Belly of the mind
When mommy tells a story - You listen. Simple. Once upon a time a man went to The God in a very charged and angered mood to complain. A man - Dear god, I am here to talk about your Injustice to mankind. The god – Injustice? How? (I am all ears – No, the god didn’t actually say this, but I wish HE did)
A man – Injustice in comparison to goat. Look there (pointing to ruminating goat)
That goat enjoys eating food whole day and is all happy. The size of the stomach is much bigger than mine. Ma reiterates the size of the stomach part to inform audience of its central role in man’s complaint.
The god – What do you wish? (Notice the god speaks in short and crisp sentences, He is a man of few words) A man – I want to have the same size stomach as Goat’s? He uses his hand to show the stomach diff to the god.
The God - Agreed (the God indeed is a generous man),
I promise to give you the same size stomach (to feed yourself more) as Goat’s on one condition. (Aha, the catch - the God is crafty too)
God’s condition – Feed the present size stomach first, come back in your time to let me know you managed it successfully and happily for yourself and your family. Tell me YOU ARE CONTENT and HAPPY. Your wish will be granted.
The story unfold the truth to a man - His Quest - being stuck in the cycle of Samsara, the kaalchakra (The wheel of life and death/dharma). The World is eternally HUNGRY and UNHAPPY. The belly of the mind is never full. Not enough for the stomach(Food) or the mind(Entertainment). And a man awaits his return to tell the God - His stomach is full. Story ends here.
This short story has profound wisdom for those with understanding of Hinduism’s Samsara and Human bondage. The story is pivotal to the belief system of Warkari Sampraday in Maharastra, India. According to UN Food Programme - 815 million people, one in nine still go to bed on an empty stomach each night. Not so important but necessary -
The story uses the ancient unit of measurement Hands - For human stomach – Palm – Fingers stretched, Thumb nail to little finger nail, distance is between 12 -14 inches.The approx size of adult human stomach. For goat stomach – Hand – From Elbow to end of middle finger, upto 40 inches, apparently Goat stomach is 4 small combined into one big.