DO WE HAVE THE VIRTUES? WHY NOT ACQIRE ONE TODAY

[Guest guest]

DO WE HAVE THE VIRTUES? WHY NOT ACQIRE ONE TODAY

(…….Swami Bhakti Chaitanya, Vijayawada, AP, India)

 

Blessed self:

 

Prema, Daya, Karuna - LOVE, KINDNESS, COMPASSION are a few natural virtues,

particularly of human being. Naturally, these are the opposites of the

" arishadvargas " – Kama, Krodha, Lobha, Moha, Mada, Matsaryas. These are " adhis "

born in the mind. Modern science, born in West looks at the outside world of

" unda, pinda and brahmanda " . Present day popular conventional therapists

particularly the psychiatrists or the psychoanalysts do not identify or consider

them as problems or diseases. But the Seers and Sages, the traditional

scientists of mother Bharat, have not only pin pointed them as the reasons for

the down fall of human being but also gave ways and means to uproot the `adhis'

and to elevate to higher levels.

 

Let me share a story which was narrated by one modern lady. IN HER OWN

WORDS:

 

For some days I was watching a woman, accompanied by a young girl, visiting the

houses in our neighborhood. She would be saying something but most of the doors

of the houses were shut before she could finish her words.

 

On a rainy evening it was cold outside. Fully drenched and shivering the lady

and the girl appeared at my door steps. She was pleading " Will you kindly

employ me as your maid, the children are starving in the home and I have nothing

to feed them for some days. This girl is my daughter. At least kindly permit me

to clean the floor and utensils and give me whatever you wish. " Both mother and

daughter were looking dirty due to poverty. I was rather feeling bad at the

very sight of them, let alone employing them to do the household work, though I

was very badly needed a helping hand. " No, I do not have any work for you " , I

was clear in my voice.

Helplessly she looked through her drenched eyes for a while wiping her face

with the dirty torn sari. Yet she greeted me with folded hands and asked her

daughter " Greet with folded hands. " The girl did. " It is the will of God " the

woman said while leaving my home.

 

She went away, walking slowly and was waiting a few houses away to make a

similar request. I tried in vein to forget her. Her good manners and the

contentment writ large on her face, touching me somewhere within. I looked out,

she was about to knock at the other door. I called her in and said " It is

drizzling and cold, sit here for a while " She sat down in a corner of my

veranda.

 

My sick child was lying in the room. She called out in pain.

 

The woman asked, " Is there someone inside, it sounds as if sick " . Yes, it is

my daughter " I replied. " Can I see her " without waiting for my reply she

accompanied me to the room. She wiped the sweat from my daughter's face with her

sari, took the child's head on her lap, caressed and said to her daughter

" Massage her head lightly " . The daughter did so gently with affection as if it

were her own sister and the relaxing effect of the massage made my sick child

sleep.

 

I had thought of offering them tea but I was so much amazed by their good

manners, and was watching them with bewilderment and forgot to prepare tea for

them. A few seconds later, rushed to the kitchen, prepared tea and offered it to

both of them along with a few chapattis. The young girl began to devour the

chapattis and I realized how hungry she was. The woman also took a piece of

chapatti, brought it near her mouth but put it back on the chapattis. She

wrapped the chapattis in a piece of paper, lying nearby. " Do you not want to

eat? " I asked. Wiping her tears she said, " The children are hungry at home.

How can I eat? "

 

She went to the kitchen sink to clean the plate and cups.

 

I was really sad and very much grieved at that time. There was none around with

whom I could share my grief. I had thought that they were poor and were

inferior to me but ….. they nursed my daughter. Did they do so in the hope of

wining my favour or to get something from me. No, I had not even promised them

any help. In fact I flatly refused the request of the woman. Still, their

behavior was so courteous. I felt so small in comparison with those two great

souls though I had a status in the society. I was getting restless to share my

grief with some one. I became emotional, within myself I felt that these are the

ones with whom I can really share my grief. I embraced her daughter, without

knowing what I was doing. Perhaps that was the only way, I could think of. In

choked voice I asked her " Who are you? " .

 

" I….I…. " she spoke nervously, " I am a poor girl. My mother always tells me that

I should live and serve everybody. We can do this much at least, if not

anything else. " On listening to her reply, I felt I was smaller than before.

Meantime, the woman came back from the kitchen sink and said, " May we go now? "

 

I ran to my room, opened my purse, took out as many notes as I could and came

out I held one of her hands, put the notes on her palm and closed it

affectionately, I said to her, " You should come here every day. "

 

Both of them greeted me and went away. I kept looking at them till they were

out of sight with tears in my eyes, lightness in the heart and unknown

happiness.

..

Dear ones this is the end of the story. Ask yourself – were that woman and her

daughter really poor? Currency notes, gold, bank balance, bungalows and

chowkidars, etc. do not determine one's poverty or richness. It is the wealth

of virtues and good manners that makes us rich. The woman and her daughter

possessed the wealth of virtues – the wealth of good manners, contentment,

service and love. For this reason, they were rich – not in the least poor.

 

Will you not try to become a rich person like them?

 

Worship the poor and the down-trodden. These are your gods. These are your

first gods. Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Be good, Do good, Meditate, Realise.

…..Swami Sivananda.