An Acharya and his disciples were visiting the Ganges River, where they found a group of family members on the banks shouting in anger at each other. Turning to his disciples, the aharya smiled and asked, 'why do people in anger shout at each other?’
His disciples thought for a while. One of them finally said, ‘Because when we lose our calm, we shout.’
'But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you?' countered the aharya. 'You can just as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.' His disciples thought about it some more, but could not come up with a satisfactory answer. Finally, the aharya explained,
'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other, in order to cover that great distance.
Nevertheless, what happens when two people fall in love? They do not shout at each other but instead talk very softly because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small. In addition, when they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak; only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only need to look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.
So when you argue, do not let your hearts get distant, do not say words that distance each other more, or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.’
