The unlucky baby

A young couple were on their way to the temple early in the morning when they saw a very little baby crying in the street. Nobody knew who had left the baby there. They were very kindhearted people. The wife lifted up this baby and started showing it all her compassion and affection. The husband also liked the baby.

There was a note on the child saying, “Take this unlucky baby. One day you will become very lucky.” The couple understood this to mean that they should take this helpless baby. They were full of compassion and affection, so they took the child home.

In a couple of hours the couple discovered that the baby was blind, and they felt miserable that the child could not see anything. They did not have any children of their own, so they said, “This is our fate.” The baby was very cute, and they were showering their affection, sweetness and fondness on her.

For several years the husband and wife lavished their affection on the child. Then the couple had their own children. The wife gave birth to one son and one daughter. They were very, very beautiful and very affectionate children. Now the parents were so miserable. In a rush they had taken the little blind baby from the street, and now they could not do anything about it. It was too late.

The wife was so fond of her own children that she started neglecting the child they had adopted. Every day she became more miserable and she stopped paying any attention to the adopted girl. The husband also finally took his wife’s side. He saw that his own children were so beautiful and so smart. Finally the husband and wife both wanted to get rid of the adopted child.

One day the husband became very, very brave. By that time the adopted child was five years old. He said, “Today I will take her to a desolate place. I will spend the night with the child, and then I will leave her there.”

The wife was so nice to the adopted child in the beginning, but now she was only for her own children. She was so happy that they would be able to get rid of the adopted one.

The husband took the child, and they slept at a particular place where there were no people anywhere nearby. They had a good night’s sleep. Early in the morning, he started to leave the child. Then his heart was making him feel miserable. He said, “This is a helpless child. What am I doing?”

Again he thought of his own children: “They are so sweet and beautiful. Who needs this one?”

When the day dawned, the child woke up and started crying, because she was not hearing her father’s affectionate voice. When he was halfway back to his house, the father was feeling miserable: “Such an innocent child! So helpless! What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?”

His heart was killing him, so he went back. In the meantime, the child had started playing with some pebbles all by herself. When the father came back, he saw that in the child’s palms there were five small diamonds. He was so thrilled! He grabbed the child and took her back home with the diamonds.

The note had said, “Take this unlucky baby. One day you will become very lucky.” Now the father was so happy. When he brought back the child with the diamonds, his wife was also so happy. They had become rich overnight. Then both of the parents started treating this blind girl very, very nicely and affectionately because she had made them very rich.

So, this is what happens. Compassion comes, and then it disappears. Then affection rules. Finally compassion again comes forward. When compassion comes back, God’s Grace descends.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Life’s bleeding tears and flying smiles, part 2, Agni Press, 2001
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/lts_2