These Short Stories for Kids are put together by team Ekdali to build conversations on relevant topics. Do take a look at our posters and flash cards here
Short Stories for Kids based on Ancient Indian Wisdom
Short Story one- Practice What you Preach
Long ago in ancient India, there was a well-known guru. He led a very simple life. He would wear simple clothes, have limited meal and did not have any home for himself. He used to travel from one place to another preaching and singing the songs of god. Creating awareness in people about how to live in society and such things. He used to travel at day time and at nights, he would rest in which ever place came along his way. People were waiting for days together for his arrival at their place. They used to invite him for their houses, temples and palaces and comfort him with all necessities. But he seldom accepted any riches from them. But took only a little meal and rest. His preaching’s had become daily chants in many houses.
One day, he reached a particular village near Tamil Nadu. As he was resting in the late evening, a lady came to visit him. She had brought her son along with her.She said that her son had a bad habit of eating too much of groundnuts. It would frequently upset his stomach, but he still continued doing that. She said that she was waiting for the guru to come to her village so that she could get her son out of his habit.
The Guru patiently heard the complaint, smiled and asked her to come back after a week. The lady agreed.
After a week when the lady came, the Guru asked her son to discontinue his habit and explained all the ill effects of eating too may ground nuts. The boy agreed and promised to keep away from ground nuts
Observing all these closely, a disciple asked the Guru the reason for taking a week’s time to give the boy a simple advice. The Guru replied that he also had a habit of eating too many groundnuts. Before advising someone being a Guru he had to stop the habit himself first. So, he took a weeks’ time and avoided groundnut for the whole week and then advised the boy
Parenting takeaway
This is a great example for us to preach only what we practice. As parents we often complain about our kids watching too much screen, not eating healthy food and not sleeping on time, but we are often guilty of doing the same things. Children learn from what we do rather than what we say
Short Story two - Preaching of Buddha
As we all know Gauthama Buddha is the manifestation of God himself. He has preached a lot of life lessons. It is applicable to everyone at all ages.
One day Buddha was travelling with his disciples. They passed a village which had a lake. When they reached the lake, Buddha asked one of the disciple to get some water from the lake. When the disciple went near the lake, he saw a group of women washing clothes. 2-3 men were washing animals and one man was washing his bullock cart. The water in the lake had become very dirty. He went back to Buddha and explained that the water was not anymore safe to drink. Buddha asked him rest for a while. After an hour or so, Buddha again asked the same disciple to get the water from the lake. He was perplexed. But without questioning back he went to the lake. But he saw that the lake water looked better than before. He went down and collected some water and went back t Buddha.
Buddha explained that all the dirt and mud would have settled in the bottom leaving the clear water at the top. It is the same way with our mind. When we are in anger or in haste our mind will be in full of confusion. Many thoughts wil be running in our mind disrturbing us to make a clear decision. So, we also have to give sometime to our mind to settle down. Make it calm before we take any decision. As making decision in a confused state of mind may lead us to more disasters.
Moral of the Story
This is a great story to teach children that we must never take impulsive decisions.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Smitha Prasad is a budding writer who writes articles and short stories for kids. She believes that childhood is the right age to inculcate the right values in kids. It helps them to develop into confident adults. She designs and runs a kid’s magazine called A LITTLE MORE-An Engaging booklet, through which she tries to reach kids that helps kids stay away from screen, build conversations and build the right mindset in kids
