Do to others as you have them do to you.
We as humans always have a hard feeling towards the word Rule. In one way or the other we might have disliked anyone rule perhaps.
Even the Golden Rule of our Lord Jesus might sometimes be forgotten when we illtreat others.
Let us analyse this golden rule now. Do to others as you want them to do to you.
To be very simple, the rule conveys the message Treat others with due respect as they possess by themselves. This definition would be so Altruistic. But when we keenly analyse the rule we could find three elements that are to given utmost importance.
1. The way we treat others (Altruistic - other centered)
2. The way we want to be treated (Egoistic - Self centered)
3. The way we put ourselves into their shoes to understand how to treat them. (Humanistic)
The third element is very important. We should know what is the others' situation and put ourselves in their place and should treat them. Let me tell you a short story.
There once lived a monkey and a fish. The monkey followed the golden rule, always trying to treat others as he wanted to be treated. But he sometimes applied the golden rule foolishly. Now one day a big flood came. As the threatening waters rose, the foolish monkey climbed a tree to safety. Then he looked down and saw a fish struggling in the water. He thought, "I wanted to be lifted from the water." So he reached down and grabbed the fish from the water, lifting him to safety on a high branch. Of course that didn't work. The fish died.
The foolish monkey applied the golden rule literally: treat others as you want to be treated. He wanted to be taken from the water, so he took the fish from the water. He didn't consider how fish and monkeys differ. Being taken from the water saves a monkey but kills a fish.
We live in a country where we could see the division of people by their economic status, colour, class & most importantly Caste.
Golden rule is best suitable for this casteist country. We discriminate people in a hierarchical structure. We as Christians should make ourselves conscious in progressing towards the kingdom of God by considering ourselves to the lowest.
As Jesus said in Luke 17:21 The Kingdom of God is among you. - is possible only when we treat ourselves in place of others and treat them as we wanted them to be treated in their position.
Let's pray:
Oh Jesus the doer of Golden Rule, make ourselves fully aware of the abilities to treat others as they wanted them to be treated. Amen.
