34.

Mother Earth, why are you so unkind to me?
Why do I have to sow the seed, tend to the plant
and nourish the plant until it becomes a tree?
Right from the beginning, can you not give me
    the beautiful flowers and delicious fruits?
Why do I have to work for it?

Mother Earth replies, “My child, I can do it,
but you will not be happy.
When I give you food, you will get joy.
But when you struggle for it, when you work for it,
you will get much more joy.
I can do everything:
I can sow the seed, and I can bring the rain.
But you will not be happy
because you will not have done anything.”

When we earn something by the sweat of our brow, we get tremendous joy. A student who works hard and earns his degrees with flying colours gets so much joy. The teacher can be partial to a useless student and give him very high marks, but in his heart he will not get joy. Struggle is like that. If we do something, if we work hard for it, then when we achieve it, when we reach the goal, we get much more joy than otherwise.⁵⁴