There is a story about an old lady, perhaps from China. It is said that in those times each devotee of Buddha in China used to worship their own form of Buddha. The protagonist in our story, that old lady was also a great, great devotee of Buddha. Obviously, she too had her own Buddha, in the form of a small beautiful statue. Like any other devotee, she was also very possessive of her Buddha. Once she was traveling through a jungle. On the way, she had to stay in a Buddhist temple. There were hundreds of statues of Buddha in that temple. The lady slept there peacefully. When dawn broke, being a very religious person, she started her morning rituals. All was going well till she burnt an incense to please her OWN Buddha. Suddenly she realized….what a shame….all other Buddhas were enjoying the fragrance of the incense meant for HER Buddha. She tried to fan away the fragrant air from the direction of OTHER Buddhas. But nothing worked. All other Buddhas were having a jolly good time, enjoying the fragrance meant for HER Buddha. She tried everything, but all in vain. Then an idea struck her. She took a sheet of paper and made a cone out of it. Then she covered the face of HER Buddha with that cone and inserted the burning incense from the other end. Viola!!! Now, all the divine and sweet smelling smoke was going directly into the nose of HER Buddha. Satisfied, she finished her remaining rituals peacefully. But when she finished all that worship business and removed the cone from Buddha’s face, she was shocked. The face of her Buddha was blackened. There was a wise Buddhist monk in that temple. When he came to know about this incident, he nodded solemnly and said,” This is the destiny of all great masters; their followers blacken their face with their foolishness.”

This is not just the story of that old lady. This is a story that narrates   a fact, which is beyond the realm of time and location. Since time immemorial, we have been behaving like her, some of us in direct and crude ways and some of us in a subtle, sophisticated, and intellectual manner. Spreading hatred and violence in the name of God, we are doing nothing other than blackening the face of our God, faces of our masters. Is it not enough? Has the time not come when we should start behaving in a more mature way?