Surrender of Ego
Once a rich man's son was studying in the hermitage of a sage. When he completed his education he wanted to pay something as a taken of gratitude to his master. In those days students used to stay in the house of the teacher in the outskirts of the city and complete their education. After the studies were over only, they would pay fee or anything whichever the teacher asked for. This was known as Dakshina. As per the custom, the boy expressed his wish to pay the dakshina. The teacher was very wise. He asked the student to give him that thing which was of no use at all. The boy went in search of finding out the useless thing. When he touched the soil thinking it was of not any use, the soil screamed, " You consider me as useless ! All the riches of this earth comes out from me only."
Heraing these words, he went ahead. He saw a pile of garbage. The foul smell emanating from that was very disgusting. He decided that it must be the most useless thing in the world. So he extended his hand towards that, immediately there arose a voice from that, " What ? can you get a better natural and rich fertilizer than me on this earth ? All crops get the best and natural nourishment only from me." Then the truth dawned on him that every thing created by God is useful in way or the other. It is the ego of man which categorises things into useful and useless. He realized that useless is one who considers others as useless. What else can be that except one's own ego?
The student returned, apologizing himself, told the teacher that he could not find anything worthless except his ego. So he had come to surrender his ego as a token of gratitude to the teacher. The master was very happy and said , " Now only you have gained the real knowledge. Because knowledge is fruitful only when ego is given up. Humility is the ornament of knowledge."
It is aptly said,
Knowledge gives humility, from it comes worthiness, from worthiness one does good deeds, and from good deeds comes the real joy.
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