Humility - the mother of all virtues

(The story about humility - from  Amma's Wisdom :)

Amma always had a way of broaching any subject in a subtle way and never let me feel that she is advising me or rendering a sermon to me about the good and the bad or about the right and the wrong. She seemed so unassuming yet very loving when she talked that she got her point across with ease and minimum effort. I never felt that I was being advised or given a sermon. Therefore, it was very acceptable to sit with her and listen to her and agree with her.

After my convocation at the university receiving the gold medal by the Chancellor of the University and along with the photograph I went to visit my parents in the village. I felt as though i had conquered an empire. I showed the gold medal and the photograph receiving the medal to my parents. My father was very proud of me and took the photo and the medal to show it to the entire village and my mother showed her love by preparing my favorite dishes that day. 

A few days passed by. Amma told me this story, after my educational success landing with two gold medals, when she perhaps thought that, I showed a hint of arrogance, especially to people who looked at me as a failure. She broached the subject about my further education and during the talk some how she slipped these lines..... She said  - see Venkatesh, the nature has big trees small trees and grass in its expanse. You know the vagaries of the weather are such that you can never predict about the weather- sometimes the weather  will be pleasant with soft nice breeze and some times the weather turns rough with strong  winds and sometimes it turns into a storm and whirlwind... you know Venkatesh, most of the trees survive the rough weather, but the taller the tree - it can survive the strong winds and storms only if it can bend when the storms hit them, the rest which cannot bend will break...... So,the taller you grow you should learn to bend more and more and then can you survive the storms... and then she suddenly pointed out that... the grass will survive any kind of weather - the breeze, the storms and,the whirl winds.... Because it knows to bend  in all weathers... So remember Venkatesh, the more you  grow tall, the more you should  learn to bend... you can grow as tall as you can and you want to......but remember to have the sensibility of the grass ... learn to bend .. and  you will never break! 

God's whispers all the time... We need the ear to listen to his whispers. God gets his whispers spoken through ordinary incidents and if we listen in silence, we will get his message!


Note:Thanks for reading this story.
It will immensely help me in improving my writing, if you share your ideas and thoughts  and suggestions about the story and my writing. You may also suggest topics  for my writing. Please feel free to contact me on my email  for all your comments and suggestions:

vdharmraj@ramaavenkatesh.com.