Lord Krishna and Uddhava

Why did Krishna not save the Pandavas when they played dice with Duryodhana & Shakuni? Wonderful explanation by Krishna himself in this story:

From his childhood, Uddhava had been with Krishna, charioting him and serving him in many ways. He never asked for any wish or boon from Sri Krishna.

When Krishna was at the verge of completing His Avatar, he called Uddhava and said, "Dear Uddhava, in this avatar of mine, many people have asked and received boons from me; but you never asked me anything. Why don’t you ask something now? I will give you. Let me complete this avatar with the satisfaction of doing something good for you also".

Even though Uddhava did not ask anything for himself, he had been observing Krishna from his childhood. He had always wondered about the apparent disconnect between Krishna’s teachings and actions, and wanted to understand the reasons for the same.

He asked Krishna, "Lord, you taught us to live in one way, but you lived in a different way. In the drama of Mahabharat, in the role you played, in your actions, I did not understand many things. I am curious to understand the reasons for your actions. Would you fulfil my desire to know?"

Krishna said, "Uddhava, what I told Arjuna during the war of Kurukshetra was Bhagavad Gita. Today, my responses to you would be known as ‘Uddhava Gita’. That is why I gave this opportunity to you. Please ask without hesitation.’

Uddhava starts asking, "Krishna, first tell me who is a real friend?"

Krishna says, "The real friend is one who comes to the help of his friend in need even without being called."

Uddhava: "Krishna, you were a dear friend of the Pandavas. They trusted you fully as Apadhbhandava (protector from all difficulties). Krishna, you not only know what is happening, but you know what is going to happen. You are a great gyani. Just now you gave the definition of a true, close friend. Then why did you not act as per that definition. Why did you not stop Dharmaraj (Yudhishtra) from playing the gambling game?"

"Ok, you did not do it; why did you not turn the luck in favour of Dharmaraj, by which you would have ensured that dharma wins. You did not do that also. You could have at least saved Dharmaraj by stopping the game after he lost his wealth, country and himself. You could have released him from the punishment for gambling. Or, you could have entered the hall when he started betting his brothers. You did not do that either."

At least when Duryodhana tempted Dharmaraj by offering to return everything he lost if he bet Draupadi (who always brought good fortune to Pandavas), you could have intervened and with your divine power, you could have made the dice roll in a way that is favorable to Dharmaraj. Instead, you intervened, only when Draupadi almost lost her modesty and now you claim that you gave clothes and saved Draupadi’s modesty; how can you even claim this – after her being dragged into the hall by a man and disrobed in front of so many people, what modesty is left for a woman? What have you saved?"

"Only when you help a person at the time of crisis, can you be called ‘Apadhbandhava’. If you did not help in the time of crisis, what is the use? Is it Dharma?"

As Uddhava posed these questions, tears started rolling from his eyes.

These are not the questions of Uddhava alone. All of us who have read Mahabharata have these questions.

On behalf of us, Uddhava had already asked Krishna.

Bhagavan Krishna laughed, "Dear Uddhava, the law of this world is: ‘only the one who has Viveka (intelligence through discrimination), wins’. While Duryodhana had viveka, Dharmaraj lacked it. That is why Dharmaraj lost."

Uddhava was lost and confused.

Krishna continues : "While Duryodhana had lots of money and wealth to gamble, he did not know how to play the game of dice. That is why he used his Uncle Shakuni to play the game while he placed the bet. That is viveka."

"Dharmaraj also could have thought similarly and offered that I, his cousin, would play on his behalf. If Shakuni and I had played the game of dice, who do you think would have won? Can he roll the numbers I am calling or would I roll the numbers that he is asking for. Forget this. I can forgive the fact that he forgot to include me in the game."

"But, without viveka, he did another blunder. He prayed that I should not come to the hall as he did not want me to know that through ill-fate he was compelled to play this game. He tied me with his prayers and did not allow me to get into the hall; I was just outside the hall waiting for someone to call me through their prayers. Even when Bheema, Arjuna, Nakula and Sahadeva were lost, they were only cursing Duryodhana and brooding over their fate; they forgot to call me."

Even Draupadi did not call me when Dusshasan held her hair and dragged her to fulfil his brother’s order. She was also arguing in the hall, based on her own abilities. She never called me. Finally good sense prevailed; when Dusshasan started disrobing her, she gave up depending on her own strength, and started shouting ‘Hari, Hari, Abhayam Krishna, Abhayam’ and shouted for me. Only then did I get an opportunity to save her modesty. I reached as soon as I was called. I saved her modesty. What is my mistake in this situation?"

"Wonderful explanation, Kanna, I am impressed.

However, I am not deceived. Can I ask you another question’, says Uddhava.

Krishna gives him permission to proceed.

"Does it mean that you will come only when you are called! Will you not come on your own to help people in crisis, to establish justice?’, asks Uddhava.

Krishna smiles, ‘Uddhava, in this life everyone’s life proceeds based on their own karma. I don’t run it; I don’t interfere in it. I am only a ‘witness’. I stand close to you and keep observing whatever is happening. This is God’s Dharma’.

"Wow, very good Krishna. In that case, you will stand close to us, observe all our evil acts; as we keep committing more and more sins, you will keep watching us. You want us to commit more blunders, accumulate sins and suffer", says Uddhava.

Krishna says, ’Uddhava, please realise the deeper meaning of your statements. When you understand & realise that I am standing as witness next to you, how could you do anything wrong or bad. You definitely cannot do anything bad. You forget this and think that you can do things without my knowledge. That is when you get into trouble.'

