The story of a Squirrel from Ramayana

The lord Ram is signified as the person of highest human values. There are several stories in the Ramayana that establishes the lord Ram as an accomplished and holistic person. After getting the idea from the sea-queen about making the bridge over the sea to connect to Lanka for fighting the war with Ravana and freeing Sita from the demon, all the monkey and bear warriors started picking and placing the boulders into the sea.

Lord Ram was very happy to see the high energy level, passion and dedication of his army towards constructing the bridge. A squirrel was picking up a little pebble in her mouth and putting it alongside the boulders. She was repeating this continuously and effortlessly. She was found by a monkey who started making mockery of her and told to stay away as she will die if she comes under the boulder or the leg of any army.

Every monkey and bear started laughing at the squirrel and started making mockery out of her. Squirrel was in tears and hurt. She was continuously telling the army that she is doing her bit to help in getting the Sita free from the Ravan. Lord Ram realized this from the distance and came near the squirrel.

The squirrel started complaining to Ram about the mockery of his army for which Ram felt bad. He told and shown to the monkey army that the pebble that she has thrown in the sea has worked as the connector between the two boulders and her contribution is as big as any other member of his army. Realizing this all army men was in the state of shame and felt bad for doing the mockery of squirrel.

To appreciate and show the gesture for the contributions that squirrel made Rama gently stroked the squirrel`s back with his hand. When he raised his hand, the marks of his fingers came up on the body of squirrel in the form of brown fur. And ever since then the squirrel has carried three white stripes on her back, as a token of Rama`s affection.

“No work is big or small. It’s not the stature of work that matters, but what you learn from working that counts. Never listen to people who tell you that the work you are doing is demeaning or would undermine your prestige. Remember, work doesn’t undermine prestige, it is absence of work that does.”