Many people remain in conflict because they fear the consequences of their decisions. It is always better to bear the consequences, whatever they are, than to remain undecided.
Some years ago, when Swami Chinmayananda was looking to establish an international school and no government assistance was forthcoming, a villager came forward offering to donate a piece of land quite close to the city of Lucknow. Many people across India had been looking for a suitable site, so the people of Lucknow were very excited the school would be in their area. They performed a bhoomi puja (inaugural prayer) on the site, arranged for architects to design a building, and quickly had the work under way. After some time, when Swami Chinmayananda was in Hong Kong, he received a message from the committee in Lucknow saying that they had decided to sell the land given by the villager because it was too small to accommodate all the facilities required for an international school. They planned to use the proceeds from the sale to purchase a larger but cheaper area of land a few kilometres away. Swami Chinmayananda responded to their message by saying, ‘I will veto your decision. The international school will be built on the existing site or not at all. You are right, the land is too small, but you will have to make do with it’.
To be continued.
