EVEN WITH THE PETAL OF A ROSE!

 
A woman, judged guilty of adultery, was sentenced to death. Before her execution, according to the law she was exposed to the general public in the market square, and the people were required to throw rocks and filth and rubbish at her. So each passerby in that thoroughfare threw something at the woman. But she never cried out. She made no sign that she was being hurt, but stood there, radiant and beautiful as ever.

It happened now that her daughter passed by, and by law she was required to throw something at the alleged adulteress, her mother. She had no heart to throw a rock or suchlike, so she purchased a rose, and as she passed she threw the flower.

When the flower hit her, the mother shrieked, although no stone or filth until then had caused her pain. She had not uttered a single sound, but the light touch of a rose thrown by her own daughter brought forth a cry from the depths of her being. How the mother must have felt that accusation from her daughter!

"How much more," said Baba, "will I feel, when My own ones hurt Me even with the petal of a rose!"

We said that we did not understand, and Baba went on, "Although you all have been with Me for many years, if in your ambition to aspire more and more for the Truth, you seek blessings of a saint, that action would be the equivalent of the daughter throwing a rose at the mother."