The story dates back to the days when social life had just come into existence. The number of people then was small and their wants were limited. The incidence of crime was negligible. Nevertheless if someone, by chance, had committed a crime of trivial nature, he was produced before the head of the family who would give vent to his anger in the following words:

 

“Ha! what a great blunder you have committed?” This sort of punishment in the form of mere exclamation of the word ‘Ha’ was considered to be more severe than even that of imprisonment. 

 

As the time rolled on, the rule of the sound ‘Ha’ came to an end. Then the people took resort to ‘Makar’ (Don’t) punishment which contained the warning. ‘Do not do it in future’. After some years this form of punishment also lost its utility, with the decadence of piety and decorum in man ‘punishment’ made gradual progress. The punish- ment in the form of reproaching the wrong doer also remained in vogue for sometime. It was followed by such forms of punishment as ‘fastening, ‘beating,’ ‘maiming,’ ‘imprisoning’ and finally ‘hanging one to death. By the time social evolution of man reached its final stage, the penal laws hadalready taken the shape of a It, rather, encourager of crimes but it fails to eradicate them. It does him to commit a crime on the sly. The change not change man’s heart. of heart is possible only through the discipline of good virtues. Once it is acquired, impossible for a man to indulge in a crime. Some people desire reform in man’s nature by means of punishment. But how can it be possible unless one’s inner spirit is lit up? 

 

Once a mother-in-law before leaving the house instructed her daughter-in-law to be vigilant lest darkness should enter the house. The sun was about to set and the daughter-in-law as instructed exercised great vigilance.

 

The first thing that she did as a measure of precaution was that she had closed all the windows. She then sat at the gate with a stick in her hand to ward off darkness. But the darkness was not going to yield so easily. It did enter the house. The mother-in-law returned home three hours after the night had fallen. “There is darkness everywhere in the house,” she grumbled. With tears in her eyes, the daughter-in-law replied “Excuse me, mother! this ‘darkness’ seems to be a pigheaded creature. I have broken many sticks in the process of threshing it. This has made even the skin of my palm go off and my hands are still bleeding. I had closed all the windows and doors and threshed it as hard as I could. I feelextremely tired now. Notwithstanding all this, it has succeeded in thrusting itself into the house.” The mother-in-law had a good laugh over her daughter-in-law’s innocence..

 

“Dear daughter,” said she as she lighted a lamp, “threshing can never send darkness away. It’s light that makes it flee”. And lo ! the house flashed with light and with it was lit up the daughter-in-law’s heart. He whose inner heart is illumined refrains from indulging in crime, be it a broad day light or darkness, a solitary place or a public thoroughfare.

 

A teacher had three pupils his own son, a prince named Vasu and Narad. Once two sadhus- a Guru and his disciple passed by the school. Seeing the three pupils absorbed in studies, the disciple grew curious to know about their destiny. He asked his Guru as to who of the three pupils was destined to go to heaven or to hell. The Guru replied that two of them were destined to go to hell and the rest to heaven.

 

The teacher who had overheard the prediction was much distressed. He was highly dissatisfied with the outcome of his teaching. He became very eager to know as to who of them was likely to go to heaven and who to hell. He at last succeed- ed in devising a way to test his pupils. One whose inner vision is awakened goes to heaven and those who are guided by their outward vision are doomed to go to hell.

 

The teacher entered his hut, made three cocks of flour, and sent for the three pupils. Giving each a cock, the teacher bade them go separately in three different directions and asked them return after wringing the necks of their cocks w a place where none could spy their action. All the three obeyed their teacher and set out towards the forest. Having gone a little further, they separated in three different directions. All of them had returned home in the evening before the sun. set. The teacher first asked his son if he had carried out his instructions:

 

“Yes, Sir”, the son replied humbly.

“What’s the proof,” asked the teacher.

“The twisted neck of the cock,” replied the son.

“Are you sure that no body observed you while you performed the task?” inquired the teacher.

 

The son replied that he had gone deep into the thick foliage of trees before he wrung the cock’s neck. There was none to see him there.

 

The teacher, then, turned to prince Vasu and repeated the same questions. The prince also claimed that he had not been observed by any one as he was very careful and chose a dark cave for the completion of the task assigned to him.

 

The teacher now turned to Narad, his last disciple, and inquired if he had complied with his instructions.

 

“Yes: I have,” uttered Narad spontaneously. On being asked to furnish a proof in support of his claim, he replied that he had a long tale to tell about it. He hid himself behind the thick foliage of trees and was about to carry out the task when he at once realized that there was every possibility of his being watched by some bird or the other. Then he went to the caves but he felt he could be observed by ants.

 

Lastly he chose the caves full of darkness and had hardly stretched his hand to wring the cock’s neck when the heard the voice of his inner con- science which seemed to tell him that even if earthly creatures were unable to see him, God is omnipresent and sees everywhere. It had become impossible for him to find out a place where there wasn’t any possibility of his being seen. So he decided to return to him at once and he was there.

 

The teacher got up from his seat and patting Narad on his back, said, “Your future is bright because your soul has been awakened.” Turning to his two other pupils, he said, “Your future is dark because your soul still lies steeped in ignorance.”

 

Man’s tendency to indulge in crime owes its origin to the torpor of his soul. A ‘change of heart’ means awakening of one’s soul. A man with a changed heart refrains from doing anything wrong because he knows that such an action will even- tually land him in disaster.

 

 

1. Which of the two-‘Punishment’ and ‘change of heart’-do you think more inspiring and why?

 

2. What moral do you draw from the stories illustrated in the lesson?

 

3. What do you mean by “the awakening of inner vision?”