Trust and verification

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and dear guests, Good evening!

Today my speech contains 3 acts. These acts may resemble some situations you might have experienced in your lives. I would like to have your attention for next 10 minutes.

Act 1

A century back, on the North Eastern shore of India, there was a concert (Satsang) organized in the honor of a holy man of that time. Just before the ceremony, the main singer backed out due to some personal reasons. A local boy, Narendra, with good vocals was put in as a replacement. The program was a huge success despite having a novice singer. At the end of the program the priest approached the boy and asked him, “Oh dear boy! For me you are an avatar of Lord Vishnu! You have got a heavenly voice, please come to my temple.”  

The priest was a very well-known holy man while the boy was an atheist. When the boy was with his friends, he made fun of the holy man.

 The Holy man went back to his Temple and asked the Goddess, Kali, “O Mother! Please send Narendra to me! When are you sending him?  Please send him soon!!”

While the boy kept on refuting the madness of the priest, the priest kept on requesting his Goddess to send his disciple, the same way, every day for several days.

One fine day, the boy approached the priest, questioning him, “Who are you? Why am I getting pulled towards you?”

“I knew you would come. My mother listens late but she does listen to my prayers.”

From that day onward, the boy never left his master.

The boy was none other than Swami Vivekananda and the master Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa.

Act 2

Two people - one boy and one girl were truly, madly and deeply in love. One fine day, the boy asked the girl, “If something happens to me, will you still love me and be there for me?”

The girl said, “What kind of question is this? Of course, I will be there for you.”

The Boy said the same thing to the girl.

Seeing how deep their relationship was, their parents started putting pressure on them to leave each other and focus on their careers. One day, the girl approached the boy and cried, “My parents have found a match for me and they are putting pressure on me to get married.”

The boy said, “Don’t break, I am there for you.”

Soon, the boy started getting serious towards his career and got an admission call from one of the most prestigious colleges in the world. However, he refused the admission as his priority at the moment was his love. He didn’t tell his decision to the girl and waited for an opportune time. On the other hand, the girl had also made up her own mind about the current situation.

Later that day, the girl finally told him, “You know, last night I didn’t sleep properly. Both my parents were crying.”

“I love you very much. I can do anything for you. I want you to remain happy in life. But you know, last night, I thought a lot. I realized, we may have been together for a year, but my parents have been with me all my life. They have made me what I am today.”

The boy asked, “What have you decided?”

The girl said, “I love you very much. You are my life. But I also love my parents. I don’t want to lose them because of you. So, I will marry the boy my parents choose. “

“What have you decided?” the girl asked the boy.

The boy said, “I also wanted the same for you.”

The boy didn’t tell the girl that he had said “No” to his dream university - just because he wanted her to be happy.

Act 3

As most of you know, I live in E-City. But before that, I lived in JP Nagar, where the house owner seemed like a trustworthy fellow. But his true intentions came out the day I vacated his flat. That day the owner returned my deposit by paying 62000 in cash and 38000 as a cheque. I vacated happily. Next week, I got a call from bank that the following cheque had been bounced due to insufficient funds. I followed the flat owner for 4 months, applied personal and police threat. Then I got my many back. That two in 3 installments.

Ladies and gentlemen, in all three acts, the situations unfolded due to the trust of the protagonists.

In the first act, I discussed trust in the divine. We call it faith - the trust that we have in our kith and kin, where you never doubt them. However today, we hardly find anyone who can qualify for our faith. You should trust but verify. We don’t have anything or anyone to have faith in. This is what the world has become today.  Ramakrishna Paramhansa’s faith in Maa Kaali and faith in Narendra joining him is rare today. It’s purely emotional.

In the second act, the boy trusted his girlfriend and said no to a life changing career opportunity. He was at a loss because he trusted her feeling for him without verifying her situation. Trust cannot be given in the absence of logic. Emotion drives away logic. Trust is an emotion but verification is logic.

In the third act, the subject had to incur losses due to professional courtesy. Here, I gave him my trust as I lived on his property for over three years.

Believe me, you can trust a flat or a flat owner, but you should not trust owner who keeps your deposits.

Trust but verify.

Now, I would like to conclude by modifying what I just said.

Trust but … ??? when you can. Thank you Toastmaster!