Number of words: 278

When the entire army of monkeys was busy making the bridge on the sea to reach Lanka to take Sita, a small squirrel living in the area watched the entire scene. Seeing them, the squirrel also wanted to contribute to building the bridge. But the squirrel was too small to even carry the sand or stone. So, the squirrel thought of an idea. It went to the sea and had a dip. Then, the squirrel rolled over in the sand. With the sand all over its body, it went between the rocks and rolled over it. She continued doing the process from sunrise till sunset. She did this for days effortlessly. No one noticed her for days.

One day, a monkey noticed her and started making fun of her. He told her to stay away otherwise the rock would crush her. Everyone started making fun of her. The squirrel was in tears. Lord Ram happened to watch the actions of the squirrel. The squirrel was tireless and went on doing its job without any break until the project was completed. Lord Ram described to the army how the squirrel has worked as the connector between the two rocks. Lord Ram was pleased with the efforts of this little squirrel. He explained to all others the relevance of the squirrel and its sense of duty. He took the squirrel on his lap and showed his appreciation by moving his three fingers from head to tail. It is said that those are the three lines which we see today in a squirrel. Since then, the squirrels have carried white stripes on their bodies.

Excerpted from Karma Yogi by Swami Vivekananda