Encompass All

Ramu and Shamu both claimed ownership of the same mango tree. One day they approached Birbal and asked him to settle their dispute. Birbal said to them: "There is only one way to settle the matter. Pluck all of the fruits on the tree and divide them equally between the two of you. Then, cut down the tree and divide the wood". Ramu thought that this was a fair judgement and said so, but Shamu was horrified. "Your Honour" he said to Birbal "I've tended that tree for seven years. I'd rather let Ramu have it than see it cut down." "Your concern for the tree has told me all I wanted to know" said Birbal, and declared Shamu the true owner of the tree.

I came across this story a few days ago and asked myself: at the end of the day, am I here just to take my share or do I live and act to encompass all of life's needs? Do I put other’s needs, even those of nature, before my own? Do I value the seeds that I have planted or do I only want to taste the temporary fruit of them?


Yesterday, I was looking at some photographs in someone's office - one of which was of the Pope. This person said that a few years ago he had the fortune of meeting the Pope and how when the Pope died he had felt the loss. He said if you ask most people to name individuals who have really touched the world, making it a better place, they could probably count them on their fingers. He mentioned other individuals like Gandhi, Mother Theresa, Martin Luther King...and I thought, just as in the story above, they cared for the world, they cared for other’s needs before their own. When you let go of the need to take - your consciousness opens, your heart opens, and so everything and much more comes back to you.