A king was proud of his skill in archery. Once, while passing through his country in his chariot, he happened to see several targets painted on trees with an arrow struck exactly at the bull’s-eye of each target. He stopped the chariot and enquired about the extra-ordinary archer who could display such a wonderful skill in archery. The people brought before the king a foolish boy. On enquiry, he confessed to the king that he had no skill or formal training in archery. He used to strike arrows at trees carelessly and later paint concentric circles around the point where each arrow struck the trunk. With the arrow still intact at the centre of the painted target, he could easily deceive everyone.
Many people are like painted tombs, which look fine and beautiful on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. They appear to be good and great to everybody, but inside they are full of hypocrisy and sins.
There are many people who pretend expertise or holiness and deceive others. It is easy to impress others by deceptive appearances but only genuine quality will get lasting recognition. Humility is the basic quality of a saint. Persons pretending to be saints or prophets may proclaim publicly about their achievements or attributes. A pretentious preacher is said to have declared, “I am proud of my humility!” Sincere actions, truthful statements and a transparent life style distinguish a true saint from pretenders.
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© By Dr. Babu Philip, Professor, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Fine Arts Avenue, Kochi-682016, Kerala, India and Leo. S. John, Maniparambil, Ooriyakunnath,Kunnumbhagom, Kanjirappally, Kottayam-686507, Kerala , India
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