Just Kill All The Oldies!

“Even if the standard of life is poor, it does not matter if the way of life is pure, full of love, humility, fear of sin and reverence towards elders.”-Bhagwan Baba.

A young king was facing shortage of food in his kingdom. At the advice of his young ministers, they decided to kill all the old men and women in the kingdom. The king passed the orders, “Just kill all the oldies. The number of mouths to feed shall become considerably less and the food shall become sufficient for all.” So the king’s men scanned the entire Kingdom and killed all the oldies i.e. all the people who were above sixty five years.

In the kingdom was a young fellow who loved and revered his father a lot. So, before the king’s men came, he hid his father in a large vessel containing wheat. He secretly looked after his father.

All the other oldies were killed and with them were lost their wisdom, experience and good sense.

The following year, there were no rains and the famine worsened. Now even the youngsters and children started dying of hunger for there was no food to eat. When it was time to sow the crops, there were no seeds in the stores, because everything had been eaten away. The kingdom was deep in despair.

The young fellow, who had secretly saved his father, discussed the problem with him. The father said, “Till the soil on all the road sides.” The young fellow got a group of friends together and they ploughed the road sides. Soon, there were tiny sprouts along the road sides. The saplings were transferred to the fields and they had a reasonably good crop. This was reported to the king. The king questioned the man. He wanted to know how this had happened. The young man said, “I don’t know. I had secretly saved my father against your orders. Perhaps it is because of his blessings.”

The old man was brought before the king and questioned. He said simply, “Every year the farmers carry their grains in carts to the marketplace for sale. Some fall out of the carts and get deposited by the road side. If the land is ploughed the seeds get air and water, so they sprout!”

The king was overjoyed at this simple revelation. Isn’t it true that we tend to write off our parents and elders by saying, “You don’t know anything Dad; times have changed.”

Yes, times have changed, but these ‘oldies’ still know more than we do, because they carry with them the wealth of experience. Knowledge can be acquired through reading, but wisdom is acquired only through practice and experience. It is said that every young man tells his father at some time or the other, “Dad, you are wrong!” But by the time he realizes that his father was right, his own child is old enough to tell him, “Dad, you are wrong!”