Just One Mistake!

Just One Mistake!

1992 3-4 March-April 9 Just One Mistake! (403) During a visit I made once to a village, I observed a man stripping the bark from a neem tree which he had just cut down. I asked him why he was removing the bark. He smiled and said, “If I don’t, the worms will ruin the wood.”

This was in 1965. Ten years later I again visited the same village. As it happened, there was a log of neem lying by the wayside. Whoever had felled the tree had not removed its bark. This reminded me of what the wood-cutter had told me on my previous visit. I thought to myself, ‘Let me verify whether what that man told me was true or not. I found the owner of the log and requested him to bring some implement to remove the bark. He readily obliged and I could then see that many worms about an inch in length had made channels in the tree trunk, even though they themselves were soft and pulpy.

This is the way of nature. The lesson we learn from it is that in life, we have to be very prudent, for it takes only one small mistake to bring ruination. Simple neglect – can destroy all prospects of advancement. Nature could, of course, have provided a safeguard to the tree trunk, even with its bark still on, but it made its preservation dependent upon the removal of its bark. Human beings are subject to a similar law of nature in that they must take deliberate steps to ensure the positive outcome of whatever situation they may find themselves in.

In 1944, two men from Jaunpur (U.P.) started their business together with a small capital of a few hundred rupees. God was kind to them and their business flourished. In six months, their business was worth Rs. 30,000. At this point, however, they developed some differences and wanted to part company. Through a mediator it was decided that one of the partners would hand over the inventory to the other after being compensated for it.

One partner received Rs. 15,000 as his share. (That was in 1949.Today, that sum would be the equivalent of several lakhs of rupees). He used this money to start a cloth shop in Jaunpur and, within a year, had doubled his money. In the second year of business, many good opportunities came his way and the doors of Success lay wide open to him.