But when they came up, his garden was filled not just with his chosen flowers but also overrun with dandelions.
He sought out advice from gardeners all over and tried every method known to get rid of them, but to no avail.
Finally he walked all the way to the Royal gardener at the Sheikh’s palace.
The wise old man had counseled many gardeners before and suggested a variety of remedies to expel the dandelions but Mulla had tried all those remedies.
They sat together in silence for some time
and finally the gardener looked at Nasrudin and said,
‘Well, then I suggest you learn to love them.’
Isn’t that how Life always is?
Where there are flowers, there will also be dandelions.
No matter how much you remove them, they’ll always come back and grow.
The good and the bad.
The positive and the negative.
Happiness and sadness.
Yin and yang.
Its always going to be that way.
We can’t run away from the bad and always have good on our side.
The negative-ness…our fears, sadness, loneliness and all that we consider to be negative,
will always follow the good-ness..our joys and happiness and successes.
That is the circle of Life and we can’t run away from it.
All we can do, as the wise Royal gardener suggested, is to learn to love them.
Learn to love them both, equally…the sadness and the happiness, the good and the bad.
And to love them..means..to accept them both.
Be it happiness or sadness, be it success or failure, good or bad,
accept them.
Be present with them.
And know…that they will pass.
‘This too shall pass.’
They don’t remain forever, do they?
Both the happiness and sadness, comes and goes.
Both the good and the bad, comes and goes.
What remains is that which always is.
So no matter what, let us accept whatever Life brings us,
be it good or bad, happiness or sadness,
joys or sorrows, love or loss.
Accept them both,
coz only then can we go beyond them
towards The One that always is.
Also, Lord Krishna says to Arjun in the Bhagavad Gita,
mātrā-sparśās tu kaunteya
śītoṣṇa-sukha-duḥkha-dāḥ
āgamāpāyino ‘nityās
tāḿs titikṣasva bhārata [Chapter 2, verse 14]
Translation:
“O son of Kunti, the non-permanent appearance of happiness and distress
and their disappearance in due course,
are like the appearance and disappearance of winter and summer seasons.
They arise from sense perception,
and one must learn to tolerate them without being disturbed.“
So let them both come and go,
the good and bad,
the happiness and sorrow,
flowers and dandelions…let both of them grow.
Learn to love them, accept them, tolerate them.
Coz they are not permanent, just like the changing seasons.
And like Rumi says,
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.
Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
^_^
aditi premankit 