Friend or Foe ..(Inspirational) ..!!

Image by Lutz-R. Frank via Flickr

How many of you have had bad feelings of dislike or good feelings of attraction towards a complete stranger, for no reason?

Following story from a Sikh religious book illustrates one suh incident and teaches us how to counter such feelings and convert a foe into a friend.

In olden days when India was being ruled by Rajas (Kings), a merchant decided to get rich qickly and started a business of selling sandalwood hoping that people would prefer to use it in cremation of their dear ones. The things turned out to the contrary, as people could not afford to buy sandalwood due to its exhorbitant cost compared to ordinary wood. The merchant was in great financial difficulty and was hoping some rich person to die so that he could sell his sandalwood for his cremation.

It so happened that one day King of the State happened to pass by his shop with his Ministers and soldiers . A thought crossed the mind of merchant .. what if this King dies, then surely my entire stock of sandalwood will get sold out and I will recover my money.

On the other hand, King cast his look on merchant and for no reason felt hatredness with a thought of hanging the merchant to death. This thought disturbed King for several days. At last he called his wisest Minister and asked him to find out reason behind this.

The Minister disguised himself as an ordinary citizen and visited the merchant and in a friendly chat found out his wish and the reason for it. The Minister came and narrated it to the King and explained to him that it was because the merchant wanted him to die, the vibes of that thought created equal and opposite thought in the mind of King against the merchant. The King was himself a wise man and decided to put an end to this negative field between him and the merchant.

Next day he ordered that the merchant be presented before him.

Accordingly the Merchant was produced before him who stood with folded hands, trembling with fear. To the utter disbelief of merchant, the King expressed his desire to buy over his entire stock of sandalwood, ostensibly for a religious ceremony (havan). As soon as the merchant heard this, his negative feelings towards King turned into positive feelings, which in turn resulted the King's feelings towards merchant into positive ones.

Morale: You can win over a foe by taking an initiative yourself to do a favor to him, thereby weakening his feelings of animosity towards you.  

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