Continuing my Art of giving, I decided to look into our mythology to find some interesting stories. The first story that I was reminded of was a story of Duryodhana, Karna and Lord Krishna.

Duryodhana was a big hearted guy and did a lot of charity. However, he was a little upset that only Karna was called “dhanveer” and not Duryodhana himself.

He queried Lord Krishna about this.

He said, I will answer you in due course.

Once Lord Krishna went to Duryodhana and told him “3 days hence I am doing a yagna, please keep firewood ready for the same”

Duryodhana thought this was a child’s play and said “of course I will”.

However, Krishna organised heavy rainfall for the next 3 days and there was no respite at all.

On the morning of the yagna he went to Duryodhana and asked for the firewood.

Duryodhana replied “It was raining for all the 3 days, I could not organise the firewood”. Krishna said a promise is a promise and “you have failed to give”. Let us go to Karna, I had asked him also for firewood.

On reaching Karna’s palace, Duryodhana and Krishna were surprised to find that Karna had removed the roofing of his house and kept it ready for the yagna!

Thus when you want to do something you can, when you do not want to do something you give excuses. Either treat it as a myth or as a management story. But give, and give we all can.

The most important LEARNING from this story is “those who want to do something do it”. Those who do not want to do give excuses saying ‘oh this happened, that happened’.

YOU NEED TO DECIDE WHETHER YOU WISH TO DO SOMETHING OR AVOID DOING IT. On that will depend on whether you are searching for a SOLUTION or EXCUSE.

I like www.akshayapatra.org which does a lot of work (world’s largest can be called a lot, correct) for the welfare of kids…lets contribute our mite