One fine, sunny day. On his way to take over the world, Alexander just sees a naked man sunbathing on the banks of a river. He was just swept off his feet by that man’s radiance (Well, this is not to imply anything about Alex’s sexual orientation).
So much so that, Alex went straight to the man and said “Sir, I am immensely impressed by your being, and I would like to do something for you. Is there something that I can do for you?”
And that man, most probably the only one whom Alex, the haughty prince of
Pat came the reply. "Dude, just stand to the side. You are blocking the sun! That's all. Nothing else do I need."
Alex sighed, "If I have another chance to come to the earth, I will ask God, instead of making me Alexander again, to make me Diogenes."
Rolling over on the warm sand, Diogenes laughed, "You can become a Diogenes right now, right here. Who is preventing you right now? Where are you going?"
“I am going to conquer the whole world."
"And then what are you going to do?"
And Alex said, "Then I will rest."
Now, sitting up,
"Are you mad? Can’t you see that is exactly what I am doing right now? Who told you that before resting, you have to conquer the world? And I tell you: if you don't rest now, then you never will. Something or other will always remain to be conquered... and time is fleeting. You will die in the middle of your journey. Everybody dies in the middle of the journey."
23 comments:
Nice to read such posts every now and then which nails the point eggjactly across... Reading this felt good.. but what abt the moral we learnt from the story of the grasshopper and ants.. ;)
Almost every one knows Alex. How many of know Diogenes? So thanks to SK for throwing some(sun)light!!
Hope you have more more fables rolled up ur sleave.Why don't you start a series on Greecian myths and bridge that with Indian ones.... Some thing like Machiavelli and Chanakya flavoured with Sun-Tzu?
Nice story sk:) Though, I think I have heard of it before somewhere;) I can't see the pic:( Where is it?
It must be my prejudiced ass that gets me everytime I read one of your posts. 'Alex' - wow man. You managed to abbreviate the name of someone who waged great battles.
If everyone finished their journey, there's nothing to live. Fuck all Diogenes of the world. I have a feeling most of them are software engineers in India.
So u did change the template huh. Nice and whatz all that look their. Is it for that she to look back.
Just kidding.
Jouney is never finished or complete just as the thirst for water.
This site might interest you to keep your list of readings and to share if u wanna.
http://www.librarything.com/
Gino
The grasshopper should become a priest and start preaching the ants about how God hates people who don't share "what He has given". ;)
Pramod
I read a couple of other interesting anecdotes of Diogenes. Probably, more like this later. That way, i don't have to think too much for a post. Makes my life easier. ;)
Thanks Priya!
Giggity
//'Alex' - wow man. You managed to abbreviate the name of someone who waged great battles.//
To be honest, this - just dropping a few alphabets - is nothing compared to the skills that certain souls possess to come up with 'out-of-earth' names so frequently, u know. ;P
Well "journey" here refers to the search towards what you really want. It is not about physical distances, as a physicist would love to deal with. And the point is there is no journey at all. Just as Richard Dawkins put it even more plainly "There is no purpose to life".
//Fuck all Diogenes of the world. I have a feeling most of them are software engineers in India.//
So, btw, who do you think is Alex? Physicist sitting in Aus, huh?
Priya
Thanks! Ref prev comment. ;)
And I hope you can see the difference between the thirst for water and thirst for money/fame/what not. I am not saying drop all desires, which i know would be impossible. That said, however thirsty you are, you can drink more than what your tummy can hold. But the problem is with other thirsts, we don't know what is enough. But try to know where to stop.
pria
Thanks for wonderful link!
Diogenes, whether an intellectual or a hippie is a fool. He had the audacity to talk like that to an emperor because of what, some light that flows out of his body that only Alexander could see? Diogenes was spared because of Alexander's kind heart obviously, if this exchange ever really took place.
And I am no physicist. My web page that will follow soon will throw some light into my work. I will ofcourse send you the link. You are my only friend on Facebook, after all.
Software Engineers do suck anyway.
Thanks for the nice discussion ther SK. Just wanna let you know, my blog urls are changed.
I just saw 'Into the Wild'. Awesome movie. Thanks for letting me know. I almost went to '30 days of the night' with a couple of free tickets yesterday.
Nice story! :) So is the moral always rest?? :D
Hello sk,
You may be pissed off at me for stupid comments. But you pointed me to an awesome movie experience. So here's something I found that you may like. The final script for 'Into the Wild'.
http://www.vantageguilds.com/itw/FinalScript_ITW.pdf
Priya
Welcome! Change in urls noted. :)
Pk
Yeh! you got the point straightaway n i think u practice that too. Of course, except for the murukku sessions. ;P
Giggity
Am really happy that u liked "Into the wild". I m doubly sure that i too would love it. And a BIG THANKS for the final script! :)
Muruku session :O
Adinga! :)) OOrey kannu potrum ipdi ellam public'a sonna!
hit the right chord.. at the right time!
but how practical is all this in our daily life?
wats life without ambition?
hahaha good to know that it hit the right chord at th right time! :) And that question is something that u can't answer easily. For that has to be found on one's own. You have to answer a few basic questions: what is your ambition? why is it important for you? And more importantly, you have to ask yourself what if you don't achieve it... And the most interesting part is the answers to these questions keep changing for most of us.
questions r 2 tough.. maybe the author of the blog could answer them :P
anyway, does the post suggest that going to sleep after an achievement and going to sleep just coz u r lazy to do something r the same?
hahaha yeh i told u so already. The author considers it best to leave the answers to the intelligence of the readers. So you can very well try, if you have some. ;)
And, sleep is sleep is sleep. How does it matter if it is after sthg or just out of laziness. Good to have more of it! :)
disagree!
u get tired/bored of everything after a point! n id hate the time when im bored of sleeping!
hahaha true... but is it not better to be bored than getting dejected chasing wild geese?
atleast then, u can go to sleep n wake up to something else other than sleep!
Post a Comment