గురు బ్రహ్మ గురుర్ విష్ణుః గురుర్ దేవో మహేశ్వరః
గురు స్సాక్షాత్ పరబ్రహ్మ తస్మై శ్రీ గురవే నమః
శుక్లాం బరధరం విష్ణుం శశివర్ణం చతుర్భుజం
ప్రసన్న వదనం ధ్యాయేత్ సర్వ విఘ్నోప శాంతయే
శ్రుతి స్మృతి పురాణానాం ఆలయం కరుణాలయం
నమామి భగవత్ పాదం శంకరం లోక శంకరం
ఓం నమః శివాయ
During our childhood all of us would have heard this story of a child and a tiger. It goes like this.
Once a father and a son go to the
forest for cutting the wood. The father leaves the child in a safe place and
asks him to shout for him if he encounters any danger. Saying this the father
goes into the woods to cut some trees.
The child being naughty starts playing
with his father. He starts shouting, “Father! There is a tiger here. Please
come and help me.” Hearing this, the father goes running to his son and sees
that there is no tiger. The child laughs and the father realizes that the child
was playing a prank and goes back to his work.
Second time the child does the same.
The father runs back to his son once more and realizes that the child has
played the prank again. Father goes back angrily.
Third time the child does the same. The
father assumes that the child is playing the prank again and doesn’t go to him.
But this time the tiger actually is there and despite the child shouting
multiple times, father doesn’t go to him. The tiger kills the child.
Whenever we hear this story, we
remember only one moral - You should not lie. But honestly, there is one more.
If you recall the story once more, the father doesn’t go to the child because he
did not want to get cheated once more. This is a big problem that all of us
face. All of us hate this feeling of getting cheated. That is despite the
magnitude of loss, material or otherwise. We never want to get cheated. Rather
we never want to get the feeling of getting cheated, irrespective of whether we
actually get cheated or not.
If only the father did not have that
feeling, he would have gone again to his son and maybe he would have saved his
son. So, it’s better to get cheated than a lack of reaction to that, which might
end up in a loss. It’s better to be left with a feeling of getting cheated.
Watched a movie couple of years back.
One of the characters in that movie would be waiting at a road junction along
with his friend in a car. A ragged woman approaches him and shows him a medical
prescription and says that she is suffering from cancer and needs money for buying
medicines.
Out of sympathy, he gives good sum of
money to that lady. The friend says, “You should not trust these kinds of
people. They are not trust worthy.”
The following day the same friend goes
back to this guy and says, “Do you remember the lady to whom you gave the money
for purchasing the medicines? She doesn’t have any cancer. That’s her way of
begging. I told you not to give those alms to her. This is how you get cheated.
Be careful next time.”
To that the guy responds, “Thank God!
She doesn’t have cancer. I was worried about that. Now that she doesn’t have
cancer, I am relieved.”
That’s very inspiring. This is again a
very simple philosophy. The guy was more bothered about the problem the lady
was facing than he getting cheated.
When we give donations, especially the
small ones, many a time we think if the party taking the donation would use it
wisely or not. Even if 9 out of the 10 people misuse it, and if that money gets
utilized properly by even 1 person, we should be happy about it. If we have
that kind of a perspective, we can be very happy in our lives. If we end up
with the feeling of getting cheated, we will left with sadness.
So, let’s leave the feeling of getting cheated
and stay happy.
సర్వే జనాః సుఖినో భవంతు
PS: There could be
typos and other mistakes in telugu and english, kindly pardon me with big
hearts.
