A young boy noticed a crocodile that was caught in a net, near a river bank. The crocodile begged the boy for help. Looking at his nervousness it promised not to devour him as a token of gratitude for saving it. The boy had hardly cut open the net - the crocodile grabbed his leg. The boy cried out in anguish, “This is not fair. You can't do this to me for saving you from the hunter,
that too after you promised you won't.” The crocodile calmly stated, “In life, such is the way.” The boy asked the crow to help but ironically the crow agreed with the crocodile, “Right in front of my eyes the serpent devours our chicks and I helplessly watch it, for in life, such is the way.” The monkey and the parrot too agreed with the crocodile. Finally, a rabbit came forward and instigated the ego of the crocodile. “Utter nonsense. There is no such stupid philosophy.”
Hearing this, the ego-involved crocodile opened its jaws to have a loud-enough argument with the rabbit. The boy escaped from the jaws of the crocodile. Having heard the cries of the boy, the villagers and the boy's pet dog arrived at the river bank. The villagers began to beat the crocodile to death. The dog spotted the rabbit and started chasing it. The boy screamed at
the dog, “Hey, listen! This rabbit saved my life. Do not attack him.” But the dog had chased and killed the rabbit in a jiffy! Hurt and bleeding, as the boy walked back to his village, he felt, “The crocodile was almost saved, but it eventually died. I was almost dead, but was eventually saved. The rabbit need not have been in the scene at all, but for all the good it did, now it is no more. The crocodile was right. In life, such is the way.”
Cooperating with the inevitable is not a defeatist outlook, as it may seem. Giving into the philosophy, “In life, such is the way,” isn't about a fatalistic attitude to life. But how long will you bang against the wall,when in reality you are going to bleed, but the wall will never open up for you? How long will you curse your luck and wait under a mango tree expecting oranges, when in reality you may drop dead, but not a single orange will drop from the mango tree? In fighting the
inevitable, you will lose all your energy and will.
Now, when you eventually find the door, you won't have the energy to take the exit. Now, when you eventually reach the orange tree, you will be too tired to relish it. Genius is in knowing, when to let go 'what can't be'. In letting that go, you are ready to embrace 'what can be'.
Either you will save your energy by gleefully cooperating with the inevitable, for in life, such is the way. Or, you will drain your energy by miserably and helplessly cooperating with the inevitable, for again, in life such is the way. What is, is! What isn't, isn't!
In two simple words, sustain else abstain.
