An old man in the village used to earn some pennies from the busy women by washing clothes.
He would make his way round the village each morning with his donkey,
Collecting the bundles of clothing from each hut and then,
When the donkey was loaded high and weighed down low,
They would make the two-mile walk to the river to wash and dry everything.
When they got to the stream,
He would tie up the donkey in the shade under a mango tree,
Where it would rest,
And he could spend the rest of the day washing and then hanging everything out to dry.
Once finished,
The man would load up the donkey,
And they would make the long journey back to the village and deliver everything.
It worked very well.
They took care of each other.
One day,
When they arrived to the river,
Where the man always worked,
He realised he'd forgotten the rope he used to tie the donkey to the mango tree.
Without tying the donkey up,
It would wander away,
The work would be ruined,
And he'd see no pennies that day.
Panicking,
The man sees a local fisherman and tells him of his problem.
Yes,
Said the fisherman,
You know that you have no rope,
But the donkey is none the wiser.
If you go through the motions of tying the animal to the tree,
Exactly as you always do,
Exactly as you always do,
The donkey will be content and assume his usual place in the ritual.
He will be happy under the shade of that mango tree.
The old man was sceptical,
But had no other option.
So he did just as the fisherman told him,
Acting out the motions of tying the rope with his empty hands.
When he was done,
He would make sure to constantly check on the donkey to see if it realised,
And then he got to work washing and drying the heavy bundles of clothing.
While the donkey rested beneath that mango tree,
In the whole day the donkey didn't move from its place,
Not even once.
After a long day,
The old man loaded all the fresh cleaned garments onto the donkey's back in bundles and went to lead the donkey home,
But it wouldn't move.
It would not budge,
Not an inch.
He tried and tried to push and pull the animal,
But it simply would not move.
Leaning over his shoulder,
The old man spied the fisherman,
Calmly surveying the river,
Worried that he would arrive late for his pennies.
The old man rushed over to the fisherman to ask what he should do,
Why.
Untie the donkey,
Of course,
Said the fisherman.
The donkey is no fool.
To him,
You have tied him to a tree.
It is impossible for him to move unless you untie him too,
Is it not?
And so,
Rushing back to the donkey,
The old man goes through the motions of untying the imaginary rope,
And the animal immediately raises itself to its feet and begins the walk home.
Question,
And continue to question,
Everything.
The more you take things for granted,
The more others will trick you out of life's adventure,
Out of your freedom.
The Rig Veda says,
An ignorant person can never attain knowledge unless the flame of knowledge is enkindled in his mind.
To what are you?
None the wiser,
My friend.
Thank you.
