Hi Folks,

One of my favourite passtimes is to read something. This something can range from being a very spicy novel to an extremely illuminating spiritual discourse. The latter is definitely beyond my understanding, but I don't shy away from browsing them. It is my firm belief that reading is an extremely constructive habit which triggers you to think. Sadly, not many people use this faculty of thinking. It seems to me that we have forgotten to think. Anyways, I have something else in my mind to share with you all. I read an article "The speaking tree" in TOI (Times of India) and I wanted to share it with you all.
One day a sage went for his usual bath in the river and saw a scorpion struggling to come out from water. Sage was aware that scorpions cannot swim and tried to save its life by bringing it out of water. As he picked it up, the scorpion stung his finger and the sage instinctively flung his finger and off went the scorpion back into the river. This happened again and again but the sage was determined to save the scorpion.
A curious onlooker like me asked the sage that it was very clear that the scorpion would sting the sage everytime he picked it up. Why bother and just allow it to drown? The wise sage replied that it was the scorpion's nature to sting. It could not comprehend that he was trying to save it as that constituted of a higher conscious level beyond what its brain could percieve. As was its nature to sting, so was his nature to save. Why should a small scorpion deprive him of his divine nature which he had cultivated through years of sadhana.

For me, this is a beautiful story with a very strong moral. Translating this story into our lives, we encounter people who harm us, insult us, plot against us sometimes on our face and mostly behind our back. And what do we do to counter this onslaught. We happily join them and find ourselves engaged in cunning thoughts of revenge. In this process we injure ourselves more deeply than them by allowing our hearts and minds to darken. Our nature is to be kind, loving, honest and giving. Should we forego our inherent nature for others who in their ignorance and lack of understanding act with malice, deceit, selfishness and indifference.

This is a very tricky and sensitive question and each one should enquire within and find a solution for this very practical problem. Hope we will be earnest in our querry and will find a very reasonable answer to the problem.

Signing off for now,
Krishna