The Gift

Once there was a man who came to visit his friend. His friend was a good host, and he said, "Oh, come in. It's great to see you old friend. Please come in, I'll get you something to eat."

  The man spent a few days visiting with with his old friend and when it was time for him to go, he said, "Well it's been great visiting you, as always. I really should be going now though." The friend, his host, said, "I have an extra horse. He never gets ridden. Why don't you take the horse as a gift from me." The man said, "You are very generous. A horse! But I couldn't take your horse from you, that's too much. I'll be fine, I don't mind walking." "No, no, it's your horse now. Take your horse, it's a gift, take it." "Well I know you won't let me leave without it now, so I guess I have no choice but to take it."

  The man gratefully mounted the horse and rode away. About ten days later the man came back. His friend said, "Welcome! Good to see you again, come in, have some food. Why are you back so soon?" The man said, "I don't know what happened. I was on my way to Pind City and everything was going fine. Then all of a sudden, the horse stopped listening to me. The horse turned around and started heading back here. I tried everything I could think of, but no matter what I did, the horse wouldn't listen. He just came right back to your house." The friend said, "I understand. This horse was born and raised here. This place is all he knows. He is attached to me and my wife, and everything else here." So the man stayed with his friend for a few more days and tried to train the horse to listen to him.

  Then he left again, "Goodbye, thanks again. Farewell good friend." But then, after about another ten days the man and his new horse came back again. "Come in, come in. Welcome again my friend. It looks like you didn't get that far. What happened this time?" "The same thing as last time! I had traveled to two different towns. I was on my way to a third town and the horse just stopped. He turned around. I kicked him, I yelled at him him, I did everything I knew how to do, but the horse simply wouldn't listen. The horse headed right for your house, in fact he didn't stop until we reached here." The host realized what need to happen, "I think we need to give the horse some proper training, then he will listen to you and you can have him take you anywhere you like." "Oh good' said his friend, "If we could do some training, that would be awesome."

  So for the whole next month the host gave his friend food and entertainment. During the entire time, he helped his friend train his horse. After the month ended, the man left once again. The host and his wife said goodbye, "Farewell old friend. Goodbye, have a safe journey." After he left the wife asked, "You were overly kind to this fellow. You gave him a horse, then he came back twice. We hosted him and gave him everything and even trained the horse with him for a whole month! Did we really have to do all that for him?"

  The man said to his wife, "Everyone likes to get gifts. It's very good to get a gift from someone but what if someone doesn't know how to use it? What is the use of the gift if the person doesn't know how to use it? The person may need some help and maybe even some training to make the gift useful. Who do you think should give that
God has given all of us a great gift. It is the gift of our own mind. We can use our mind to do everything good in our lives. Sometimes we don't know how to use our own mind, and so it gets us in to trouble. That is why God sends holy people. Holy women and holy men are here to train us how to use our mind. Once we train our minds, we don't ever have to be unhappy again. Our lives become filled with happiness.

Contributed by
Mrs Shruti Chaabra ji