There was a very skilled sculptor, who used to make beautiful sculptures by collecting stones from the mountains. One day he went into the forest and found two big stones. He thought, with these I will make two great works of art. He started hitting the first stone with his chisel. As soon as the first blow occurred, a painful groan came from within the stone – “Stop! I am in great pain.”
Please don’t attack me, let me be as I am.” The sculptor was kind, he left the stone. He went to the other stone. When he started working on it, even the stone was trembling, but he did not say a word. The sculptor continued to carve it. After weeks of hard work, bruising and abrasion, that simple stone took the form of a very beautiful statue of a boy playing a flute.
After some time, a grand temple was built near that forest. The sculptor installed the idol of the ‘boy playing the flute’ in the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. People started coming from far and wide to see the beauty of that idol and have darshan. Then the temple staff realized that there was a need for a stone at the entrance of the temple, on which people could take off their shoes and slippers. The sculptor remembered that he had left a stone in the middle of the forest. He picked it up and placed it near the stairs of the temple.
One night, when the doors of the temple were closed, the stone placed below asked the idol sitting above – “What kind of injustice is this? We were both pieces of the same mountain, brought here on the same day, but today people are worshiping you, garlanding you with flowers, and leaving after dusting me off. Why is this?”
Murthy replied very politely – “Friend, remember the day when the artist first hit you. You refused to fight to avoid pain and chose to remain in the same state in which you were. I endured every blow, considered every wound as my progress and allowed myself to be carved. Today I am being worshiped because I showed the courage to bear the ‘hurt’ and you are being used as a foothold because you put comfort above development.”
The lesson learned from the story is that the difficulties and struggles in life are actually God’s ‘chisel and hammer’, which are carving us into a better person. If we run away from today’s struggle, we will never be able to reach the heights of tomorrow.
-Pramod Srivastava
