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 

TIT FOR TAT

    We often say that what goes around , comes around.I have talked on Laws of Karma  and every action has a reaction. So if we do good deed, than we will have good response.So we all know that we should do good deed. This story is old one from India . Again one has to take stories of these kind in it's moral value and not see if it is possible. 

  In a small town there were 2 friends. One of them was going to go out of town and he had some cash and some jewels. He was going to be out of town for few months due to some business and so he did not want to leave the large some of cash or jewels in the house nor did he want to carry that with him. So he asked the friend  to keep it with him . He handed over the iron safe to his friend.He was out of town for several months and got back in the town . He went to his friend and asked for the safe . The friend told him that the safe was 'eaten up' by rats.Both knew that rats can not eat safe made of solid steel or iron.But he decided not to say much . They continued to be friend , Then the friend whose money was stolen asked his friend if his 5 years old son wants to go for a trip to  near by river . The kid was excited and his father agreed . So he took his son and then came back without the son . So the father asked him as to where was his son. This man replied that they went to banks of river  and a lark snatched the kid and flew away  and so he does not know where is his son now. The father was agree and said 'it is impossible for a lark to snatch the 5 year old kid and fly away and told the friend that he was lying. The friend replied that if Rats can eat steel safe why could lark not be able to snatch the kid? The father understood that he had done wrong. He gave him his safe  and the friend brought back the kid that was safe and was playing with other kids at his home .

    In this story the effect of our action was immediately seen but in Laws of Karma, the effects may take some time in this life or may be apparent in next life or next to next life and so on.

COPYCAT 3

    I have told on doing copy without knowledge is harmful and not helpful. This story is of little different angle. Many of us may have heard this story in past.

     There was a man who used to sell hats. He used to take with him many hats in a wicker basket and then used to walk in the town and sell them  and get his daily income. Certainly he was poor  and had to walk whole day. He would sell the hats  and then at noon time rest under a tree  and have his lunch which was prepared by his wife and he used to carry with him everyday. One day as usual he sold some hats  and then around noon time decided to take a lunch break . It was summer  and the weather was hot, so he went to the outskirts of the town  and rested under a big bunion tree . As he rested he saw there were many monkeys jumping around in the trees around. He ate his lunch  and then had a water  and then he decided to take a nap. When he woke up he saw that hats from his basket were gone  and when he looked at the tree ,he saw many monkeys having hats on their head. He got panicky and did not know what to do. He had lost everything that he had  and will not have any money nor he would have any hats to sell to make money. He stood up and shouted at them and they just showed him their teeth . He noticed that the monkeys were copying him . If he pointed to them they would extend their arms towards him If he shouted , they would make a sound . He thought for a second  and he had an idea . He took off his hat and threw  it on the ground . All the monkeys took their hats and threw on the ground . He quickly collected all the hats and put them in basket  and walked away. 

    So doing a copy without understanding can be harmful but also can be used for advantage.

JUST BECAUSE YOU KNOW DOES NOT MEAN YOU SHOULD.

    We have seen how eager we are all to show how much we know  and express our opinion and show off our knowledge . I remember when a new raincoat was bought for my sister  and there was no rain for couple of days and she wanted it be seen by her friends, she got frustrated and went under shower with rain coat  to ENJOY the use of new rain coat. This is more applicable when we have learned something and want others to know what we know. So this story is an old one . 

