Stories

The scholar and the hooligan

A great scholar was returning home from school one evening. As he turned a corner, quite unexpectedly he was accosted by a hooligan with a club. The hooligan was heavily drunk and was bragging about how strong he was.

"I am the strongest man in the world!" he shouted, "And to prove it, I will break your head."

The scholar said, "Oh, I am only a scholar. I spend all my time teaching my students, and I do not get any opportunity to develop my physical strength. You are obviously much stronger than I am, but I am notoriously weak; therefore, it will not prove anything if you strike me and kill me. But I will tell you how you can prove that you are the strongest man in the world."

"How can I prove it?" the hooligan demanded.

The scholar pointed behind himself and said, "Just before I turned that corner I met a man who also claimed to be the strongest man on earth. He looked very strong, and I believed him. But now I am seeing you, and you are definitely stronger than he is, although he says that he is the strongest."

"Who has the audacity to say that he is the strongest man on earth?" shouted the hooligan. "I shall kill him! Where is he?"

"He is just around that corner," answered the scholar. "Let us go and find him."

But the hooligan did not wait for the scholar to accompany him. Waving his club in the air and shouting threats at the top of his voice, he started running toward the corner. And immediately the scholar started running in the opposite direction.

So you see, if you have wisdom, you can escape even from this kind of animal destructive strength.

From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol.II-6, No.1, November 1980 — The message of Sri Chinmoy, Agni Press, 1980
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/aum_146