AFVOA Newletters of Year 2002

Page 48 of 84 ARMED FORCES VETERAN OFFICERS’ ASSOCIATION CHENNAI (Established 1994) Patron: Lt Gen C Sundara Rao, PVSM, President Maj Gen N Viswanathan Vice President Col N Viswanathan Secretary Col A Krishnaswami, VrC, VSM** No 4 of 2002 NEWSLETTER #04/2002 30 th Jul 2002 In this world it’is not what we take up, but what we give up, that makes us rich. ~ Henry Ward Beecher Dear Veteran, From the Editor’s Desk It is during the late 1994, that we came over to Chennai to make our home. I continued my association with Rotary, which I had joined at the previous station. During the annual District Conference held in early 1995, a Swamiji was one of the invited speakers. When he came on stage – one realised that he was not even thirty years old – apparently one of the new age Swamijis. He was from the Chinmaya Mission, and was heading their Centre at Hong Kong. The topic of his talk was “Giving”. He narrated a story, which went like this. In ancient times, a king who was getting on years was ruling. He had two sons, and in the traditional manner, he planned to hand over the cares of the kingdom to one of his children, and retire to the forests, so that he could meditate on the Almighty, during the twilight years of his life. He called for the royal astrologers, and asked them to read the horoscopes of both his sons, and tell him as to what the stars foretold – (just like it is happening today!) After a thorough examination of both the horoscopes, the royal astrologers – with some trepidation informed the king that whereas large wealth was foretold for the elder son, it appeared that the younger one would have only one cow. Paradoxically, notwithstanding this unequal distribution of wealth — the younger son seemed fated to be far more famous and popular. On hearing this, the King decided to hand over the cares of governance to the elder son, gifted one cow to the younger son, and asked him to repair to the forest and set up his ashram over there. At the end of three months, the King satisfied that the elder son was fully in control, decided to visit to his younger son, before he proceeded to the vanashram stage. As he neared the ‘ashram’ of the younger son, he saw huge crowds thronging the ashram. Without exception, everyone was praising the young prince and spoke of his generosity in gifting a