In a beautiful forest of Gandharva, there was a small beautiful lake. By the lake lived a talkative Tortoise and his two geese friends. The tortoise would talk all day long with anyone- from tiny ants to giant elephants. The geese were quieter with calmer spirits. The three friends lived together joyfully.
One summer, it did not rain at all and they noticed that the water in the lake was drying up. Many animals in the forest were leaving the forest in search of water.
The Geese decided to leave too. With a heavy heart, they came to say goodbye to the tortoise. “But why are you leaving me here?” he asked
“Without water, there soon won’t be any fish in the lake. What would I eat? I will leave with you two.” “We would love to take you along,” one of the geese said sadly. “But you cannot fly. How will you come with us?”
“Oh, that’s not a problem. We just have to find a sturdy log of wood. You hold the log with your beaks and fly. I will hold on to the wood with my mouth. That way we can all leave together,” the tortoise said.
The Geese worriedly said, “That’s a nice plan. But you love to talk. When we are up in the air you can’t open your mouth.”
The tortoise laughed, “I can keep quiet when it’s important. Let’s go guys! It’ll be fun.”
The three friends left the next morning. The tortoise was excited. He had lived all his life on the ground. Now he could see mountains from a height. Even the tall elephants looked tiny from the sky. He wanted to discuss all this with his friends. But remembering the geese’s words, he kept his mouth shut.
The three soon passed over a village. The villagers had seen geese fly before. But never had they seen geese flying with a log of wood between their beaks.
“What is that?” the villagers shouted, “Is that a ball they are carrying?” asked one villager.
“No, no. It’s a bundle of clothes,” shouted another. “Hey, what will geese do with clothes,” laughed another.
The tortoise was tempted to speak. “What are these villagers blabbering?” he said out aloud.
But the moment he opened his mouth, he dropped straight to the ground. He hit his head on a rock and fell unconscious.
When he opened his eyes, he saw the two geese standing near him. Seeing the tortoise’s confusion, one of the geese spoke, “You fell when you opened your mouth even though we had asked you to keep it shut.”
“Thank GOD that you fell in a lake and didn’t die.” The Tortoise looked around. They were at a beautiful lake.
“I think this is a nice place to call home, isn’t it?” the geese asked him. The tortoise had learnt his lesson. He simply nodded without opening his mouth.
The END
Discussion Points
1: Our tongue is our biggest asset and biggest liability. It is said that physical wounds can heal in months but wound done by hurtful words take years to heal...
2: Silence is very essential practice for spiritual progress. It is all about control of mind over the senses. Starting at silence of tongue, we need to progress toward silencing our senses where we control our senses to not drive our body at their will and slowly we should silence the mind while it continues uselessly chattering the whole day.
3: This story shows the importance of having right company and right friends... They are always to ready to go to whatever extent to help you. On spiritual path, we need to choose right company who encourages us to move on right path. If we have wrong company, they will take us away from out path. Right company protects us and brings the best out of us.
This is the reason why all the great gurus laid importance on having Sat-sang... Company of right people..
4: Why is silence so important? The Mind chatter we have is like the cloud we have in the sky and when we have the cloudy Sky, the sunlight cannot reach the earth and the proper growth of the plants cannot take place. Similarly with the chatter, our mind gets clouded and with the practice of silence the light of intellect can reach our mind and we can use it for finding solutions for a problem. To keep our mind less cloudy, we need to practice silence periodically.
STORY CREDIT: STORY CREDIT: This Story has its source in Panchtantra by Vishnu Sharma. The Panchtantra means five books. It is possibly the oldest surviving collection of Indian fables having been written around 200 BC.
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