One beautiful spring day a red rose blossomed in a forest.
As the rose looked around, a pine tree nearby said, “What a beautiful flower. I wish I was that lovely.”
Another tree said, Dear pine, do not be sad, we can’t have everything.”
The rose turned its head and remarked, “It seems that I am the most beautiful plant in this forest.
A sunflower raised its yellow head and asked, “Why do you say that? In this forest there are many beautiful plants. You are just one of them.”
The rose replied, “I see everyone looking at me and admiring me.”
Then the rose looked at a cactus and said, “Look at that ugly plant full of thorns!”
The pine tree said, “Red rose, what kind of talk is this? Who can say what beauty is? You have thorns too.”
The rose tried to move its roots away from the cactus, but it could not move.
As the days passed, the rose would look at the cactus and say insulting things, like: This plant is useless? How sorry I am to be his neighbor.”
“What a proud flower”, thought the trees.
The cactus never got upset and said “God did not create any form of life without a purpose.”
Spring passed, and the weather became very warm. Life became difficult in the forest, as there was no rain. The rose began to wilt.
One day the rose saw sparrows stick their beaks into the cactus and then fly away, refreshed.
The rose asked the pine tree what the birds were doing.
The pine explained that the birds got water from the cactus. “Does it not hurt when they make holes?” asked the rose.
“Yes, but the cactus does not like to see any birds suffer,” replied the pine.
The rose opened its eyes in wonder and said, “The cactus has water?”
“Yes you can also drink from it. The sparrow can bring water to you if you asks the cactus for help.
The rose felt too ashamed of its past words and behavior, but then it finally did ask the cactus for help.
The cactus kindly agreed and the birds filled their beaks with water and watered the rose’s roots.
Moral of the story:
So instead of being proud of ourselves and decrying others, let us learn to appreciate the special qualities of others and use this valuable human birth in serving the Supreme Lord Krishna in a manner pleasing to Him.
Krishna is the source of this cosmic manifestation. Everything has emanated from Him and He has created variegated types of living entities with varieties of qualities as per His will.
He is the Supreme Father and there is no flaw in His creation. We might superficially look at some-one’s appearance and might think that they are ugly etc. But nothing was created by chance and Lord has purpose behind each and every creation and has bestowed each and every one with some special quality or other.
In the invocation mantra of Isopanishad it is mentioned
om purnam adah purnam idam / purnaat purnam udacyate
purnasya purnam aadaaya / purnam evaavashishyate
“The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.”
We must understand and appreciate this truth that Krishna’s creations are all complete. We ourselves being a part of His creation have no right to be proud of ourselves or to criticize others by looking at their external appearance.
( Dear readers please comment on this stories )
Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.
PS: I humbly request all the devotees to please forward and share this moral / instructive stories they hear so that everyone can be benefited by hearing about Krishna and his dear devotees.