Page 5 - Mann Ki Baat

On 3 OCTOBER, 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi introduced
something very special to the people of India.
My dear fellow citizens of India, today, on the festive occasion of Vijayadashami, I want
to share my thoughts with you. And I would like to continue to do so in the days to come,
at least once or twice a month. Let me tell you a story that has been often told by Swami
Vivekananda.
Once, a lioness was out with her two cubs when she
saw a herd of sheep. She leapt forward to hunt the
sheep. One of the cubs ran along with her while the
other got left behind.
The cub who was left behind was found by a mother
sheep and she started looking after him along with her
own lambs. The cub grew up thinking he was one of
them. He would speak like them, eat like them and run
around and behave like them.

A few years later, the cub who had stayed with his
mother and was now grown up, happened to see his
brother living with the sheep. He could not believe his
eyes and wondered why a lion was behaving like the
sheep.

“What is the matter with you?” he asked. “Why are you
talking and behaving like them?”

“I’ve grown up with them,” said the other lion. “They
have brought me up so all my habits, my language and
my behaviours are like theirs.”

“Come with me and I’ll show you who you really are,”
said the first lion.

He took his brother to a well and made him look at their
reflection.
“Look, isn’t your face the same as mine? You are a lion
and not a sheep.”
The lion who had always thought of himself as a sheep
was wonderstruck. He recognised himself as a lion. With
new strength and sense of self-esteem, he threw back his
head and roared like a true lion.
All of us in this country must regain our self-esteem and
self-confidence. We must recognise our strengths. For if
we do, we will be a progressive and prosperous nation.