People in a beautiful village situated on the banks of a river were known for their simplicity and hard work. There lived a girl in this village, whose name was Riya. Although Riya was very intelligent, polite and hardworking, but she had one flaw. She did every work with the aim of getting the praise of others. She would be happy only if her work was appreciated. Whereas if no one paid attention to his work, he would feel disappointed. One day a science exhibition was announced in his school. The Principal asked the children to prepare their respective projects. Riya worked hard and made a beautiful water cycle model. He thought, “This time I will be praised a lot.”
On the day of the exhibition, he kept his model decorated, but the crowd of people ignored him and went to another child’s science experiment. Riya’s model was lying intact in a corner. She became sad, tears came to her eyes. He felt that all his hard work had gone in vain. She was sitting with her head bowed when suddenly Ramu Baba, the oldest man of the village, who was known for his knowledge and experience, came to her. He asked Riya, “Daughter, why are you crying?” Riya sobbed and said, “Baba, I made such a beautiful model, but no one even saw it. What is the use of such hard work, if people do not praise it?” Baba smiled and said, “Come, come with me.” They took him to a nearby well. There he lit the lamp and said, “Daughter, look at this lamp. Is it burning so that someone can praise it? No, it is burning because its very nature is to give light. Whether anyone sees it or not, it always keeps performing its duty.”
Riya started looking at Deepak very carefully. Baba said, “Similarly, man’s duty is to bring perfection and truthfulness in his work. If we do every work only for praise, our mind will become dependent on the outside world, but if we work for our inner satisfaction i.e. to give our best, our hard work will never go in vain.” He looked at Riya’s model carefully and said, “It is very beautiful and useful, but the real value lies in your hard work and willingness to learn, not in the applause of others.”
It seemed as if someone had lit the lamp of knowledge in Riya’s dark mind. She understood that true happiness comes from devotion and diligence in one’s efforts, not from external praise. She smiled and said, “Now I will do everything to give my best, not to show off to people and get their praise.” After the exhibition ended, when the school teachers evaluated all the models, they found that Riya’s model was the most accurate and beautiful. As a result he got the first prize. But this time the reason for Riya’s happiness was not the award, but the fact that she had learned to light the lamp of the inner soul. – Shishir Shukla, Shahjahanpur.
