{"id":3363,"date":"2018-11-13T09:07:58","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T09:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/?p=3363"},"modified":"2018-11-14T10:02:18","modified_gmt":"2018-11-14T10:02:18","slug":"p-the-bundle-of-sticks-friendship-caring-hospitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/further-information-and-teaching-resources-primary\/values-stories-further-information-and-teaching-resources-primary\/p-the-bundle-of-sticks-friendship-caring-hospitality\/","title":{"rendered":"(P) The Bundle of Sticks (friendship, caring, hospitality)"},"content":{"rendered":"

STO-214<\/a><\/p>\n

An old brahmin priest lived in a holy place, an ashram, with his seven disciples. They worshipped some very old and famous murtis of Radha and Krishna. Many people would come to see these deities and make donations for their worship.<\/p>\n

The guru, however, was growing weak due to old age. He knew it was time to soon leave his body, but he did not feel confident to hand over to his disciples the entire service of these deities.
\nOne day a pilgrim donated a large ruby to the deities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it should be sold for money,\u201d one disciple declared.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, no!\u201d another cried. \u201cRadha should wear it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet another gave his opinion, \u201cIt would be far better if we cut it into small rubies. Then we could make a beautiful necklace for her.\u201d<\/p>\n

The disagreement among the disciples carried on for so long that the Brahmin felt that the deities would never get their ruby. But, he did not interfere. He wanted his disciples to learn how to manage the ashram themselves. After a while he said, \u201cThat\u2019s enough! Now each of you go to the woods. Bring back one stick, no more than an inch thick.\u201d<\/p>\n

The seven disciples stopped their quarrelling and set out to obey their guru\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

When they returned, the old brahmin took their sticks. He tied them all firmly together with a couple of lengths of rope. He then asked, \u201cWhich one of you can break this bundle?\u201d<\/p>\n

The seven young men each tried in turn, but even the strongest failed. \u201cIt\u2019s not possible,\u201d they exclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch,\u201d their guru said, cutting the rope with a knife. Taking each stick on its own, he very easily snapped it in two. \u201cI am getting very old. Soon I will die. You are like a bundle of sticks. If you try to help each other, cooperate and work together, you will be strong and serve me well. But if you become divided and fight, you will become weak like these separate sticks. And then, who will care for our Radha and Krishna deities?\u201d<\/p>\n

Realising their folly, the seven disciples agreed to set the ruby in a gold ring. That ring, they decided, was to decorate one of Krishna\u2019s fingers.<\/p>\n

Their guru, pleased with their decision, finally felt ready to leave them. Soon after, he peacefully quit his body and returned to the spiritual world.<\/p>\n

Later, when people came to see the old brahmin\u2019s famous deities, they often asked, \u201cHow did Krishna get such a beautiful ring?\u201d<\/p>\n

The disciples would always answer, \u201cBy the strength of a bundle of sticks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STO-214 An old brahmin priest lived in a holy place, an ashram, with his seven disciples. They worshipped some very old and famous murtis of Radha and Krishna. Many people would come to see these deities and make donations for their worship. The guru, however, was growing weak due to old age. He knew it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[306],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-values-stories-further-information-and-teaching-resources-primary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3363"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3787,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3363\/revisions\/3787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iskconeducationalservices.org\/HoH\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}