TRUE DEVOTION

   I know that all of us or may be most of us believe in God and worship in our own way and also pray . But for many of us the God is God of convenience.. We pray for our success, our family's good fortune  and sometimes even pray him so we get good parking spot .So for us or for most of us this God God for OUR COMFORT. No doubt we believe in him and we also trust him . But it is not 100% devotion. We don't mind waking him up - if he is sleeping or bothering him on week end or in the middle of the noght, as long as we WANT something . So this is a story of again TULASIDAS. I told him aboiut him last time before he became devoted  and was devotional to God. Now is the story after that. 

    So Tulasidas was devotee of God and he worshiped God Rama. He lived in home and was devoting his life for the God . He still has things in his home . Since he became devoted to God, he was not paying much attention to the usual day to day activity and precautions that we take so that noone steels anything from our home . So the couple of robbers noticed this and felt that they can steel from his home . So they decided to do it at night as everyone is asleep. But when they came to steel. they noticed that 2 young men with bow and arrows were guarding the home of Tulsidas. They could not do much . They came back next night and they saw the same guards. So they were frustrated . They went to Tulsidas next morning and asked him as to who are these guards  and how did they happen to guard the home for him . Tulsidas understood  and told them that they were LORD RAMA  and Lakshman. He felt very bad that Lord Rama and his brother Laksham had to come to protect his home  and worldly belonging . So he decided to donate everything that he has . He did not want the God to be bothered by simple things like protecting his devotees.

     Do you think we will ever do that ?

MISGUIDED PASSION

     We are often told that one has to act with passion when we does any thing in life. If we are playing golf or tennis, we need to show or have passion , The same hold true about the passion when we worship God or pray we need to have passion rather than going through the motions of prayer or rituals and do not have much passion or sincerity. So this reminds me of old story of TULSIDAS . He was a saint  and his RAMAYAN called Tulsasi Ramayan is now a days chanted  and read by thousands or even millions .
   Tulasidas was not a saint or devoted to God . He was a regular person and had usual life. He got married and he loved his wife . I am not sure if it was love or lust . But after the marriage few days down the road she went to her parents house. She left  and the husband Tulasidas could not stay home alone . He was constantly thinking of her and as the Sun went down, he was thinking more about the he wanted to see her. But she was not home  and was with her parents. The bad part was that parents lived in another town across the river.To add to this problem, there was heavy rains  and the river was flooded  and it was very risky to cross it. But Tulasidas was determined to see his wife. So he went to the banks of then river. There was a boatman  and Tulsidas offered him money to to take him across the river in his boat.The boatman refused saying that even going in boat is risky. But Tulsidas was not distracted by the risk . He decided to swim and so he jumped in the river. The currents of water were very bad  and he had difficulty and he was having very hard time swimming.He saw a log of wood floating towards him and he grabbed it  and then he was swept away down stream. He finally reached the the other side of the river  and it was very dark as it was midnight. He pulled the log out of water  and then went to his in laws home . He knew that his wife had a room on second floor  and so he started calling his wife . He did not want to wake up in laws. She opened the windows  and then he decided to climb up to the window He saw a rope hanging and he jumped and grabbed it from a side by tree. He climbed to the windows  and to his surprise the wife was not happy at all .He proudly told her as to the difficulties he had coming to her.She looked at him and told him that the enthusiasm  and energy that he has given coming to her , would have been better served if he had same devotion for GOD.She was coming home next week anyway. Tulsidas realizes what he had done risking his life  and when he traced back he realized that the rope that he grabbed was in reality was a snake  and the log that he floated was a dead body that was floating in the river.
     He realized that his actions were dangerous  and risky  and unwise  and they were misguided. As they say rest is history. He became one of the most devoted saint of his time. 

