Next morning both were
on their way to the temple on the top of the hill. And outside the temple in
small saucers made of dried banyan tree leaf were these small yellow balls,
with cracked brown shells. These are roasted grams; the humans roast it with
salt and that make it the heavenly treat. His friend whispered in his ear, as
both walked gingerly, towards the priced find. Being monkeys, moving with that
gait was obviously unreal, but they wanted to pick the heavenly goodness before
the humans chase them away. The roasted grams were kept; to be bought by worshippers
as an offering to the goddess inside the temple.
They pounced and grabbed
1 cup each and dashed, scattering more than half of the contents hurriedly. He
tasted and as his friend has predicted; he was hooked to the taste. And then
this became almost an everyday trip to temple, grab and scatter; get chased all
the way to the thick woods and then sit on a high branch to enjoy the goodies.
A few days later, seemingly the humans gave up and started keeping a few
saucers of grams at a little distance from their shops so that the monkeys can
grab those without disturbing the shop settings. But little did the monkeys
know that with ease comes greed and with greed comes problems.
A few days went past,
and the monkeys were getting used to daily treat of roasted grams and were
thankful to the humans and the Goddess of the temple.
One day when he was taking his regular trip to temple, as he stepped out of the thick woods, he saw there was a big wooden box sitting on the ground. He moved close to see, to see. Monkeys are inquisitive by nature. When he peeked inside the box from the hole on the top, he knew it was his prayers being heard; his dreams came true. The box was filled with grams, roasted to perfection, so he can get those from here without having to go all the way to the temple, he thought. And this box will last him weeks. He quickly slid his right hand through the hole and grabbed a handful of grams in it. There was another hole right next; he slid his left hand and filled another fistful
As he tried to pull his
hands out, he realized that the holes were to small to let a fist full of grams
to slide out. He was annoyed, how can these humans be so clumsy. He tried to
yank his hand out, but the fist was too big for the hole, he tried his left
hand, but the same thing. He was upset and angry and tried to pull harder. But
the fists were stuck. For a moment his mind thought that he can open his fist
and pull his hand out, but that will mean losing the grams. He rejected the
thought as soon as it came to his mind. How could he lose the treasure that was
granted to him? He tried and tried to pull his fists out. But will not lose
even one roasted gram from his grip. A few hours went past; his hands were
hurting, his wrists aching, and he was extremely tired and annoyed. But he was
committed to not lose his treasure.
By the time it started
getting bit dark, he was too tired to stay alert; but will not lose his grip.
How could he, and then a few men came out of nowhere. The shopkeeper from the
temple was leading them; he was hoping that he is rescued; but in a flash the
dangerous looking man from mid of the bunch, placed a collar around his neck.
What was that? He was
confused and upset at what was happening; not realizing that he has lost his
freedom; to roam in the woods and was held captive by the monkey charmer. His
mom’s caution flashed in his mind, “beware of the tricks of madaari” Now he
knew. (Madaari is the hindi word for monkey charmer)
The monkey was enslaved by the Madaari. He lost his freedom and he realized; it was not the madaari who played the trick; it was his own greed that enslaved him. But it was too late and he may not be even able to warn his friends of that. Ashamed and restrained with a collar tied to a large rope he followed the madari to his fate, that his own greed had written.
GREED
ENSLAVES
PS: Ambition and Greed are very different things so let us not confuse the two, above story is about greed and not about ambition
