Coconut Never Falls on a Man
By Karmayogi
Men injuring themselves in a workshop or workspot is common. It is inevitable.
There are some workshops where a newcomer hurts himself; others will say,
“No one gets hurt or injured here.” To a skilled workman, his tools are sacred.
Those tools do not offend the workman as they are his extended fingers. Men
who treat the tools as objects often cut their fingers. Farms infested with
snakes have long periods, maybe years, when there are no snake bites. The
farmer worships his lands, crops, his work, his tools. Snakes living in such
fields are not killed when sighted. Cobras living there are considered good
omens.
Harvested coconuts fall from the crown of the trees. The probability of men
being hit by those nuts is great. It is the experience in coconut gardens
that nuts do not fall on the men who tend the trees. Not even the heavy leaves
of the trees hurt men living there. It is a rule of life. Objects are alive.
They receive the attention of the men who water the fields, use the tools,
clean the weeds, etc. Material objects are grateful to the attention they
receive and take care NOT to hurt the men.
One of the workers had a severely shaking head. On questioning him, it was
discovered that he was employed to clear a coconut garden of its trees so
that the land could be converted into plots. No wonder the coconut fell on
his head and it was shaking since then. Material objects do not hurt us if
we do not hurt them. People from the town visiting villages enter the fields
with their shoes on. Pious, traditional villagers will never walk on their
fields with shoes on. Often one has to cross fields full of thorns. The villager
will not step on the thorns at all. He is in tune with his work and his workspot.
Nothing there will offend him, not even the thorns. Farmers have noticed
that they run into a mishap – a thorn pricks them – when they are upset about
someone or something.
He who runs through his work, living in harmony with his environment will
not suffer from it. The environment offends, when MAN disturbs its equilibrium.