SNAKES AND LADDERS

While we played together, my friend consistently left his turn and passed it to me. This intrigued me and I asked him, “Mukunda, Is there anything wrong?  Why are you not playing?”

He smirkingly replied, “I don’t think,  leaving one’s turn and not playing are considered equivalent.”

“How can it not be?” I exclaimed. “If you do not act, you will lose.”

“Is that so?” He chuckled and continued “Then here. I leave my turn again and pass it to you. Play.”

Seeing my bewilderment and confusion, he laughed and then said, “Everyone including you, when you perform an action, you want to control the results of your action to succeed but I trust in taking control over my actions as to when to perform one over or not perform it. But since you are bound to the result, you keep on acting again and again as a gambler gets attached to his gambling, and thinks that maybe the next bid will make him win a big amount. But Life is not a gambling range, where only two participants are playing their turn, there are many more, outside our observation, who are playing their own turns and hoping to win which affects the overall outcome. That’s why I trust in controlling my actions.”

As he said this, I played a wrong turn and my player came again to the initial level.

“Now I will play.” Smiling, he rolled the dice and it went straight to the ladder which took him to the last stage. I rolled the dice again but went two steps ahead of my last place. He again rolled and reached the finish line. Staring at me, as he won, he smirked again and I reciprocated it with a backstage of submission and said, “I don’t have to be worried about victory anymore.”

“Why?” He said, amused.

“The one who is the embodiment of truth, knowledge, and dharma, is my friend. And where there is dharma, only there is victory. Even if I do something unpleasant, you will transform it into the well being that not only concerns me but the whole existence. So, there is no worry.”

Astonished and smiling, he replied, “Shubham Astu”