Days passed by in the Sangha. Sangha was how they addressed the monk community. He learnt about the legacy, of a religion. Buddhism was attributed to a noble man who existed 2600 years ago. The man who was to become the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama .HE existed as a Prince of a small territory near what is now the Indian-Nepalese border. He learnt how he was raised in splendid comfort and style, enjoying aristocratic status. But for this young man these pleasures remained useless. No amount of material pleasure could satisfy the curious and profound nature of the young man. It appalled to him how at such an young age of 29 he left palace and family to search for a deeper meaning in the secluded forests and remote mountains of North-East India. After studying the wisest literature, religious teachers, and philosophers of his time, he took a path of self- mortification, taking that practice to the extremes of asceticism.
It was just the beginning of another beautiful night. The sun was just beginning to find its way behind the mountains far way. The moon on the other hand was overjoyed with the all the space to itself. The clouds slowly shifted their loyalties from the sun to the moon. The transformation in their color said it all. The wide and strong river was flowing undisturbed down below. The water was mindless of the transformation up above. It flowed carelessly oblivious to nature. The disciple had his eyes fixed on the flowing water as he ruminated with his newly gained knowledge. The moon was coming up fast from behind the hills as it was in a hurry . Seeing all this seeded the thought of relationship in his mind. What a relationship he thought. One has to go before the other has to shine. The full moon had the aura of a winner and in its generosity flooded the earth as if it owned it.
These thoughts flashed like a movie in his mind. Winning, he thought. What is the meaning of all this? Does anybody win? Why is winning so important? Nodding his head in disagreement, he once again looked up. Not far away he saw a silhouette approaching him. The flowing robes gave away the personality of his master. Bowing in respect he asked the Master “Is winning so important in life?” The master was kind of expecting a question, took a deep breath and said “depends on what how you consider it. Sometimes you win to lose, while in some other situations you lose to win.” As usual, he saw the now familiar confusion in his disciple’s eyes.
Here is a short story to illustrate it. The two rats were always arguing who was the fastest amongst them. They would have race at every excuse and always it was undecided. This went on for days. They grew up like true rats and never matured. Winning the race always ruled their mind. It was raining heavily in the forest and food had become a scarcity. After several hours of scavenging, they found a bounty. Their find was a bunch of worms and mushrooms stacked by some other animal. Along with the rats there was a tortoise also when they found it. This led to a heated argument to decide who will eat it. They argued for hours. Finally, they hit on a plan. They decided to have a race. The tortoise said, "I know you both are very fast, but we will all race to the other side of the river. Whoever reaches to the other side first gets the food". The rats were game. At the count of three, they were off to a start. The tortoise ambled for a short while and saw the rats shoot into the water. Smartly, he conceded the race, walked back and made sure he had enough food for the next few days. Later he learnt that the rats drowned themselves in water.
Smiling to himself, he thought, “If you win the rat race, you're still a rat.” Winning is not everything, picking up the right battle to win is wisdom
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