WHY THE DIFFERENCE

In 1971, during a journey, I stayed at a gentleman’s house in Lahore, Pakistan. It was a large two-storey building. One night, my host took me up to the roof. The full moon was shining brightly in the sky, looking very beautiful in the open air. We were lost in the beauty of the scene when suddenly my host said: “That same moon must be shining in your country too.” We both fell silent. I thought to myself: how strange this is. The moon is the same in every country. But human beings are not the same everywhere. A person is regarded as a “citizen” in his own country, but as a “foreigner” in another.

The moon is welcomed in every land. The sun is admired everywhere. But man’s condition is different: someone valued in one country becomes unwanted in another. Why is that? The reason is that the sun and moon remain true to their nature, while man does not.

The sun and moon never spread light in one place and darkness in another. But people are friends to some nations and enemies to others. A flower cannot give fragrance to one and foul smell to another. But a human being is kind to one and hostile to another. Stars move in their orbits without ever colliding. But man intrudes into the space of others. A tree grows by the same rule in every country. But man deals justly with some and unjustly with others.

Other things are admired because they stay true to their nature. But man loses his own nature and, as a result, becomes unwelcome. If he were to stay true to it, he would be welcomed everywhere, just like the sun and moon.