29th June 2024
Once a disciple of Guru asked him about the ‘Aim or the purpose of being born a human and what is life worth ‘
The Guru opened a closed fist & gave the disciple a beautiful red coloured stone and said to the disciple, “Go, get the stone valued from different people in different trades, but do not sell it. Come back & I shall answer your question.”
The disciple came across a fruit seller & presented the stone to him. The fruit seller had a look & said, “This is a beautiful stone & although I have not much need for it, I can offer you a dozen Oranges in exchange.”
He then visits a vegetable vendor & presents the stone to him, asking him how much he can offer in exchange. The vegetable seller offers him a bag full of potatoes as it’s worth.
He moves on.
Realizing that his Guru has given him something much more precious than he had thought, he visits a Goldsmith.
The Goldsmith, being deeply impressed by its beauty, offers him Rs.5 million. On refusal to sell, he offers him Rs 10 million & finally 20 million.
The disciple politely repeats the command of his Guru of not selling the stone & takes his leave.
By now the disciple has gained enough confidence in its worth & conjures up the strength to visit the biggest Diamond merchant of the area.
This merchant, on seeing the stone, takes off his turban, spreads it & reverently places the stone on it. He performs a ‘parikrama’, bows to it & states, “What you have is the most beautiful & precious Red Ruby, I have ever set my eyes on. It is priceless. You can demand any price that you may & it shall still be less.”
The disciple, perplexed & amazed, rushes back to Guru ji.
Even before he could utter a word, Guru ji says, “The aim of a human life should be clear to you by now, my son. It’s all up to you, whether you rate it for a dozen oranges, a bag full of potatoes, for Rs twenty million, Or you may make it the most valuable Ruby.
Immense possibilities are open to one & all. To be born a human is the biggest gift of the Almighty. It’s all for you to decide what you want to make of it.”
You are born a precious Ruby, but you get to choose your own worth, Your Worth is not fixed, You determine your own value.
Just as the stone can be valued as per the person valuing it, you too can change your worth with your environment.
You can choose to place yourself in an environment where you’re poorly valued, surrounded by people who don’t think much of you, who tell you your limits, who laugh at your ambitions, who criticize your every move.
You can choose to think of yourself as limited, static. You can be hard on yourself, lamenting your failures & missteps.
Or…
You can choose to place yourself in an environment where you’re highly valued, surrounded by people who lift you up, who encourage you to think bigger, who pair high expectations with high support, who believe in you even when you don’t believe in yourself.
You can choose to think of yourself as unlimited, dynamic. You can hold yourself to a high standard, view every failure as an opportunity to learn & change.
You can set unlimited boundaries; you can tell yourself that your future is in your control.
You get to choose your own worth:
Choose to place yourself in environments where people will see you for your highest potential.
Choose how you treat yourself.
Choose your value, you get to choose whether you are the rare red Ruby or the rock worth a bag of potatoes.
This, is the most important choice of your life, So, choose wisely & stay blessed forever.