How to deal with bad habits..

One man got into the habit of eating opium. It was not possible for him to control this habit. He was always in a kind of coma.

A saintly person visited his city and was offering advice and comfort to many. The opium-eater also sought the advice of the saint. The saint said that his health was deteriorating and that he should give up eating opium. At this, the opium addict said that it was not possible for him to give it up. He requested the saint to give him some advice.

The saint asked him how much of opium he used to take every day and was shown a certain lump as the quantity being taken every day. The saint got a piece of chalk, equal to the lump of opium and told him that he may continue eating opium but should not take more than the weight of the chalk each day.

The opium eater was quite happy but he was also told that every day he must write “OM” three times on a blackboard with that chalk. In this manner, the chalk was reduced in size every day and so the amount of opium which the person was eating also got reduced gradually and ultimately this habit was removed.

This is a Chinna Katha tale. Chinna Kathas are short stories that Swami Sathya Sai Baba included as part of his discourses to drive some point home. I got this Chinna Katha in my mailbox, as part of the daily Sai Inspires message. I loved this story and the moral behind it and decided to present it to Winkie, with some customisations in keeping with his scope of understanding. [On a side note, I realise that we probably do not have much authority on defining what is the scope of a child's understanding, for children have such hidden worlds in them and are capable of a lot of insights of their own.]

This was right at bedtime, and he was already curled up under the blankets, and the room was dark with only a nightlight on for some mild glow. I told him there was a man, and that man had a bad habit. He ate too much chips everyday. (Yes yes, chips is the bad habit here, because a little someone in our house loves to have a bit too much of this highly salty savoury, and with chips he could relate.) And he did. He nodded sagely, probably thinking...poor man, I know how that feels!

The rest of the story is on the same vein with no alterations. Chalk is also something he can relate to as he has plenty of it at home. Once the story finished, I quizzed him on it.

What was the man's bad habit?

What did the sage ask him to do? (For the purposes of definition, I told him a sage was a person very close to God, and very wise and powerful too. Boys dig that kind of stuff!)

What did the man do with the chalk?

What happened to the chalk?

Did the man get over his bad habit? How?

What is the moral of the story?

This last question was by far, the trickiest. But he came through. He said the moral was that if you had a bad habit, you should write om om om till the bad habit went away. Pretty good, Winkie! And with that as the base, I ended up with the real nuance of the story...that when you have a habit that is detrimental to you, you submit to the will of God and ask for his grace to give you the strength to shed that skin of negativity.

I think he got it.