A man saw a scorpion floundering around in a puddle of water. Spontaneous desire to save arouses in his heart, and without hesitating he stretched out his hand, lifted out the scorpion from the puddle & put it on dry ground. The scorpion stung him. The scorpion resumed its walk & headed straight again into the puddle.
Seeing it floundering & drowning again, the man picked it up the second time & was again stung. Another man who came along & saw all that happened said to him,” Why are you so stupid? Now you see you have been stung not once but twice! It’s a silly thing to try to save a scorpion!”
The man replied,” Sir, I can’t help it. You see, it is the nature of the scorpion to sting. But it is my nature to love. Why should I give up my nature to love just because it is the nature of the scorpion to sting?”
True, the man could have exercised the same wisdom & used a stick to lift out the scorpion. But then he might have thought threat a scorpion in such dire straits would not sting him. Whatever it might be, the moral of the story is in spontaneous response of the man in wanting to save another living being, even though it may be an insect. It also shows that a truly compassionate man is such that even though he may receive ingratitude from a person whom he had helped, it doesn’t matter to him. It is just his nature to help & if he could help again, he would. He doesn’t know how to harbor any bitterness or grudge.
Compassion, then is the language of the heart. At the time when we are motivated by love & compassion, we reach out to help without discrimination as to the race, creed or nationality of another. In the light of compassion, identification to race, creed etc, becomes secondary; they become insignificant.
Don’t give up loving. Don’t give up your goodness even if people around you sting.
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