The Parable of the Sahdu Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Parable of the Sahdu - Essay Example Parable of the Sadhu began with the multi-ethnic and multi-national group of expert mountain climbers who want to reach the top of Mount Everest. One group member who is a part of the New Zealand group of mountaineers discovered the sadhu (an Indian holy man that practices yoga or an ascetic or a mystic) to be lying in the snow almost naked and near death already due to hypothermia (loss of body heat due to the cold). He brought this Indian man to the group to which the author Bowen H. McCoy belonged to so they can take care of him. He was in a hurry to rejoin his group that is already far ahead in the mountains. Members of the group of McCoy gave their food and clothing to the Sadhu so he can recover his strength. The four members of a Swiss group also helped to keep the man warm. The group of the Japanese climbers refused to lend their horse for transporting the Sadhu down the mountains to the next nearest village. The local porters carried the man instead but only half-way to the village and left the sadhu to cover the rest of the way to the village which they pointed out to him. No one in the group had bothered to ask the sadhu why he was there in the place or if he had really wanted to die (McCoy 12). No one also knew whether the sadhu eventually lived or not. The moral of the story is that people will often act differently when confronted with a situation that requires moral judgment. In this parable, each group of climbers found a reason to help the sadhu but only partially, because each had a higher goal of reaching the mountains peak before the snow steps will melt and make reaching the summit almost impossible. Each person was confronted with an ethical dilemma: whether to continue on with their journey or help out the sadhu and get delayed and probably never reach the mountains peak anymore. At issue in this story is no individual or group was willing to accept responsibility for the sadhu. Many of us as professionals will encounter similar