Monday, January 23, 2012

Appearances can be deceptive

I was walking when I spotted that dark, stout man. He did not have a friendly look. “Beware,” alerted my mind. I moved faster, checking whether my purse and mobile were in my pocket. A few seconds later, I saw him trailing me. I walked faster. He did too. He was almost chasing me now.
“Take the bull by the horns,” said my inner voice.
I turned abruptly.
“Kya chahiye?" (What do you want?)
“Your money fell from your pocket.”
He thrust a 10 dirham note, smiled and walked away, even before I could murmur “Thanks.”
It was stupid of me to judge someone by outward appearance.
It reminded me of the Buddha story.
Some Tibetan monks were informed that a highway was being built and they had to relocate their shrine. A crane was brought to lift the huge clay Buddha. The figurine began to crack. A larger crane was needed, but that would arrive only the next day.
A storm was building at night and water began leaking from the roof. The monks tried to protect the clay Buddha from getting wet, but their attempts failed. It was then that the head priest noticed something strange. Amid the cracking clay, something was shining. The monks chiseled the clay carefully and what appeared stunned them. There stood an amazing gold Buddha.
As they say, there is a golden heart inside every human being (especially those visiting this blog!), covered by layers of clay in the form of ignorance.

31 comments:

  1. Something most of us are guilty of at one time or another - I suppose the important thing is that we learn from it.

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  2. Have you seen Anbe Sivam movie? Looks can be deceptive...Kamal tells Madhavan in one scene!

    I have heard the Buddha story! The last sentence...thanks!

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  3. What u said is so true..
    We once had a very nice driver in Mumbai..but his appearance was really scary..he was fat and had a mostache...we were reluctant to hire him initially, but he turned out to be a very good human being... we can never judge a person from his appearance.
    And I too strongly believe in the saying that everything happens for good.. we sometimes see it and realize it later.

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  4. Absolutely with you on the title and what a beautiful story to go with it.Never heard of this story. thank you :)

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  5. Touching story. We can all relate to such moments, RameshJi. Thanks for refreshing our memory!

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  6. Agree with the title to the tee. Sometimes we are mislead outer appearance. Liked the thought process.

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  7. Sheesh! :| Has happened to me as well. We tend to judge people so easily.

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  8. This has happened with all of us sometime or the other. We tend to get way to judgmental when it comes to people esp strangers!

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  9. I agree with Nikita... we do tend to judge people so easily without thinking about the real reasons behind their actions.

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  10. Its an eye opener. You too must be having a golden heart.

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  11. same story has happened with me too... I too have mistaken judging people by appearance..there's a saying.."never judge a book by its cover"

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    1. very true!such a beautiful example ...
      we generally judge people by appearances or as per our gut feeling But its not same as thought!

      ...very few have golden heart these days..RESPECT those people and their genuineness!

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  12. So true - yep I meant it about us having hearts of gold!

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  13. So true about us having hearts of gold! :)

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  14. thank god, I visited this blog today.. ha ha..

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  15. derpok bhai, be bahadur from now on.
    waisay bhee, fear is a natural instinct.
    --thanks for sharing your experience.
    We have to do some self training for judging things rightly.

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  16. Yes, I also have similar experiences..and thanks for finding my heart in gold..:)

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  17. its true judgement is the first emotion that comes to us at sight.. but can-t help it we live in such a world its better to be cautious than sorry

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  18. Wow, kya baht hai...acha leson seekh liya na?
    Got caught with work Ramesh..Hope to be in town for sometime.
    tc

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  19. So true.. how we judge people off hand...

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  20. So true! But, there are times when it does not hurt to be careful either.

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  21. So true.
    But I am still looking for Gold

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  22. How true. A good change from your normal funny self.

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  23. yes, looks are deceptive and that's why the worlds has been referred as 'Maya' or illusion in Hinduism

    :)

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  24. its true and nice story

    thanks

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  25. Appearances can be deceptive
    agree with you

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  26. So true, and thats why they say....."DiKHAAWE PER NA JAAO"....:)

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