ONE HAS TO DO IT

   We have heard that when more people are involved it is more effective . 'It takes a village'  To some extent it may be true . I alone can not change the world. But there there are stories where one has to do it or at least start what one wants to change . There was this short story where a man is walking on a seashore . He saw a n another man walking  ahead of him . As the tide came i some fish would be blown to sand and out side the water . This man was picking them up and throwing in water. The man who was walking behind him watched it and said to him ,you are doing this while you are walking and what difference would it make?The man who was throwing the fish in water answered after he picked up one more  and while throwing it in water said 'it made a difference to THIS one .'So YES one has to do what one feels is right. But the story that that I am going to tell is from old Isapniti  or Panchtantra . IN these books the ISAP who was a slave could understand what the animals or bird were talking  and the same is true in Panchtantra . So the story is from one of the books .
    There was a bird who had made a nest on the branches of a tree. She laid the eggs in it and they hatched . The young one came out. The owner of that farm was passing by one day and he saw the out grown branches of the tree  and told his servant that he should cut these branches . The mother bird was not in the nest . So when she came back the young ones were scared  and told the mother that we have to move as the farmer is going to cut the branches of the tree where the nest is there. So the mother asj=ked as to what happened . The kids told her the entire story. as to how the farmer told the servant  cut the branches. The mother told the kids not to worry . Couple of more days passed  and the farmer was passing by and he saw the tree and was not happy the branches are not cut.He told the servant again that these brnches must be cut in next 1 week . The mother came home to the nest and the kids told her the story . Ther were afraid  and were scared . The mother again told her that 'don't worry'. The farmer was again walking in next 4 days  and he saw that the branches were not trimmed as he has told the servant several times , he got angry and told  his wife who was with him that he has been telling the servants  and the work is not done  and so he is  going to do it that afternoon himself.When the mother came to know about it from her kids she told them , it is time to leave.
    The moral of both the stories is that when one wants to get a job done He or She has to do himself or herself. When one asks others to do it it may or may not be done . 

FAITH AND THE RITUALS

    I have seen rituals being performed in Hindu  Religion and also to some extent in all the religions . One must face this way or that way to do prayers , and then we talk about the GOD being omnipresent . So if he is all over and everywhere why do i have to face in one particular direction? I do know the answer,  and yes it would be stupid to have a picture of  Deity or cross or Mary etc at our back  and not face them . But when there is no actual picture  and we are praying in space , do we have to face  a particular direction? Then  a prayer must be done in a particular way otherwise it is not effective.I know the explanation - MANTRAS create certain vibrations  and if not chanted in a correct wat , they are not effective etc. So that brings me to today's story .
     This I think is by Russian author  Leo Tolstoy. This was published in 1885-1886. There were 3 hermits They lived on a remote island .The Bishop and pilgrims were traveling in a boat from one place to another . The bishop came to know that they were seeing salvation . So he decides  to stop at the island . He talks to the 3 old hermits  and ask them how they pray. for salvation They answered ,'Three are ye , three are we, have mercy upon us .'The Bishop decided to teach them about carnation and the Trinity  and the proper way of prayer . The hermits are old  and can not remember , but the bishop continued for many times . Finally he thought they have understood the proper technique of the prayer, he decides to leave the island in the morning.
   As the boat goes of in the waters, he realizes that someone is following the boat . So in the middle of the waters he stops the boat  and he sees the 3 hermits approaching walking / running on waters as if they are running on land.The Bishop asked them as to what happened . Thy answered , 'As long as we were repeating it with you we got the word and the technique , but as soon as you left we forgot exact words  and how we should do the prayer in a proper way,' The Bishop replied ."Your own prayer will reach the Lord , Men of God, It is not for me to teach you .Pray for us sinners.'
     I DON'T NEED TO TELL THE MORAL OF THE STORY!!!

