Use your intelligence, not your strength

There lived a farmer in a village. He lived with his parents. After getting married, the number of members in his family increased. He used to work day and night to support his family, yet there was always a shortage of some or the other thing in the house. He kept worrying about how to improve the financial condition of the house. One day an old man advised him that he could increase his income. The old mans advice stuck in his mind. After this, he started rearing cows along with farming and gradually his income started increasing.

After a few months, he also bought a pair of bulls. Now he did not have to hire bulls from others to plough the fields. On the other hand, he started raising the calves of his cows with great love. When these calves became bulls, he started using them for other works along with farming. His source of income also kept on increasing.

He now had two pairs of oxen. One pair was of young oxen and the other of old oxen. The farmer used to make both of them work equally. When the four oxen returned from work in the evening, they used to talk to each other while resting after eating the fodder and water given by the owner. But this situation did not last for long. Now the young oxen became proud of their strength and youth. Slowly they stopped respecting the old oxen. The oxen used to spend the night happily after returning from work and in the morning they used to go out for work happily. While returning from work in the evening, despite being tired, a glow of happiness was visible on their faces. The old oxen used to remain the same in all situations. The young oxen were very proud of their strength. While going to work in the morning, if someone asked where they were going Both of them would raise their horns and tails and answer in a loud voice To plough the field. But while returning home in the evening, there was no trace of the morning arrogance on their faces. They used to return home with their faces hanging as if there was no life in their body. Both of them looked older than the old bulls. The older bulls forgot their fatigue in the joy of being content and repaying their masters debt of salt.

The young bulls often used to talk about the old bulls that these two are lazy, they cheat the master all day. They eat free food at night. It is as if the masters eyes are blindfolded. The old bulls had become accustomed to hearing such things almost every day, then one day their patience gave up. One night an old bull said to them Listen brothers, tomorrow by chance the master will take all four of us to plough his field. I heard the master talking to another person. There we will work according to our capacity and at night we will decide who does how much work.Hearing this the young bulls became happy and immediately agreed.

The next day all the four bulls looked very happy. Seeing all the four bulls happy, the owner said, Today after a long time, happiness is visible on the faces of all four of you. What is the matter An old bull replied in his mind, Master, today we four will show our strength in your fields. Perhaps this thought was also playing in the minds of all the four. The owner said to all the four lovingly while caressing their bodies, Let us go to the field now. All the four shook their heads and started walking ahead of the owner in a relaxed gait.

The owner handed over the oxen to the ploughmen and started doing other work. Ploughmen started ploughing different beds of the field by yoking two pairs of oxen. All the four oxen could see each other. Both the ploughmen had sticks in their hands. Both of them gently hit their oxen with a stick and the oxen started moving forward on the specified path at their respective speeds. In the beginning, the young oxen were pulling the plough very fast. As the day progressed, their speed started decreasing. The ploughman hit both of them hard on their backs. Their speed increased for a while but they immediately slowed down. This sequence continued till the end of the day. On the other hand, the speed of the older oxen was the same throughout the day. The ploughman would call them with the sound of arrr…arrr…chchh…chchh…. He did not need to use the stick at all. The old oxen were moving at the same speed till the evening as they were in the morning.

In the evening, everyone returned to their respective places. There was no sign of fatigue on the faces of the old bulls. On the other hand, the young bulls looked very tired and were also moaning in pain. At night, an old bull asked, How are you brothers

Okay, a young bull replied in a very slow and sluggish voice. After a while, another young bull said You guys won brother, but tell me the secret of how you keep working at the same pace from morning to evening You dont get tired and you do more work. The old bull smiled and said Brother, the secret is that along with strength, one should work with intelligence as well. To win, you guys displayed your youthful strength from the morning itself, which did not last long. If you had used your strength with restraint throughout the day instead of displaying it at one time, you would not have been beaten nor would you have lost the competition. And on the other hand, we used our strength in the same form from morning to evening and hence the ploughman did not get a chance to hit us with a stick.

After thinking for a while, the young bull spoke in a serious tone This means that we should not be proud of our strength, we should always respect our elders. We did not respect you all. Please forgive us.

The old oxen said, Okay, and remember that you should always use your intelligence and not your strength.After this, everyone started living together, sharing each others sorrows.