“If there is any good act to be performed, any help to be rendered, let me do it here and now, for I may not pass this way again”. Very often, the situations we come across in life are irreversible. We cannot set the clock back. We cannot get back yesterday. So, opportunities come to us but once. If we refrain ourselves from doing what is necessary and miss the chance, at that moment, such an opportunity to do such good may not come to us again. All the rest of our life, we have to repent our failure.
In English there is a mischievous phrase “second thought”. (A famous English essayist has extended the idea and written a very thought – provoking essay ‘Third Thoughts’.)
It so happened that I was approached by a poor girl student seeking my help for clearing her fee dues, failing which she would not be allowed to sit for the examination starting the next day. I knew her well as very studious. I believed that she would score high marks. I was also quite well aware of the poor conditions of her family. Also, at that moment I had enough money, I could have comfortably rendered her the needed help. But I pulled myself back somehow and asked her to give me some time. I discussed the matter with my colleagues, who offered me divergent opinions. They told me among other things that the misery of the family was on account of her irresponsible father. They told me that at the last minute he would raise money from somewhere to enable his daughter to sit for the examination. They further added that if I helped her, her father was most likely to drink away the money he would have raised, for he was a notorious drunkard. This set me thinking and on second thoughts, I felt it prudent to leave the matter there. The next day, to my utter disappointment and disgust, I learnt that the poor girl had never turned up at the examination. To this day I live with the feeling of regret that I committed a great mistake in not reaching the help in the right time.
Nor love thy life nor hate, but what thou liv’st Live well - how long or short permit heav’n. ~ John Milton ~It is not to say that we have to act on the spur of the moment, and should not entertain any second thoughts. We have always to think well and act. Our thoughts should lead us to perform good and noble acts not back out of them.
It is rightly said, there is a lot of talk about doing good, but very littlegoodisactuallydone.Amanwhothinksofdoinggoodfeelsthat he is so virtuous and great and that is why he is able to contemplate such an act. He thinks that by rendering that service, he is obliging God. Swami Vivekananda blows out the bubble of pride of such people by saying emphatically “God is not lying miserably in any ditch to seek your help. In fact, out of sheer grace he has extended to you a unique opportunity to elevate yourself by extending a helping hand”.
The man who helps others or renders a service has to think that he is helping (ennobling) himself more than he is helping others. We have to perform all good and noble acts in utter humility and sheer love of God.We hear it said and taught over the whole surface of the earth, “Be good, be good”. There is hardly anywhere a child, wherever he is born, to whom one does not say, “Do not steal, do not lie .............”. But we can only be really helpful to him by teaching him to dominate his thoughts.
~ Swami Vivekananda ~