The Indian Fable of FWC (A Fire wood collector)
This is an Indian fable about a fire wood collector that I have
read during the fag end of my school days. I was reading a book on
Swami Vivekaananda, who made a remarkable speech on Indian Vedanta at the world''s parliament of religions in Chicago way back in 1893. I could not understand the writings of Swami but some of the stories quoted in the book were highly illustrative about the conducting of one''s own life. The stories were simple but remarkable in its ability to convey clearly about the essence of human life
I have used this fable several times in my journalism lectures to illustrate the necessity of an individual to advance in his life in order to achieve success: and of course the eternal happiness the ultimate goal in life.
The poor fire wood collector had lived in a remote god forsaken village where poverty was the only reality. He would wake up early and walk up the small hillock near forest to collect firewood. The place could not be called a forest in its fullest sense. Yes there existed a forest several generations before but all the villages in the valley plundered the area for years and nothing remained there. Yet our man regularly visited the place that had become a barren land where a few shrubs grew occasionally. Every day the fwc would walk the forest path only to find some dry twigs that would never fetch him fair money. The impoverished market place would never give him a place. He would curse his day and go back to his lonely hutment.
He used to see a monk sitting under a banyan tree on the way to the forest and used to think about him scornfully. " I am toiling under the hot sun all day and I never get my food for the day. But I don''t understand what worthy work this monk is doing here under the cool shade, that earns him fruits in abundance!” he was more scornful of the wealthy lot who visits the monk with flowers and fruits. Night approaches and fwc goes back to his woes as usual. He never
thought of asking the monk a way out, the primary reason why others visited him. But the day fwc could not fetch anything he decided to seek an advice a boon from the monk. The monk calmly listened to his woes and said a mere two words "go forward", in his reply, which was greeted with a frown from the fwc. Fwc wanted something in kind, material but this man was advising him to go forward, which he thought would not help him at all.
But the next day fwc while searching for firewood
remembered the monk’s words and glanced at a thick greenery afar, he never registered in his mind before. He walked towards it and to his dismay found a bushy patch of earth. He thought he could have become a fairly dear woodcutter by the villagers had he found the place earlier. He was about to settle for the wood just found out when he remembered the monk''s words once again and walked further. It was big trees this time. And every time he remembered the monk’s word he walked further up and passed through forests. He never stopped for cutting the wood but went on and on seeing fresh pasture, which created a sense about life’s worthiness in his mind. He knew the nature with its all wealth belonged to him now but he need only a tiny portion of it for his existence but the happiness that brought him is something unimaginable