Chanakya was insulted at King Nanda’s kingdom and he wanted to take revenge for his insult. Soon, he met a child name Chandragupta who was bright. Chanakya started to teach him. He collected enough money to raise an army for Chandragupta. He taught them about battle strategies and taught Chandragupta all about the rights and duties of a King.
Chanakya remembered how he was insulted in the kingdom of King Nanda and decided to attack his kingdom first. Chandragupta army was inexperienced compared to King Nanda’s Army and was not able to stand up to them. As a result, Chandragupta was defeated and had to flee along with Chanakya and hid in the woods.
One day as Chanakya entered a village in search of food, he passed by a hut. There he heard an excited voice of a child. Chanakya saw that the mother was serving him hot rice porridge. As soon as, the boy started to eat rice porridge, he started to cry saying that his fingers got burnt. Seeing this, the mother said, “Of course, they will get burnt because you acted as foolish as Chanakya.”
Intrigued and curious Chanakya entered into the room and before the woman could say anything he said, “Sorry to barge in like this but I just came in to inquire the meaning of your words.” The woman was surprised but still replied, “I was merely telling this kid to eat properly. I served him hot rice porridge and he should have realized that it was hottest at the center and start eating from outer fringe which cools down first.”
“Yes, I get that but what has it do with Chanakya’s foolishness?”, questioned Chanakya. The woman replied, “Everything. Chanakya is foolish, he went and attacked Nanda’s kingdom at the outset instead of conquering small kingdoms all around before going to the center. Just like a child trying to eat hot porridge from middle..! That’s why Chanakya lost and had to flee.”
Chanakya was surprised and humbly replied, “Thank you, mother. You have taught me a wonderful lesson in war strategy. I shall not make the same mistake the second time.” Saying this Chanakya left. Later he reorganized their army and set about conquering small kingdom first and eventually succeeded in ousting Nanda’s kingdom from Pataliputra.
Moral: Most of the problems in life are because we act without thinking. Thoroughly researched problems, when broken down into believable sized chunks, help accomplish the impossible-looking big projects.
Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs!!
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