Apostleship of Prayer
 

Questions and Answers Number Eighty-Two.

INNER HAPPINESS

I live in Indore, in India's heartland. On our way back from an adjacent town, my friend and I stopped at a highway dhaba. Placing our
order, we stretched ourselves out on the cane chairs. A motley group of people occupied other tables. As we glanced around desultorily, a ragged man
sauntered in and sat down. He poured himself a glass of water from the steel jug. He drank two whole glasses, but ordered no food, nor did the
dhaba boys ask him. When our tea and samosas arrived, he looked at the food, filled his glass again and drank it. We saw no greed in his eyes, but it
was an easy guess, that the guy was hungry and had no money.

The dhaba boy told us, "Oh! That madman comes in everyday. If he has money, he eats something; otherwise he just drinks a few glasses of water
and leaves. My boss said that since water has been given to us by the Lord, we must never stop anyone drinking it at our dhaba."

This logic really touched me. I asked the boy to serve the man a plate of samosas. When he did so, the man looked at him. The boy pointed to us. The man looked at us but made no acknowledgement. As he picked up the first samosa, a little girl in rags walked up and just stood there. He gave her the samosa, which she wolfed down. He picked up the second one and handed that to her, too. She grabbed it and ran away. He pushed away his empty plate, filled up his glass again, drank the water and walked away from the dhaba without a backward glance.

I asked myself if I were capable of a gesture like that. The most I could muster was, "I HOPE so". If sharing what we have in excess is generosity, then how would we describe what that madman did? 'Selfless love'?
 
 

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