"TO GIVE IS DIVINE"

By D.R. Kaarthikeyan, Legal Advisor, India.

A small, impoverished boy was standing barefoot on the New York City streets, looking wistfully in the window of a shoe store. A well-dressed woman, walking down the street, saw him and asked him, My child, why are you looking so sadly in this window? The small boy looked up at her and replied, I am asking God to please give me a pair of shoes. The woman took the boy’s small hand and led him into the shoe store, where she immediately asked the clerk for a bucket of warm water and 10 pairs of socks. Then, placing the boys dirty feet into the water, she tenderly washed them and put a pair of warm socks on him. Then, she told the clerk to bring shoes for the boy. As they left the store, the boys small feet now snugly in a pair of new shoes, and a bag of warm socks held tightly in his fist, he clenched the woman’s hand and looked up into her eyes. Are you Gods wife? he asked. This story is not only a beautiful snippet from life in a big city. Rather it is a deep lesson about how to live our own lives. Instead of simply saying, Oh, how sweet, and moving on, let us really take this story to heart. How easy it is to pass by those less fortunate with a simple sigh of sympathy or with a token aid, perhaps a coin or two tossed in their direction. These small gestures of empathy and charity make us feel like we are compassionate people who just live in an unjust world. However, is the homeless man helped by our sigh of disdain? Does the coin we hand him really make a difference? Are we really being compassionate, or are we just soothing our own consciences? How much more difficult it is to really stop, take a moment out of our hectic lives and see what is needed. Yet, how much more divine that is. There are always places to be and things to do. If we wait until we are free in order to take care of others, the time will never come. Real divinity, real selflessness is giving when it is not necessarily convenient to give. It is giving according to the others needs, not according to our own agenda and convenience. The wealthy woman probably had some place else to be on that cold day in New York City. She could have easily walked by the boy, thinking to herself, Our government really needs to do something about homelessness; she could have looked the other way and continued on with her errands. But she didnt. That is what makes her special. We tend to give generously to ourselves and to our own families. Particularly at this holiday season. We will pile gifts for our families until there is no room left. We will spend hours dreaming up the ideal present for our family members. We will shop and shop for the perfect gift for our friends, acquaintances and colleagues. No problem. We love each other and so we give gifts. This is fine. However, let us also remember, though, to extend that compassion and that love to others who really need it. Let us remember that our family extends beyond the walls of the blood cell. The child starving on the street, the HIV+ orphan whose parents died of AIDS, the handicapped and homeless shivering under a thin blanket living in a doorway --- they may not share our DNA, they may not have joined our family through vows of marriage, they may not have come through our own womb. Yet that does not make them any less our true family. It does not make them any less our own flesh and blood or our own responsibility. Our scriptures say "Vasudhaiva kutumbakam." It means, "The world is one family." This is not a trite slogan to plead for world peace. Rather it is the veritable truth of our own existence. It is nothing but the veil of Maya (cosmic illusion) that makes one child seem like "ours" and another child seem like "not ours." They are all ours. This holiday season let us truly work at cultivating the divine vision which allows us to see every suffering child as our own, every homeless man as our father, every woman unable to provide her babies with proper nutrition or medicines as our own mother, every elderly person dying alone in pain and agony as our own grandparent. Let the love in our hearts which we feel for our limited families extend and extend until it overflows and touches every person in every corner of the world. As we perform our daily meditations, let us add a special meditation in which we feel our heart grow and expand with each breath. Let the love and the warmth we feel in our heart expand throughout our bodies into the tips of our fingers, so that all those we touch are touched by the hand of love. Let us, with each exhalation, release another brick in the wall of our own limited sense of self until our true Self expands and flows and melts into all of Creation. Let us, in our prayers, pray just as fervently, just as passionately for those whom we think are "strangers" as for those whom we think are "family." Let us vow never to turn a blind eye on someone in need. Let us vow to use what God has given us to really serve His children.

May God bless all of us with peace, harmony, joy and positive attitude to everyone.

Courtesy: Mr. D.R. Kaarthikeyan, Legal Advisor, India.

Go Top

A Story: "Lessons to be Learnt"

What exactly are you?....

A carrot, an egg and a cup of coffee...You will never look at a cup of coffee the same way again.....

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil, without saying a word. In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see." "Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied. Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard boiled egg. Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does it mean, mother?" Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity - boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior, but after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water. "Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?" Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength? Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart? Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you. When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean? May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy. The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches. It's easier to build a child than repair an adult. This is so true - may we all be COFFEE

Email from Mana Ghosh dated December 10, 2005.

Go Top