The following is one of the most popular posts in my other blog HERE and I posted it there as The Chapati. I am reposting it here because its lessons must be told over and over...Take care and may you be blessed by this story.
The Chapati
Every morning a woman baked Chapati, an Indian flatbread, for members of her family and an extra one for a hungry passerby. She would always place the extra Chapati on the windowsill, for whosoever needed to eat it.
She noticed a hunchback came every day and took the extra Chapati. Instead of expressing gratitude, he would muttered the following words as he went on his way: "The evil you do remains with you. The good you do, comes back to you!"
This went on day after day after day. The woman felt very irritated. "Not a word of gratitude," she said to herself. "Every day this hunchback utters this jingle! What does he mean? "
One day, exasperated, she decided to do away with him. "I shall get rid of this hunchback," she said.
And what did she do? She added poison to the Chapati she prepared for him!
As she was about to place it on the windowsill, her hands trembled. "What is this I am doing?" she said. Immediately, she threw his Chapati into the fire, prepared another one and put it on the sill.
As usual, the hunchback came, picked up the Chapati and muttered the words: "The evil you do, remains with you. The good you do, comes back to you!"
The hunchback proceeded on his way, blissfully unaware of the war raging in the mind of the woman.
Every day, as the woman placed the Chapati on the windowsill, she offered a prayer for her son who had gone to a distant place to seek his fortune. For many months she had no news of him and she always prayed for his safe return.
That evening, there was a knock on the door. As she opened it, she was surprised to find her son standing in the doorway. He had grown thin and lean. His garments were tattered and torn. He was hungry, starved and weak.
Looking at his mother he said, "Mom, it's a miracle I'm here. While I was but a mile away, I was so famished that I collapsed. I would have died, but just then an old hunchback passed by. I begged him for a morsel of food and he was kind enough to give me a whole Chapati."
"When he gave it to me, he said, 'This is what I eat every day. Today, I shall give it to you, for your need is greater than mine!'"
As the mother heard those words, her face turned pale. She leaned against the door for support. She remembered the poisoned Chapati that she had made that morning. Had she not burnt it in the fire, it would have been eaten by her own son and he would have lost his life!
It was then that she realized the significance of the words: "The evil you do remains with you. The good you do, comes back to you!"
-Author Unknown-
Moral of the story: Do good and don't ever stop doing good, even if it's not appreciated at that time.
9 comments to Good or Evil?
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Biz Let me expand a bit on what I had said. I am not suggesting that we sit like a log and do nothing. Once I had this discussion with someone I just met. I was helping an old man at that time and he remarked rather self assuredly that helping others is always a good thing. We would have good reward.
I then asked him if the person that I am helping or saved is a liar, a cheat and someone who wouldn't bat an eyelid to harm another would helping him made me accountable for all his subsequent actions of harming others ? He replied "of course not - that would be crazy." I then asked why is it that we are so quick to accept the good reward and not the bad that had resulted from our actions ?
If I see hitler on the roadside needing help, do I go out and help him ? Well you may say it is only a look-alike ;-) . Of late we have a lot of this in malaysia ;-).
This advice is best and if we can practise this it would be liberating-from all manner of emotive sufferings and joy ; when hungry eat, when tire rest. Just do !
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modernlifeisrubbish Dear MWS,
A very pertinent parable for the times we are living in.
i had been doing some thinking during late hours after the earlier hours spent tending to the necessity of daily living.
Lately, i'd been spending time reading about the age-old question of "free will" and "determinism". The reading then leads to the concept of freedom and another age-old concept of "good and evil". And then i found your post.
Al those reading has convinced (at least partly) that the question of good or evil is closely linked to the concept of freedom which is linked to that question of free will and determinism.
i wish i could try to figure our those meaning and put them down in words. Perhaps i will try in the comig weeks.
You have a good day then. Take care.
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Unknown Dear Biz
Many thanks for the clarification. I apologize for this late response as I did not know how to respond to such a deep comment.
Thanks so much for swinging by again to expand your first comment. It really clears the air for me.
You are a very deep thinker indeed and how I wish we had more Malaysians like you in our land.
I appreciate that you have taken the time to share your insightful views and hope that you will keep in touch. Take care!
Salam
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Unknown Hi Joshua
Thanks so much for your sincere response. You have always been a very philosophical thinker and this comment reveals much. In my younger days, I was quite wrapped up with the free will and pre-determination. Till today, I still have mixed views...and am just as confused. :-(
Please write about this, Joshua. I would certainly love to hear your views.
Take care and have a great day.
