In one of our recent literary meetings, a writer friend mentioned that one NGO from Andhra Pradesh had got four lakh copies of both Ramayana and Mahabharata published to be distributed amongst school children – he said to control the massive erosion of values in society, the knowledge and wisdom assured by our scriptural wealth must be disseminated abundantly.
Though our societies are in a continual flux, the messages in our mythology are not time bound, so, they will help our children to know the meaning of life and living. A good book will serve as an axe for the frozen sea within us – imagine how much of good our ancient timeless literature can do to our young ones’ minds?” he said emphatically.
On my way back home, his words kept ringing in my ears. Yes, The need of the hour is not to make our children feel pressured with heavy stuff of moral policing and corporal punishment, but the eternal truths and values must be conveyed to them subtly through impressive short anecdotal stories from scriptures and mythology.
“Garuda, the celestial eagle, the mount of Lord Vishnu, had a brother Aruna, who had two sons by the names Sampati and Jatayu, who used to fly far and wide in the heavenly skies.
One day, while on a flying sortie, they both flew very close to the Sun and as a result when both were about to get scorched, Sampati, being the elder brother, covered his brother with his wings and bore the brunt , and instantly lost his wings to the mighty solar heat. Both the brothers were hurled down with such force, that they were separated since then.
As Sampati lay crippled, sans wings and support, it was his son , Suparsva, who used to fetch him food and feed him every day, which act helped Sampati sustain and live till that day when he could help the monkey search team looking for Sita Devi, by giving the information about her whereabouts” – a major role he had played there.
The points being conveyed through the story are – love between brothers, how the older brother felt responsible to save his younger brother, how a son felt the need to feed his crippled father. When birds, the raptor variety could have such feelings, how come we born as human beings fight and kill our own brethren, how come we desert our parents to die their own death in hunger, disease and hopelessness?
Let us teach our children those aspects that show the meaning of life and joys of living, let us teach them to fight with their inner demons of greed, lust and injustice and, let us hope that a day will dawn when we don’t read news of chained fathers and abused sisters…
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