A Parable…The Tale of the Hunter, The Monkey & The Peanuts….A Lesson

(यह महज एक कहानी नहीं हैं......................बल्कि सच्चाई है ...)

This story is sent to me from one of my friend and I strongly felt to share the same with my readers.

John & Paul are colleagues who work for a food products manufacturing company. While having a cup of coffee, John was sharing this story to Paul. .... “There’s an oft repeated tale about how certain monkey catchers (Madari) in India catch monkeys.  It can be very difficult to corral these intelligent creatures, so hunters have used a more innovative method…trapping a monkey by enticing him.  A small jar is placed at the base of a tree with nuts or other items which may attract the monkey’s curiosity.
The opening of the jar allows the monkey to place his hand in, but when he tries to withdraw it, he is unable to do so without letting go of the contents of the jar.  Believe it or not, some monkeys will stay there with their hand in the jar until the hunter comes back to trap them!  They are trapped because they are unwilling to let go of something they are doing which is working against them.

Then the madari takes the monkey to a city where he trains him, puts a rope around his neck and  asks him to do various tricks. Monkey does those tricks and gets peanuts at the end of the day. He shares the peanuts with family and every one in his family likes the regular inflow of peanuts. Monkey starts the days as early as possible and keeps doing the tricks till the dusk.  Few months, few years go by, the monkey gets old – his health and age do not permit such tiresome job over and over again. But he knows that he needs the peanuts to run his family. His family also got addicted to the peanuts although they all miss the freedom and the great time they used to enjoy in the jungle.  As the monkey kids grow older, their needs also increase. The monkey demands more peanuts from his master. Master gives him more peanuts because the master doesn’t want to lose this monkey at any cost.  

One day , the monkey meets another madari  who promises him more peanuts and some bananas too. Monkey decides to leave his current  employer and join the more-peanut- job. Monkey family is happier
now--- more pea nuts, more bananas…. What else they needed. The monkey gets even older and weaker and finds it tough to continue the job any more. But again the peanuts- he knows how important they are, to run his family.  One morning, when the monkey reaches his work place, he is served a notice signed by his employer-- It was actually a termination letter.

There was one big problem – the younger monkeys had taken over his job . And the young group of monkeys was more energetic and even better performers. The monkey was very upset. He met his boss and reminded him of the time they spent together, the service that he provided – but all in vein.  Monkey lost his job. Although the monkey got an opportunity once again to go back to the jungle where his actual life lies, where he can get back his freedom ---- but the peanuts – he knows he can’t live without them anymore. So, he starts looking for another madari. He was ready to compromise on the quantity of peanuts but unfortunately it was recession time. Most madaris were trying to get rid of the monkeys. After a long search, finally he finally gets a madari who offered him a job. The  monkey was not happy this time as he knew that his job is not secured anymore but the peanuts compelled him to remain part of one or the madari’s team.

John now asks Paul –“What do you think? Was it a good decision that the monkey had taken – accepting peanuts in lieu of freedom?” Paul replies ---“Look John, it was a monkey’s story. If you look around and think about our own lives, you will find similarity between what the monkey did and what we do in our regular life. We often don’t like the job that we do. We also know that we can do far better things in life and can earn even higher. But the regular salary that we get at the end of every month prevents us from even thinking of other opportunities. We don’t give time to our families except for
Saturday/Sunday and feel happy about doing enough for our family. And only we know what the reality is. So, at least you and me shouldn’t blame the monkey.”

“The Universe has more than what we wish for --- and they do come only to those who work towards achieving it.”