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EDITORIAL  About the AuthorOther Stories by this Author Knife Or Scissors? BY SWAMI B.A. PARAMADVAITI  EDITORIAL, Dec 30 (VNN) — Once upon a time Srila Prabhupad told us a story. There where two men walking in the park. All of a sudden one of them bent down to the floor and picked a sheet of paper which was cut in the middle. He contemplated the paper and exercised his intellectual reasoning faculty as to the origin of the cut in the paper. After exhausting all possible comparisons within his memory he drew the conclusion, which he then presented to his companion: "Look at this my friend this paper was cut by a knife." His companion, who was of lower stature, but quite accomplished in critical assessments of vital issues took the paper from his hand to give a first hand inspection. After deliberating on the cut with scientific scrutiny he objected to the conclusion of the other: "You are wrong, this paper was cut by scissors." The ensuing debate started in very moderate scientific terms, but quickly degraded into an ugly scene: "Even a child could see this was a knife!" - "don't be so arrogant, only scissors cut like this!" " I demand you to accept the faultiness of your conclusion." -"Never, it was scissors!" "Knife!" "Scissors!" "knife!" "scissors!" "knife!" "scissors!!!" Let alone the shouting they started to push each other, and become red in the face from their anger. "If you don't accept it was a knife I will drown you in this pond!" the big guy threatened. "Just because you have no brain you want to win your speculation by the size of your muscles!" Being totally uncontrolled he seized the small man, and threw him into a pond and kept him under water with his strong arm. Even though, the man under water was in danger of losing his life his arm emerged from the water with his fingers flashing the victory sign; moving his two fingers to enact the scissors. This false ego it doesn't want to bend down. Even if our life is in danger, even if our missions are threatened, even if we are dragging each other to court, even when our godbrothers disapprove our faulty actions, even if we have ruined the lives of Others due to our negligence, still we cannot start crying and begging for forgiveness. We are all supposed to be very humble as followers of the third sloka of the Siksastakam. Jahnava Didi the wife of Lord Nityananda told in Prema Vilas that those who consider themselves higher than other Vaisnavas will not get the real treasure. I appeal to all the readers of this short note, to carefully think about this story told by Srila Prabhupad above and I pray that there still maybe time left for us to correct our past "knife-scissors" mentality. Whenever, you point a finger at someone, don't forget three fingers are pointed at you. That is why we should always go on and offer our utmost humble obeisances at the feet of all vaisnavas(not only the ones in our mission) who are like desire trees who can fulfill the desires of everyone and who are full of compassion for all the suffering condition souls. Vanchakalpa tarubhyas ca kripa sindhu bhyaeva ca Patitanam pavenebhyo vaisnavebhyo namo namah Vaisnavadas anudas B.A. Paramadvaiti pswami@vrindavan.org About the Author Other Stories by this AuthorComment on this storyContact VNN about this storySend this story to a friend
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