Story: Man, Water and Map (Source: Google Baba)
Once a man got lost in a desert. The water in his flask had run out two days ago, and he was on his last legs. He knew that if he didn’t get some water soon, he would surely die. The man saw a small hut ahead of him. He thought it would be a mirage or maybe a hallucination, but having no other option, he moved toward it. As he got closer, he realized it was quite real. So, he dragged his tired body to the door with the last of his strength.
The hut was not occupied and seemed like it had been abandoned for quite some time. The man entered into it, hoping against hope that he might find water inside. His heart skipped a beat when he saw what was in the hut – a water hand pump…… It had a pipe going down through the floor, perhaps tapping a source of water deep underground. He began working the hand pump, but no water came out. He kept at it and still nothing happened. Finally, he gave up from exhaustion and frustration. He threw up his hands in despair. It looked as if he was going to die after all.
Then the man noticed a bottle in one corner of the hut. It was filled with water and corked up to prevent evaporation. He uncorked the bottle and was about to gulp down the sweet life-giving water when he noticed a piece of paper attached to it. The handwriting on the paper read:
“Use this water to start the pump. Don’t forget to fill the bottle when you’re done.”
He had a dilemma. He could follow the instructions and pour the water into the pump, or he could ignore it and just drink the water. What to do? If he let the water go into the pump, what assurance did he have that it would work? What if the pump malfunctioned? What if the pipe leaked? What if the underground reservoir had long dried up?
But then… maybe the instruction was correct. Should he risk it? If it turned out to be false, he would be throwing away the last water he would ever see. Hands trembling, he poured the water into the pump. Then he closed his eyes, said a prayer, and started working the pump.
He heard a gurgling sound, and then water came gushing out, more than he could use. He luxuriated in the cool and refreshing stream. He was going to live!
After drinking his fill and feeling much better, he looked around the hut. He found a pencil and a map of the region. The map showed that he was still far away from civilization, but at least now he knew where he was and which direction to go. He filled his flask for the journey ahead. He also filled the bottle and put the cork back in. Before leaving the hut, he added his writing below the instruction:
“Believe me, it works!”
This story is all about life. The Morals teach us that ‘We must GIVE before We can RECEIVE Abundantly’.
More importantly, it also teaches that ‘FAITH plays an important role in GIVING’.
The man did not know if his action would be rewarded, but he proceeded regardless. Without knowing what to expect, he made a Leap of Faith.
Water in this story represents the Good things in Life something that brings a smile to your face. It can be Intangible Knowledge or it can represent Money, Love, Family, Friendship, Happiness, Respect, or any number of other things you Value. Whatever it is that you would like to get out of life, that’s water. The water pump represents the Workings of the Karmic Mechanism.
‘Give it some Water to Work with, and it will RETURN far more than you put in.’
We are all human beings with different positions and statuses in society. During childhood, we teach our children to respect everyone, to wish seniors by folding hands, to touch the feet of the old people, speak with humility. When we grow older, we want people to accept us, we want people to respect us, we want children to bow in front of us, we want people to talk properly and much more.
It happens due to the materialistic things that we acquire in our life. It could be property, power, or position. When we acquire these qualities, we start behaving as per our materialistic position rather than as good human beings.
Example: When we are in school, college or in the early stage of our career, we are more humble, down to earth and respectable to people around us. As we grow older and become rich, famous and powerful, we start expecting people around us to be polite, respectful and pleasant toward us. Moreover, we start becoming more authoritative, demanding and aggressive towards others.
Why does it happen that for a long time, we are being taught and we also follow to be a ‘giver’ but after a certain stage, we only want to ‘Take’?
When we see the nature like sun 🌞, moon 🌝, water 💧, air and trees 🌲; they all are giving to us constantly, irrespective of time or age. Whether we are watering or cutting the tree or not, the tree still offers fruits and shelter to us. Whether we are creating pollution, the sun continues to give us light and energy. For nature, the concept is only to ‘give’ and expect nothing in ‘return’.
How nature may continue to nurture us without any precondition but we are always in the mode of ‘taking’ or we always want to ‘give’ as much as we are ‘receiving’.
Example: During festival season, we gift the same quantity (Say 1 kg.) or amount of gift (Say INR 1000) which we received from our friends or relatives. Our capacity could have been lower or higher but rather than doing things as per our capacity, we tend to copy the other person!
The interesting thing is that we feel that if we continue to ‘give’ instead of thinking about ‘getting’ anything in return, maybe we will be considered fools, ignorant, innocent or immature.
But what is more important for us? When do we feel more empowered when we are giving or taking? Like when we help a blind person to cross the road or we offer food to a poor person, don’t we feel much more peaceful internally and remember it for a long time?
Why do we feel more empowered and peaceful when we help someone? When we support others, first we create that feeling of kindness and innocence inside us and when we give it to others, first, we become happier and more blissful. Similarly, when we stop helping others, we first have to control our emotions, we need to create negative emotions and then we will be able to do that. In a way, we are creating pain internally!
If we can draw a parallel with nature, which never stops giving us, why do we stop our original nature of giving, when the other person is not giving? How we can make the other person more powerful than us, who can change my habit of giving!!
We can be like a flower, which can be offered to a dead body or a person getting married but in both cases, the flower continues to offer its fragrance.