A very recent interaction with some people put my wheels of thought rolling, and it turned out to be the wheel of Dhamma.... I tried helping this person in the past with his incurable disease for free consultations with the doctors of that fraternity by requests made to my colleagues and seniors personally. Even kept an active track of any latest scientific advances in that field although it wasnt my subject and kept updating the patient of the same without any selfish interest or monetary gains ever. It was only out of genuine concern and compassion for a suffering human being.
Today when I needed his professional services, which I am willing to pay for, he quoted unreasonably high fees for the same ; At first I felt very uneasy and something inside my heart sank a bit. A lot of questions erupted in my unsettled heart and I questioned myself a lot, Did I do the right thing by going out of the way to help someone who is so ungrateful and so selfish? Are my efforts and time wasted for someone who is so selfish ? Or is it that the current wave of capitalism in our country and inflation has devoured the warmth and goodwill in relations and erased the memories of do-good-acts in peoples minds? Or is it that human beings by nature are very selfish and only a very very miniscule percentage actually remain grateful ?
After some moments of self - questioning and reasoning, I was reminded of one Jataka story of Lord Buddha I read a couple of years back. In that story Lord Buddha was a monkey in a jungle. A Brahmin had lost his way to the village. Lord Buddha ,as a Monkey in that birth, volunteered to help that Brahmin, cross the jungle through a safe path out of compassion. But the Brahmin on the way while walking thought about his wife getting angry at returning home empty handed. So he thought of killing this monkey with a huge stone and offer his flesh to wife for the evening meal. At one point while the monkey was unaware, the Brahmin hit him with a stone but missed out on killing the monkey. How ungrateful of that Brahmin! He tried to kill the one who was trying to protect him from the wild animals of jungle. On realising that Brahmins’ intention , the profusely bleeding monkey quickly distanced himself from Brahmin and thought to himself , “ how ungrateful this humanbeing is. Nevertheless I will show him the way out of this jungle till he is safe and maintain safe distance from him till then for my own safety.”
This is one of the great virtues which went in making Lord Buddha the Enlightened One in his birth as Siddharth Gautam. This made me understand truly and deeply the meaning of "not expecting from anyone in return of do-good-acts" and also Lord Krishnas words " keep doing the karma, dont expect the fruits’’. It is me who was at fault for having any expections from anyone in return of any goodness I could offer in anyway.
After all, like Saint Mother Teresa said, your understanding is with God and not with the mortal beings who are guided by a lot many sensual and mental defilements like greed, anger, lust, ego, envy, etc.
Makes me contemplate the purpose of my life is only and only to improve my own defilements instead of looking or pointing at others’ or judging them. So keep moving ahead , doing good karma with neutral mind and ignoring the negative attributes of others totally but also maintaining safe distance from such people!
This is one of the great virtues which went in making Lord Buddha the Enlightened One in his birth as Siddharth Gautam. This made me understand truly and deeply the meaning of "not expecting from anyone in return of do-good-acts" and also Lord Krishnas words " keep doing the karma, dont expect the fruits’’. It is me who was at fault for having any expections from anyone in return of any goodness I could offer in anyway.
After all, like Saint Mother Teresa said, your understanding is with God and not with the mortal beings who are guided by a lot many sensual and mental defilements like greed, anger, lust, ego, envy, etc.
Makes me contemplate the purpose of my life is only and only to improve my own defilements instead of looking or pointing at others’ or judging them. So keep moving ahead , doing good karma with neutral mind and ignoring the negative attributes of others totally but also maintaining safe distance from such people!
- Dr Racchana D Fadia