AS YOU SOW, SO YOU REAP
Excerpts from Baba's speech
 

There was once a King who used to wave his hands at people when he went around the city. The people also used to wave back at him. This was a daily practice.
 

One day the King had a maddening urge to strike a man who was standing in the crowd. He was surprised and thought to himself, ‘I am the King. He is merely my citizen. Why this thought to hit him?’ So the King asked that person, ‘What work do you do?’ to which the man replied, ‘I run a shop that sells firewood.’ The king thought, ‘This guy is after all a firewood dealer. There is no possibility of my getting affected by him in any way. If he belongs to a rival country, then I an easily fight and conquer him. Or if he is a commander, I can assume he will stir up a revolution in future. What can a shopkeeper do? Why should I want to thrash him?’

The King discussed this thought with his RajaGuru. The RajaGuru advised the King to take another route for two days. The King followed the RajaGuru’s advice and diverted his route for two days. On the third day, when he went back to his original route, the same wood dealer waved his hand and the King waved back at him.
 

At the palace, the King expressed his surprise to the RajaGuru saying, ‘I did not have the thought to strike the wood dealer today. I was in a normal mood; in fact, I felt very pleased with him. Why?’ The RajaGuru replied, ‘Two days back, two lorry loads of sandalwood came to his shop. So when he saw you that day, he felt how good it would be if you died that day, then the whole lot of sandalwood would be purchased for your funeral rites. He saw you with negative thoughts in his mind. He nurtured the selfish thought that his sandalwood should be sold at the cost of your life. When I understood the psychological reason, I asked you not to take that route for two days. I sent our minister to that shop, purchased the entire lot of sandalwood and stored it in the palace. Immediately, he waved to you with the satisfied thought that only because of you, the sandalwood got sold. Those positive thoughts of happiness radiated and raised happy thoughts of him to you.’
 

What lesson should we derive from this story? If we sow love, we reap love. If we sow hatred, we reap hatred. When you register a negative thought towards your wife or children or friend or Manager, that is what reflects from them to you. So what must you do? You must learn to love even those who display hatred towards you or shower anger on you. You should never hate anyone; you should never get irritated or annoyed with anyone. Then, if not today, tomorrow, the reflections of your positive thoughts will radiate to you.

When you throw a stone into the river, the waves drift but come back to the original place. Similarly, throw stones of love into the ocean of people’s hearts. It will come back to you as waves do.