OUR ENEMY IS OUR OWN REFLECTION

Getting annoyed, irritated, angry with someone’s behavior is fair and justified. But, the obsession in us to ‘teach’ him a lesson – till we think he has learnt it – is our madness!

If this tendency is chronic in us and continues, it’s going to be our death knell, too!

Being fair and just is a gift of grace. To deserve this gift, we need to be a lot evolved from our primitive hunter’s instincts…

Many of us live in these great cities and posh homes… We possess these mighty academic degrees… We occupy seats of power in the places of our work… But, we are yet to shed our primitive instincts which drive us to ‘kill’ others indiscriminately… just because we have our hunger!

And, mind you, the hunger I am talking about, here, is not the hunger of our stomach… It’s the hunger of our insecure mind… The hunger that stems from our distrust and lack of fairness.

As I said, if this tendency in us is chronic and continues, take it from me: it’s going to be our death knell, too!

Our positions of power should make us fair, just and compassionate. It should help us not to make others’ lives miserable; rather make others’ lives better because of our positions of power. When we are drunk with power, the Law of bad Karma is bound to catch up with us… Yes, yes, that’s our death knell, Sir…

Our size – how big we are and who we are – hello, no one really cares…

Once, there lived a big lion in a jungle. When he was hungry, he killed animals indiscriminately. There was a panic in the jungle and all animals lived in constant fear. Finally, the animals mustered their courage and approached the lion. They offered to send to him one animal a day so that he did not have to worry about his meal. The lion agreed but warned the animals not to fail in their commitment.

Many days passed by. The lion got one animal each day for his meal.

One day, it was the turn of a rabbit. He was very sad and did not want to go. Finally, he left towards lion’s den. On his way, he came across a well. When he peeped into it, he saw his reflection in the water. Suddenly, an idea struck his mind…

Here in the den, the hungry lion was restless and angry. When he saw the rabbit, he blasted, “Why did you come so late? Don’t you know your King is hungry?”

The clever rabbit said, “Sorry Sir, I was stopped by another lion on my way. He said, he was the King and wanted to have me for his meal. I, somehow, managed to escape and reach here.”

The lion could not digest what he heard. “Another King in this jungle?” he thundered, “Can you show me where he lives?”

The rabbit lead the lion towards the well. “Here he lives, Sir,” he pointed into the well. The lion had lost his head by now… When he looked inside, he saw his opponent – the other lion… his own reflection…

“How dare you?” the lion roared…

“How dare you?” the lion heard it back from the well…

This was it… The lion instinctively jumped into the well to take on his enemy…

And, it was all over!

Only a drunken man thinks that he can ‘teach’ someone a lesson… The sober man only ‘learns’!

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pic.: Khushboo Gulrajani