There is a fable that tells of a big diamond which had the power to think and feel. For many years the stone lay in the shallow farmlands waiting to be discovered so that it could give immense joy to the one who recognised its worth. Finally, one day a poor farmer while tilling the field spotted the stone. Failing to recognise it as a precious, uncut diamond but pleased with its crystalline look and the play of light when the sun touched it, he decided to tie it around the neck of his calf, so that he could enjoy the spectacle of light as he worked the land all day. At the same time, the stone could serve as a unique ID tag for his calf, he thought. The diamond, on its part, understood the limitations of the farmer's intelligence. It patiently bided its time till a more knowledgeable person would come along and give it the place of honour it deserved.

One day a jeweller came by and recognised the precious stone. He understood that if it were cut and polished, it could become a priceless gem of rare beauty. Then greed stepped into the mind of the jeweller. Realising that the ignorant farmer did not know its worth and therefore put the stone around the neck of his cow, he offered only Rs. 100 for it which was a lot of money for the farmer. The poor man immediately parted with the diamond. But just as the jeweller was giving the farmer the money, the diamond — heartbroken by the jeweller's refusal to acknowledge its true worth — shattered into bits and became powder-like.

Astonished, the jeweller wondered what happened. 'I knew this was a diamond. But how did it break like glass?' In the throes of death, the diamond bewailed that though the farmer had misused it by putting it around his animal, he could be excused for his ignorance. However, to be priced at a mere Rs. 100 by the jeweller, who had the requisite knowledge and expertise, was an affront to the stone's true value and thus its heart broke.

The message in this fable is that we as the crown of creation are blessed with the most sophisticated gift possible: human life. Yet, with our latent beauty under our very noses because of either ignorance or greed we fail to accord real value to our existence. We destroy our precious life in wasteful pursuits, instead of striving to attain immortality the way nature had intended by endowing us with intellect and free will. Truly in the human form of life alone can we override our lower instincts, think, feel, discriminate, understand, grow within and choose to evolve further and faster towards liberating ourselves from what is clearly — if only we pay a little attention — heartbreakingly unreal.

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