Fell in love with autowala.

All of us know know that autowalas at famous tourist places have only one motive, that is to get as much money from the tourists. There is no doubt about this very fact. But that day was different, Autowala refused to take the money after dropping me to the agreed place.

Its a very interesting story, so do read it slowly with feeling.

Huh ! I thanked god as bus finally reached the Rishikesh Bus Stand. After such stiff overnight journey in bus, each and every part of my body was enjoying the freedom of movement .
Next I had to take an auto for the Aashram. I was there for my yoga and meditation camp.
" Auto wale", I shouted to an autowala. Bhai ! How much for Art of living Ashram?
" Rs 50 sardarji", he replied. I tried bargaining a little bit to bring him down to Rs 40 but couldn't succeed. So locked at Rs 50/-

I was about to sit inside the auto when some guys approached me.
"Jaigurudev bhaiya", they said.
"Jaigurudev bhai, you also for advance course I guess".
And got to know that they were going to the same place. They hired an auto for Rs 120( i.e. Rs 30 each as they were four guys). One of them approached me saying that the other auto is taking them in Rs 30 only per person.

The very next moment I could hear that there were a lot of arguments going on between my autowala and that guy,then between my autowala and their autowala.
It was so pleasant weather that I just wanted to be quite and enjoy those lucky moments. But finally had to broke my silence. So I called up my autowala and said," Why are you fighting with them. I am sitting in your auto and going with you only. So why taking so much unnecessary tension".
"Lets go bhai", I said and finally we left for aashram.
He was bit astonished that why I am still willing to go with him even after getting the better deal. I told him on the way that, if I someone had offered me a free ride to the aashram, even then I would have refused that. Because I had already gave you my words and finalized it at Rs 50.
I just threw this dialogue " If I marry a girl and next day I find a girl who is better that her. Will I ever think about changing the partner. Similarly how could I back off from other commitments and promises that I make.
We had a nice communication on the way about his daily schedule and family.
"Do you know how lucky are you that you stay at rishikesh where so many saints, rishis, munis and mahatamas have stayed. So pleasant is the weather here. Only we Delhities who see so much of noise and pollution and traffic jams, know the signifance and pleasure of breathing so fresh air at rishikesh" I said to autowala.

After reaching the aashram I opened up my wallet and gave him Rs 50. Suddenly I realized that I did not withdrew the money for course registration.
I asked the Autowala that I need to go to ATM to withdraw the money.
"But the ATM is quite far away from aashram i.e. Around 5-7 kilometres. So will need more money after going to ATM and coming back", He said.

"Okay !! No issues bhai. Take whatever you want. Now lets move.", I said.

After coming back to aashram I asked him, " Hanji bhai hukm karo kya sewa karen".
" Its okay Sardarji. I dont want anything" He said.
"Don't want anything! Buy why. You took me to ATM and got back. I think you deserve 30Rs more."
"But I don't want to take anything from you, sardarji. I cannot take anything. You are a nice person. Thanks for coming in my auto. Tell me onething sardarji, so many people use to come in this aashram. What do they teach here".
I had no other option but to give a smile to him. Thats what I learnt over there, To give a smile to everyone.

And finally I realized that if I had choosen the other Auto, It would have finally costed me Rs 60(30+30). But choosing this Auto was not a bad deal as it appeared. There are few things in life whose benifits are not visible instantaneously but they do come sometime later in your life. But it only happens if we keep sticking to our commitments, No matter what happens.

Sometimes we think that everyone out there is trying to take away our money. And thats why we look negatively at everbody outside.
But when we surrender everything to others, then others cease to take anything from you.
When I surrendered myself to autowala and said " bhai batao kya seva karen". Now he has freedom to take anything from me. I have already offered everything to him at this point. I have already become so poor that I am not left with anything. He could feel everything of mine as his own. Now that he has got everything, he wanted to give a little bit of it back to me . Thats why he refused to take any money from me because he could feel the abundance at that time.

For all my friends !!

" Mainu yaar mere lagde khudaa varge,
kise allah de fakir di dua varge" !!

Today I arose myself a question - Who all are my friends ?
It was no easy to get the answer but had to close my eyes to go deeper into myself.
Trust me it was so wonderful the experience of journey within your ownself.

Here comes the answer directly from my heart:-

To whom I extend my friendly hand and who grasps it with love is my friend.
Anyone who extends his friendly hand towards me is surely my friend. Infact my true love remains with those who took the lead to extend their friendly hand to me. You can always love someone who loves you, but you cannot always make someone love you.

So my true respect and love for those who loved me the way I am without myself making any effort to get their love.. You are the ones who made me realize that I am lovable. I can see my God in you. I can do anything for you.

Friends bring fulfillment in your life with their presence, the positiveness, the belongingness, the love, the joy, the helping hand, the listener. Whenever you are feeling low or lonely, then your friends come to your rescue and hold your hand to say "Hey! Why do you worry, when I am with you".
Friends come in your life, becomes part of your life, give memories and then leave. We all welcome the friends as they come, have good memorable times. And finally get sad, sometimes even cry on departure from them. So a very bitter fact is that you cannot take their existence as permanent. We blame ourself or the situations and curse ourself on our helplessness to get them back . And finally we blame the God for having done that.
So when you lose a a friend who is close to your heart, the only way to deal it is that we consider everything as pre-planned by that divine self, where everything happens for a reason. We cannot know the reason because we are not part of decision making. We all are playing as different roles in a play named "A beautiful Life" whose director and producer is the God. The planner of our life is someone else, who resides in all of us, whose planning is unquestionable. Those who accepts the planning remains happy and thankful and feel blessed in each situation and those who questions the very planning remain sad, depressed and obsessed with all other negative feelings. They keep cursing themselves but never realize that they are the actors of this play and not the directors.

Only when you realize this very reality that you will be able to get out of the trauma of losing someone who had been close to your heart. Sooner or later one has to accept the very reality.

One possible solution in this situation is that you can make friends with that devine itself. Who will always remain with you throughout your life. Then you can see God in everybody. And then furthur more you can see a friend in everybody"

Yet from another viewpoint, I feel that unless you realize the temporary existence of your friends. You cannot express your true friendship. Because forgetting this very fact, we start taking a lot of things for granted and start ignoring our friends . Let me explain it in with example situations.

• Each time you see your friend, you should meet him/her with such a completeness as if this is your last meeting. Express as much love as you can. Who knows 'kal ho na ho'.

• Before fighting with your dear one or getting angry with your dear one, just remember this very fact. Love that you wanted to show and postponed till tomorrow,May not come. At that time you will ask God to give you one last chance to express your feelings to your love, your friend. But then that chance may never come. God had given many chances to express the love but you wasted it all fighting, cursing, complaining your dear one.Then God will have only one answer for you "You better be alone, you don't deserve a friend"