A man used to call every night to God with the same prayer, “Do me at least one favour, I have been asking my whole life. As far as I can see, I am the most miserable man on the earth. I am ready to exchange my misery with anybody else, anybody will do — just let me exchange my misery with somebody else. This is not asking much!”
And one night, in his dream, he saw God had spoken. A great voice came from the heavens saying, “Gather all of your miseries into a package and bring them to the temple hall.”
This man is tremendously happy: “So the moment has come! It seems something is going to happen!”
He rushes to the temple with his bundle. On the way, he finds others also are rushing. So the whole town-folk gathers their miseries into packages and carrying them to the temple.
By the time the man reaches the temple, he becomes afraid, very afraid, because he sees people are carrying bigger package than his. People that he had always seen smiling, in beautiful clothes and always saying nice things to each other, they are carrying bigger packages!
He starts becoming a little hesitant whether to go or not to go, but he has been praying his whole life, so he says, “Let us see what happens.”
They enter the temple. The voice says, “Put your packages around the hall.”
They put their packages, and the voice says again, “Now you can choose any package that you like.”
And the miracle of miracles happens: everybody rushes to his own package! This man also rushes towards his own package, afraid that if somebody else chooses it, then he will be at a loss. Everybody has chosen their own package, with great relief and they are all happy, carrying their packages back to their homes. Even this man is very happy, for the simple reason that “Who knows what is in the other’s package? At least I am aware of my own package and what it contains.”
“The grass is always greener on the other side.” We always focus on the other side rather than on our own side. And when we do that, we forgot our pleasure and magnify our miseries.
