Here I am sharing an experience of my own. It’s about how soon we become judgmental about people, without knowing about them. In 2014, I was on a no-money walking pilgrimage with my guru,Yogesh Ravindra Mathuria, from Ahmedabad to Udaipur. It was a 20-day trip through villages and forests. Somewhere in north Gujarat, there is a long stretch of land inhabited by tribals. We’re told that they tribal men loot lone travellers. We were advised to take care, but we kept our cool as we didn’t have anything that could be looted. Yet we were quite scared.

While crossing that stretch, a tribal man was screaming from far up the hill and came running towards us. We were terrified. He seemed to be holding a big weapon. Our heart beats were high as he was nearing us. We thought that today is our last day on Earth. As he came forward, we realised that we noticed that the weapon is a huge cucumber. We thought that he wants to sell his cucumber and that he didn’t have the motive to attack us. We didn’t have any money with ourselves and thought of sending him away.

We immediately said NO-NO when he came near us. He spoke little Gujarati and asked us what NO-NO? We said that we are pilgrimages and don’t want to buy his cucumber as we don’t have any money. He laughed, like we’re fools, and said that he had seen us and knew we’re pilgrims, so he came down to gift us this big cucumber. We were stunned and kept mum.

We thought him to be a thief who is coming to loot us, and there he gifted us a big cucumber which he could have sold it in the market for a good price. He was an angel, and we thought he was a devil. We doubted his love because we didn’t have enough.

So many times, in our life, we are so judgmental about people without knowing them or waiting for time to decide the truth. That day, I learnt that people don’t always say right things and I saw the worst behaviour in me and the best in others. From that day, I never judge, but rather I just observe and wonder.