A prisoner was sentenced to 100 lashes every day for a robbery he committed. As the jailor rose to beat him up, he shouted, “Who the hell are you to beat me? I didn’t rob anything from you. Bring the man whom I robbed and he has the right to beat me up.”
What would be the fate of the robber’s plea? Would the jailor not punish him? Certainly not. In fact, in all probability, he would get angry and beat him more.
But then, there is a point in the prisoner’s argument. Who gave the right to the jailor to beat the prisoner? Morally, the person whom the prisoner robbed should have the right to beat him up. But in the real world things do not happen like that.
So the moot question is – “Who gave the right to the jailor to beat the prisoner?” The answer in the story is simple – The Court. The Court decided on who the criminal was and the gave the jailor the right to punish him.
So can the prisoner question the jailor? No. It would not help him and on the contrary, he may be in more trouble for questioning the jailor. What is the solution then? The only solution is to be calm and quiet and let the jailor do his duty. Perhaps repeatedly beating him up and observing the silence of the prisoner, someday, the jailor may think, he seems innocent and he may stop the sentence. Perhaps he may not.
The above short story is all about our life. We are the prisoners. There is a system somewhere – HIS COURT and HE sends the jailor in our life in one form or the other. Everyone who gives pain to us in life is the jailor. We might not have done anything wrong with them, but still they give us pain. Because they have been sent by the system to punish us. We must have done something wrong to someone and HIS COURT has sent some jailor to give us pain. We have to silently bear the pain. We do not have the right to question – why is he giving pain or what wrong did we commit? We must have done somewhere something wrong, that the jailor was sent to us.
The one who ignores us, the one who abuses us, the one who takes away our wealth, the one who cheats us – are all jailors. We may wonder – this was the person whom I helped a lot, but he is cheating us now… but he is just a jailor.
Everything in life is predetermined and everything happens for good. Be calm and observe the beauty of life. See a jailor in everyone who illtreats you, and you will observe a tremendous feeling of peace. Stop making calculations in life, more so for money. We will get what we deserve and what we do not truly deserve, some jailor will come and take away. Have the satisfaction of helping someone-don’t even seek ‘thank you.’ It has been rightly said:
‘Thy right is to work only,
Never to its fruits,
Let fruits not be the motive of your action,
Let there be no attachment to results.
*( Based on the book ‘ The Jailor’ by Acharya Vijay
Abhayshekhar Suri)
