Three idiots

First time I heard this story in one of the talk given by sadhguru (jaggi vasudev). Then heard and read the different versions of the same story in different sources.

There were three friends – Shankar, Ravi and Raju - working in a government office as clerks. Their office was on the third floor of the building. Since they were working in the same department, proximity bred companionship and companionship translated into friendship not out of choice, manily due to the lack of option (more like an arranged marriage). They had mastered the art of tolerating one another, and they could do things together. Years have passed without much ups and downs.

One day as usual, all three assembled during their lunch break with the tiffin boxes. Ravi opened his tiffin box and found three chappatis and potatoe curry. He stared at the chappati and said, “ Last 15 years, every day without fail, my wife gives me the same food for lunch. I am so angry, can’t she prepare some variety. If tomorrow also she gives me chappati and potatoe curry for lunch, then I will jump out through the window and kill myself”. Raju felt sorry for him and opened his tiffin box and found curd rice and lemon pickle. And he realized that he too has the same menu for last 15 years for lunch and he said, “Me too in the same boat, if tomorrow I get the same lunch, I too will jump through the window”. Shankar opened the box and he found lemon rice and mango pickle and said, “ my case is not different, 15 years same lemon rice for lunch, if it is repeated I will follow your way”.

The next day three friends sat down for the lunch. Ravi opened the box and found chappati and potatoe curry. He looked at his friends, got up and jumped through the window. Raju saw curd rice, got up and jumped through the window. In was now Shanker’s turn. As the fate would have it, he too had the same lemon rice, and he too jumped through the window.

Destiny is indeed cruel; when you want to die, you don’t and when you want to live, you get heart attack. The three friends were injured and broken few limps but did not die. They were admitted in the hospital. Their wives and relatives gathered in the hospital, and everyone was crying. Ravi’s wife was mumbling, “Had I known that my husband hated chappati so much, I would have prepared some other item for the lunch. All he had to do was informing me what he wants. Why did he do this to himself?” Raju’s wife muttered, “ I thought he likes curd rice, if he wanted different food he could have told me so”. But Shankar’s wife was totally perplexed and in a tone of disbelief said, “I do not cook anything in my house, it is my husband who prepares food, if he did not like lemon rice he should have prepared something else”.

Pain is totally different from suffering. The former is caused usually from outside and the latter is internal. Pain can be cured by medical treatment but suffering gets complicated with drugs. Pain is real whereas suffering is mind created illusion.