The poor minister was thrown into a sea of doubt and worry. Whom should he select as the most grateful and the most ungrateful creature on earth? The minister had never lost in any of these little games with the King, but tomorrow if he could not bring these two creatures to the King, the King would be terribly disappointed. Also, everybody would know that at last the minister had lost the game and perhaps the King would try to appoint somebody else in his place. The minister thought and thought and at last he decided who he would take to the King.
The following day he asked his son-in-law to come with him to the palace and he also brought his own dog. When he entered the King’s presence with his dog, the King became angry. “You fool, why do you bring your dog into my palace?” he shouted.
“Please wait, your Majesty,” said the minister.
“I told you to bring me two persons,” said the King. “I see only one human being and one dog. Now, how are you going to fulfil my yesterday’s wish?”
“Your Majesty, this is my son-in-law,” said the minister. “No matter what I give him — thousands of rupees, clothes, furniture, anything — he will never be grateful. On the contrary, he always feels that he deserves more and more. He feels that he has done me the greatest favour possible by marrying my daughter. All sons-in-law think that when they marry someone’s daughter they are doing him a tremendous favour and naturally they deserve everything. So you see, I have given him my dearest daughter, my money, my house, my prestige, everything and even then he is not satisfied. He will never be grateful. He will always feel that he deserves something more. ”
“Now look at this dog, I give the dog practically nothing — just a little food (and sometimes I even forget to give him that) and a floor to sleep on — and even then, how grateful, how faithful, how devoted he is. All the time he stays in front of my door, eager to protect me. If somebody wants to commit a theft or hurt me, he will bark, bite and chase the culprit away. All dogs are like this. Give them a piece of bread and they are ready to die for you. The dog is ready to offer his own life for you and what does he get in return? Nothing but a little food.
Look at the gratitude of the dog. This is the difference between the most ungrateful being and the most grateful being.”
Then the King said, “Why should we keep this ungrateful being on earth? The best thing is to kill him. Your son-in-law must be killed immediately. I don’t want such an ungrateful person on earth. All ungrateful persons should be killed.”
But the minister quickly said, “Why only my son-in-law? If my son-in-law must be killed, all sons-in-law must be killed. They are all ungrateful almost to the same extent.”
“Yes,” agreed the King. “All sons-in-law have to be killed. Since all sons-in-law fall into the same category, they all have to be killed.”
The King was about to order all sons-in-law to be brought to the palace and killed when the minister said, “Wait, your Majesty.”
“Why?” asked the King.
“You are also somebody’s son-in-law,” said the minister. “Why, the queen’s father is living right here in the palace. That means you also have to be killed.”
At this, the King changed his mind and nobody was killed.
Spiritual comments
Now, who is grateful and who is ungrateful in the spiritual life? In the spiritual life, the most grateful person is he who feels that the Master has accepted him out of his infinite bounty, not that he deserves the Master’s kindness, compassion and everything. Gratitude will flow only when you see that you do not really deserve it. If you feel that you do not even deserve to be his disciple — you are not even in the world of aspiration — but he is bringing, bringing, bringing you to the Light; then your gratitude will come. This feeling is not false modesty, far from it. False modesty I never appreciate. But if somebody feels that he is really in darkness and the Master brought him to the Light even before he cried for it, then only one can have real gratitude.
You people are under the impression that you came to the Centre and that is why I saw you. But I wish to say no. The Divine in me, the Supreme in me brought you to the Centre. This should be your attitude. He who chooses God has already been chosen by God. God here means the Divine in me. He who chooses the Divinity inside me has to feel that I had long ago chosen him. If I had not, there are many schools that you might have gone to. Why did you come to me? Just because one of my inner beings or the Supreme in me had gone and kindled the flame of aspiration in you, that is why you came. You have to know that only when you feel, that I had chosen you before you even dared to think of my existence on earth, then only will gratitude come. If you feel that you came to me, therefore you don’t have to feel gratitude, it is not true. I came and knocked at your heart’s door. That is why you came to me.
Ungrateful persons are those who deliberately think that they are not the chosen children of their Master. Everybody is chosen; everybody has to feel it. Each person must feel that he has to be grateful. If a person thinks, “No, the Master thinks only about others. He has no time to think of me”, it is not true. This year’s Father’s Day message said, “I shall not fail you if you can dare to think that I care for you.” This is my Father’s Day message to each and every disciple of mine. “I shall not fail you if you can dare to think that I care for you.”
An ungrateful person is he who can never think that I care for him. If any of you think that Guru does not care for you, he is the most ungrateful person on earth. If I don’t care for you then why did I enter into your heart and bring you into my boat, into my inner house, to my door, into my very room? Just because I care for you, that is why I brought you into my heart’s room. And just because I care for you, you are still in my boat. If I did not care for you, you would not be here. If you think that I don’t care for you, it means that you are cherishing your own self-imposed ignorance.
I shall not fail you if you can dare to think that I care for you. Ungrateful persons are those who constantly cherish the idea that I do not care for them, I do not care at all. And grateful persons are those who feel that I went to them first, I entered into them, I brought them into me so that they could have Light.From:Sri Chinmoy,AUM — Vol. 8, No. 1, 27 August 1972, AUM Centre Press, 1972
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/aum_69