Page 37 - Moral Stories Vol 1

All children are born innocent. Very few are born wise like Prahalada. Long long time ago, a child was born like that. His name was Jadabharata. Even before children of his age started talking, Jadabharata had made up his mind that in his life he would not speak at all. He would only think in his head about God, and meditate on Him. He kept his promise to himself. He spoke only once in his life! This is how it happened.
His family, you see, thought he was dumb and an imbecile. In their eyes he was not fit to do anything. When his father died, his brothers divided the inheritance among themselves leaving out Jadabharata. They just kept him around the house, to build fires, haul water, clean up, etc. Naturally they sometimes got angry with him, and then he would go out and sit under a tree to wait until they cooled down.
One day he was doing just that, when a palanquin came down the road. Do you know what a palanquin is? The rider sits in a box between two poles, carried at the ends by four or more men. In the palanquin was the king of that land, being taken to his summer palace. One of the bearers fell ill and so the palanquin was being carried by three persons only.
When they saw Jadabharata, strong and silent under the tree, they thought he would make an excellent substitute. The king then stuck out his head and commanded him to be the fourth bearer. Strange to say, Jadabharata jumped right up and put the end of the pole to his shoulder.
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