ALL THAT HAPPENS IS
FOR GOOD
Once upon a time,
there was a king. He had a wise minister whom he liked much. One day they went
into the forest to hunt. Though they went deep into the forest, they did not
see any wild beast to hunt it was getting dark and soon they lost their way.
They were tired and dejected.While wandering in the dark, the king stumbled on
a sharp stone and broke the little toe of his right foot. .!’. The king was now
reeling with pain. To pacify the king, the minister said ‘Sir, All that happens
is for good’. When he heard the remarks of the minister, the king became
furious! ‘You are an ungrateful fellow,
instead of sympathizing, you are joking, and I will punish you.’ So saying the
king pushed the minister in to an old dry well nearby, and went further alone
into the darkness. Soon he saw some light in the distance .and started moving
in that direction. To his surprise, he saw some savages coming towards him...
As soon as the savages saw him, they jumped on him, overpowered and tied him with
ropes. His protests saying he was a king had no effect on the captors. They
could not understand his tongue.
They dragged him to a
clearing in the jungle where a festival appeared to be in progress At the
centre of a large gathering there was an idol of a deity and seated in front,
was a fierce looking person, apparently their leader. A priest was getting
ready for giving a sacrifice to the deity. As soon as the prisoner (our king)
was dragged in, there was a great rejoicing in the crowd. It was clear that
they were all waiting to witness the prisoner to be sacrificed to the deity.
The savage chief gave orders to behead the prisoner as a sacrifice to please
the deity. The prisoner was made to
kneel in front of the deity, the executioner lifted an axe. The prisoner
realized his life was coming to an end. At that moment the priest shouted;” Our
deity will not accept an imperfect person as sacrifice. Let us first make sure
the prisoner is free from defect in all limbs”. A soldier was asked to carefully
check the prisoner from head to foot limb by limb. He checked the prisoner limb
by limb and declared he was perfect The crowd was cheering at each
announcement. At last when he came to the right foot, , he noticed that the
little toe was missing When he announced it, the priest declared the prisoner was
not fit for sacrifice and cannot be
offered to the deity. The crowd which was waiting to see the sacrifice followed
by a grand feast, let out a moan of disappointment! The Savage Chief
reluctantly ordered the release of the prisoner, who had considered himself to
be dead.
It was with grate joy
that the prisoner-our king, started back. It was then that he remembered that,
had he not lost his little toe, by now he would have been dead! Yes, what the
minister told was true; his loosing a little toe had saved his life and turned
out to be for his good in the end. Then he remembered he had unjustly punished
his wise minister, he was very sorry. He hurried back to the old well.
In the meanwhile, the
minister also was undergoing fear and agony, The minister who was at the bottom
of the dry well, was groping in the dark for some creeper or tree branch to
pull himself out of the well. It was then that he heard a tiger roaring. When
he looked up, he could see faintly, a tiger peering into the well. The tiger
had smelled a human pray. The minister reasoned, even if he pulled himself out
of the well, he would fall a pray to the tiger and he was sure to die. He
decided to wait for the dawn. He was wondering what could be the fate of the
poor king who was all-alone in the dark infested forest. After a long wait, during
which, he occasionally heard the growl of the tiger, he heard the footsteps of
someone coming towards the well... He was glad somebody might be coming to his
rescue.
, The tiger saw the
king with his sword approaching the well; it got frightened and ran away... The
king saw the minister huddled below and pulled him out of the well. The
minister said;” Sir, you must have had a tough time in the night. I am sorry I
could not be of help to you.” The king was ashamed for his haughtiness towards
such a faithful minister. He recounted all that had happened and how he
narrowly escaped death, and said.” What you told is very true. All that
happened was for good; if I had not lost my little toe, I would have been
sacrificed to the deity. I am sorry I unnecessarily punished you by pushing you
in to the well.” The minister replied, ”Even that was a boon. If you had not
pushed me into the well, I would have been a pray to either the tiger or the
deity”.
While they were
talking thus, the day had dawned and the King’s soldiers had come in search of
them. They had a happy union, and returned to the palace. Next day the king
called the Assembly and recounted all that had happened. He praised the wisdom
of the minister and honored him.
All that happens is for good.
One should not get
dejected and loose his cool if some unpleasant thing happens, but move on with
courage and hope.
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