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Beautiful Gift!

In his book ‘The Journey Home,’ Radhanath Swami articulates,“Through the practice of devotion to God, I was coming to learn that preserving loving relations in this world required much forgiveness, tolerance, patience, gratitude, and humility.
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Beautiful Gift!A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer’s showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. On the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study.

His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, artistically-bound Holy Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, “With all your money you give me a Holy book?” and slamming the door, he stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book on his father’s study.

He never contacted his father again for long long time. Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day.

Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care things. When he arrived at his father’s house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search his father’s important papers and saw the still new Holy Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Holy Bible and began to turn the pages. As he Read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the book. It had a tag with the dealer’s name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words PAID IN FULL. The young man fell to the ground, devastated!

Like the young many, we too have a strong tendency of misjudging other persons especially the actions of our near and dear ones. We not only judge them wrongly but also behave harshly towards them. Many times we donot like GOD’s gift to us because they are not packaged as per our expectation! How unfortunate is this situation in which we’re knowingly turning blind to our blessings. The only cure to give up this tendency is to be tolerant–tolerant of every person in our lives because THEY are in real, GOD’s gift to us!

In his book ‘The Journey Home,’ Radhanath Swami articulates,“Through the practice of devotion to God, I was coming to learn that preserving loving relations in this world required much forgiveness, tolerance, patience, gratitude, and humility. An essential virtue of humility is to accept others for what they are, despite differences. I contemplated again how the tendency to judge others is often a symptom of insecurity, immaturity, or selfishness, and I yearned to rise above it.”

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21 replies on “Beautiful Gift!”

“An essential virtue of humility is to accept others for what they are, despite differences.” Great words from Radhanath swami

What a beautiful story! Thank you Radhanath Swami for teaching us the human values such as tolerance, gratitude etc. through this inspiring story.

This is an eye-opener to many of us. We try to judge others with out knowing their intentions. Thank you for this very wonderful article.

Everyone who is near and dear to us is actually GOD’s gift to us, we should not misjudge them the way the young Boy misjudged his fathers gift. Struck in the heart. Shifted my whole perspective towards my near ones. thank you very much for sharing.

Yes. We indeed mis-judge others. As nicely articulated here- this tendency we carry within us is due to lack of greatest virtue of being humble. HH Radhanath Swami gives wonderful lesson here.

My Goodness….! I do have this bad habit of Judging people…….! So much to learn from this article….!

A serious one! especially liked the lines,”Many times we donot like GOD’s gift to us because they are not packaged as per our expectation! How unfortunate is this situation in which we’re knowingly turning blind to our blessings. The only cure to give up this tendency is to be tolerant–tolerant of every person in our lives because THEY are in real, GOD’s gift to us!”

Many times we see in our life that we fight with our near ones without even going to the deapth of the situation and understanding other. We create invisible wall that limits our understanding and we become stubborn to prove our point of view and hurt the other person in the process. Thanks for sharing such a beautifull and thoughtfull article making us realise that our actions or words can’t be taken back and for sharing beautiful thought by Radhanath Swami Maharaj.

Very important lesson to be learnt – never misjudge a person or intentions without knowing the real truth. There’s a saying never judge a book by its cover.

HK .. a year ago lost my mother … this article moved me to tears … my mother was a wonderful , humble and simple woman … she was very naive ( i realize it now .. when she is not around ) … her simplicity used to be irritating to me … now when she is not around .. I miss her a lot … now i realize how tolerant ..sweet & patient she was with all of us ( we r 4 of us ) we used to always correct her for everything … but never ever made us realize that she is hurt … she took our criticism sportingly … May her soul rest in peace .. Krishna please please forgive me for being so unkind to her … I pray to Lord Krishna .. that I too imbibe her good qualities … & learn to be tolerant … & accept people as they are … because they are God’s gift to us …

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