The Story of a Stone!!!

          This is a very inspiring story that I heard from a cousin of mine who in turn heard it somewhere at a lecture given by some learned person (I apologize for not knowing the name to the person who actually said it and hence not being able to acknowledge him.)



(White marble temple- this is not the actual temple mentioned in the text)

 

            The story starts in a village in Rajasthan in olden days when there used to be kings and queens ruling their kingdoms. The king of a village called Kaurali used to remain very ill and always stressed. He would not be able to sleep or eat. His health had deteriorated over months. This worried the queen who in turn one day decided to pray for her husband. She fell asleep after her prayers and a Goddess came in her dreams. The queen stood there with folded hands and even before she could ask anything to the Goddess, she said, “Daughter, I know the reason for your worry. Your prayers will be answered. Go and ask the king to build a temple at the river-bank and place the idol of Lord Mahavir in it and worship it every day for inner peace and tranquility.” The queen was relieved at the answer to her prayers and went back to sleep. In the morning after waking up, she told the king about her dream and so the king ordered his men to start building the temple. He ordered the entire temple to be of white color built with architecture so as the cold breeze blew and quietened the senses. The complete structure was designed to be made of white marble stones. He also ordered his best craftsmen to carve a 6-feet tall statue of Lord Mahavir, sitting in a padmasan posture made entirely out of a single white marble stone without any cracks or cuts in it. The workers got to work, and the temple was started to be built. The marble mines were blasted and tons of marble stones were procured to make the ceiling, the flooring, the idol, the staircase and every possible thing in milky white marble stone.


             One evening from the marble mine after getting blasted and shaped and polished and carved the marble stones were being transported in a truck. The truck was making its way through the sand dunes in the desert. The clouds of sand were blown by the wheels of the truck. The soft orange glow of the setting sun bathed everything in a golden light. The sun rays bounced off the white, shiny marble stone idol of Lord Mahavir, giving it a golden sheen and making the stone look alive as if a real person is calmly sitting and meditating admist the chaotic truck movement, deafening din of the truck engine and dusty clouds blown by its large wheels. Along with the pristine, divine and enchanting marble idol lay a dull looking flat marble stone. It didn’t reflect any of the splendid light; it looked as if it was wailing in the atmosphere. It lacked the prolificacy of the idol. The idol just smiled at the marble stone.

Pristine white marble statue of Lord in Meditating (padmasan) posture

              The marble stone looked at the idol with despair and then looked towards the sky and wearily said, “Nothing is fair in this world. O’ Lord, we are both born in the same mine. We are both white in color, we are both going to the same place, we are both being transported in the same truck, we both will be adorning the same temple, and our buyer is the same person and is using us to build a beautiful temple. There is no difference between both of our origin or destination. There is nothing different that either of us has gone through, but look at the difference of reverence that we will receive. Such is the play of destiny that while that stone, he said pointing at the idol, will be worshipped and people will bow down to it and pay their respects each day. They will bathe it in milk, apply sandalwood paste to it, adorn it with flowers and give the highest form of respect to it. While what will I get? People will just walk all over me and trample me under their feet with each coming day. No one will even give me a second look leave aside giving any respect or reverence. I would just keep lying there being walked over at without any respect.” At this the idol who was listening to the weeping of the stone, smiled and replied, “Dear brother, I agree that both of us have come from the same place, and our destination is the same too. Both of us are going to serve the same purpose in our lives as well but we have the biggest difference between us. It is this difference which makes me worthy of worship and not you. That difference, my friend is how each one of us reacted under pressure, when they blasted us in the mines and tampered us with their chisels and hammer. When they made us go through the hardships, you broke down and shattered into small pieces, but I held on. With each blow of the hammer, I kept strong and steady. With each sharp sting of the chisel, I shaped myself into a beautiful nose and eyes and lips, or hands and feet. With each grinding stone rubbing over me, I shone more and more, unlike you. It’s because, I acted well under pressure and held myself together in the hardest of times, I stand here in front of you as an idol ready to be worshipped and it’s because you broke and shattered under pressure that you will not receive the same status in spite of coming from the same origin.

               This story made such a deep impact on my mind. In spite of having given the same circumstance in our lives some of us shine through it and some of us end up being mediocre and the most important factor contributing to our ability to succeed or fail is how we react to each situation apart from the destiny. Destiny has always done and will keep doing its role in our lives but you have to make yourself “Deserve the Destiny”