The Indian case study method…

If there is life, there will be problems… when one problem ends another one begins… They are cyclical in nature… I see so many people around me complaining that they have got problems in their life. What if our life could become problem free… all of us would love if that could happen... to understand this we need to listen to a story...
The fairytale of Vikarm and Betal explains this in a very powerful way…
Once upon a time there was a king known as Vikramaditya. He was a great and a very noble king. One day a sorcerer came to him and said, “Oh mighty king… I want your help… I need you to go to the cremation ground and find me a Betal, a ghost…” and Vikramaditya agreed because he was a great king and he was always ready to give anything to anyone who came to him… and so Vikramaditya goes to the crematorium in search of the Betal. The instruction given by the sorcerer to vikram is that when he goes to the crematorium there is a banyan tree where he will see the ghost hanging upside down… he has to pull it down and carry it on his shoulder but never speak to it because if he does the ghost will fly away and then he will have to again go back and recollect him…
And so he goes to the cremation ground, finds the ghost hanging upside down, pulls him and puts him on his back… but the ghost is not willing to be captured and he tries every trick in the trade to make Vikramaditya speak… finally when Vikramaditya does not break his silence the Betal comes up with an idea.. He says “Oh mighty king!!! Let me tell you a story, and at the end of each tale I will ask you a question… If you know the answers to the question speak… knowing the answer if you do not speak your head will burst into thousand flames… But if you do not know the answer and therefore do not speak its perfectly fine... (This is what we call the case study method, where in you are given a situation and then by giving answers to the asked questions you need to comment on the case; apparently it was first used in India.)
So the Betal keeps narrating stories and goes on asking questions and Vikramaditya being very wise is able to answer all of them... So this continues for 24 times wherein the stories are told, questions are asked and answers are given and the Betal flies back to the exasperation of Vikramaditya who has to go back to recollect him every time and the process of storytelling continues... and finally on the 25th time Vikramaditya is unable to answer the question, he genuinely does not know the answer because if he did his head would burst in thousand flames.. And so the king heaves a sigh of relief thinking that now I have got the ghost and I will take him back to the sorcerer... And that is when suddenly the ghost laughs and says “You might be a great king but what a foolish man you are… Do you realize that so long you were able to answer a question you were saving your own life. And now that finally you are not able to answer it you are in big trouble. Because the moment you take me to the sorcerer, he will bottle me up and make me into a genie... Once I become a very powerful genie do you know what is the first thing that I will be asked to do? I will be asked to kill you by the sorcerer as he would want your throne. And all this time when you were problem solving and getting irritated, you did not realize that that is the only reason why you are still living... You exist to answer questions… you only matter when you solve problems.”
One must welcome problems rather than saying I don’t want them in my life because then what is the use of such a life… Don’t fly away from problems, take them as challenges and figure out a way to tackle them. Always remember that the day when all the problems go away our utility reduces to nothing. Every obstacle that life throws at you makes you wiser and smarter. The most successful people in this world are the ones who are able to give solutions to various problems. The more troubles you face the better you will become. Through such problems life often gives you a chance to know yourself. And the sum total of such good and bad experiences is what life all about !!!