An Indian Folktale
Once a FARMER and a CLEVER MINDED person got together to do farming jointly. They acquired some farmland. The farmer BARRICADED it with hedging and tilled it and PREPARED for sowing. Then went to the clever one and asked about the details of sharing the harvest.
The clever one said, “I shall have half of the produce.”
The farmer said, “Tell me which part of the crop will you have—the one above the ground or the one under it?”
The clever one said, “The one above the ground.”
The farmer sowed potatoes in the entire field.
When the crop was ready for harvesting, the farmer sent for the clever one and told him to take his share. The clever one was surprised to see the standing crop. He felt cheated because the potatoes were under the ground. But he couldn’t do anything—he had opted for the part of the crop above the ground.
The farmer prepared the field again, breaking sods and making the soil smooth.
The farmer asked the partner again, “Tell me which part of the crop you’ll have this time?”
He said, “The one under the ground.”
Saying this he went away.
The farmer sowed wheat this time. When the crop was ready in the month of April, he called his partner and told him to take away his share. The clever one came and saw the crop and was disappointed. He was cheated a second time. There was nothing under the ground except stumps and roots. The crop was harvested.
Again the farmer prepared the field. This time the clever one announced that he would have both the top portion and the lower portion of the crop. The farmer agreed to his demand. This time he sowed maize seeds in the field.
When the crop was ready, the clever one arrived to have his share, hoping that this time he would surely have the best of the bargain. But he was surprised again when he looked at the corncobs growing midway on the maize plants, neither on top nor in the lower part.
Crestfallen, he muttered meekly, “I thought I was the clever one, but this farmer turns out to be my guru.”
The story gives the message that the farmer knows his land the best. And no clever tactics of an outsider can match his own earned knowledge from experience, particularly, when the farmer had first “barricaded the land” and “prepared” it before sowing.
What is true about the earth is possibly also true for ourselves. If we can become like the farmer, we can always reap the best harvest of our life – no matter how much “clever tactics” are used to manipulate our mind from outside. Just like the farmer who is attentive towards his ground yet engaging with the clever guy to work on his land, we too perhaps need to learn to keep our attention always within (on the ground) yet not stop working with the world for our life-experiences. Only then we would be able to improvise just like the farmer and get to keep the essence (or harvest) of our life-experiences.
But how to “prepare” and “barricade” our inner world? Our schools and colleges prepare us to earn our livelihood but do not teach us to “live”. Our inner world is hardly prepared and barricaded before we engage with the confusing narratives of the external world. So it becomes easy for all kinds of “clever ones” to come and manipulate us.
The groundwork for preparing the inner world begins with “identification”. Human beings easily identify with their surroundings, with whatever they can perceive through their senses. But they also identify with the stories and narratives their minds are fed with. The mind likes stories, the inherent drama within the stories.
Can we use this inclination of our mind to identify with stories to create a robust inner world?
Many ancient myths, stories, symbols have a quality in them that allow the mind to go deep. They also allow the mind the freedom to dig out new meanings.
We too can use this psychological exercise to find our new identities and discover new meanings of our life. This could probably lead to our true healing. Once we are healed in this deep and dynamic way, we will always be ready for the clever ones. We will have no fear.
The path could be long, providing no immediate release or relief. But it can help us find a more fertile ground within ourselves. It is with this fertile ground, we can mate with the external world and birth our own “reality”.