475. No Fatigue For Me!

"You seem to be more busy after retirement than you were when you were working!" said Sundaresan.

"It is true. Because I am engaging myself in the activities I enjoy doing, I don't feel bored or tired" said Raju.

"What kind of activities are you engaged in?"

"I enjoy gardening. So, I bought this house with a garden, located in the outskirts of the city. I grow the plants I like and maintain them. The garden area is small. So, I have set up a garden on the terrace too. I am also interested in social service. I go to an old age home now and then and render whatever service I can."

"What kind of services?"

"Maintaining accounts, getting things from shops, taking the physically weak inmates for a walk by holding their hands and other kinds of help they need."

"Remarkable! I am of the same age as you. But I can't do these kinds of jobs, exerting my body" said Sundaresan.

"When we do the activities we enjoy doing, there will be a feeling of happiness and satisfaction. Therefore, we won't feel any fatigue" said Raju.

After Sundaresan had left, Raju's wife Uma told him, "Your friend says only what I have been telling you repeatedly. When you were working, on holidays, you would rest for the whole day. Whenever you were taking me and our children out, you would feel fatigued. But, nowadays, you go out even on festival days for doing service at some place or other. Even during the time you are at home, you are working in the garden, unmindful of the scorching sun. Will your body withstand all this strain?"

"My answer to you is the same as the one I gave Sundaresan. If we do something we enjoy doing, how can there be fatigue or tiredness?" said Raju, smiling with pride.

"I don't know" said Uma, feeling tired of talking to her husband on this repeatedly.

Uma received a phone call from the organization, where Raju was rendering services. The caller told Uma that Raju suddenly complained of chest pain and that he was taken to a nearby hospital.

Uma rushed to the hospital.

Raju was lying on the hospital bed. Medicine was being injected from a bottle hung on the top of the cot, through a needle pierced into his wrist.

"Your husband had a heart attack. Don't worry. It is only mild. He will have to be in the hospital for a couple of days. After he is discharged, he has to take complete rest. Take care" the Doctor told Uma.

Uma looked at her husband with an expression of concern and anger, as if telling him, 'Did I not tell you repeatedly not to strain yourself too much?'

Raju turned his face away from her, feeling guilty and embarrassed about having not listened to her advice to restrain himself from getting strained too much.

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 48
Knowing One's Strength

Verse 475 (in Tamil):

pIli pey sAgAdum achchiRum appaNdam
sAla miguththup peyin.

Meaning:

Even a cart loaded with peacock feathers will have its axis broken, if it is overloaded with the feathers.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'sOrvA enakkA?' the same author.)

Verse 476
Verse 474