Cheers
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ahoo In order to stay SANE in modern Malaysia, we have to take politics with a pinch of salt especially the NEWS
from MSM & TVs'. Those are govt's way of running down opposition and it happens all over the world. They
are using Hitler's regime methodology that if lies can be told over and over again, eventually the people will
think that it is the truth.
Even the mamak-king had has perfected that art of deceitfulness and we have to learn on how to take what we
reason as right into our system and not all those verbage that will poison our mind slowly. Anything that is worth having
is worth our sacrifice and we just have to stand strong and wait for that hour of change in ushering in true democracy.
Let the Psalmist teach us some lessons in life and also the issue of good & evil cannot just be handled by our physical
strength alone. We need enpowerment from the Holy Spirit to be able to be victorious in our daily walk. Please post
the comment as listed on your blog as I'd tried over and over again but failed. Let us put the devil to shame with the
exposure of his cunning and evil ways. Glory be unto our God the saviour of our souls & spirit as we continue to walk
on earth until the day of departure to eternity. Amen
Rgds,
Ahoo
The psalmist writes in Psalm 24 that we should focus on doing good and turn from evil. While it seems obvious,
our relationship to doing good and doing evil are foundational to our faith.
Psalm 34:13&14 (NKJV)
13. Keep your tongue from evil,
And your lips from speaking deceit.
14. Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
Paul's Teaching in Roman 7:19-25 (NKJV)
19. For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I
will not to do, that I practice.
20. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do
it, but sin that dwells in me.
21. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who
wills to do good.
22. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
23. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law
of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members.
24. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body
of death?
25. I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord !
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
We live in a fallen world and there are great lessons to be learned from this man, Paul who was known as Saul
until his conversion when he had an encounter with Christ along the road to Damascus. He had laboured well for
the Lord and leave us with nuggets of truth that we are fighting not against the flesh and blood alone.
The evil spirit that tends to corrupt our mind daily with things not pleasing to God is our daily struggles and we need
the enpowerment of the Holy Spirit to stay victorious. Using our own human strength, it will not lead us to victory but
into constant inner struggle between the good that we should do and yet the evil of human mind lurks within.
James 4:7&8 (NKJV)
Humility Cures Worldliness
7. Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you.
8. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
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Biz Christian and indeed islam conception of evil, sins and imperfections arose in the garden of eden. In there it was stated that sin crept into humankind when adam and eve ate from the fruit of knowledge of good and bad. In fact it was the promise of the serpent that eve and adam's eyes will be opened.
If our knowledge of good and bad is what blinds us shouldn't we be a bit more circumspect of what we know and thought to be good and bad ? In fact such a doctrine is really no different from that of hinduism and buddhism. The doctrine of maya in hinduism and delusions of buddhism mirrored such basic christian doctrine.
A kind heart can only emerge from a peaceful heart. A heart much troubled what knowledge of good and bad has great capacity to cause harm while doing good.
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Biz Al those reading has convinced (at least partly) that the question of good or evil is closely linked to the concept of freedom which is linked to that question of free will and determinism. .. Joshua Wong
There is a lesson in this story :
A farmer's horse ran away one day and all the villagers came to him saying, Oh what bad luck you've had! Your horse that you need to do your work is gone!
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said: "Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?"
Several days later, the farmer's horse returned, followed by a herd of wild horses!
Oh what good luck you have, cried the same villagers! Not only has your horse returned, he has brought you many horses!
The farmer again shrugged his shoulders and said: "Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?"
One day not long after, the farmer's son was trying to break one of the wild horses. He was thrown off the horse and broke his leg.
Oh what bad luck you have! Cried the villagers. Now your son has a broken leg. Who will help you?
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said: "Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?"
Not long after, as the son was recuperating, an army came through the village and took all the young males to fight in a war in another region. They did not take the farmer's son because of his broken leg.
Oh what good luck you have! The villagers cried once again. Your son has been spared being taken off to war because of his broken leg!
The farmer shrugged his shoulders and said: "Good luck, bad luck. Who knows?"
Do life's events determine our choices or our choices determine our life's events ?
Do we really have a choice ?
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modernlifeisrubbish Hi MWS,
If you have time and so wishes, please feel free to waste your time reading this: http://wcw1908.blogspot.com/2011/05/nature-of-evil-and-concept-of-freedom.html
It's quite purposeless i think but time was really spent writing it lah, hahaha.
You take care ya.
Biz I had given this advice on many occasions and often people were flabbergasted, disgusted and accused me of corrupting buddha's teaching. Buddha had advised ; do only good, avoid evil and cultivate the mind. However I advised ; anything and everything you can do but never do good.
This was Buddha's teaching on liberation.
Both evil and good will return to us and we will return again and again.