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Story : "... Because I know the CEO and the Chairman."
Disclaimer and Image-credit : I do not intend to harm any person, group, or their beliefs and ideologies with this story which is totally fictional along with all its characters. Any resemblance of the fictional characters of this story to any real-life characters are purely coincidental. The image above was created by a certain chatbot as per my instructions.
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There lived a cunnning ritualist in a small Indian town. Ritualist (who is called ‘कर्म-कांडी - ‘Karma-Kaandi’ in Hindi) is a person heavily inclined towards the ritualistic portions of the Vedas.
Vedas are the most fundamental scriptures in Hinduism out of which most of the other Hindu scriptures have branched, as opposed to a Vedantin who emphasises the ‘Upanishadic’ portions of the Vedas (over its ritualist portions), dealing with very deeply spiritual and metaphysical concepts.
Upanishads, being highly egalitarian in nature, are in reality accessible to all the humans around the world, from all walks of life, though in the past certain elite classes and castes of hindus prohibited masses from learning sanskrit or understanding vedic scriptures.
So despite Hindu scriptures warning against creating an occupation or a business out of the Vedic rituals and astrology (or anything else), not only did this ritualist charged money in lieu of offering his services; he had became an affluent big name in the town, known for his arrogant, yet subtle casteist behaviour.
Because he was shrewd in figuring out the psychologies of his townsfolk, very subtly he used to instil fears and superstitions in their mind, forcing them to take his advice and pay him money for performing various rituals.
One day there was a huge convention in this town in which most of the townspeople had gathered for a certain ceremony, including the ritualist. While sitting among others he heard a group of townsmen talking with a certain youth in his early twenties, who appeared to be from outta town.
From what the ritualist could comprehend; he came to a conclusion that the youth was a troubled bachelor facing many difficulties. Taking this as an opportunity to fool him and earn money; he eavesdropped on where that group was conversing, under the pretext of casually meeting them.
Since most of the people in that town knew the ritualist, they warmly greeted him in their talk and introduced him to the youth. As the conversation progressed further, one of the people requested the ritualist to provide a solution for all the troubles of that bachelor.
Immediately, showing a fake concern the ritualist asked various details from the youth. He also asked whether the youth had his horoscope (called ‘Kundli’ in Hindi) and his birthmark (called ‘Janmakshar’ in Hindi). Luckily, the youth had digital copies of those documents stored in his smartphone.
After reading that man's documents for many minutes, very carefully the ritualist said, “My son, you are in a very grave situation. Planet Mars (known as ‘Mangal-Graha’ in Hindi) and planet Saturn (known as ‘Shani-Graha’ in Hindi) are both heavy on you”.
“To remove their shadow upon you, you need to appease them by obeying various rituals and prayers. You'll also have to buy and wear a ring containing various gems. Ultimately, you will have to allow me to perform a certain ‘Yajna’ (fire-ritual) for permanently solving your problems.”
Later it was revealed that the man was an educated working professional from a neighbouring town. With a faint smile he replied, “With respect, I don't understand how Mars and Saturn, being lifeless, non-living celestial bodies, light-years away from Earth, can influence a petty human such as me, living on Earth?”
“This is the problem with today's younger generation of our country…” the ritualist argued, due to his ego being hurt.
“...You work in a multinational corporation, right?” He continued bashing and lecturing that man, “So you must be well-aware about the code of conduct in your company”.
“Didn't your HR manager tell you to have good relations with all your seniors and managers, otherwise they'd grow bitter on you?”.
“Similarly, think of our Universe as the biggest organisation we have, and Demigod-Mars (called ‘Mangal-Deva’ in Hindi) alongwith Demigod-Saturn (called ‘Shani-Dev’ in Hindi) are our seniors whom we need to appease.”
On hearing the ritualist's silly claims, the youth couldn't help but laugh and say, “I agree my Sir that our Universe is the biggest organisation in existence. But if I personally know both the CEO and Chairman of this organisation, why would I bother with all the low-level managers? “
Very angrily the ritualist objected and said, “What rubbish are you talking about? Who is your CEO and Chairman?”
Immediately that youngster retorted-back, “Well, Sir the CEO is Narayana, and the Chairman is Shiva”.
All the people sitting there were shocked when they heard this young man. For the first time the ritualist was left speechless due to his arrogance, his ignorance being crushed by a truly, devout Hindu. For the first-time the ritualist contemplated on this own beliefs, his interpretations of the Hindu scriptures, and his actions.
