AADITYA - Catalyst for Empowerment

Once there were two swans who liked to stop by a certain pond every day for a drink of water. As time passed, they struck up a friendship with a turtle who lived in the pond, and they started telling him about some of the many things they saw while flying around up in the air.

The turtle was fascinated with their stories, but after a while began to feel very depressed, because he knew he’d never have a chance to see the great wide world the way the swans did. When he mentioned this to them, they said, “Why, that’s no problem at all. We’ll find a way to take you up with us.” So they got a stick. The male swan took one end of the stick in his mouth, the female took the other end in hers, and they had the turtle hold on with its mouth to the middle. When everything was ready, they took off.

As they flew up into the sky, the turtle got to see many, many things he had never dreamed about on the earth below, and was having the time of his life. When they flew over a village, though, some children playing below saw them, and started shouting, “Look! Swans carrying a turtle! Swans carrying a turtle!” This spoiled everything for the turtle, until he thought of a smart retort: “No. The turtle’s carrying the swans!” But as soon as he opened his mouth to say it, he fell straight to his death below.

The moral of the story: “Watch out for your mouth when you enter high places.” Watch out your ego also, which may play the spoil game.

“Before you say anything, ask yourself whether it’s necessary or not. If it’s not, don’t say it. This is the first step in training the mind — for if you can’t have any control over your mouth, how can you expect to have any control over your mind?”

“All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times;
but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly,
till they take root in our personal experience”
- Goethe (1749-1832)