Balance of Mind

Once upon a time Gautam Buddha was travelling via a village. The villagers came to know about his arrival and rushed to greet him and seek his blessings. They decided to visit him and offer him some gifts. Gautam Buddha was sitting under a tree with some of his followers. The villagers crowded the place. They started offering fruits, rich cloth, gold coins, ornaments, previous stones and what not. One by one Gautam Buddha politely refused to accept any of these gifts. "I do not need any of these things" was his answer. The villagers tried to convince him to accept the gifts by saying that they respect him a lot and are offering the gifts from the deepest of their hearts. However, Gautam Buddha was firm on his decision.

After some time slowly the villagers started getting angry. "What he thinks of himself? We are offering him such a precious gifts and he is rudely rejecting them" they said. After some time their anger turned into hatred. They started cursing Gautam Buddha. Hearing their foul language one of the follower of Buddha asked - "Master, Don't you feel angry? They are using such a cruel words against you." Buddha smilingly replied - "They offered me precious gifts that I refused to accept. They are now offering me harsh words and I refuse to accept them also"

Moral of the story is - "Very few can maintain such an equilibrium of mind in good as well as bad times. It is difficult to reject pleasures as well as to remain unaffected when things are not in your favor."