Attitude of Gratitude

There is a story in the Masnavi of Rumi which illustrates the attitude we should have in difficult times. Ayaz was much favoured by the king. One day, a rare and special melon was brought to the court by a traveller. The king had the melon cut up and, as was his custom, he gave the first slice to Ayaz. Ayaz ate the slice and when asked how it tasted, he told the king it was delicious. The king thought that since Ayaz likes it so much and since it is a delicacy, let him have as much as he wants. So Ayaz started to eat each slice, one by one.

Finally, there was only one slice left and the king thought to himself, “If I do not eat this last one, it may be I will never be able to experience such a sweet melon ever again.” So he asked Ayaz to leave the last slice for him. No sooner had the king tasted the fruit, he spat it out. To his shock, it was extremely bitter.

The king turned to Ayaz and said, “How could you eat a whole plate of this poisonous fruit?” Ayaz humbly replied, “O king, I have eaten many sweet and delicious things from your hands over the years. If something per chance is slightly bitter, I feel it would be very unworthy and ungrateful of me to express my dislike.”

In this vale of tears, all of us have to taste the bitter fruit of sickness and death due, no doubt, to our own past karmas. But those who are under the protecting and guiding influence of the Shabd form of the Master have nothing to fear or worry about. The only way to escape suffering is to leave the body and go into Shabd. There death, pain and sickness have no place. Vacate the body and die in life so that we may not have to be born and die again.
_{Maharaj Charan Singh, Light on Sant Mat}