Who am I?

Once, a beggar, while begging in a train, noticed a well-dressed businessman wearing a suit and fancy boots. He thought, “this man must be very rich, so he will surely give good money if I ask him.” So he went and asked that man for alms. The man looked at the beggar and said, "You always beg and keep asking from people, do you ever give anything to anyone in return?" The beggar said, "Sir, I am a beggar, I can only keep asking people for money. How can I give anything to anyone?"

The man replied, "When you can't give anything to anyone, then you don’t have any right to ask as well. I am a businessman and believe in transactions only - if you have something to give me, then I can also give you something in return.”

Just then, the train arrived at a station, and the businessman got down and left. The beggar started thinking about what the man had said. His words somehow reached the beggar’s soul. The beggar started thinking, “Maybe I do not get much money in alms because I am not able to give anything to anyone in return. But I am a beggar, I am not even worth giving anything to anyone. But for how long will I keep asking people without giving anything?”

After thinking deeply, the beggar decided that whenever he gets something while begging, he will give something back to that person in return. So he thought hard about what he could give to others in return? The whole day passed thinking about this, but he could not find any answer to his question.

The next day while he was sitting near the station, his eyes fell on some flowers blooming on the plants around the station. He thought, “Why don’t I give some flowers to the people in return for alms.” He liked this idea and plucked some flowers from there and went to the train to beg.

Thereafter, whenever someone gave alms to him, he would give some flowers to them in return. People used to keep those flowers happily with them. Now the beggar used to pluck flowers every day and distribute those flowers among the people in return for the alms. Within a few days he realized that now a lot of people have started giving him alms. He used to pluck all the flowers near the station.As long as he had flowers, many people used to give him alms. But when no more flowers were left with him, he wouldn’t get much. And this continued day after day….

One day when he was begging, he saw that the same businessman was sitting in the train, because of whom he was inspired to distribute flowers. The beggar immediately reached out to him and said, "Today I have some flowers to give you in return for alms." The businessman gave him some money and the beggar gave him some flowers in return. The businessman liked beggar’s idea very much and was quite impressed. He said, "Wow! Today you too have become a businessman like me." Taking flowers from the beggar, he got down at the station. But once again, his words had reached deep into the beggar’s heart.

The beggar kept thinking again and again about what the man had said and started becoming happy. His eyes started shining now, he felt that he had now got the key to success by which he could change his life. He immediately got down from the train and excitedly looked up at the sky and in a very loud voice said, “I am not a beggar anymore, I am a businessman now, I can also become like that gentleman, I can also become rich.” When people saw him, they thought that maybe this beggar has gone mad. From the next day that beggar never appeared at that station again.

Four years later, two men dressed in suits were traveling from the same station. When they looked at each other, one of them bowed to the other with joined hands and asked, "Do you recognize me? “The other replied, "No! Maybe we're meeting for the first time." The first one again said, "Sir, try to remember, we are not meeting for the first time but for the third time". The second person said, "Well, I can't remember. When was it that we met before?" Now the first person smiled and said, "We have met twice in the same train before. I am the same beggar whom you had told in the first meeting what I should do in life, and in the second meeting you told me who I really am."

"As a result, today I am a very big flower merchant and I am going to another city in respect of the same business. You told me the law of nature in the first meeting... according to which we get something only when we give something. This rule of transaction really works, I've realized it very well, but I always thought of myself as a beggar, I never could rise above it. When I met you for the second time, you told me that I have become a businessman. Thanks to you, from that day onwards, my perspective changed and now I have become a businessman, I’m not a beggar anymore.”

Indian sages have always put the most emphasis on ‘knowing oneself’(who am I). As long as the beggar considered himself a beggar, he remained a beggar and when he considered himself as a businessman, he became one._

The day we understand our true nature,(who am I), what is left to know and understand !?

The END

The Learnings

1: It is in giving that we receive. This is the law nature described in the Bible. Until unless we start giving, even if it is not of monetary value but a gesture of Praise or good wishes, we don't receive things in return. It is like breathing; until and unless you exhale you cannot inhale....

2: Beggar's act of giving off flowers is an act of Kindness, and an act of kindness always create happiness in our life and around. If we do a small act of kindness everyday, we can create lot of happiness all around us…

3: One need to be natural in his conduct. Just like businessman, who could have felt pity and gave alms to beggar, instead he acted in his natural self, and told how he only dealt in transactions...

4: We also need to think about that we can learn from everything around us. When Businessman talks about transaction, the beggar could have scolded him and moved ahead, but deep thinking on what the businessman had said made him realize that in nature, you have to give to receive something. Businessman may not be having any intention to teach him this law, he just told what naturally came to him and beggar took it in right spirit. So in a way, it is a lesson being delivered to him by the nature... In our lives too, a simple ridicule could sometimes be a lesson being delivered by the nature!

5: To become a better version of ourselves, we have to forgo something of what we are right now... In the second encounter with the businessman, the beggar realized that he can become a businessman and he gave up his comfortable way of being beggar and started working towards becoming businessman. We need to stop being what we are to become something greater!

6: Even though the Businessman was acting naturally, the beggar had a feeling of gratitude for the businessman. Even if somebody is not be treating us well, we should always have a gratitude because they are showing us a way to move ahead ( mostly unknowingly) and break free from something that is limiting us. We should think deeply when people scold us and try to see " Is it nature that is trying to teach us some lesson?" and stop attributing that ridicule to the delivery person...

Many times people are conduit of nature to deliver a message that we need to learn.

STORY CREDIT: We received this story as a whatsapp forward. Unfortunately, we do not know the author's name. If the author happens to read this blog post, we request him/her to kindly drop a line to us and we would be happy to give the due credit.