It was a cold morning. I was sitting at the Osho Multiversity waiting for the participants in my course “The Inner Skills for Work and Life”. This course deals with the issues that robs people of joy of working and makes it a burden or a necessary evil.
A small Romanian girl was sitting with me, evidently cold and uncomfortable. Her name was Ileana. Just arrived from her country and feeling ill at ease in a strange land. I suggested to her, “Why don’t you wear something warm?” She said dejectedly, “I don’t have warm clothes of maroon colour. And I can’t afford to buy a new one.” As per the system we all wear maroon in the meditation resort.
I offered her to buy a maroon shawl from our galleria. At first, she resisted but when I put my arm around her and walked with her a few steps she relaxed, and tears started streaming down her cheeks. I patted her and said, “Please don’t think it is a help. I am just sharing my gratitude. Osho has given me so much, there is no way I can give it back. So this is my way of paying it back to him. You can do the same to another person who probably needs it. You don’t have to pay me back.”
This put her at ease and she accepted the maroon shawl with a smile. After few days Ileana came running to me, bubbling with excitement. “You know what, I just did what you had said to me.”
Her joy was infectious so I was drawn in her energy. The gist of her bubbling was that she was going out on the street when she came across a poor girl selling roses. The girl tried to pursue her like the street sellers do. Ileana was offended and brushed the girl aside saying, “I don’t want to buy roses, I have no money.” While coming back an hour later Ileana saw the same girl with only one rose left in her hand. The girl came to Ileana and said, “This is my last rose. I want to give it to you. I don’t want any money. You are lucky for me,
I sold all the roses.” Ileana was stunned. Who was poorer of the two? With tears in her eyes Ileana took the girl to a nearby coffee shop for a treat. The girl couldn’t have imagined in her dreams that one day she would be sitting inside the high-end place from where she was shooed away every day. Ileana came back with a song in her heart.
Amrit Sadhana is in the management team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune. She facilitates meditation workshops around the country and abroad.
