Once there was a King who was well-known for perfect administration of justice.
Once he visited the prison house to meet all the criminals there.
He started asking them the reason they were in the jail. Each one gave his own reasons.
One inmate told, “Oh! Majesty! Actually I am not supposed to be here. It was a wrong verdict of the judge.”
Another fellow told, “O King! I am innocent. The judge has been bribed and that is why I am here.”
Another person told that it was all because of a misunderstanding and that he had not committed any crime.
In this way all of them claimed that they were innocent.
When the king approached a very honest looking person, he told, “Maharaj! I am a criminal. I have committed a crime. That is why I am here.”
The King also found out from the jailor that he was the only one who was well-behaved in the prison.
The King immediately ordered his release.
Moral of the story:
In the same way, whenever anything goes wrong we always say that, “It is my parent’s fault. They have brought me up like this”
or “It is the society’s fault” or “It is my genetics”.
In this way we are not prepared to accept the responsibility and simply put the blame on so many other factors.
Unless we understand, “I am at fault”, and more importantly, “it is my wrong ideas, my wrong emotions, my wrong attitudes that have led to this situation”,
we are completely helpless. Once we understand that we are at fault, we can correct the situation.
We will be kept in the prison of material existence as long as we do not accept our defective position. If we just start blaming the
modes of material nature, then just like the King, Lord Krishna will say,”Okay! It is the modes. So you continue your term here.”
Once we understand, “Yes, I am the criminal. I have turned away from Krishna and that is why I am here”, then just like the King in the story,
Krishna will pay attention to our calling and the material nature will start slackening her hold on us.
A most famous prayer by Lord Brahma in Srimad Bhagavatam 10.14.8 is
tat te ‘nukampaam su-samiksamaano
bhunjaana evaatma-krtam vipaakam
hrd-vaag-vapurbhir vidadhan namas te
jiveta yo mukti-pade sa daaya-bhaak
“My dear Lord, one who earnestly waits for You to bestow Your
causeless mercy upon him, all the while patiently suffering the
reactions of his past misdeeds and offering You respectful
obeisances with his heart, words and body, is surely eligible for
liberation, for it has become his rightful claim.”
Just as the purpose of the prison house is to rectify the mentality of the criminals, the purpose of this prison house of material world
is to rectify the living entity’s tendency to enjoy without the Lord.
Once we recognize our fault of turning away from Krishna, repent and rectify our fault, release becomes a rightful claim under
the orders of The Supreme Lord.
( Dear readers please comment on this stories )
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the devotees to please forward and share this moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.