Rama's Bridge

To rescue Sita from Lanka, Rama needed to cross the vast ocean. The monkey army, led by Nala and Neela, began building a great bridge of stones. Millions of monkeys carried boulders, and each stone floated when "Rama" was written on it. Among the workers was a tiny squirrel. She could not carry large rocks, so she rolled in the sand and shook it off between the stones, filling the gaps. Some monkeys laughed at her. "What difference can a squirrel make?" they said. Rama saw this and gently picked up the squirrel. "Her devotion is equal to yours," he told the monkeys. He lovingly stroked the squirrel's back with three fingers, leaving three white stripes that Indian squirrels carry to this day. Every contribution, no matter how small, helped build the bridge.