One day, two Buddhist monks were wandering in the villages to gather alms. After completing the task, they left for the ashrama. On the way, they had to cross a river, which was at high tide. Even the bridge could not withstand the force and, it broke. They had no option except to swim.
Then, they saw a young lady near the bank. She also had to cross the river. One of the monks, the elder one, asked the lady to climb on his back and, he could swim across the river. All the three reached the opposite bank safely. The lady came down of the monk’s back, thanked him, and left.
The other monk began showing terrible expressions to the elder monk. The elder monk could not understand the reason behind the cause. They reached the ashrama. The young monk rushed towards the Guru and complained about the elder monk that he touched a woman, being disobedient to the Guru. He narrated the entire episode to the Guru. But, Guru merely smiled and asked the young monk to ask the elder monk and even others to summon before him.
All assembled and Guru asked the young monk to narrate the story again. The young monk happily narrated the story, feeling that he was an obedient student of the Guru and the elder monk would be punished. Guru asked the elder monk to prove his virtues. The monk said that he took the right decision to help someone in need but even forgot about the act. Then, he quoted that the other monk kept the thoughts of the lady in his heart till that moment and, he forgot about it long ago.
The young monk realized his mistake that he felt lustful and thus was tempted to blame his companion. He felt that he nurtured the thoughts of competition, jealousy, and lust and even disobeyed the Guru.
We encounter competition, jealousy, and lust in our everyday experiences. We can get rid of it if we surrender at the Divine feet of the Lord every moment. The woman in the story could have been a test portrayed by Lord to test the disciples. We should accept every action and reaction as a step of the Lord.
There are no actions as good or bad. We only need to surrender and the Lord shall run us as his divine puppets.