   There were 4 friends  and they all grew together and then parted to get education . Again this is old Indian story. So when they all finished the education, they all got together and went out for travel. In those days there were no cars  and there were no real concrete rods and people traveled walking  and sometimes had to go through Forrest. As they were walking they came across a skeleton of an animal  and it looked like it was of a tiger. The friends gathered around it and had  a discussion as to whose this skeleton may be . They all agreed that it was a tiger who must have dies and the skeleton was left s other animals may have eaten up the flesh . So one of friends stated that he has learned to reconstruct  the bones  and that will look like a tiger  and so he wanted to show his skills and he did . Now the bones - changed in to look alike of a tiger . The other friend also  wanted to show off what he had learned and so he told them that he can put a flesh on the skeleton and then they can see how this tiger really looked - much better than what they could see just from the skeleton that the other friend had done  and so he did put the flesh on the skeleton. Noe they all could see the ferocious tiger.The third friend was not to be left behind in displaying his skills and knowledge. So he said 'I can bring the life in this tiger with the knowledge that I have learned". The 2 friends wanted him to do that . The 4th guy who had not learned anything like this but just the regular education said , 'I do not want you to do it , if the tiger is alive , we are all dead. " The other 3 would not listen to him  and so he went and ran to far away tree  and climbed . The remaining 3 were excited  and the 3 rd one di the magic  and the tiger came alive . He looked around  and in very short time he killed all 3 .The 4 th one who did not have these kinds of power was saved . 

  So just because you know, you don/t have to show off the knowledge!

COPY CAT -2

   I told the story of copy cat last time  and as we saw  doing a copy without understanding the reason for an action makes a mess and the result is not pretty. Ronald Regan once stated that Imitation is best form of Flattery. But when it is done without understanding the action is useless and may be harmful or makes  it laughable. So this is the second story. 

   In India there was a man who used to wake  and take shower and then do the Pooja. When in those days or even today when someone does the Pooja , they are suppose to wear a special cloth called SOVALE. This is a silk cloth may be about 6 yards  and it is used only at the time of Pooja. The idea is that it is clean. One day he had to go out of town very early in the morning and so had to catch a train early. So he told his elder son to do the Pooja. The eldest son had seen the father doing Pooja and knew the rituals and the Mantra  and the Arti .Once the father left ,the son took shower  and then prepared for the Pooja. The mother had cooked the food for offering it to the God. The son did the Pooja rituals  and then called everyone in the house for ARTI. He was standing  and since the Statues of the God were at lower level he had to bend down  and do the Arti. So everybody gathered for the Arti  and so the son bent down and took out part of the Sovale from behind  and then was to start the Arti. (I understand that those of you who have no idea as to what is Sovale or DHOTI may not understand. The way in which this simple 6 yard cloth is used as a garment, is it is wound around the waist  and then part of it is rolled  and stick at the back side )As the son was to start the Arti he took out the part of the cloth which was at the back , he pulled it out and then started to do the Arti The mother was surprised and asked him as to what he was doing. The son answered that he has observed his father do the Arti and the the cloth from back part is always pulled out by the father. The mother started laughing. Then she explained that when one bends down the back part may sometimes  come out as it is stretched  and that is not part of doing Pooja. So it does not need to be pulled out which son was doing. So the observation of son was partly correct but he did not realize the reason for that and so when he did it on own without it occurring it accidently, it becomes laughable thing. So whenever one does any action one must know why he is doing it.

COPY CAT

     We often copy people that are successful or we think are better than us . In day to day life we tend to copy things without understanding the reason beyond the action. When we do just do a  the action without the knowledge or reason for the action, then we get different result. So that is the story for today. 

   In India there was this man who used to have a monkey and he used to travel from a town to town and the monkey would do some tricks and mischiefs  and the crowd would be entertained and he would make some money. So after a busy morning he decided to take a rest  and went and sat under a big tree. It was summer and the temperature was high and so he was resting under a big tree . He ate some food and the monkey also had some food . While they were sitting under the tree he saw a Scorpion crawling in the dirt. He had a stick and so he hit the Scorpion with the stick and killed it. The monkey was watching it . The man then went to sleep . The monkey was awake. As the man was sleeping a fly came and rested on his face . The man  waved his hand  and the fly flew and then again  came and rested on his face . He did it again. The monkey was watching this and realized that fly was disturbing his master . So as the fye sat on his face again , the monkey took the stick and hit the fly with it . The fly flew away and the stick landed on his face  and he had a bruise. He woke up and was very mad. 

    So the monkey did what the man had done to scorpion with stick. But the monkey did not realize that the scorpion does not fly but the fly does  and so doing the copy it  caused the injury to the master .