Wisdom Tales | Same devotion with different perspectives
Don’t we want everyone to behave like us? But are we like them? No. Everyone is different and may have different perspectives, but we often ignore it and start arguing to convince the other person. Today’s Wisdom Tale speaks about the depth of different perspectives having equal devotion.
All perspectives are equally important
A pandit and his wife are Shiv bhakts and they pray together daily. The pandit very religiously makes all preparations to water Shivling and his wife helps out in everything he does. One fine day, while the husband dries Shivling after giving a bath, the wife sees a spider on Shivling. Instantly reacting, she blows it from her mouth to fly it away.

The husband stands up in anger and leaves his deeds in between. He scolds his wife asking her why she did that. He further asks her if she knows blowing may throw our saliva on God. When she explains her perspective to him, he further gets furious and restarts all of his preparation once again.
Later that night, the pandit dreams of having spiders everywhere but none on Shivling. God is clean as ever. He got up in shock and realised it was a dream. He looks at his wife sleeping next to him and feels her equal devotion to Shiva. When he sleeps again, God tells him everyone worships me because I am big. People consider me as a father figure. But your wife cared about me as her son and without a second thought, she blew over me to fly away that spider. Your wife gave me another relation of mother and son.
The pandit learnt the other perspective of the same situation and understood that he couldn’t judge her by just looking at her deeds.
Impact of this tale on my life
In life, we fight so much for little things because our thoughts don’t match. We don’t understand that the same situation may have different perspectives. The simple solution for leading a peaceful life is to accept the situation and people with their views. Everyday fights and jealousy can be avoided when you respect other’s perspectives on the same things.

Same person with different personalities
Let me share another story with you to understand the difference in personalities of the same person depending upon the situation.
Once upon a time, a thief entered the king’s province. Though he was caught and punished for his act, the queen remembered his face for a long time. Time passed and for many years ahead, there was no such act by anyone. Everyone was happy with the king and his deeds.
To celebrate the good times, he decided to feed millions of people in his palace. The news was spread across villages and people were looking forward to enjoying the treat. The king followed the ‘Athithi Devo Bhava’ ritual, which means the guest is God, so he would wash everyone’s feet and invite them inside.
The queen would carry a bucket of water for the king to wash everyone’s feet. As they reached a bearded man, the queen recognised him instantly as that same thief and warned the king. But he ignored and served him food after washing his feet. Later that night, the king explained his reason to the queen.
Behaviour changes with the designation
The king told the queen that he also recognised that thief at that moment but treated him as an equal because his designation was different. He had come as a guest and they had to serve him food. We should always respect the designation in which a particular person is currently. To be precise, our behaviour changes by the role the other person plays.
Also, it’s been years since they last met the thief. There’s a lot of scope that he might have changed for good. It is necessary to inquire about the person before making a perspective in your mind. With time, everyone matures and the same happened with that thief too. He realised his deeds would not add any good to his destiny so he left robbery and took the path to recovery.
Life changing incidents
In life, we make assumptions about people and seldom give them a chance to prove their innocence. Once a bad person will not be a bad person for the rest of his life but it takes a lifetime to understand this. With wisdom, we learn to accept different situations and people’s behaviour.
Have you been brave enough to accept other’s opinions as opposed to yours?
The day we do, we will lead a peaceful life thereafter.
Wonderful post! for me our own perspective and acceptance to others perspectives both are important.
Thanks, Neha.
That’s so true understanding the other’s perspective can save us from various non-essential useless arguments.
Absolutely, Archana. Thanks.
A perspective, an opinion is a personal choice. The wisdom is in acceptance. A warm and comforting post
Thank you Srishti.
I loved reading this. It’s so important to learn and respect everyone’s perspective. I really hope this blog reaches many.
Thank you Preetjyot. I wish the same.
It is extremely difficult to put ourselves in other people’s shoes and understand their viewpoint and the reason why they do what they do. Different people may act similarly for the same reasons. Your tale is a telling example of this anamoly of nature.
Thank you, Jai.
You have explained it so well with this story, Geet. Totally agree with you on this, only if we can understand that people can have a different perspective on the same situation, this world would be a better place.
Thank you, dear.
Such a beautiful tale of perspectives & a question oh so crucial for us humans to understand. Its our ego that we know better, our thoughts supreme is the root cause of all that chaos around us.
We need to understand different people have different perspective for same situation.
So true, Vashi. Thank you
My mom said one thing after I became a mom, “suno sabki, karo dil ki”. Still following that principle. I listen to every one’s perspective but still do what I think is better for me and my family. Loved reading it, Geethica
Yesss. I also learned this funda long ago but started applying lately. Thank you.
So true, Geethica…each of our perspectives are always different and it is up to us to be tolerant towards everybody…
I know, Jayanthi. We all should work towards betterment. Thank you.
I think we really need to rein in our tendency to react and just pause, think and then say something. Everyone has such different stories.
I know. Reacting instantly is the root cause of not understanding other’s perspective. Thanks.
It’s so important to keep an open mind to others’ perspectives, only then we can be good learners in life and also co-exist in harmony.
So true, Leha. It’s difficult but once we are on it, will surely make us better human beings