Let us fashion life into a statue!

In the foothills of a mountain there were two big boulders, languishing and wondering when they would be released from the beating rain, the bleaching sun… A town was thriving nearby.

The city sculptors came to the mountain looking for suitable boulders for fashioning idols for the new temple. The two big rocks became the cynosure of the sculptors. They inspected the rocks, expressed satisfaction, applied markings and left. The first boulder, thrilled at the prospect of release from the present existence, exclaimed happiness.

The second boulder went into deep depression and was seething with anger, telling the first boulder, “You are an ignoramus. Don’t you know they will carry you to the temple, poke you with crowbars, and carve you with chisels and other instruments of hellish torture.

The first boulder retorted, “Let them carve me to make an idol. I lose being a boulder and gain being an idol. Where there is a gain there is a concurrent loss. Therefore, I bear the loss and the infliction of pain.

The second boulder said, “As you please! I am not yielding one inch. I stay put here like a stubborn mule.”

The first boulder said, “It is your body, mind and soul. Please yourself. I am not resisting the sculptor or the carving chisel.”

The sculptors came. The first rock, the workers loaded on a vehicle. The 2^nd boulder, stubborn by nature, did not yield or move one inch. They left it in place and went back to the town with the first rock. The sculptors worked on the first rock, chiseled and carved it; out emerged a beautiful idol of a deity waiting for Kumbabishekam and Prāṇapratishṭha (Consecration and Infusion of Breath). All visitors and devotees paid homage and worshipped the erstwhile rock. The second rock was in the wilderness, stubborn as ever.

If we were to hesitate to undergo trials and tribulations, we will be like the second rock, useless and stubborn. If we face life events with faith, confidence, firm mind, and strong will, the experiences will shape our life and our future will be great.

செங்கமலக்கண்ணன்

Senkamalakkannan