The Monkey Story…
Once upon a time, there was a monkey that lived in the woods just outside the city. Though it could find everything that it needed in the woods, it used to drop into the city for a “snack”, just out of curiosity. On one of its trips, it found a huge pot of peanuts being boiled under a tree.
It’s eyes lit up seeing the catch and immediately jumped to the tree under which the pot was boiling. To its surprise, it also found that no one was really taking care of the pot – they had just left it to boil the peanuts. Slowly descending, the Monkey found a nice shelf off a branch & made itself comfortable. Thanking god for his benevolence, the Monkey bent and took a couple of peanuts & put them into his mouth. And was ecstatic – “what taste, what flavours!!”
It sat there for about half an hour having its fill of the juicy & by-now-tender peanuts. Stomach filled, it let out a deep sigh of satisfaction. And suddenly, the thought occurred – “why shouldn’t it take some peanuts home so that it can have its fill anytime?”
The Monkey was proud of its intelligence and prepared itself for the final assault. Clinging to the branch, it hung low on the branch, put its fist into the pot & grabbed a fist full of peanuts. But much to its chagrin, it found that the more peanuts it tried to fit into its fist, the more peanuts spilled out of the fist.
Morals: Be happy with what you get, There’s only so much that can be done by you, Don’t lose what you’ve got looking for more.
After a while, the Monkey grew tired & decided that it’s going to take what fits into its fist & go. Now there came another problem – when holding so many peanuts, it couldn’t take its fist out of the pot! Earlier, it had been taking just a couple of peanuts and so the hand could easily pass in & out of the pot. Now, with its fist full, the pot’s mouth played truant. The hapless Monkey couldn’t decide what to do – leave the peanuts or take the peanuts.
Morals: Materialistic world binds you down through your attachments to materialistic objects – you have to let go of these attachments to attain salvation, Never take more than what can be managed or you’ll be stuck, Learn when to let it go.
Finally, the Monkey realised that it cannot take a fist full of peanuts and so dropped the peanuts and ran away. But what it thought was that since it knew where the peanuts are boiled, it can at anytime saunter in & have its pick. The ploy worked fine for a while but finally, someone realised that there were peanuts missing all the time. They laid a trap & the Monkey was duly caught & sent to the zoo, where it had to eat what it got.
Morals: Things may work fine for a while but never forever if you do the same thing, Don’t push your luck too much lest it should break.