ORIGINAL NATURE

   We have seen that many of us try to change the nature of things . Someone had said it jokingly  that females marry men thinking that they will change after marriage and They DON'T  and men marry females thinking that they won't change  and THEY DO !Joking aside we don't change most of the time. when we talk to someone who does not have the same political views as ours, we try to convince them to change their views and I have yet to come across a single person that has changed his or her opinion. So that brings me to the story for today. OUR NATURE THAT WE ARE BORN WITH DOES NOT CHANGE OFTEN .(THOUGH THERE ARE MANY EXCEPTIONS TO THE RULE  and that may be my next story)
    There was this sage who lived with his wife  and he used to wake uo in the morning  and then fo the river and bath and then offer to SURYA the SUN. He would take water with his KAMANDALU a pot that sage carry.When he filled the pot with waters from river, he saw a small mice . He decided to save it and take it home . He did not have children and so he decided to convert it in to a girl  and he took it home . The wife was told by him that he had found the mice and he changed it in to a girl. The wife was very happy and they both decided to keep her  and take care of her . She started growing  and when she was 18- 20 years old they decided that she needs to marry . The sage had taught her and educated her  and she was good looking young girl, who was smart  and educated now. The sage wanted the best for his daughter  and he had powers to get any one to accept her as wife . He worshiped the SUN and so he called his daughter and asked her to see SUN .It was noon and the daughter saw the Sun and said . 'oh no I don't want to marry Sun , He is too hot . How can I live with him?'The sage was not happy  and asked her as to who would be stronger than the Sun.He though that the cloud is stronger than cloud as it can cover the Sun and reduced the heat  and so asked her ,"How about marrying the clouds"She took one look at the clouds  and stated ,' Oh no the clouds are ugly looking and has very poor shape  and I don't want to marry clouds'
So the sage asked to himself who would be better than clouds . and the answer came to him He thought that the clouds are strong but the wind can move them and they have no choice when the strong wind blows them away. So he invited the wind  and asked the daughter to consider the wind as her life partner. The daughter took one look  and said NO .the wind is too unsteady , moves all the time  and will not settle and I don't want to marry the wind. The sage was disappointed  and then again thought who is better or stronger than wind . The answer came to him - the mountain . The wind is strong but the mountain can stop the wind  and wind can not move the mountain . So he called the daughter  and took her to a tall mountain  and showed her the strength . She took one look  and said oh no . The mountain is strong that is true , but it is too rough  and i can not marry the mountain . As she said she saw a mouse who was digging a hole in the ground . As soon as she saw this she said, 'See how this mouse is stronger  and even stronger than the mountain. ' I want to MARRY A MOUSE ! The sage realized his mistake . HE change the girl back to the mice  and left her there !

SAME SOUL

   We often say that the soul does not die. And the physical body dies  and then when the body dies, the soul continues it's journey to Astral world  and then is reborn. We also believe that the soul is same even when it is in animals. In fact we progress from animal to human beings. But in spite of knowing this or believing in this, we don't treat other human beings with respects  and animals - forget about them.So our behavior is not good . This is the not so when  it comes to saints  and evolved souls who act as they preach.
     Ekanath was one of the saints who was devoted to God  and it showed in his behavior. Many Hindus believe in purity of RIVER GANGES or Ganga. One who bathes in it his sins are washed out. One also keeps water from the Ganga in house . There is a custom that when someone is about to die, putting water from Ganga leads him to Nirvana. So Ekanath traveled to the Ganga  and bathed in it and then got some water from it and was going home .While he was walking away from the river he came across many other devotees who had done the same thing and were also carrying the water from the Ganga. It was noon and it was summer  and so the temperature was high . As he was walking he saw a donkey lying down  and it was thirsty  and was suffering with thirst. The other devotees were passing buy.they did not pay any attention to the dying donkey. They had water but they had carried the water but they wanted to take it home  and not give it to donkey. Ekanath stopped  and without thinking for a second, he sat down on the road  in dirt and opened the donkey's mouth and poured the water from the Ganga . For him saving a life of donkey was more important than having water in in his home.He believed that the soul in donkey was the same soul that human beings have.
    Many of us believe in Law of Karma ,but we don't realize that when we do not ACT ,it is still an ACT or Karma . When people did not do the Right thing or anything, they did Create BAD Karma . So Lack of Karma or action is actually a bad action in this case.