 Today's story is about a man called Retinu, his wife whose name is Kadamba and her lover whose name is Gopichand. Well actually no, at the time that my story begins they're not yet lovers, they'd like to be but they haven't managed to do anything yet because the husband Retinu is a very possessive man and he won't let his wife out of sight for long enough for her to do anything and so Kadamba and Gopichand have flirted, they've talked about it, they would like to be lovers but at this point nothing has happened. And Gopichand who's finally tired of waiting now decides to take things into his own hands, he decides to make some plans. So that evening he goes to Retinu and he says to him, he says you know I have learned how to extract the spirit out of someone's body and put it into a different body and if you want to see how it's done meet me tonight at exactly midnight at exactly 12 o'clock at night in the middle of the cremation ground and I will reveal everything. Now Retinu is fascinated, I guess I would be too frankly if someone said they could show me how to do this. Retinu is fascinated and so that night at exactly midnight just like he's been told he arrives in the cremation ground to find Gopichand standing there in the midst of all of those ashes waving his arms around doing all of these rituals chanting mantras and before anyone knows what's happening the spirits from both the men's bodies from both Gopichand and Retinu's body the spirits from both the men's bodies rise out of the body and start to float in the air above and poor Retinu poor petrified Retinu looks down to find himself staring at his own dead body below. Well obviously if the spirit has come out of the body then the body is going to be lifeless so he's floating around now in the air looking down at his own dead body and can you imagine how frightening that must be I mean I would be petrified you're in the middle of the night in the middle of the cremation ground you're nothing but a little buff of air suddenly and you're looking down at your own dead body. Retinu is petrified but before he can actually say anything Gopichand jumps into Retinu's body and he runs out of the cremation ground. Now poor Retinu he has no idea what to do if he was scared before now he is absolutely mindless with fear because not only is he this little puff of air floating around in the middle of the cremation ground but even his body has disappeared and so he does the only thing that's left for him to do he jumps into Gopichand's body and he too runs out of the cremation ground. Okay scene two now all our three characters are on the move and where are they going well Gopichand in Retinu's body has and I'm sure you've guessed he has headed straight to Retinu's house so that now he can spend the night with Kadamba they've waited so long to do this and now finally he's going to arrive there in Retinu's body nobody's going to blink an eyelid and as far as he's concerned he's left Retinu floating around in the cremation ground they're perfectly safe they have the whole night to themselves and so he is on his way to Retinu's house. Retinu in Gopichand's body has headed off to Gopichand's house because he has no idea where this man has gotten to with his body but he does know that eventually he'll have to come back to his own house so it'll be the best place to wait for him. So Retinu is heading off to Gopichand's house and Kadamba meanwhile has also headed off to Gopichand's house because finally her husband is not around she has no idea where he is but who cares he's not over there watching her like a hawk this is the perfect time for her to be with her lover to finally spend the night with Gopichand so she too has headed off to Gopichand's house and hence when Retinu arrives at Gopichand's house in Gopichand's body he's extremely surprised to find his wife waiting over there but he's even more surprised when his wife Kadamba flings her arms around his neck and says darling you've finally arrived I'm so happy to see you my stupid husband has gone missing I don't know where he is but let's not think anymore about him this is our night together and it is at this point that poor Retinu realizes exactly what is going on what all this drama what all this plan to leave him in the cremation ground was all about but unfortunately he cannot resist himself he cannot control his lost his passion because for the last few weeks Kadamba has been a little bit distant and now that she's flinging her arms around his neck and inviting him into her bed well he finds that he cannot actually say no to her and so he puts his arms around her as well and the two of them go off to spend a night of love together. Scene three it's now early morning Gopichand who's been waiting all night at Retinu's house for Kadamba to show up is completely fed up he's really irritated because what a waste of a night what a waste of time what a waste of energy pulling all the spirits out the bodies and exchanging bodies it wasn't easy to do all night long he's waited for her God knows where she is but he's had enough and so he decides to go back to his own house and on arrival of course he finds Retinu and Kadamba lying in each other's arms in his bed now when he gets there to cut a long story short a huge fight follows the spirits are exchanged back into the correct bodies and a very angry Retinu grabs Kadamba in one hand Gopichand with the other and he drags them off to the king's court where he insists that the two of them should be punished the king when he hears the story is very confused well it's a confusing story your majesty punish this man Gopichand he ran away with my body oh is that not your body that you're in now no no this is my body but he ran away with my body because he wanted to make love to my wife oh did he make love to your wife no no i made love to my wife but i know what they were trying to do because she flung her arms around his neck and told him so oh did she put her arms around his neck no no no she put her arms around my neck but as you can see it was a very confusing story and the king truly was very confused but the point is what happens now does the king ever figure out what the story was about does anybody ever get punished for their crime and most importantly what is the lesson from this story so the king goes off for a round table conference with his wife and his three daughters and they're the ones who actually explain the story to him so that he's not confused anymore and it is also the queen who explains to him that nobody needs to be punished for what has happened over here because no crime has actually been committed Gopichand had had bad intentions he'd wanted to do something wrong but destiny stepped in and stopped him from doing anything you cannot punish somebody for merely thinking bad thoughts he didn't commit a crime kadamba too had had bad intentions but once again destiny had stepped in and everything that she did she actually did with the knowledge and the permission of her husband rethen who knew exactly what was going on when he allowed her to take him to her bed and so if her husband has chosen to agree to whatever she has done society has no place telling her that she's in the wrong so she too has not committed any crime and of course there was rethen who had committed no crime at all but according to the queen he was the worst one of all because he had knowingly allowed his wife to dishonor herself all because he had no self-control he could not control his own lust his own passions and so he had allowed her to dishonor herself and so he deserved no sympathy and actually nobody had committed a crime and so no one deserved to be punished for this and now you're wondering what is the lesson from this really weird story it's all about self-control self-control self-discipline willpower whatever you want to call it it is one of the most important things in our life you know we are told that to have a successful life or to have a life with positive outcomes you need two things a high level of intelligence and a high level of self-control now intelligence is not something that you can measure because you can't really define intelligence but self-control self-discipline willpower that is definitely within our power to develop unfortunately however i've noticed that these days self-control is not seen as a cool thing you know i find that if i ever ask people what is the strength in their character they'll tell me that they're compassionate or they can multitask or they're really good at sport nobody ever says that they have a really high degree of self-control but if you ask people about their weaknesses it's the very first thing that they will list i have no self-control when it comes to dessert i have no self-control when it comes to gambling i have no self-control when it comes to drink and it's almost as though we make excuses for it because the moment you bring up the subject somebody will say oh well you know you only live once or come on you have to enjoy yourself sometimes and oh every now and then it doesn't matter it's almost uncool to have self-control or to have willpower self-control a high degree of self-discipline is the best thing that you can do for yourself it's the best path to success and now you're wondering why i told you this story as a lesson in self-control because frankly none of the three characters in this story are role models for self-control well these stories were created as little reminders or like a little nudge to help you to remember your lesson because it was believed that if you tell a story that's too goody goody you know if you tell a story about a person who has such a huge degree of self-control they become too perfect and they become impossible to follow they become impossible to emulate and so the idea was to tell you a story that was funny enough to keep your attention and weird enough for you to remember always and that's just how i want you to treat the story so the next time you find yourself going down a path which you know you shouldn't you find yourself letting go when you know that you should be controlling yourself just remind yourself of the story and that will remind you of the lesson and hopefully it would be like a little shoulder to lean on for that next step that you have to take