Shrenik Shah, Asia Pacific Kindness and Leadership Awardee, Global Influencer, Mentor and Keynote Speaker shared a post on LinkedIn:
“You won’t believe what a Jain monk once taught a powerful king and how that lesson saved my life decades later.
Most people don’t know this powerful Jain story, but it has shaped the way I look at life, pain, and resilience.
This King wasn’t a cruel man, but he was curious. Curious about whether monks truly lived beyond attachment and aversion. So one day, he decided to “test” a monk named Yamadhar.
He let his hunting dogs loose on him.
The monk stayed still.
He shot arrows that missed him.
The monk didn’t move.
Frustrated, he placed a dead snake around the monk’s neck.
Even then, Yamadhar didn’t react.
Not anger.
Not fear.
Not even discomfort.
When Queen Chelna heard this, she rushed to the monk, brushed away the insects eating into his wounds, and cleaned his body with sandalwood paste.
And only then did King finally understand what he had failed to see:
Strength isn’t always loud. Sometimes it looks like stillness in the face of what should break you.
That lesson returned to me years later, when cancer took away my voice.
When you lose something as fundamental as speech, your first instinct is resistance.
To fight.
To demand answers.
To beg for control.
I tried all of it.
None of it worked.
What changed my path wasn’t bravery. It was acceptance, the same quiet, grounded acceptance that monk Yamadhar showed centuries ago.
Not acceptance of defeat. But acceptance of reality, so that I could rebuild from it.
That shift helped me create a new voice without vocal cords.
It helped me guide others through their storms.
It helped me turn my pain into purpose.
And maybe this is what you need to hear today:
- You don’t have to react to everything life throws at you.
- You don’t have to match the noise of your challenges.
- You don’t have to pretend to be unbreakable.
You only have to choose who you want to be while things are breaking around you.
The monk chose compassion.
The queen chose empathy.
The king chose transformation.
And you can choose the next chapter of your story, even if life refuses to give you the script you imagined.
Shrenik Shah
PS: If you’re looking for actionable, experience-driven motivation for your teams, the kind that stays with them long after the session ends — let’s talk.”
More posts featuring Shrenik Shah on OncoDaily.