SPIRITUAL QUEST - GARBAGE TRUCK

agrasen

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THE GARBAGE TRUCK

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Romula D'Silva Sat, Jun 6, 2009 at 12:52 PM
To: romula9@gmail.com
SPIRITUAL QUOTIENT – 46

THE GARBAGE TRUCK!!!




How often do we let other people's emotions affect our mood? Do we let a terrible driver, or a rude comment ruin our day?





The mark of a spiritual aspirant is how quickly we can ‘regain our focus’ on what is important. One man learnt this experience while in the back of a New York City cab. Here's what happened.




He was traveling in a taxi, on his way to Grand Central Station. All of a sudden, without warning, a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of them. The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded and missed the other car's back end by inches.




Then, the driver in the other car, who nearly caused a huge accident, whipped his head around and started abusing the taxi driver. So did the companion sitting next to him! One would have thought that it should have been the other way round!!!

But the taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. The startled passenger sitting in the taxi said, "Why did you take it so easy? The guys almost caused your car to crash and send us to hospital!"

The taxi driver laughed and then related what he called, "The Law of The Garbage Truck."

"Many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of rubbish, filled with frustration, bursting with anger, and packed with disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it. And if you let them, they'll dump it on you. When someone wants to dump it all on you, don't take it personally. You just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on. You'll be glad you did. I assure you.”





The passenger started thinking how regularly he let garbage trucks run right over him? And how frequently he took his own garbage and spread it onto other people, at work, at home, or on the streets? It was that day he promised to himself, "I'm not going to do it anymore. Enough is enough!"





Over time he learnt how to distinguish when a "Garbage Truck" was coming to dump all over him. He noticed the junk they were carrying and prepared himself to avoid it all being unloaded onto him. Like the taxi driver, he did not make it a personal thing; he just smiled or waved or wished them or did all of these and moved on!!!

(A very popular story in all ‘Emotional Intelligence’ sessions & was also published in ‘radio sai journals’))




PS: “Can you not be saturated with Love? Why use harsh words against anyone, for words wound more fatally than even arrows? Can you not speak softly and sweetly? You don’t have to oblige but you can always speak obligingly!!!” – SATHYA SAI BABA

Love God and you see God in every creature. Another way is to start with those around you, and then widen the circle of love till it envelops all creation. Let the mind dwell ever on God; let it see everything as Divine. That is what is described as one-pointedness. When the mind is so fixed, it will give up its tendency to search for faults and foibles in others; it will not run after the foul and the frivolous and it will not accumulate the trivial and the transient. The body is like the container of the torch, the senses, the bulb and the mind is the battery. But if you use your intellect as the switch, then, the mind will not be turned towards the undesirable. It will be used only to help the individual's progress towards his/her Divine destiny.

- BABA





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