1 + 1 = 3

A teacher was teaching maths in Aman’s class. After teaching everyone, he asked Aman — If I give you 1 banana in one hand and 1 more banana in the other, how many total bananas will you have?

Aman answered, Sir, I will have a total of 3 bananas. The teacher asked Aman this same question again and again, but every time, Aman gave the 3 bananas answer.

The teacher suddenly remembered that Aman liked mangoes very much. That teacher changed his question this time and asked him — Aman, if I give you 1 mango in one hand and 1 more mango in the other hand, then how many mangoes will you have in total?

Aman answered, Sir, I will have a total of 2 mangoes.

The teacher became very happy and asked Aman the same old question again. Aman, if I give you 1 banana in one hand and 1 more banana in the other hand, then how many total bananas will you have ?

Aman answered, Sir, I will have a total of 3 bananas.

The teacher got very angry after hearing Aman’s answer and asked him out loud, you had given the correct answer to those 1 and 1 mangoes, a total of 2. But then why are you answering me a total of 3 bananas?

The teacher said, Aman, the question is exactly the same; I just used mango instead of banana. Then why are you giving a total of 3 bananas?

Aman said I said 3 bananas because there is one banana inside my bag too and when you asked how many bananas I have in total, then I answered 3, 2 in my hands and 1 inside my bag.

Who’s at fault here now?

Is it the teacher’s fault here? Not at all, because 1 + 1 is always 2. And so whether it is mango or banana, the total of all these is 2.

Is it Aman’s fault now? Not at all, because apart from the 2 bananas in his hands, he had one banana inside his bag too, and hence he answered him a total of 3 bananas.

Now think about it, don’t we fight because who is right ? Who’s wrong ? Who did right ? Who did wrong ? We become judgmental.

We should never be judgmental in such a situation. Just as Aman was right in his place, so that teacher was also right in his place.

We fight, and we get angry because we can’t see that hidden banana.

We fail to see the truth behind the reason for our fight.

We can’t see the TRUTH.

We fight because we become judgmental and eventually, a difference is created between us. There is a difference in our being right. Let us try to understand this in the form of an example.

Sometimes we feel that a person is not talking to us, they do not want to talk to us or they are avoiding us. Eventually, we become judgmental and think that, this person is no longer right, this person is wrong, and slowly, we start thinking bad and negative thoughts about the person.

Yes, we can be right that the person is not really talking to us. That’s true. It is clearly visible to us that the person is not talking to us. We are right. No doubt. He’s not talking to us. Just like that teacher was right, 1 + 1 is always 2.

But can we see that hidden banana ?

Are we being judgmental like that teacher ?

We see that the person is not talking to us, but are we able to see why that person is not able to talk to us ?

Are we able to see this hidden truth ?

I will ask again, can we see that hidden banana ?

That’s what we do most of the time. We never try to see that hidden banana. We just try to be right.

We keep trying to be right, that’s all we do.

Just imagine, if we try to find that hidden banana, if we try to see that hidden TRUTH, do you think we will fight ? No way. We will not fight. Rather, it will develop an understanding between us and our outlook will also improve.

Instead of being judgmental, we need to see and understand things from a 360-degree angle. Before we reach any decision, we should find that hidden banana; we should try to understand that hidden TRUTH.We should never judge others. We don’t know their story. We should go beyond the seen and try to understand the hidden TRUTH that can help us to resolve our situation, and it will help us to understand the person as well.

We all are on the same journey.

We all are learning.

We all are growing.

Everyone is different and unique, so we should remember this. It is really not good to judge someone. We should also never judge someone on the basis of the opinions of others. We may think that yes we can understand others, but actually, we do not.