A rich person invited two guests for dinner. He laid out a sumptuous meal before them consisting of several tasty dishes. His cook had, however, forgotten to put salt in the daal, the lentils.
Both the guests ate to their hearts content and left. Afterwards when the people of the town asked them how they liked the food given by the rich host, this was what each of them had to say:
One of them said: Oh, what a pathetic meal it was! The daal contained no salt.
He complained of one salt-less dish, while not even mentioning the other tasty dishes he had been given to eat.
The other guest said:
Oh, what a wonderful meal it was! There were numerous tasty dishes, each more delicious than the other.
This person praised everything he had been given to eat and did not even mention the lack of salt in the daal.
When word reached the host’s ears of what his guests were saying, he wrote a letter to each of them.
To the one who had praised his food, he wrote:
My Dear Honourable Guest, I must thank you for coming to my house and eating here. I am very happy that you enjoyed the meal. You were gracious enough to praise the meal despite the fact that there was no salt in the daal.
Please be good enough to come to my house again, and, next time, I assure you, there will be salt in the daal as well!
To the one who had complained, he wrote:
My Most Honourable Guest. You are, indeed, more than honourable, because despite my best efforts I could not please you. I am very sorry I called you to eat at my house and gave you daal without salt. But I shall not trouble you to come again in the future, as in my home, unfortunately, no salt is usually put in the daal.
“Iss ghar men aksar daal men namak naheen parraa kartaa!”
Shri Nathji had beautifully illustrated the importance of thanksgiving. More often than not, man forgets to thank God for the numerous good things He has given and complains of a single shortcoming. By doing this he does not please God. Instead he shuts the door of His Divine Grace.
In contrast, when man thanks God for all the blessings He has given him in life, God, in all His generosity, then removes even the shortcomings.
For a man who learns to thank God, God becomes a Reality. Thanksgiving becomes a higher form of worship than prayer.
To give up all opposition to sorrow is to acquire happiness and to find salvation, Shri Nathji said, it is easy to be happy when sorrow has been removed. But real happiness lies in being happy in sorrow!