Life Is Self-Service!

Some years ago, parallel to my teaching job, I was working as a cosmetics salesman. You see, I had to supplement the family income somehow. Therefore, I had to travel, often enough, to a large area of the country.

One day I had lunch at a self-service restaurant at the main square of a provincial town. It was a very well organized shop, with a great variety of food to choose from, some of which supported my vegetarian diet.

I arranged my dishes on a tray, I paid, and I sat down at a table near the window wall. I wanted to observe the beautiful square and the passersby. (I always like to 'study' strangers and try to imagine their stories based on their characteristics, styles and expressions. At the same time, I try to send positive energy to them, with my thoughts.) At that moment, besides me, in the store, there was only a group of young people –probably students. Their happy voices were giving a lot of life to the empty shop.

After a while, an old man entered the shop and sat down at a table next to mine. He had a very kind figure. His sun-dug face and his clothes gave me the image of a farmer. So, I assumed that he was a villager who had come to town for some reason. At some point, our eyes met. I smiled at him with a kind greeting. He also responded with a smile. Then I turned back to my lunch and my observation.

Time was passing, I had almost finished my lunch, but the sympathetic old man had not yet gone to choose his meal. I noticed that he was looking impatiently at the staff behind the food stalls and the cashier. At first, I assumed he was waiting for some people, and he didn't want to start eating without them. But when I saw him waving his hands to the young man at the cashier –who didn't seem to understand the communication signals, by the way– I suspected that something was going wrong. Then I turned to him and asked:

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

He looked at me, quizzically, and said:

"How can you help me, my lad? I am hungry! Did the waiter delay so much to take your order too?"

My suspicions were finally correct! The poor man did not know that he had to serve himself. I smiled, and I asked him to follow me. We went to the food counters, and I explained to him how he could choose the meal he liked, how to put it on his tray, pay and take it on his table. When I was sure that he had understood, I went back to finish my meal.

In a few minutes, he came back wearing a big smile over a full tray. He sat down, looked at me with an expression of gratitude and said:

"God bless you, my lad. If it weren't for you, I would go hungry with all that good food around me!"

We both laughed, and I told him that it was my pleasure to help him.

After a while, I was ready to leave, so I greeted him, and he reiterated his thanks. As I was walking towards my car, the old man's phrase came again to my mind:

"... I would go hungry with all that good food around me!"

Suddenly I thought that this event was an exceptional parable of life! Think about it for a while. God always prepares the best conditions for our happiness. Still, we wait for everything to come to our "plate" without wanting to pull our own weight. So, because of our ignorance or mental inertia, we lose opportunities and then we blame life for it!

Then I remembered some words of my beloved Master:

"Life is an Ocean. Inexhaustible! Infinite! You can get as much water as you want, there is no limit. The only limitation is the size of the vessel you use for taking water from the Ocean. If you use a small glass, you will get the water that fits in a small glass. If you use a big bucket, you will get much more!"

That's the way it works! Life is self-service! Ask what you need. Order health, harmony, prosperity, your rightful place in the world. Ask life what you want, but be ready to act. Do what it needs to get what you want. Don't be inactive on the material, and much more on the spiritual level! Act for your happiness.

When you need something, and it doesn't show up in your life, check your attitude. You might be like the old man of this story.