Guest guest Posted August 1, 2004 Report Share Posted August 1, 2004 NEVER UNDERESTIMATE Baba said, "Brush aside your cleverness; pride or egoism won’t help you" in Sri Sai Satcharitra Ch. II A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge. "We want to see the President," the man said softly. "He’ll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We’ll wait," the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the President, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "May be if you see them for a few minutes, they’ll leave," she said to him. He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The President, stem faced and with dignity, strutted towards the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial for him, somewhere on the campus." The President wasn’t touched.. He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we don’t want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard." The President rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, and then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard. "For a moment the lady was silent. The President was pleased. May be he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don’t we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The President’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, travelling to Palo Alto, California where they established the University that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing. (East and west Series, June 2004) THOUGHT FOR THE DAY How you die is quite important. But, by far more important is, how you live. Tamaso Ma Jyotirgamaya....... Question: How to improve the falling standards of society, of government, of the world? Answer: The whole plan of the world is being worked out according to God’s will. We view certain events as favourable or unfavourable due to our own limited egoistic approach. We do not want to understand the real nature of things, nor do we meditate on this reality. Think deeply, the world does not belong to anybody. As to the shortcomings or the attainments of the society in which we live, that is also due to our own approach because each one of us constitute a unit of that society. It is not material attainments cars, skyscrapers, aeroplanes, wealth and weapons that count in society. A society is to be judged on the basis of noble actions of individuals. We are fond of talking of an ideal society but we do not care to become ideal individuals. If all of us behave well, the society will automatically take care of itself; the government will become better. Finding fault in others doesn’t help a society or a government. A disease can be uprooted only when we diagnose its cause. A religious person should be a man of character. A society or a government composed of such persons will only do good to the people, the country, and world. It is wrong to think that the progress of one country lies in the fall of another. We should not neglect any part or any person of this world. Our scriptures always speak of the good and welfare of the entire universe. (-Swami Premanandaji Saraswati ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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