Once, a well-known speaker
started off his seminar by holding up a two thousand rupee note.
In
the room of about a hundred, he asked: “Who would like this note?”
All
participants raised their hands.
He
then said: “I shall give this two thousand rupee note to one of you, but first
let me do this.”
He
went on to badly crumple the valuable note, and asked: “Who still wants this?”
All
hands were again, up in the air.
“Well”,
he replied: “What if I do this?”
He
crumpled it further and threw down the note on the ground.
After
that he picked up the note.
It
was all crumpled and dirty.
He
asked, “Now who still wants this?”
Again,
most hands went into the air.
“My
friends”, the man explained, “You have today learned a valuable lesson. See, no
matter what I did to the note, you still wanted it. This is essentially because
it has not decreased in value. It is still worth a thousand rupees!”
On
many occasions we are held back by the tangled web of emotional barriers like
previous failures, wrong commitments, and so on.
This
prevents us from being our genuine selves.
It
also affects our thoughts and feelings.
In
a way, we may get lost, crumpled, and grounded into the dirt because of the
incorrect decisions we make, and the adverse circumstances that come our way. A
feeling that we are worthless may also sometimes arise in us.
The
two thousand-rupee note story can remind us of one important thing. No matter
what happens, we will never lose our real value. Let each of us start our lives
afresh.
Not
just on the first day of January 2022, but on every single day of the year.
This is because every day is a new day filled with blessings.
Each
day presents us with new opportunities as well as challenges.
And
we are freshly reborn into it.
As
the Buddha observed, “Each morning we are born again. What we do today, is what
matters most.”
Wish you a Happy New Year!
