One of the many pieces of advice I have given my children in their dealings with people is to never harm anyone and to always leave people as good as they found them. If by chance they were thrown into the company of unethical and wicked people, I cautioned them to stay away by all means.
Recently I realised that, like leaving people as good as we found them, the same applies to the homes of others that we may visit or rent, hotel rooms, cinema halls or public transport that we use. Property that belongs to others must be handled with care and consciousness. After all, even inanimate things have an energy of their own, as we sometimes discover to our surprise. I have had friends recount tales of their four- or two-wheelers that never ever stalled or let them down. During festivals like Vijaya Dashami and Ayudha Pooja, don’t we place books and tools of the trade, after cleaning, at the altar and ask God to bless and crown our efforts with success as we use them?
Respect for public property or spaces that belong to others does not come easily to many. I came to know a few days ago that commuters wanting to get somewhere in a hurry use umbrella handles and other implements to prevent our brand-new Metro doors from closing. Vandalising and giving vent to our anger by breaking or disfiguring with graffiti monuments, temple walls, heritage buildings and such like is simply unforgivable, as the damage could be permanent.
When a tenant of my father’s vacated after a long tenancy, I was moved to tears because they had taken such good care of the house and treated it like they would their own. There were others who also left us in pain for the damage they caused by gross misuse and neglect while they occupied the space.
Mindless misdemeanours hurt the Earth Mother, who in her bounty gave us the raw material for countless things; pain the people who own them or crafted them; and ultimately attract the disapproval of the Supreme.
In that momentary delusion that
we can reduce inanimate objects
to nothing, let us not forget the
Creator who gave us all we have.
Hurting His creations is akin to hurting Him.