We all seek our fortune with great hope and weave dreams in the course. We meet all sorts of people and experience a myriad of situations comprising of favourable and unfavourable circumstances, joy and pain, success and failure, yet the human psyche relentlessly pursues his dream. In this pursuit of seeking our fortune, does one chose to trample on people or respect and remember those who help us, do we shower kindness and treat people with dignity...or are we driven to ill treat helpless people inorder to feel powerful and in control?
A good friend of mine, a very learned person, gave a lot of charity and was spiritually inclined. In fact she shared within our big group of lady friends, a lot of stories that had a great moral message. Some of those stories I still narrate to children and friends. I admired her spirit, her confidence and courage and in her company, I learnt a lot. She had only one drawback. Her temper. Her temper knew no bounds. She got irritated at the slightest. Her knowledge and efficiency and position in society made her extremely proud. I felt disturbed and saddened at the way she treated people who worked under her. She ran an extremely successful business. I sadly witnessed some of her staff cry. Although the tears appeared as colourless water, it carried in essence, extreme pain and sorrow. Her staff wished she would treat them fair and well, but to no avail. But all they got was verbal abuses and emotional taunting and their agony kept increasing.
I realised my friend was a very unhappy and discontented lady with huge emotional problems, who found some pleasure and self contentment when she humiliated, taunted and verbally abused and scared her staff. At the same time, I was baffled, how she would treat the poor people on one hand and how she would hold prayer meetings, spiritual discussions, give away charity on the other and go visit distant seeking Almighty's blessings. Slowly, her business fell, her staff left her, and she left Kuwait. Just before she left, a huge calamity struck her and her world fell apart.
I was so glad when I slowly weaned myself away from the friendship I shared with her as I didnot feel comfortable or right being the friend of someone who subjugated poor people to utter misery. If I continued, it meant I sanction what is wrong. Importance of treating people as human beings first, irrespective of which strata of society they come from, I pass that on to my children.
Its more easy to be kind than mean and what you can accomplish by that has no boundaries. This reminds me of a saying, 'My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.' - The Dalai Lama
2 comments:
One can be kind only when one is not too much immersed in oneself, ones own glory, virtue, or whatever it is. Have you seen real kindness in a person steeped in religion, ideal, dogma? He leads a fragmented existence.
Lovely posts, Aruna. Do read Kahlil Gibran's book "The prophet" if you have not read it yet. My favourite line from that book is "I complained that I had no shoes, till I met a man without any feet". I am privileged to know a sensitive person like you.
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