I was fortunate to have countless opportunities to meet Baba Gurbachan Singh Ji and receive his boundless love and blessings. I also had many opportunities to travel with him during some of his Prachar tours.
Though he had an amazing personality, he was a very simple man by nature. Most of all, he was very easily accessible by any one; regardless of his or her status or position within the mission or in the society.
Usually his discourses were short; about twenty minutes or so, but he would convey his message clearly and emphatically – direct and straight to the point. Quite often, he used to speak in parables; to send his message across through short but quite effective stories.
During one of his discourses, he narrated the following short story:
A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging a wash outside.
“That laundry is not very clean,” she said.
“She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.
About a month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:
“Look, now she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her.”
The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows. They were very dirty”
So, he added – it was not that the clothes were not washed properly. In fact, it was the window that was dirty - through which she was looking.
The same thing happens in our life. What we see when looking at others may depend on the window through which we are looking at them. So, instead of blaming others all the time, we should look into our self - perhaps we need to change the lenses in our eye-glasses”.
Though he had an amazing personality, he was a very simple man by nature. Most of all, he was very easily accessible by any one; regardless of his or her status or position within the mission or in the society.
Usually his discourses were short; about twenty minutes or so, but he would convey his message clearly and emphatically – direct and straight to the point. Quite often, he used to speak in parables; to send his message across through short but quite effective stories.
During one of his discourses, he narrated the following short story:
A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman watched her neighbor hanging a wash outside.
“That laundry is not very clean,” she said.
“She doesn’t know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap.”
Her husband looked on, but remained silent.
Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments.
About a month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:
“Look, now she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her.”
The husband said, “I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows. They were very dirty”
So, he added – it was not that the clothes were not washed properly. In fact, it was the window that was dirty - through which she was looking.
The same thing happens in our life. What we see when looking at others may depend on the window through which we are looking at them. So, instead of blaming others all the time, we should look into our self - perhaps we need to change the lenses in our eye-glasses”.
Heard this story often in sangat but didn’t know that it was shared Baba Gurubachan Singh Ji as well... Thanks Rajan Ji, Dnj
ReplyDelete