This is a slightly modified version of the story told by Mata Amrithanandamayi. It is a good story to illustrate a lesson in change management – how our preconceived notions and habitual ways of looking at things can blind us to the new and changed situation).
The Officer in-charge of a police station received an info from the Intelligence wing that a well-known drug smuggler is likely to cross the nearby check-post with narcotic stuff. The officer rushed to the check-post with his constables and waited. The smuggler came in a brand new foreign motorbike. The policemen searched furiously his bike, his clothes and his body. But nothing was found. He was allowed to go. When the officer reported the matter to his boss, he was told to keep a round-the -clock vigil for a week.
The smuggler came again next day in another new bike. The policemen searched but again nothing could be found. This comedy went on for a few more days and everyday smuggler came in a flashy new bike. The next day, when the smuggler came again, the frustrated police officer told him:
“Look here, we know you are smuggling drugs and hiding it somewhere. Today you must tell me where you are hiding”. The smuggler said:
“Officer. I am no longer smuggling drugs. I left that business long back”.
“What are you smuggling now?” asked the officer irritably. The smuggler said with a wink in his eyes, “foreign motorbikes”, and before the significance of the message can sink into the officer’s mind, the smuggler raced off in his bike.
The message of the story is that when we cling to past habits it prevents us from seeing or understanding the present situation.
MSS
M.S. SRINIVASAN
Sri Aurobindo Society
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