#StoryoftheMonth: State of Mind

This is a new segment on my blog called #StoryoftheMonth. The idea is to bring forward short stories, fables, and anecdotes, that have a moral or insight for the delight of my readers! So, make sure you look out for these stories once every month!   

The following story was contributed by my colleague, friend, and a reader of the blog: Professor Sudarshan Srinivasan. He often sends me interesting short stories as messages, and this time this particular story caught my eye. It is a thought-provoking one on “Perspective”.  

This is a widely-shared short story called “State of Mind”.

Murugan, the proprietor of a coffee shop had been busy all day.
Since it was a Saturday, his shop was more crowded than usual. The line of customers seemed unending.
He had been on his toes since morning.
By evening, he felt a splitting headache surfacing. As the clock ticked away, his headache worsened.
Unable to bear it, he stepped out of the shop leaving his staff to look after the sales.
He walked across the street to the Pharmacy to buy himself a painkiller to relieve his headache.
He swallowed the pill and felt relieved.
He knew that in a few minutes he would feel better.
As he strolled out of the shop, he casually asked the salesgirl, “Where is Mr Gopalan, the Chemist? He’s not at the cash counter today!”
The girl replied, “Sir, Mr Gopalan had a splitting headache and said he was going across to your coffee shop. He said a cup of hot coffee would relieve him of his headache.”
The man was pushed deep in his thoughts at the irony of the situation. He mumbled, “Oh! I see.”

This is a typical case of looking outside ourselves for something that we have within us.
How strange, but true! The Chemist relieves his headache by drinking coffee and the coffee shop owner finds relief in a pain-relieving pill! There are so many popular versions of this story, where the character is in search of a solution outside him, only to realise that they had everything required to solve the problem already.

Similarly, many of us travel across the lengths and breadths of the universe and also visit several shrines and ashrams to find peace. Eventually, we come to realize that real peace is within our hearts.

MORAL: 

“Peace is a state of mind.”

Did you like the story? Let me know in the comment section.