The Sage

The Best Disciple

There was a sage who had three brilliant disciples. He taught them the art of archery, scriptures, and meditation along with other integrated life skills to make them virtuous human beings. Once their education was complete under his guidance, the day of Deeksha came.

Deeksha means the final approval by the guru. He called Narayan, Abhinav and Prakhar to his ashram and said that though he had taught them all what he knew, yet the final lesson is yet to be imparted. The three disciples became curious and pleaded the sage to do so. He gave them a few seeds in a pouch to each one of them and told them to make the best use of them to accomplish their learning. He wanted to see how well they would use their wisdom and reinforce learning. 

The three of them took the pouch and moved in different directions. Narayan, happily started and took the shortest possible path to the city where the rich and the affluent lived. Abhinav followed the path leading to the verdant woods where there were fruits, rivers, and dense trees. But the last one, Prakhar, kept contemplating and got delayed. The only path left was the uninhabited vast lands with scanty population in remote areas. He took the path with a heavy heart. 

As it was evident, Narayan had an entrepreneurial mindset. He reached the city and sold those seeds to a shopkeeper saying them as magical seeds and made money. He stayed there and started a small business with that money to reap more and more amount of money. He was minting money with his acumen and wisdom. He decided to wait and then return to the sage later. 

In the meantime, Abhinav who went into the forests was a man with spiritual bent. So, he sat to do meditation and kept seeds beside him. He went into deep meditation so much that years passed. But the birds around him came and ate his seeds. Gradually he got the enlightenment and felt connected to the Almighty, no matter he had no seeds with him.

But Prakhar who was slow in reacting to the sage's offer staggered in his dreary plodding. He was sure he won't be able to come back to the sage as he would forget the way back so, he kept throwing a seed on his pay that he trudged. On the way, he met different clans and tribes whom he preached what his guru had taught which brought harmony among them and they stopped fighting with each other over trifles.

He taught them how to read and write. He gave seeds to them and told them to preserve them. The people, in order to preserve and save those seeds from birds and insects, sowed them in their fields. Prakhar kept moving from one place to the other spreading the word of harmony and peace with his altruism. 

Years later, Narayan decided to meet his Guru, the sage. He collected all his money and journeyed to meet him. He had to come from those dense forests. Unfortunately, a few dacoits came to know about him and looted him. They took away all from him but spared his life somehow.

He was in tears. But Abhinav who was there in the forest was awakened by his wailings, tried to console him, and preached him frugality and austerity. They both started their journey back to meet their guru. Prakhar also decided to come back.

On his way back, he was amused to see a marked change. The clans had patched up their differences and were living harmoniously. Their economic well-being was commendable, yet they were contended and selfless. He found the preachings of his guru yielding fruit.

To his amazement, not only the fields of these tribes had flourished due to those seeds but also once infertile lands had become lush green as those seeds which he had thrown to mark the way back to his guru had blossomed and flourished into huge trees giving shade, fruit and shelter to other creatures and people around. It was all green and serene as far as he could see. 

The three met the guru. The guru sermonised that Narayan who had earned to grow money which is important but his greed left him to nothing because his goal was self-enrichment. There was selfishness in his mission, the desire to win but for his own purpose. Even Abhinav who had attained enlightenment and contentment but that was still confined to him.

Wherein Prakhar who, though did nothing significant, but spread the word of wisdom among people, unified them by his sermons and his seeds brought prosperity to the people and rejuvenated the wilderness into lovely and lively forests and pastures. He educated people with words and even the seeds brought harmony and prosperity in their lives. 

The sage told Prakhar to make pencils with seeds that would teach people to learn education and spread a word of ecology in far lands making it a beautiful world of the divine. The sage declared Prakhar his true disciple and an apostle, a prophet and a Harbinger.