FAITH AND THE TRUTH

    There are so many stories that we can learn from  and I though of doing this one today . We  often think that the God does not respond to our prayers I have stated it many a times that I do not know anyone who has seen GOD . But do we ever try  and do we try with full faith and trust that we will see Him ? In Indian culture we offer PRASAD , which usually a food to the God . We usually offer a sweet thing hoping that he will respond by giving us Sweet thing . We tend to offer the things that we like  and also the amount is very small on daily Prasad offering and enough when we have invited many people for  religious celebration. The quantity is judged to be ENOUGH for the number of the people invited  and not for GOD. Because we are sure that once we offer it to God , all of it will be left for US to enjoy . So this a short story of sage Namadeo . when he was a child , his father used to do the daily pooja - the 16 steps devotional service to God , that we are suppose to be done . But one of the days , he had to go for some work  and he did not have enough time for the elaborated Pooja . So he asked the son - Namadeo that he should do the Pooja . The father left and then the young son , may be 8 years of age or so went to do pooja . He did the pooja  and then at the end of it he offered the Prasad.HE BELIEVED THAT THE THE PRASAD WAS FOR THE GOD . So he waied for the God to eat it when he had closed his eyes  and offered it. When he opened the eyes the food was still there  and he was not happy. So he did it again  and then told the GOD that he must eat as he was not going anywhere till he ate it . And the the God did eat it
    When his father came home . he  asked the son as to where was the Prasad, the son answered that the he offered it to the God  and the God ate it . The father was not amused . He did not trust the son. He told the son that he has been doing the pooja for many many years  and he has offered the prasad to God every day and the God has not eaten it ever . He thought the sweet was too good that the son could not avoid the temptation. So he wanted to see if the son was telling the truth or not . So he told him to do it again next day. The son agreed  and so he went to do the pooja next day. The father was hiding thinking that he will catch the son in act of eating the Prasad . But he witnessed something else. As the son closed the eyes had prayed the God to have it the prasad - the food disappeared . The father realized that the DEVOTION of the son was much more intense  and HE the son believed that when we offer the Prasad to the God , HE WILL EAT IT . and the God had no choice .
    If we offer with faith HE WILL RESPOND . If we offer thinking it is only for us , HE is not interested in eating it  

THE SELF AND THE I

    This is the new story from ancient Hindu scripture . This tells us something which has been told to us many times  and we still do not understand it or may be do not accept it or may be we just can't think in that way .

    This is the story of KACHMUNI. He was born from VED VYAS .Vyas is the same Vyas is one of the very old sages . He was devoted , learned  and also had reached the heights of meditation . When his wife was pregnant, the child was not ready to come out after usual 10 months of pregnancy. He stayed in foe several years  and then the sage Vyas had to request the child to come out as it was becoming very difficult for the mother to carry on pregnancy due to the growing child . This was the KACH MUNI. After his birth Ved Vyas taught him all the religious scriptures  and the whatever he knew  and then when he wanted more he told him to go to the King Janaka. (think about it . The sage is sending his son to  a king - who is involved in all sorts of bodily pleasures to teach his son on religion)
    So the Kachmuni started his journey to go to the king Janak. He had to go through the Forrest  and it was long way . His father decided to follow the son . In the small town as they were passing by there was a small lake  and  and there were ladies of the town who were swimming naked . As the Kach muni pass by they did not react and continued to swim  and did not cover them self . As the Vyas passed by they covered their naked bodies with clothes . This was noticed by the Kachmuni  and he thought to himself that the ladies knew that he had no desires  and they were safe , but they were not that sure of his father .
    He reached the Janaka kingdom  and then the palace  and he was stopped at the gates . He sent a message to King Jnaaka  that ,'I the Kachmuni , has come to see him 'the guard gave the message to the king  and the King Janaka send a message to Kachmuni ,'When you have given up everything , you can come in '. The Kachmuni sent a second message that ,'I the Kachmuni has given up everything .' the guard took the message to the king and the king send back the same message , 'when if you have given uo everything , you can come in .
Now the Kachmuni was surprised . He could not understand  and so he sent the same message  and he got the same reply. 
    And then it struck him . In each message he was saying I THE KACHMUNI - which meant that he was referring to the physical body as KACH MUNI   and that showed the attachment to the physical body or he was mistaken to refer I TO THE BODY OF KACHMUNI . The story continues  and when he realized the mistake he was allowed to meet the king and then the king did teach him . There is story of how he tested the new student  and that may be next time . 

