition, each of them had the opportunity to enjoy the prize all for himself or herself. Now, it was the children’s turn to be surprised. They chorused, “Obonato”. Is it possible for one to be happy if everyone else is sad? Obonato or Ubuntu means “I exist because we exist.” How true!
Today, in our society many are yet to awaken to this truth of interdependence. To awaken is to work in unison. This was a secret known to our Vedic ancestors. The Rig Veda Samhita states, “Be thou all of one mind, be thou all of one thought.
Source - Vedanta Kesari Editorial January 2021