Words and Actions & Lesson from Disabled People

Words and Actions Should Be the Same 



There once was a boy who loved eating sweets. He always asked for

sweets from his father. His father was a poor man. He could not always

afford sweets for his son. But the little boy did not understand this, and

demanded sweets all the time.



The boy's father thought hard about how to stop the child asking for so

many sweets. There was a very holy man living nearby at that time. The

boy's father had an idea. He decided to take the boy to the great man

who might be able to persuade the child to stop asking for sweets all

the time.



The boy and his father went along to the great man. The father said to

him, "O great saint, could you ask my son to stop asking for sweets

which I cannot afford?" The great man was in difficulty, because he liked

sweets himself. How could he ask the boy to give up asking for sweets?

The holy man told the father to bring his son back after one month.



During that month, the holy man gave up eating sweets, and when the boy

and his father returned after a month, the holy man said to the boy "My

dear child, will you stop asking for sweets which your father cannot

afford to give you?"



From then on, the boy stopped asking for sweets.



The boy's father asked the saint, "Why did you not ask my son to give

up asking for sweets when we came to you a month ago?" The saint

replied, "How could I ask a boy to give up sweets when I loved sweets myself.

In the last month I gave up eating sweets."



A person's example is much more powerful than just his words. When we

ask someone to do something, we must do it ourselves also. We should not

ask others to do what we do not do ourselves.



ALWAYS MAKE SURE THAT YOUR ACTIONS AND YOUR WORDS ARE THE SAME.



Lesson from Disabled People 



Once, a visitor was being shown around a leper colony in India. The

colony was built to provide a shelter for those people who were poor and

had various physical disabilities. At noon a gong (a metal disk that

produces a sound when hit with a hammer) sounded to gather the inhabitants

for the midday meal. People came from all parts of the compound to the

dining hall. Suddenly, everyone started laughing at seeing two young

men, one riding on the other's back, pretending to be a horse and a

rider. They were having lots of fun. As the visitor watched, he was told

that the man who carried his friend was blind, and the man being carried

was lame (who couldn't walk). The one who couldn't see used his feet;

the one who couldn't walk used his eyes. Together they helped each other

and reached their destination.



Let us use each other's strengths to make up for the weaknesses of

others. Our strength is in unity, not in division.