© Kishan Trivedi
#lessonlearned #humour #casteism #superstition #LordKrishna/Vishnu #shiva #India #writcostory
____________________________
There lived a cunnning ritualist in a small Indian town. Ritualist (who is called ‘कर्म-कांडी - ‘Karma-Kaandi’ in Hindi) is a person heavily inclined towards the ritualistic portions of the Vedas.
Vedas are the most fundamental scriptures in Hinduism out of which most of the other Hindu scriptures have branched, as opposed to a Vedantin who emphasises the ‘Upanishadic’ portions of the Vedas (over its ritualist portions), dealing with very deeply spiritual and metaphysical concepts.
Upanishads, being highly egalitarian in nature, are in reality accessible to all the humans around the world, from all walks of life, though in the past certain elite classes and castes of hindus prohibited masses from learning sanskrit or understanding vedic scriptures.
So despite Hindu scriptures warning against creating an occupation or a business out of the Vedic rituals and astrology (or anything else), not only did this ritualist charged money in lieu of offering his services; he had became an affluent big name in the town, known for his arrogant, yet subtle casteist behaviour.
Because he was shrewd in figuring out the psychologies of his townsfolk, very subtly he used to instil fears and superstitions in their mind, forcing them to take his advice and pay him money for performing various rituals.
One day there was a huge convention in this town in which most of the townspeople had gathered for a certain ceremony, including the ritualist. While sitting among others he heard a group of townsmen talking with a certain youth in his early twenties, who appeared to be from outta town.
From what the ritualist could comprehend; he came to a conclusion that the youth was a troubled bachelor facing many difficulties. Taking this as an opportunity to fool him and earn money; he eavesdropped on where that group was conversing, under the pretext of casually meeting them.
Since most of the people in that town knew the ritualist, they warmly greeted him in their talk and introduced him to the youth. As the conversation progressed further, one of the people requested the ritualist to provide a solution for all the troubles of that bachelor.
Immediately, showing a fake concern the ritualist asked various details from the youth. He also asked whether the youth had his horoscope (called ‘Kundli’ in Hindi) and his birthmark (called ‘Janmakshar’ in Hindi). Luckily, the youth had digital copies of those documents stored in his smartphone.
After reading that man's documents for many minutes, very carefully the ritualist said, “My son, you are in a very grave situation. Planet Mars (known as ‘Mangal-Graha’ in Hindi) and planet Saturn (known as ‘Shani-Graha’ in Hindi) are both heavy on you”.
“To remove their shadow upon you, you need to appease them by obeying various rituals and prayers. You'll also have to buy and wear a ring containing various gems. Ultimately, you will have to allow me to perform a certain ‘Yajna’ (fire-ritual) for permanently solving your problems.”
Later it was revealed that the man was an educated working professional from a neighbouring town. With a faint smile he replied, “With respect, I don't understand how Mars and Saturn, being lifeless, non-living celestial bodies, light-years away from Earth, can influence a petty human such as me, living on Earth?”
“This is the problem with today's younger generation of our country…” the ritualist argued, due to his ego being hurt.
“...You work in a multinational corporation, right?” He continued bashing and lecturing that man, “So you must be well-aware about the code of conduct in your company”.
“Didn't your HR manager tell you to have good relations with all your seniors and managers, otherwise they'd grow bitter on you?”.
“Similarly, think of our Universe as the biggest organisation we have, and Demigod-Mars (called ‘Mangal-Deva’ in Hindi) alongwith Demigod-Saturn (called ‘Shani-Dev’ in Hindi) are our seniors whom we need to appease.”
On hearing the ritualist's silly claims, the youth couldn't help but laugh and say, “I agree my Sir that our Universe is the biggest organisation in existence. But if I personally know both the CEO and Chairman of this organisation, why would I bother with all the low-level managers? “
Very angrily the ritualist objected and said, “What rubbish are you talking about? Who is your CEO and Chairman?”
Immediately that youngster retorted-back, “Well, Sir the CEO is Narayana, and the Chairman is Shiva”.
All the people sitting there were shocked when they heard this young man. For the first time the ritualist was left speechless due to his arrogance, his ignorance being crushed by a truly, devout Hindu. For the first-time the ritualist contemplated on this own beliefs, his interpretations of the Hindu scriptures, and his actions.
© Kishan Trivedi
#lessonlearned #humour #casteism #superstition #LordKrishna/Vishnu #shiva #India #writcostory
