ARE WE ALERT TO OUR MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY BACK FOR WHAT WE HAVE RECEIVED

When I was in the 5th or may be 6th standard, We had a wonderful poetry in our Gujarati vernacular book by the famous Gujarati poet Nanalal. The poetry when told in form of a story goes like this. Once upon a time a King was returning from his hunting trip from the jungle and while returning he was passing through a small village in his kingdom. In the village in a nearby field, an old farmers was busy planting a sapling of a tree. King was really very thirsty and tired and needed a fresh drink of water. He went to the farmer and requested for water, farmer was very old and frail but still he went to the well and brought some fresh cool water for the king. While the king was drinking water he became little curious and asked the old farmer as to what is he doing in such a hot sun in the noon time. The farmer replied that he is planting a mango tree.

The king was really surprised and asked him what is your age, the farmer replied it could be 80-90 years but he could not be very sure about it. The king then again asked him that if you are so old then why are you planting this mango tree, since by the time the tree bears the Mango fruits you may not be alive. Farmer said yes I know, but I am not planting this tree for myself but I am planting this tree for someone else I do not even know. King again asked him that when you know that you can not live till the tree bears the fruits then why do you have to work so hard in this hot and plant a mango tree. The farmer replied that when I was young, I used to pluck the fruits from a mango tree which was never planted by me but still I had enjoyed the fruits of that tree and therefore I feel that I should also plant a mango tree for some one else to enjoy the fruits of this tree. The King was in a disguise and therefore the old farmer could not recognize him but he certainly inspired the King towards his moral responsibility to pay for whatever he had received from his people. After reaching his kingdom he immediately ordered to plant thousands of fruit trees all along the sides of his state highways and dig the wells for fresh drinking water.

When I was young, I could not understand much about the moral of that poetry but as I started growing older, I started realizing that an old & illiterate farmer knew much about his social and moral responsibility towards his community and the society in which he lived but even after being well educated and being resourceful, why I have not thought of my “PAY BACK TIME”. This is what inspired me the most to spare a part of my time and the resources for the betterment of the society in which I lived and grew up. I suppose we all have a moral responsibility and we should think about a Payback Time. It is not always necessary to payback in terms of money or resources but some one who has some specialized skills or some one who can spare some of his valuable time for good causes then that also in my opinion is a very generous contribution. If every one in our society thinks about the pay back time then “ We will Certainly make our World a Better Place to Live”. Have you thought about a way to “PAY BACK” ……….. JUST THINK ABOUT IT


CHITARANJAN NAGRECHA