Visibility of Your Kindness

Supriya was a very kind hearted woman. If anyone was in difficulty, she always helped the person. But she was also very vocal about her good deeds, and made sure to tell everyone about it. She gave alms to beggars outside the temple where everyone could see her kind act. But at times she did not help those who came to her house, due to the same visibility considerations. Everyone who knew her agreed without hesitation that she is a very kind and helping person.

Smita, on the other hand, was seldom seen doing any act of kindness. She did go a lot among the poor and visited slums and hospitals, but never told anyone about what she did there. All her neighbours including Supriya thought that she was a bit strange and not a vice person.
Unfortunately, while travelling together, the two of them met a fatal road accident one day, and died. As they reached the gates of heaven, Supriya was very optimistic of her prospects due to her good track record at earth. However, she was surprised to see that she was made to wait, while Smita was immediately admitted in heaven.

“What does it mean?”, she demanded from Chitragupt, “I have been so kind and charitable throughout my life, and helped so many people, yet you have let Smita in before me, who has done nothing. This is so unfair. I did not expect it to happen in God’s court”

Chitragupt smiled and replied, “Smita was kind to everyone she met. She was not rich, but she visited and helped poor and sick in many ways. However, she took pains to hide her good deeds from others. She did good, and suffered a lot on earth. So now, she gets the reward for her good karma.”

“And  what about me?”, asked Supriya, with a touch of irritation in her voice.

Chitragupt gave a stern reply, “All the good deeds you did were motivated by a desire to be appreciated and liked by others. You were always very particular about the ‘visibility’ of your kindness. So, when people at earth praised you, liked you, and said good things about you, you enjoyed all that attention, didn’t you?”

“Yes”, admitted Supriya, not sure about where it was heading.

“That was the reward for your good karma that you have already received at earth. In a way you have already encashed part of your karma on earth.”

Everything became crystal clear to Supriya, and she was filled with a feeling of regret, “If only I get a second change”, she thought. At that point, she heard a sound of a bell ringing at a distance. As the bell sound grew louder, she could recognize it to be a familiar sound.

Suddenly, she was woken up from her sleep by this sound of alarm bell, and she realized that she was seeing a dream. God! She was so relieved to find herself alive, and took a resolve not to worry too much about ‘visibility’ for her kind acts.