The blackboard

Early one morning a priest went walking along the street. Quite far from his house he passed by a school that had a blackboard outside, with nothing written on it. It was used for writing down the scores of the children’s games. The priest was very happy to be there early in the morning. He said to himself, “Since I am a priest, a spiritual man, I must bless this school by writing something nice.”

He wrote down, “O God, in Your Name I am blessing this school and taking away all the sins from the students and the teachers.” Then he wrote down that he was a priest.

Half an hour later a doctor came and wrote down, “O Lord, in Your Name I am curing the sick priest.” And he wrote down that he was a doctor.

In a few hours a lawyer came and wrote, “O God, in Your Name I want to be just and put both the priest and the doctor in a mental asylum, because both of them think that they are indispensable. The priest thinks that he is indispensable because he can take away the sins of the students and the teachers. The doctor thinks that he has the capacity and wisdom to cure the priest, who is mentally sick.”

In half an hour a seeker came. He wrote, “O God, in Your Name I wish to give some aspiration to the priest, doctor and lawyer. If they had aspiration, then there would be no problem. If they had sincere aspiration, then they would not try to be the saviours of the world. One would not try to save the sinners. The other would not try to cure the patient and the third would not try to be the intermediary to teach them justice. So in Your Name, I wish to give them some aspiration, so they won’t remain so proud.”

In another half an hour a God-lover came and said, “O God, everyone wants to do something and give something. Each one, including the seeker, feels that he knows better than the others. They are praying to You because each one knows better than the others. In my case I know nothing and I don’t want to know anything, as long as I know that You love me and I love You. As long as I know You and You know me, then I don’t want to give anybody any advice and I don’t want to take advice from anyone. What do I know about others? And what do I have to know about others? You love me and I love You. That’s all. I don’t need anything else.”

From:Sri Chinmoy,The mushroom and the umbrella, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mu