Radhanath Swami – Everyone has a purpose

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Published on December 10, 2019 by

A few years ago, I was invited by the President of India to attend a function at the Presidential mansion in New Delhi. There were a few hundred guests who had been invited for this function. It was the official function for the then President of the United States – President Barack Obama and the First lady Michelle Obama. The security was at the highest level. There were military officers armed with machine guns, sniffing dogs and security cameras all around. When I arrived at the palace, I saw the Prime Minister of India with his entire cabinet of ministers and all the highest ranking government officials of all of India’s political parties. I thought to myself, “What am I, a little Swami doing here? What is the lesson that I am to learn from my experience here?” Then I looked up and I found the answer to my question. Up in the sky, there was a bird circling around and around over everyone’s heads. A thought came to my mind, “How embarrassing it would be if this bird does what birds often do on the heads of these heads of state.” I pondered, this bird seems utterly insignificant in the presence of the most powerful people in the world. This bird could not do what a President or Prime Minister could do. But then a thought crossed my mind that caused my heart to soar higher than that bird. I thought that as much as the little bird cannot do what these great leaders can, the leaders cannot do what the bird can. Not a single one of them can freely fly in the sky. Everyone has unique God-given gifts and abilities that can be used to contribute something special to the world in their own way. If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will consider itself worthless for the rest of its life. Focus your heart on what you can do, not what you cannot. That is the secret for growth.

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