You cannot please everyone all the time!

         Long ago there was a man named Gopal. He had a donkey. One day, he and his son decided to go to the city and sell the donkey. The father said, “Son, you sit on the donkey and I will walk behind you.” While they were on their way, a group of villagers saw them and said to the son, “You are so ungrateful! You are strong enough to walk, yet you let your old father walk while you sit comfortably on the donkey. You had better get down at once and let the old man ride the donkey!” Hearing this, the son got down at once and Gopal took his place.

         Sometime later they met another group that said, “One does everything for his child yet look at this man, who lets his son go through all the hardships while he himself is comfortable sitting on the donkey. Why don’t the two of you ride the donkey together?” So, father and son started riding the donkey together.

         Further on in their journey, they met some people, who said, “The old donkey is not strong enough to carry the both of you. If you keep riding it like this, by the time you reach the city it will become weak and won’t fetch you a good price. How foolish you are! Why don’t the two of you walk?” So, Gopal and his son got off the donkey and started leading it with a rope tied around its neck.

         Still later in the journey, the couple came across some people, who laughed at them saying, “You have a donkey, why don’t you ride it? Why do you treat it like it were your master?” The father and son looked at each other. “We cannot be in agreement with all these people. Whatever we do, someone or the other is going to disagree with us!”

Moral : Gopal’s story shows us that no matter what we do, we will not be able to satisfy everybody. So, instead of worrying about what others think we should concern ourselves with what God, Who loves us the most, thinks of our actions. Continuous remembrance of the Lord, that is chanting the Lord’s Name during all the activities in our day-to-day life, would ensure that we are doing what is best for us, as per God’s wish.