Ever since Uttarakhand tragedy happened, I have been thinking more of Karmic implications.
Though not ‘directly’ impacted by the tragedy, it has left a huge impact on me, just as in many others.
The disturbing thought was – ‘I was experiencing the news & the impact (though I avoided media reports to a great extend), because of my Karma…’
And I got this story this morning… (slightly paraphrased)
Once a dog came to Lord bleeding from blows. Lord sent His trusted lieutenant to inquire…
The dog said: “I was beaten by a priest with a stick.”
The priest was questioned. He said that the dog always was annoying him by coming across his path.
The Lord asked the dog: “Well, how do you want to punish the priest?”
The dog said: “Make him a manager of a temple.”
Lord replied with wonder: “That would be a reward not a punishment.”
The dog said: “No, I was a manager of a temple in my previous birth. It was impossible not to mishandle or misuse or misappropriate some fraction of God’s money. When he is that manager, he too will get like me this canine birth and perhaps get beaten too in his subsequent birth.”
In fact, not only the dog or the priest, but every one of us are ‘lining off’ the property of God, for does not all this belong to Him? What do we do in return for all benefits we derive from the property of the Lord?
We should not simply eat and sit quiet. We have to render service to the poor and the helpless in a manner suitable to us.
And save environment on the basis of Doctrine of Trusteeship… An ideal we seem to have forgotten in our mad chase for comfort & wealth!
Are we not ‘priests’ at the temple of Nature…