A short tempered man in the Song Dynasty in China was very anxious to grow his rice crop quickly. He thought about this day and night; but the crop grew much slower than he expected. One day, he plucked up his entire crop a few inches. Even though he was very tired after doing this for a whole day, he felt very happy since the crop did 'grow' higher. His son heard about this and went to see the crop. Unfortunately the leaves of the crop had begun to wither. Then on, the proverb 'plucking up a crop to help it grow' is said to have been in use. This proverb says that we have to let things go in its natural course.
In a world in which time and space are crushed shorter and shorter, we also keep plucking crops to help it grow and there begins the fall of humanity. Each child born is assigned a future….doctor, engineer, scientist, priest…so goes. The stream is carefully chosen from the list of categories the society has gracefully set, and the child is compelled to suppress those hidden talents within, that could have made him/her a genius. Instead of letting the inherent aptitudes to blossom through the given environment and thus nourishing own individuality, we choose to play with personality the way society wants it to be. Neither we have the ‘infinite patience’ that nature demands nor do we have any regard for the growing child.
We so cruelly spoil the generation, letting their inner self continue with terrible clash between child-adult-parent attitudes and more important of all, detaining them from the very purpose he/she is born to serve. Who among us will trust the Universe, which by all measures keep each of us right in the centre of it? Who among us will experience the truth that the whole Universe is there, just for you?
I remember the story of a loving Dad and son. The son sent an email to his father: ‘Dear Dad, Berlin is wonderful, people are nice and I really like it here, but Dad, I am bit ashamed to arrive at my college on my Gold Mercedes, when all my Teachers travel by train. Your loving son’. The same day he got the reply mail, ‘Loving son, Twenty Million Dollars transferred to your account, please stop embarrassing us, go and get yourself a train too. Your Dad’. New Age parents living with ‘uncommon senses’ unknowingly keep plucking up their children to help them grow. It may take some time for them to see their dreams tumbling down one by one….. Why not we realise this a little early?
