A mother's heart

There was a rich woman who came from a very prominent family. One day the woman entered into the kitchen to get some milk for her child. There she saw her two daughters striking the maid mercilessly. “We have caught her stealing milk,” they explained.

The maid was crying pitifully. “I also have a little child. My child is five years old and today I do not have any milk for him. If I take this milk home, then I will be able to feed my child this evening. Otherwise, he will have nothing.”

When the rich woman heard this, she became furious with her daughters. She said, “What are you doing to our poor maid? How can you beat her? I am a mother and she is also a mother. You know how much I care for your little brother. Soon he will start crying for his milk. If this maid takes his milk, my heart will break that I have no milk to give him.

“But this maid also has a heart for her child, and if she cannot give him milk, she too will feel miserable. So I am ready to give her the milk. I know that I can easily send you to the market to buy more milk to replace what she has taken. But she does not have money enough to buy fresh milk, or perhaps she will not have the opportunity to buy it on her way home after work. So let her have the milk. She needs it much more than I do.

“If we want to make ourselves happy, we have to renounce our own desires and always make other people happy first. By allowing her to take the milk, I shall be infinitely happier than if I punish her for stealing.”

This compassionate woman was the mother of the spiritual Master in the previous story.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Amusement I enjoy, enlightenment I study, part 8, Agni Press, 1999
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/aie_8