Sharing Sep 2020 LP
Evoking Rama in others
Gurjas Chahal awakens to the truth that cultivating goodness in oneself can have a positive and transformational effect on others
I came across a very nice talk on social media, emphasising the wonderful quote: “The power to evoke Ravan or Ram in the other person lies within us.” A beautiful thought and a beautiful truth, I thought. This talk received various favourable comments and likes. The interviewer’s story supporting the quote caught my attention. It was fairly long but added the required weight to the quote’s import. He narrated that one day, he chanted the mantra ‘I am love’ throughout the day and went to sleep meditating on this mantra. When he woke up around 2.30 a.m. the next day, the mantra ‘I am love’ came automatically to his lips. And courtesy such thoughts, he had a wonderful day at the office, where he found himself talking to everyone with lots of love. The staff was amazed to see the complete turnaround in him, for he was far different from his erstwhile image of an angry boss.
Our thoughts can change others
The interviewee linked this experience with the quote mentioned above, by explaining that if our thoughts can change ourselves, they surely hold power to change others. By chanting the mantra, ‘I am love,’ the person became love the next day and this brought about a change in his behaviour towards others and vis-à-vis their perception of him.
On being enlightened by the above positive talk, I felt very good and woke myself to the experiences which come our way because of our thoughts. I experienced that a person can evoke either Ravan or Ram, that is evil or good, in the other person by one’s words.
Shopkeeper vs customer
One early morning, while buying bread and butter from a grocer, I found him irritated to the hilt. A woman came to him with a five-hundred-rupee note to buy stuff worth about ten rupees. The shopkeeper said he didn’t have change for the big note. She asked him to keep the entire money and lend her only eighty rupees so she could buy milk from the nearby Mother Dairy booth. He lent her eighty rupees. After a while, she returned to demand the balance money as she needed it at home for some urgent work. The shopkeeper argued back saying he did not have the change. The woman shouted loudly as if she was in a mood to let the passers-by know that the shopkeeper was wrongful in not parting with the change and was doing some kind of a crime by not letting an old woman have the much-needed money. Annoyed and cheated, the shopkeeper gave in, thinking of the impending nuisance which the woman’s loud screams could attract. He gave her the balance amount of four hundred and twenty rupees and got the woman off his back.
Just then, another customer came with a big note of five hundred rupees, asking for titbits which were not worth more than fifty rupees. The shopkeeper, already hot from the argument with the old woman, refused the new customer bluntly murmuring he did not have any change.
Friendly advice
When the shop was empty of any customer and he was alone, he confided in me that people are very clever. The woman who made him give her the change for five hundred rupees was a crooked person who often used such trickery for getting the change. The shopkeeper was full of poison for the woman and was in the mood of venting all his frustration on me. However, courtesy my constitution, I do not react to any wily talk against anyone, however right the cribber might be. So I heard him patiently without saying anything. When he was over and cooled down a bit, I smiled and gave him a suggestion which eased the tension off his brow: “Perhaps, every morning, you could sit at the counter with a big casket of loose currency notes,” I said, making a gesture of widely placed cupped hands before him to suggest the size of the casket. This would ensure that no customer went without buying the wares just for want of change. A relieving smile immediately visited his countenance. It looked as if he had let go of whatever bad was going on his mind. I added, “Follow my advice so that you can liberally oblige at least the first ten of your morning customers.”
Shopkeeper ‘pays’ back
After making my purchases, I gave him money so he could deduct the price. He looked at me with surprise. How much did you give me, he asked. I checked my wallet and said one hundred rupees. He returned me one crisp hundred-rupee note and said, “You gave me two hundred-rupee notes” and then added a wonderful piece of trade advice: “Sister, whenever you make any payment, always open the note, straighten it, and then give. This way, you will never give more money than required due to an oversight.”