Compassion begets accomplishment while hate results into failures!

Mirror reflects our actions aptly, if we smile, frown, laugh standing before it our actions get reflected accordingly. Similarly, the actions we display while dealings with men would results into the similar actions from them. For instance, when we greet a person with a pleasant smile, we will get the similar compliment from him/her. Indeed, the society we live in is a mirror in itself. In simple, what we want from others is actually possible from our end itself. If we want respect from others, necessarily, we should be ready to respect others, only then respect from them is guaranteed. Similarly, if we want to hear a compassionate answer from people, it is essential on our part to question them in a similar manner. The holistic approach for ensuring peace in the society we live is to; treat others as we want them to treat us.

For every response we showered on others, there is a response in return to us from them; this is the beauty of the response and we shall always remember that kindness is contagious. If we want love from others, necessarily, we should be the first to give them love; our response to others will persuade them to respond in the similar manner.  Honestly, the worth of a thing (love/respect/kindness) is best known by the want of it (love/respect/kindness). If we want love/respect/kindness from others, necessarily we have to nurture ourselves to understand the worth of these positive values (love/respect/kindness) only after we understand its worth, we will give to others, to get back these values from others in return. Offering love and affection to humans will provide us love in return; bestowing respect to humans will offer us respect in return. Similarly, when we contribute our kindness towards weak and physically challenged persons our kindness will definitely give a ray of hope to the needy; this act in return will provide us a best society to live in.

Modestly, at this juncture, some may have an opinion that, “I had not been lucky enough to receive the same love in response for the love I have had showered on others”. Similarly, some may have grievances that, “I didn’t get the same respect, that I had bestowed it upon others” also some may feel that “I didn’t get the same kindness from others, as that was shown to them while they were in need of it”. Such instances clearly indicate the immaturity of other persons, for not valuing your very loving and caring nature. Such occurrences are exclusively the results of stupidity of other person. It is always difficult to convince immature persons; because such persons carry a false notion that they are never at fault; they strongly believes that only others are wrong. Sometimes, we may find hard to get the similar response for the love/respect and kindness that we had showered on others. But such instances shouldn’t force us to remain unkind and disrespectful with others as such actions would badly affect our mannerisms and personality. It is essential that, our character should remain intact irrespective of the circumstances that we encounter in our life. Our character should remain unchanged similar to the characteristics of a sandalwood tree. The sandalwood tree is known for fragrance, it emanates fragrance despite been surrounded with poisonous snakes. Similarly, the action of immature men should not impact us wrongly, and our very basic character of loving, respecting and caring others should remain unchanged irrespective of the circumstances.

To have a better understanding of loving, caring and respecting others let us have a short and beautiful story of two businessmen and their respective sons. Once upon a time, in a small beautiful town, there lived two school friends Raj and Rahul, who had grown up to become retail businessmen. Raj was fortunate to have ancestral property, combining his ancestral fortunes with his hard work dedication and commitment; he had become a very successful retail businessman and a well-known person in the town. He was blessed with a son and was leading a successful life. While Rahul was not that fortunate to have ancestral property to his credit, however he was also a hardworking, dedicated and committed businessman. Rahul could not establish a retail business in the same town as Raj. Instead Rahul established a small retail shop in the nearby town. Rahul’s financial position was not sufficient enough to bear the rental expenses in the town where he lived. He opted to set up the business in the nearby town to mitigate the pressure of rental expenses. Rahul was also blessed with a son and was leading a content life.  On festivals and during special occasions both friends would meet each other with their respective family members. During such occasions, Raj would wait for the opportunity to insult Rahul saying “you have to leave the town for making a living”, to which Rahul always remains silent and had never attempted to react to Raj’s insult. This act of Raj continued for many years and now his son too developed a tendency to insult Rahul’s son.  Similar to his father’s mannerism, Rahul’s son always prefers to remain silent and would never react to the insulting comments from Raj’s son.  

As the years passed both the friends felt to hand over their businesses to their respective sons. Raj's son was glad to lead the well-established business of his father, he was contented that the business has guaranteed customers, he need not put effort to attract customers as all the customers from the town usually visits the shop. While Rahul retired to his town and asked his son had to move to the nearby village to lead the business there.

Both Raj’s son and Rahul’s son carried on their respective businesses true to their nature. Several years passed. During the course of time Rahul’s son could increase his property and could established another huge retail business in the same town to which he belongs. He had learnt the art of managing the business to the perfection and could successfully manage two businesses located in two different towns. Prudently, he had arranged an agent to look after the business in the nearby village, while he remained physically in his town to oversee the success of his newly started business. With his hard work dedication and commitment in a short period of time he could become a successful and a reputed businessman. Whereas Raj’s son wasn’t that successful as compared to Rahul’s son, he (Raj’s son) could not manage the large retail business which was established by his father. Instead he had incurred heavy debts and was running the business in losses.

On one such occasion, the local Government in that town had decided to facilitate the successful business man of the town for the contribution made to accelerate the economic growth of the town. All businessmen from the town had flocked to attend the function. The time has come to announce the most successful businessman of the town. Each businessmen seated there was eager to hear their name on the stage, each of the businessmen had the expectation that they will be called upon for felicitation by the local Government, whereas Rahul with his dignified presence was seated with his son without any aspirations. Raj too had attended the function along with his son, he turned around and gestured Rahul with a slur on his face. Rahul could clearly feel Raj’s intentions that he (Raj) was meant to say with his gestures that he (Rahul) has to leave the town for making a living, so obviously no chance of getting felicitation! After reading the feelings on Raj's face, Rahul was deeply silent.

The announcer reached to the mike and was about to announce the name of the successful businessman. The heart beat increased among all the participants as all were eager to know who the real successful businessman is. To everybody’s surprise, the announcer called the name of Rahul’s son. The audience present for this occasion was full of appreciation for the young man, many reputed businessmen though were surprise to hear Rahul’s son name, yet they were seen to agree with the Government’s decision. The announcer asked Rahul’s son to come on stage to get facilitated. Rahul’s son got selected as successful businessman because, this time the Local Government decided to choose the youngest successful entrepreneur, so as to motivate the local youth to become future entrepreneurs. Rahul’s son was chosen because he was the youngest among all the businessmen, who had achieved success in a short period of time with hard work and dedication.

The announcer asked Rahul’s son to address the audience the secret of his success to which he answered with modesty: “Sir, I have learnt some morals from my father, and practiced those morals, I have always seen my father addressing his workers as brothers and treated them as partners in his success, he always cared and shared wealth with his workers who were really responsible for the success of business. With this approach he gained tremendous faith and respect from his workers, further his approach towards customers was respectful, he always believed that business will be successful, if and only if, the customers are satisfied. My father was running business in a rented building and was growing old and could not expand his business lack of physical strength. As soon as I took the charge of my father’s business, I started saving money to purchase a building, so as to run the shop in own premises accordingly saving the rental expenses.  I worked hard day- in- day- out and my age and energy were handy for the speedy success”. Upon hearing the success story the announcer called Rahul to share the stage with his son, while Raj and his son had relegated themselves to the corner and was attempting to hide from the view of Rahul and his son. Raj’s son after listening to the success story of Rahul’s son was cursing himself and was recalling the reasons for his failure, he had never treated workers with kindness and he was arrogant enough with his customers too, this has resulted into failures. Rahul’s son had learnt to love and care his employees and he had understood the importance of customers and respected them, these positive values combined with his business acumen were the means in achieving success. The moral of the story is compassion begets accomplishment while hate results into failures.