|
|
 |
  |
| Sunday, 11 July 2004 |
 |
|
 |
Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
The bowl of soup Sunday parable by Professor Sunanda Mahendra 'Do you know the parable of the gods and human' asked my friend who had come from abroad to teach us on matters relating to social development.
`Then you must teach this to your project members'. `First of all I wish to know the parable' I said. Then he started narrating it out. This is how I understood it. "The God who leads a happy and contented life wanted to know how earthlings of our calibre live. When he sent his representative to earth, he reported back to say that, Humans don't understand each other. They are selfish and even if they are like minded, they wish to abide by their own habit formations." But I should gauge it for myself said the God and sent a big bowl of most nutritious as well as most aromatic soup prepared in the heavenly kitchen. "Get a group of community leaders and ask them to sit around a table. Place this big bowl of soup in the middle of the table. Then give each of them these long spoons or ladles. Ask them to taste this heavenly soup". The messenger from heaven took the bowl of soup, the ladles, and placed it in the middle of the table. Then he handed over ladles to those community leaders who sat around the table, with the bowl of soup in the middle. They could not resist the temptation of tasting the heavenly soup. Each one of them tried to take a spoonful of soup from the bowl. But the spoon or the ladle was too long that it was impossible for them to take it to the corner of their mouths. It was a frustraining attempt at tasting the soup. The leaders tried their best to get the soup from the bowl and taste it but the spoon was the problem. The soup was spilled all over the table. Nobody found it easy to taste it. Then they pleaded with god. "Oh God you have been so good as to send us a big bowl of soup. But you have failed to send us the correct spoon. So how are we to taste your soup. God watching them from the heaven felt sorry for the earthly humans, who failed to taste the soup. But he laughed loudly to the extent that the sound reverberated to the four corners. Not only community leaders but also the other members of the community were stunned. "I am sending you some of the members from heaven to replace you. You are requested to watch how they partake of the soup' said God. The community leaders watched while the scene changed from one to another. A new bowl of soup was placed, when several heavenly bodies descended and sat around the table, longer spoons were provided surprisingly enough, the heavenly bodies stood up and each took a spoon. One person on one side of the table put the spoon into the bowl, took a spoonful of soup, and fed a person on the other side. That person who stood on the other side did the same to the person on the opposite side. In this manner, it was a session of one feeding another, as this spoon was too long. Thus the heavenly bodies were seen tasting the soup to their hearts content. 'Oh they are not feeding themselves, instead feeding others by their spoon, and getting fed by others. In the end they enjoy the soup feast' murmured the frustrated humans, while learning a lesson from the heavenly bodies.' "This is what you call mutual inspiration without frustration' said God sending another bowl of soup to the humans. The humans for the first time in their lives, detected and found the value of mutual sharing. They highest value of being like minded. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
`I am sorry I don't know' I said.
