Once upon a time, there lived a Sadhu in a mountain village. He was well known for his wisdom and sayings. People used to come from distant places to get a glance of him and to hear his advice.
One of the interesting things about this Sadhu was that he was minimal with his words. He offers one piece of advice per person and nothing more. The one advice he gives holds good for that person’s entire life irrespective of the number of times he visits this Sadhu. Hence, the Sadhu got known as “One Wish Guruji” as people consider his wisdom their life’s wish.
One fine day, a young man named Subbu came to visit the One Wish Guru. He came to know about the Guru through one of his friends who spoke highly of him. This friend had informed him that the Guru’s words are nothing short of a miracle; however, one does not have the liberty of sharing their words to others as the words will lose their power if shared according to the Guru. His friend also informed Subbu to identify the topmost priority of his life and put it forth to the Guru before he spells out his words of wisdom.
Subbu had reached the mountain village very early in the morning and yet realised that there was a long queue ahead of him. He was contemplating many things to put forward to the Guru and yet realised that he was messing with everything as one wish led to another. In those couple of hours of waiting, he already began to feel that his mind is getting clear. He realised when a man is given a single opportunity to ask the right question; he becomes clear with his life’s priorities. He can easily identify the extra baggage that has been pulling him down all the while.
With time, the queue got shorter and shorter. Subbu finally got his opportunity to meet the One Wish Guru. Subbu was delighted and was trembling with excitement. The Guru offered Subbu some water and made him relax by suggesting to take deep breaths before speaking out. After minutes of deep breathing, Subbu felt a lot relaxed.
Without letting the Guru speak anymore, Subbu rushed out to spill out the well-articulated priority of his life. “Guruji, I realised the most important virtue of any human being is his happiness. I could have asked you for wealth or power; however, I realised that when Happiness is not there in a man’s life, the rest of the things are meaningless. I want to be happy all the time, Guruji. Give me your wisdom which can help me achieve it.”
Guruji smiled at Subbu. He said, “Be Happy with what you get and Be Happy with what you don’t get.”
The Guruji didn’t follow up the statement with an explanation. He was already calling the next person who was awaiting his turn outside his humble hut.
Subbu had to rush out of the hut with Guruji’s words echoing inside his mind rather than its meaning. Subbu kept repeating Guruji’s words all his way back home, trying to decipher all the possible meanings that he could extract from that simple sentence.
The next day, Subbu decided to buy a lottery to check his luck after meeting with the Guruji. Interestingly, Subbu won a sizeable amount with his lottery ticket, although it was not the first prize. Subbu got excited. He remembered Guruji’s words. “Be Happy with what you get, and Be Happy with what you don’t get.”
Subbu was happy that he had won a lottery but wasn’t sure how he could be happy for not getting something as per the Guruji’s words.
Subbu decided to celebrate the lottery win by watching a movie with the prize money. He rushed to the nearby movie theatre to buy the tickets. By the time he reached the theatre, it was already too late. The movie was booked houseful. Subbu, without losing any excitement, tried to buy the ticket for the other film running parallelly. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get that ticket as well. Subbu was cursing his stars. He realised that there is no way he could be happy to miss out on buying a ticket for even a low-rated movie.
Subbu felt that Guruji’s words are confusing. He started to think that Guruji must have made a mistake while speaking out his words of wisdom to him. He decided to head back home and boarded the last bus to his village. When the conductor approached Subbu for the money, Subbu realised that someone had pickpocketed his wallet. He had lost all the money he had won in the lottery.
Subbu had to get down from the bus midway and walk all the way back to his house with nobody to help around. Subbu continued to curse his luck and his life all the while. He thought that all he wanted was to be happy, yet there is no sign of it yet in his life. He was gasping for his breath when he reached home and realised that he has been living too sedentary a life nowadays.
That night, Subbu makes many decisions concerning his life, but before executing any of that, he wanted to meet the Guruji one more time to get a clear explanation of his words of wisdom. The next day Subbu started early to visit the Guruji. However, when he reached Guruji’s place, he saw that there was again a long queue. This queue was, in fact, longer than the previous one. Subbu was annoyed, and yet he knew that he had no other choice but to wait. He continued to wait for so long that he even managed to grab a couple of power naps while waiting.
As Subbu’s turn was getting closer, he got alert and began framing the questions in his mind which he wanted to put out to the Guruji. This time when he was face to face with the Guruji, he wasn’t excited. He was, in fact, anxious to get the right answers from the Guruji. Subbu rushed to ask his lengthy questions, but the Guruji stopped him even before he could open his mouth.
Guruji took a sip of water. He took a deep breath and began to speak sharp.
“Be Happy with what you get, and Be Happy with what you don’t get.”
Be happy that you got a lottery reward – Be happy that you didn’t get small or zero rewards.
Be happy that you were excited and you carried forward your excitement to the movie theatre and be happy that you didn’t lose your excitement, time and your money by not getting a ticket for a lacklustre movie.
Be happy that you realised your fitness level by walking back home and be happy that you lost the money to a pickpocket, or else you might be ending up in the bus that ended up in a freak accident.
Be Happy that you will get to see only the good in the world now and be happy that you won’t get to see all the bad which anyways exist all around the world.”
“Be Happy with what you get, and Be Happy with what you don’t get.” The right way of understanding these words can make you happy all the time, irrespective of the challenges the world throws at you.
Ramu felt calm after listening to these simple, humble, but sincere words from the Guru.
He woke up and bowed his head as a mark of respect to the Guru before beginning his descent downhill.
He walked most of his way back home, trying to decode everything in his life with the Guru’s magic words. As he was getting closer to his house, he saw a speeding car splashing a huge wave of dirty water on him with such a force that he lost his balance and fell onto the nearby ditch. Subbu was all black. He woke up red-faced and looked around. He realised that he was inches short of falling into an open septic tank that was filled to its brim. Subbu smiled, thanked God and his Guru. He continued to walk.
He finally got his answer. “Be happy for the things that didn’t happen to you.”