Forgiveness and Might

There's a wonderful character called Nasrudin.  He originated in Sufi stories, but has made his way to other places around the world.  The Nasrudin tales are among my very favorites because his wisdom is always upside down.  He is known as a hodja, a wise fool.

In one story Nasrudin is standing in the busy marketplace waiting for someone to point him out as an idiot.  It's an interesting occupation, as you can imagine, while we are all working so hard to be seen as bright, capable, resourceful, reliable, steady and smart.

The game was this - everyone was aware that Nasrudin was an easy mark - someone would come up to him and say, 'Mulla, choose from these two coins, which one is better?!'  There was always a coin of lower value and a coin of substantially higher value.  To the delight of the jokester and those looking on, Nasrudin always took the coin of lesser value.  They would hoot and laugh at the foolishness of an old man - wise fool, indeed!

The next thing you knew, there was another person making the same offer to Nasrudin, ready to pounce on him with derision about his idiocy for not knowing the difference between a valuable coin and a lesser one.  The crowd often seemed to love this game enough to have it go on for hours.  Nasrudin never once chose the more valuable coin, never once become distressed or upset at being proclaimed an idiot.

Hmmmm, what story wisdom do I find here?  The story's punchline lets us in on Nasrudin's joke - he knows that if he, even once, chose the more valuable coin the game would be over.  As he says, ' if I took the larger coin then people will stop offering me coins in order to prove that I am more idiotic than they are.  Then I would have no money at all!'

It seems the wisdom of this tale lies on its surface, until I listened to Dr. Uma Mysorekar talk about Forgiving Someone Who Has Hurt You.  Her talk brought this story to mind.  I began to see that the money in the story is a symbol for the strength that she is talking about.  That each time Nasrudin accepted the invitation to play the coin game he was practicing Forgiveness and as a result was greatly rewarded.  If he ever were to take the road of showing the world that he was no fool he would lose the richness that came to him by being wise.

It reminds me that the path of evolving will often exclude the praise of the crowd.  It reminds me that the quiet knowledge that one is building one's inner strength has greater rewards than the opinions of others.  Now, if only I could find a marketplace where people would offer me two coins..........