Aravind J K:
Short story_Release your cows:
One day, after the Buddha and a group of monks finished eating lunch mindfully together, a farmer, very agitated, came by and asked, “Monks, have you seen my cows? I don’t think I can survive so much misfortune.”
The Buddha asked him, ‘What happened” and the man said, “Monks, this morning all twelve of my cows ran away. And this year my whole crop of sesame plants was eaten by insects!”
The Buddha said, “Sir, we have not seen your cows. Perhaps they have gone in the other direction.”
After the farmer went off in that direction, the Buddha turned to his Sangha and said, “Dear friends, do you know you are the happiest people on Earth? You have no cows or sesame plants to lose.” We always try to accumulate more and more, and we think these ‘cows’ are essential for our existence. In fact, they may be the obstacles that prevent us from being happy. Release your cows and become a free person. Release your cows so you can be truly happy”.[1]
Buddha was a wise man as he prevented the creation of problem itself by releasing the cows, which he did not need.
He explained that our problems are due to excessive accumulation of wealth, which becomes the source of our troubles rather than becoming the source of joy.He explained that the root of our problems is desire. Unless we are able to manage our desires, we can’t manage our life.
A farmer could be at the best a smart person, if he can manage his cows well. He has no wisdom to identify the root of the problem and hence he tries to maximize his happiness by accumulating more wealth than he would ever need and trying to manage it well.
The famous management Guru Peter Drucker said this very wisely, “There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all.”
