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SELFLESS LOVE: A REALITY CHECK!
A clarification: I learnt just today (14-3-07) from my friend Amol that he has read this before. Which means it is just a chain email. How very sad. Id really believed that the good Col. had experienced this incident at first hand… I dont like chain letters as they are usually the byproduct of someone’s overactive brain and usually not a true story. What a let down! So now Im back to the original question: can such selflessness exist in real life?
I live in Indore, in India’s heartland. On our way back from an adjacent town, my friend and I stopped at a highway dhaba. Placing our order, we stretched ourselves out on the cane chairs. A motley group of people occupied other tables.
As we glanced around desultorily, a ragged man sauntered in and sat down. He poured himself a glass of water from the steel jug. He drank two whole glasses, but ordered no food, nor did the dhaba boys ask him. When our tea and samosas arrived, he looked at the food, filled his glass again and drank it. We saw no greed in his eyes, but it was an easy guess, that the guy was hungry and had no money.
The dhaba boy told us, “Oh! That madman comes in everyday If he has money, he eats something, otherwise he just drinks a few glasses of water and leaves. My boss said that since water has been given to us by the Lord, we must never stop anyone drinking it at our dhaba.”
This logic really touched me. I asked the boy to serve the man a plate of samosas. When he did so, the man looked at him. The boy pointed to us. The man looked at us but made no acknowledgement. As he picked up the first samosa, a little girl in rags walked up and just stood there. He gave her the samosa, which she wolfed down. He picked up the second one and handed that to her, too. She grabbed it and ran away He pushed away his empty plate, filled up his glass again, drank the water and walked away from the dhaba without a backward glance.
I asked myself if I were capable of a gesture like that. The most I could muster was, “I HOPE so”.
If sharing what we have in excess is generosity, then how would we describe what that madman did? ‘Selfless love’?
It is what intellectuals talk about and madmen practice!
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great. one is left gasping for brath.
Whether the story is real, it’’s good to learn to be Selfless!
ya read it earlier but nice to read again1
this post touched my heart. truly selfless…
My…. if only all of us had that wee bit of self-less ness, thw world would be a much better place for all…
Had read this before.. thanxs again for shaing friend…
eye-opener in the world of ppl who “donate” or do “social service” with bloated-ego !
HI ab
this is beautiful.do u know there is no one who is mad totally and none who is totally sane.all of us are a bit of both.sometimes it is not a bit and it is MORE.some one once said there is a thin line between a mad man and a genious.there are levels of vibrations in each soul and what we cannot comprehend we tend to stick labels.this man was more sane than many—-in a differentway.he had understood hunger comletely and so it could not bother him, he knew it would pass for him ,but the girl was small perhaps on her way to conquering it —-like him.her need was greater and hence his gesture—-
Wow this is a story of selflessness truly, perhaps the man could have ordered another plate of samosa for the madman too, but ya come to think of it, would we have done that?
excellent post
as ive mentioned in my foreword, this story was passed on to me by my friend col. satish dewan. as far as i know its a true event. i know its v hard to believe that such selflessness can exist in someone who is so hungry n needy. but i think what we don”t realise is that ”manuski” or humanity/ humaneness is more often seen in the have nots than in those who have it all. something about them being have nots because they want not? is my logic coming thru?
just too good. Is it really a real incident? (hard to believe)
2 gud. its truly selfless love
brilliant post!
so beautiful and an intellectual thought made into a foolish thought…therefore I believe in doing things for myself…..One has got his own brains and energy to serve himself.. AND to those we should provide help..who lack these too…..medically…..G;
Oh MY GOD! That was so BEAUTIFUL! Gosh, there’’s so muchh to learn in this world!!
I think we should all become mad like that mad man,.. imagine the tranquility in the world..
Wow…that truly is putting another before you…its a wonderful quality…T
in todays world…only a few such ppl can be found……
HE IS NOT MAD BUT SAINTLY
wishing there were more people like this in the world
So i infere the moral of the story: U either got to be Mad to be so selfless or U either got to be so selfless that people call U mad! Alas as U said, it provokes our thought, cus we are sane. If i were a mad man, i wudnt have had to think!
Instructive story……Surprisingly people call that man mad….
A very touching story. Makes me wonder whether what I do is worth doing!!!
Wow, looks like we need to stop being mad about blogging and be mad about our fellow human beings. We should all do some soul-searching here. Thanks for sharing Aparna
! touching, indeed!!!
AB…this reminds me of what Saif’’s character says in Eklavya…that his ”mad” sister is the only ‘’sane” person around…what say?
Wondeful piece! These are the little incidents which need higlighting. And thanks to u..that u did it. Regards…………ZEUS.
Touching story.
makes u really wonder …. to be generous need to be mad? In this kalyug I think that is a fact.
meanings and more meanings to be found….wonderful stuff..
a very thought provoking post…
if you have 2 pieces of bread,give one to the poor,sell the other and buy water hyacinths for your soul…
I am a good boy. And so I liked this post
In this world where everyone looks out only for himself, it almost seems to appear that generosity and goodness are signs of madness
One is forced to think that there are saints amongst us.
this one really moved me….thanks for sharing….
its fact .. sent to me by my friend col dewan.. as ive mentioned clearly there…
Is it fact or fiction?
the most amazing factor i find was the lack of greed…after the first plate of free samosas,the man didnt ask/beg for the second one……well…..
very touching indeed…………..thanks for sharing
hey a b, what an awesome post. it says a lot for the kind of human behaviour which we still have to feel for ourselves. it was like a tight slap on all us lesser mortals who claim to be supreme by the sheer virtue of all the materialistics things that we live possess all our life.
it is precisely small but profoud incidences like this that makes our world a better place to live in and brings hope to mankind.
great stuff AB
Hey Appy… This post makes me feel anything BUT ashamed! I feel proud to be a human on earth, made of the same flesh, blood and grey matter as this madman you describe. I feel privileged to breathe the same air as the dhabawallah, the madman and the little girl. Such incidents of selfless love and sacrifice aren”t a rarity; they keep playing out in various degrees around us all the time, but it mostly passes unnoticed. BUT thank you for bring one such gemlike incident to our notice! It warmed the cockles… Regards, Ghost
The beauty of this incident is that neither madness nor extreme poverty can take away from us our essential humanity and capacity to give love. In fact, such adverse conditions may actually enhance these qualities in us. Praise the Lord! Wah rey teri duniya! Wah reh kudrat!
It is up to us to decide whether he take a walk along the creative light of altruism or the darkness of selfishness. Life’’s persistent question is ”What are you doing for others? for which in this present world only a few has answers……….We can be one but that will take a lot of courage. ..A similar incident happened with me as well……………sid.
we really cannot judge anyone with the way he looks… thanks for sharing …
touching..
“The day will come when, after harnessing the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.”…remember reading this somewhere..now I know,that day aint far..