Yesterday, while driving my husband to work, we saw a homeless man camped out under a tree as we entered the expressway. I thought about him and many others on earth and especially here in Vermont because it was our first chilly night in a long time. I thought about the harsh winters here and thought where will this person go? how will they stay warm? how do they manage to survive? How did he get there? was he mentally ill? is he getting the help he needs? Like many of us who see homeless people, we think about them for a few minutes and then carry on with our day and forget about it. We know its a problem throughout our city, state, country and all over the world, but we manage to go about our day. On my way to pick up my husband in the evening I thought it would be nice to go get some food and give this man something healthy and warm to eat. We went to the local market and got some soup, picked out some bananas, apple, orange, pear and a bottle of water. When we were getting into the car after purchasing these items my husband said to me "Don't be surprised if he doesn't want it!" I got a little mad at him for putting negative energy out there, more like disbelief as if to say "why wouldn't he?".
We got off the expressway and pulled over, I got the bag of food and walked over to the man who was busy tying plastic around empty cans with string and had various other cans and items all around him. I said "Hello, I brought you some food to eat"(went to leave the bag on the ground not too close to him to feel threatened or violate his camp) I had not finished my sentence and he immediately said "NO!" while gesturing to leave, I said "there's warm soup and fresh fruit and water inside" He said"I don't want it!" gesturing again to get out of his space. I left with a blow to the heart but at the same time, my husband was right. As mad as I was at him for putting "negative energy" out there, he prepared me for the rejection. My husband let me sit with this a little and then said "sometimes these people are so content with what they have, they don't want "outside" things to tempt them or desire these things" I thought about this a lot all evening. I wasn't really upset, just surprised, but I totally understood. I was not doing this for any sort of reward, or even a "thank you" I genuinely wanted to help this man.
In the Bhagavad Gita Chapeter 17 vs 20-21 says: "Charity given to a worthy person simply because it is right to give, without consideration of anything in return, at the proper time and in the proper place, is stated to be in the mode of goodness. But charity given with reluctance, with the hope of a return or in expectation of a reward, is said to be in the mode of passion."
Lots of people give this way, only to feed their ego, to see their name on a plaque etc. this act was a small gesture but had big lessons for me.
Later that night a knock came to our apartment door and my neighbour stood there with a plate of fresh apples and a salad in a container. She said "I had too much salad, take some and these are fresh apples" I laughed inside thinking how magical this universe is, here I was brooding over that evenings escapade and here my neighbour is with a smile sharing her food with me. I took the food, thanked her and smiled at the beauty of it all.
Then, this morning my first client of the day arrived with flowers, Eggs and fresh Eggplant, cayenne peppers and a green pepper all from her garden. I again smiled and thanked her and thought again, just how magical this world is we live in.
So, don't get down or upset if things don't turn out the way you imagined, sometimes there are lessons weaved into the experience. We need to pay attention to these lessons and learn what our real motives are and keep a clear mind and kind heart at all times. Show compassion to others, even if you are rejected, keep being your true self and all will be revealed to you.
Om shanti, shanti, shanti.
No comments:
Post a Comment