Making Difference

The Angel's Visit

The Verba Seniorum – a collection of texts on the monks who lived in the desert at the beginning of the Christian era – tells the story of a hermit who managed to spend a whole year eating only once a week.

 

After so much effort, he asked God to show him the true meaning of a certain passage in the Bible.

 

He heard no answer.

 

“What a waste of time,” said the monk to himself. “I made all that sacrifice and God does not even answer me! Better get out of here and look for some other monk who knows the meaning of this text.”

 

At that moment an angel appeared before him.

 

“The twelve months of fasting only served for you to believe you were better than the others, and God has no ears for the vain. But when you were humble, you thought of asking your neighbor for help, and God sent me.”

 

-Painting source: "Old Age" by Thomas Cole

Happiness

Communication

Once an astrologer went to a king. The king showed great reverence to the astrologer, made him sit and honoured him with gifts. The king then showed his palm and the charts to astrologer. The astrologer examined everything and then said to the king, ‘O King! You will lose your entire family. Everybody is going to die before you. You will be the last to die’.

The king got very upset upon hearing this and put the astrologer in the jail.

This news shook the entire astrologers’ community. They thought, ‘We cannot tell the truth to the king. If we do so, he will simply put us in jail. What do we do?’

When someone hears some negative prediction, they don’t like it. They obviously want to hear something nice and positive instead. And so it was for the king as well.

The king then called for another astrologer to appear before him. Many tried to escape this request but one senior astrologer agreed to meet the king. So, he went before the king, and the king welcomed him in the same way with gestures and gifts. The king then showed his palm to the astrologer. The astrologer said, ‘Oh King! What a great fortune you are blessed with! You have a very good horoscope. Nobody in history has had such longevity of age as you are going to have. In fact, nobody in your dynasty has had such great longevity’.

The astrologer never said to the king that he was going to outlive everybody else in the royal family. Instead, he told the king that he was blessed with great longevity and that he had a great horoscope.

The king was so flattered upon hearing the news of his long life and good health. He told the astrologer, ‘Ask whatever gift you want from me and I shall give’.

The astrologer said, ‘Please release my poor colleague who is in the jail’. 

Skill in communication makes a huge difference.