Upakhyan (Anecdote)
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910) was born in a rich family in England. Right from her childhood, she was interested in serving others. Those days serving and nursing the sick was considered a very inferior task. There weren't many proper hospitals even. She traveled to several countries in Europe for education. Florence was a very beautiful lady, but rather than settling down in married life, she devoted her life to organizing the nursing sector. A woman from a wealthy family entering the hospitals and serving the wounded and the sick was a very revolutionary step in a conservative society. She trained a group of forty nurses and nursed many wounded soldiers in the Turkey war, and many people sick with cholera at numerous places. Her benevolent service earned her a great appreciation from all over the world. The credit of bringing honour and repute to nursing, which was once considered a lowly job, goes to Florence Nightingale alone.
Hrudaysparshi Katha [Story, that touches our heart]
Why Serve Others
All the external working organs of the body were very upset with stomach and wanted to go on strike. Their complaint was that all of them like the hands, the legs, the eyes, and the ears work very hard the whole day to earn food. But instead of going to them the entire food is gobbled up by the stomach for free. When they do all the work, they deserved to get all of it and not the stomach. So the strike was on.
Stomach tried convincing them all, "Dear ones! I do not keep any of your earnings to myself. Whatever you give I, with a lot of effort, convert it to the form that nourishes you all the time. My efforts and this whole process is not visible to you. But rest assured, all your hard earned earnings return back to you in an indirect way. Please do not go on strike for the good of the whole body!"
But adamant organs did not budge. They said, "You are a selfish capitalist. You exploit us all the time and are now trying to convince us with your sweet talk." All of them stopped their work and stomach began to go hungry without food. Very soon, in the fire of hunger the blood and all the juices of the body began to dry up. The energy of all the organs also began to diminish. Darkness began to engulf the eyes, strange sounds began to resonate in the ears, legs began to totter and hands could not even move.
Then the brain called out to all, "You fools! No one ever devours all your hard earned earnings. It all comes back to you. Never think that you would be in loss when you serve others, this is a very foolish thought. In this God's creation whatever you give returns back to you with a lot of interest. Now get on with your job assigned to you." The organs realized after the strike that whatever good they do does not get wasted.
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