You Cannot Paint The Whole World Green
Attributed to Sathya Sai Baba (Author), N. Kasturi (Editor), Chinna Katha (Sai Bhavan; Revised edition,1978)
There was a millionaire once who was bothered by two aches, one in his stomach and the other in his head! He was diagnosed and treated by a galaxy of medical experts. He consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent centuries of injections. But the aches persisted with greater vigour than ever before!
At last, a monk arrived at the scene of his agony. He spoke very kindly to him and pronounced the fault to be in his eye! Set right the eye, and the head on top and the stomach below would both behave very sweetly! To improve the eye, concentrate on only one colour. Concentrate on green, he suggested. Do not let your eyes fall on red or yellow, or any other colour.
The rich man got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green colour and directed that every object on which his eye was likely to fall be painted thick green.
When the monk came to visit him after few days, the wealthy man’s servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was in red dress, lest their master see any other colour and the pain in his eye would come back.
Hearing this, the monk laughed and said “If only you had purchased a pair of green glasses, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and pans, and chairs and sofas and also a pretty large share of your fortune! You cannot paint the world green.”
How often do we try to change other people, and get frustrated when they refuse to change? But how often do we take a look at ourselves? If we would just change our own outlook, change our own way of thinking, change our own actions, our change might motivate others to change as well. Mahatma Gandhi said, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
By changing our vision the world will appear accordingly. It is foolish to shape the world. Let us shape ourselves first. See a new world with the eyes of peace.
Vision
The guilt we see
is our own.
The anger we see
is our own.
The fear we see
is our own.
The love we see
is our own.
The hate we see
is our own.
The happiness we see
is our own.
The darkness we see
is our own.
The war we see
is our own.
The peace we see
is our own.
All we see is
what we project
on the white screen
of perception.
To see reality
is to see truth
with the eyes of God
whose vision is
in all of us.
© K.S.Brown
