Moral Stories:

This incident took place about two thousand five hundred years ago. One day, a few friends of Vardhaman, the prince of Vaishali, came to see him. They saw Vardhaman's mother, Queen Trishala, on the ground floor, who was busy with her chores. Vardhaman was not there. So they asked his mother, "Where is Vardhaman?"

Trishala replied, "He is upstairs."

The palace had seven floors. The children rushed up to the top floor. There they met Vardhaman's father, King Siddharth, busy with his work. Not seeing Vardhaman there, they asked the king, "Where is Vardhaman?"

King Siddharth replied, "Downstairs."

The children were puzzled. They searched all the floors of the palace. Finally, they found Vardhaman on the fourth floor. The children were very happy to see their friend. They gathered around Prince Vardhaman and related the incident to him. They said, "Vardhaman, we are bewildered about one thing. On the ground floor, when we asked your mother where you were, she said that you were upstairs. On the top floor, your father said that you were downstairs. How can both statements be correct?"

Prince Vardhaman thought for a moment. Then pointing to a crow sitting on a tree branch, he asked, "What color is the crow?"

All replied in one voice, "Black."

Vardhaman said, "Yes, but the crow is red as well as white."

"No, no, it is black," shouted the children.

Vardhaman said, "You are all right. The body of the crow is black. But the crow is also red because of the color of its blood and it is also white because its bones are white. My mother was on the ground floor, so she told you that I was upstairs. My father was on the top floor, so he said that I was downstairs. Both gave the correct statements from their respective standpoints. Every thing has a number of different aspects and to explore the truth, we should look at it from different viewpoints. This is the means to unravel the truth."

Later, Prince Vardhaman became TEERTHANKAR Mahaveer.

Once upon a time, there was a king who was hedonistic. He indulged in excessive drinking, sensual pleasures and other such vices. He would tell his prime minister, "One does not get born as a human very often. So one should pursue material comforts and sensual pleasures. One should enjoy life to the fullest."

The prime minister was a sensible and decent person. He was concerned about the untoward, wild activities of the king and was pained by his disposition. Whenever he had an opportunity, he would try to counsel the king. But to no avail. The king did not understand. When the king was intoxicated, he could not discriminate between right and wrong. He would mistreat the public. People lived in terror. The king was extremely cruel and so no one dared to open his mouth.

One day, just by chance, the king was extremely pleased by some action of the prime minister. As a reward, he gave the prime minister a very expensive shawl. Soon after leaving the court, the prime minister used the shawl to clean his nose.

A courtier who was jealous of the prime minister happened to see this improper gesture. He went to the king and reported, "Your highness, today the prime minister has made an extremely disrespectful gesture."

The king asked, "What?"

The courtier said, "Your honor rewarded the prime minister with an invaluable shawl. However, he depreciated your kind gesture by blowing his nose into it."

The king promptly summoned the prime minister. He said, "How could you dare to insult me by blowing your nose into the expensive shawl I give you?"

With due respect, the prime minister replied, "Your highness, I have only followed what you have taught me."

"I schooled you to show disrespect?" the king retorted, "How?"

The prime minister said, "You have been blessed with human life that is considerably more valuable than this shawl. However, the way you are whiling away your time in pursuit of creature comforts without any regard to decency and morality has taught me to misuse the shawl."

The prime minister hit the target. The king realized his mistake. His life and kingdom were changed for good.

This is a true story of Gandhi's Ashram at Sevagram. One day, Mahatma Gandhi went for his morning walk. Some of his disciples were with him. Suddenly, he noticed a long piece of cotton on the ground. He motioned to a woman, who was walking with him, to pick up the piece of cotton.

On returning to his cottage, Mahatma Gandhi remembered the incident. He summoned the woman who he had asked to pick up the piece of cotton, and asked her to bring it to him.

The woman was bewildered and said, "Bapu, I thought you had asked me to pick up that cotton to clear the path. So I threw it in the trash can."

Mahatma Gandhi was dismayed and visibly disturbed. He said to the woman, "If you had picked up some money lying in the street, would you throw it in the trash?"

She replied, "No."

Mahatma Gandhi explained, "That piece of cotton was also money. You should learn to recognize real wealth. The one who threw away that piece of cotton without spinning it into yarn, indeed discarded wealth. When I asked you to pick it up, you also could not understand its value. Please go and bring it to me. Remember that we make wealth through labor and putting wealth to proper use is our duty."

In another instance, Mahatma Gandhi had remarked, "If we can not take care of a small thing, how on earth can we safeguard our free nation?"

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