PARROTING

  I have started doing some stories  and the moral conclusion out of it. I did one with Lord Krishna . Now I will do one that I heard about and it may or may not be true. I am sure some of you might have heard of the story ,but never thought it had some educational value.
  This is a story of Einstein. When he had published the theory of the relativity, he became very famous  and every university and every association wanted to call him and give a lecture . He was not very happy ,but he had to go for lectures . He was getting bored . So one day he had was invited for the lecture. He  was going to the place  and his driver was driving. He did not need to prepare for the lecture as he had given same lecture many times and he knew the subject as he was the one that had the theory published. So he was talking to his driver. The driver had also attended the lectures in the past  and he was smart . So when Einstein state that he was just tired of giving the same lecture over and again, he suggested that they can change the cloths  and Einstein can become the driver and driver can give lecture. Einstein agreed . They changed the clothes  and now Einstein was wearing the driver's uniform . When they reached the place , the driver went in as Einstein and gave the lecture. He had heard it many times  and he could rattle out the same words again without understanding anything.
    The lecture was over  and the driver was trying to get off the stage as he did not not the real thing . But the moderator wanted to have some Q and A session. So he asked if anyone had questions . One from the audience stood up and asked a question . The driver had stop and stay in his chair . He had no understanding of the subject  and so it was beyond his ability to answer  any questions . He was in trouble , but he was smart  and he stood up  and said .'The question is so simple that even my driver could answerer it ' and called his driver - Einstein ,from the audience.
   Let us for a second leave aside the possibility of such a thing really happening . Not very likely .But we do it all the time . We give comments based on what we have heard from experts  and we have not understood much . But it sounds good  and we can remember the answers. We do this all the time when we talk about the scriptures . We don't always understand nor we we follow the path. But we are ready to TEACH the others , only because we can remember and talk like parrot. 

THE DEVOTION

    To continue in this blog, I have decided to tell some stories that have some moral element to it  and these may be related to scriptures or otherwise. so let me start the first one with Lord KRISHNA.
    When Krishna was born . his parents were jailed  and the King Kaunsa was aware of the fact that the child born to his sister will kill him. But when Krishna was born, there was heavy rains  and river Yamuna was flooded. His father Vasudev decided to take the child out of jail . He was not too sure as to how he could do it . He put a child in a basket  and then the guards went in deep sleep and the jail doors open on own and then when he went to the river Yamuna , Krishna touched the water with little toe  and the river parted . He was taken to GOKOOL  and the new set of parents did the upbringing . They did not have  any child of own and they wanted to do big ceremony for KRISHNA . But they knew that the King Kaunsa will know so they did smaller ceremony. The priest performed the religious function and he then did shower in the river and had cooked his own food and then sat  and offered the food to the LORD / GOD . When he opened his eyes he saw baby Krishna eating the food . He was upset . He called the mother Yashoda  and told her to control the child  and did whole process again . Sower, cooking and then offering the food to Lord . He had closed his eyes  and the when he opened them he saw same thing , Krishna was eating food . He was locked in room and he still got out  and messed the food . The priest did this third time  and the same time happened.
      This time he REALIZED that he was offering the food to GOD/ LORD  and was not expecting that the LORD / GOD would eat it . But KRISHNA was the GOD and when offered, he was EATING the food .
      We often offer the Lord food -PRASAD . We always offer what WE like . We never for a second think that HE WOULD EAT IT . We decide the quantity based on how many guests we have invited ,not on how much God would like. We don't expect that GOD IS ACTUALLY GOING TO EAT IT..
We do not have FAITH in our own prayers  and devotions. So when the food is gone we are surprised  and this is the problem .We do religious ceremony for our own satisfaction and we do have unconditional love faith .
                                                WE NEED TO HAVE THAT!!!

ADDITION

    I have been writing on this Blog on Patanjali Sutra Yoga  and i have come to end .
I just wanted to let you know that I have started on KATHOPNISHAD IN MY NEW BLOG
KATHOPNISHAD.BLOGSPOT.COM.
   I hope you will read it  and support it  and also comment on it.
   I have also done a book on Patanjali Sutra Yoga which is available at Amazon books as E book as well as print form. It is little different than the Blog itself .
    I hope you will check it out , Thanks