GOD HELP ME

   This is a story related to our prayers to God . In Hindu prayer -we say सर्वे सुखिनः भवन्तु ,सर्वे भद्रानी पश्यन्ति ---Let all be happy and let all see good things  etc . But most of the times when we go to temple , we pray(?) ask for something for ourselves or our family. Some one had commented that when certain devotee (?) walks in the temple the God must be saying ' The headache walked in - he has list of demands' We offer a dollar and ask for million dollar lottery. This is not devotion. And then when we have a success in what we ask for then we say God answered our prayers. This story is related to that thought process.

  In a office there was a holiday party. All the employees were together and they had done a novel idea . Everyone will contribute $10 and at the end of the part only one person will get it . Everyone was suppose to put in his or her name in a basket  and then the owner will pick randomly one name and he or she will get the money. There was a man who knew of a house keeping lady who needed money as her son was sick and she did not have lot of money. So this man decided to put her name in the basket rather than putting in his own name. He was praying the God for entire duration of the part that her name - that he had written - will be picked up. At last the moment came and the owner picked the name  and as he opened the folded paper, this man was prying God for the housekeeper's name to be picked up. The owner announced  and sure enough the housekeeper's name was picked up. The house keeper went to the stage  and accepted the money and told everyone how she needed the money as her son was sick . The man thanked the God for answering the prayers. Then the part was continued . He went to the basket and just out of curiosity picked another folded entry  and opened it and to his surprise that also had house keeper's name  and so he opened another and same name  and so on. He realized that everyone knew of the problem that she had  and how she needed money more than anyone else  and so everyone had written her name instead of their own name. 

   So God answered prayers or was it that everyone did what they should have done any way? One has to realise that God can not do material things without we human being doing our own job or duty.

DEVOTION

     I had written the story of Namdeo who insisted that the God would accept the food that was offered to him by the devotee and the God also does eat it too. The devotion is one of the ways to achieve the God or his love. And we do the devotional part as far as we know. But is there real devotion or UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER?Think about the food that we offer to God.Do we ever offer food that we DO NOT LIKE ?We offer things that we like  and we EXPECT that the God will not eat it  and then we will eat it as Prasad. So this story is very well-known story.But I think it is worth repeating it. 

    There was a princes named Shbari . She was devoted God and she did not want to be involved with the day to day life of family man or woman and so she did not want to be married . She was not interested in usual life and so the King left her in a ashram Hermitage of a rhushi. She would do the day to day duty of the ashram and was engage in worshiping of the God.Years passed  and then the news came that Lord Ram was going to pass by her place or the ashram. She knew that the Ram is the God  and she wanted to offer him the food. So on the day that the Ram was to arrive she plucked some wild berry  and washed them and decided that she will offer him the berries . But then the thought crossed her mind -what if if the berries are not sweet and are sour. She decided to taste each one . So she takes a bite of each of the berry that she was going to offer the Lord Ram. She made sure that all of them were sweet. The Lord Ram comes in and many offer him food  and so does Shabari.The people who were there looked at the berries and realize that they were partly eaten. They questioned as to how can you offer such partly eaten food to Lord Ram?But Ram was not concerned .He knew the devotion and the thought that was there behind the tasting of the berry  and so he ate them with pleasure. So the thought and love is more important than the food itself or the quantity. So he had no problem with eating the already tasted berries.

REWARD FOR TELLING TRUTH

    We often talk about the ten commandments. In most of the religions of the world. Telling truth is considered good thing. There are situations when we twist the truth. I think money-sex and power are the main problem in this world. So this story is about telling truth. Certainly people who are rich tend to twist truth more often than those who are poor.

  There was this wood cutter in a small town in India. He used to go to jungle  and chop some wood and then carry it to city and sale it  and make some money. He was happy with what he had  and never was envious of someone who was rich. He was satisfied with his own life. One day he went to jungle and saw a branch of a tree that was on the banks of a lake . He decided  to chop the wood . He was doing it and then the ax slipped off his hand  and fell in the lake . The water was deep enough and he could not have gotten it. He was upset as without the ax he could not chop the wood and without the wood chopping he could not make money to feed his family. he sat on the banks of the lake started crying and praying the God to help him . The God decided to respond to his prayers and there appeared an angel from the lake and he asked him as to what was the problem. He told him as to how he lost the ax and how he will starve .The Angel went back in the waters and brought out an ax which was made of gold and asked the wood cutter if that was his ax, The woodcutter answered no my ax was not made of gold . So he went back in the waters and brought out silver ax and the wood cutter again told him that that was not his ax . So the Angel went back and this time brought his old ax . The wood cutter was very happy and said that that is my ax  and thanked him . The angel was pleased that the woodcutter was not greedy and lied to get gold or silver ax  and so he gave him all 3 axes . The woodcutter was happy  and went home .

    The moral of the story is one should not lie  and tell truth even if that means we are not getting money or valuable things