"Dharmaraj’s ignorance was that he thought he can play the game of gambling without my knowledge. If Dharmaraj had realized that I am always present with everyone in the form of ‘Sakshi’ (witness), then wouldn’t the game have finished differently?"

Uddhava was spellbound and was so very overwhelmed by Bhakti.

He said, "What a deep philosophy, Kesava. What a great truth!"

Even praying and performing pooja and calling Him for help are nothing but our feelings/beliefs. When we start believing that nothing moves without Him, how can we not feel his presence as a Witness? How can we forget this and act? Throughout Bhagavad Gita, this is the philosophy Krishna imparted to Arjuna.

He was the charioteer as well as a guide for Arjuna, but he did not fight Arjuna's War’: Realize that the Ultimate Sakshi / the one who is the Witness is within & within you! And Merge in that God Consciousness!

The Story of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel

One stormy night many years ago, an elderly man and his wife entered the lobby of a small hotel in Philadelphia, USA. Trying to get out of the rain, the couple approached the front desk hoping to get some shelter for the night. “Could you possibly give us a room here?” – the husband asked. The clerk, a friendly man with a winning smile, looked at the couple and explained that there were three conventions in town.

“All of our rooms are taken,” the clerk said. “But I can’t send a nice couple like you out into the rain at one o’clock in the morning.

Would you perhaps be willing to sleep in my room? It’s not exactly a suite, but it will be good enough to make you folks comfortable for the night.” When the couple declined, the young man pressed on. “Don’t worry about me, I’ll make out just fine,” the clerk told them.

So the couple agreed. As he paid his bill the next morning, the elderly man said to the clerk, “You are the kind of manager who should be the boss of the best hotel. Maybe someday I’ll build one for you.” The clerk looked at them and smiled. The three of them had a good laugh.

As they drove away, the elderly couple agreed that the helpful clerk was indeed exceptional, as finding people who are both friendly and helpful isn’t easy.

Two years passed. The clerk had almost forgotten the incident when he received a letter from the old man. It recalled that stormy night and enclosed a round-trip ticket to NewYork, asking the young man to pay them a visit. The old man met him in New York, and led him to the corner of Fifth Avenue and 34th Street. He then pointed to a great new building there, a pale reddish stone, with turrets and watchtowers thrusting up to the sky. “That,” said the older man, “is the hotel I have just built for you to manage.” “You must be joking.” – the young man said. “I can assure you I am not.” – said the older man, a sly smile playing around his mouth.

The older man’s name was William Waldorf-Aster, and that magnificent structure was the original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. The young clerk who became its first manager was George C. Boldt. This young clerk never foresaw the turn of events that would lead him to become the manager of one of the world’s most glamorous hotels.

Monkeys and The Man

It happened that one man came to Tilopa. The man wanted to attain buddhahood and he had heard that this Tilopa has attained. And Tilopa was staying in a temple somewhere in Tibet. The man came; Tilopa was sitting, and the man said, ”I would like to stop my thoughts.”

Tilopa said, ”It is very easy. I will give you a device, a technique. You follow this: just sit down and don’t think of monkeys. This will do.”

The man said, ”So easy? Just not thinking of monkeys? But I have never been thinking about them.”

Tilopa said, ”Now you do it, and tomorrow morning you report.”

You can understand what happened to that poor man: monkeys and monkeys all around. In the night he couldn’t get any sleep, not a wink. He would open his eyes and they were sitting there, or he would close his eyes and they were sitting there, and they were making faces.... He was simply surprised. ”Why has this man given this technique, because if monkeys are the problem, then I have never been bothered by them. This is happening for the first time!”

And he tried, in the morning again he tried. He took a bath, sat, but nothing doing: the monkeys wouldn’t leave him. He came back by the evening almost mad – because the monkeys were following him and he was talking to them. He came and he said, ”Save me somehow. I don’t want this, I was okay, I don’t want ANY meditation. And I don’t want your enlightenment – but save me from these monkeys!”

If you think of monkeys, it may be that they may not come to you. But if you want not... if you want them NOT to come to you, then they will follow you. They have their egos and they cannot leave you so easily. And what do you think of yourself: trying not to think of monkeys? The monkeys get irritated, this cannot be allowed.

This happens to people. Tilopa was joking, he was saying that if you try to stop a thought, you cannot. On the contrary, the very effort to stop it gives it energy, the very effort to avoid it becomes attention. So, whenever you want to avoid something you are paying too much attention to it. If you want not to think a thought, you are already thinking about it.

Remember this, otherwise you will be in the same plight. The poor man who was obsessed became obsessed with monkeys because he wanted to stop them. There is no need to stop the mind. Thoughts are rootless, homeless vagabonds, you need not be worried about them. You simply watch, watch without looking at them, simply look.

If they come, good, don’t feel bad – because even a slight feeling that it is not good and you have started fighting. It’s okay, it is natural: as leaves come in the trees, thoughts come to the mind. It’s okay, it is perfectly as it should be. If they don’t come, it is beautiful. You simply remain an impartial watcher, neither for nor against, neither appreciating nor condemning – without any valuation. You simply sit inside yourself and look, looking without looking at.

And this happens, that the more you look, the less you find; the deeper you look, the thoughts disappear, disperse. Once you know this then the key is in your hand.

The Three Hermits

A beautiful story by Leo Tolstoy.

The archbishop of the old Orthodox Church of Russia became very much worried when many people from his congregation started going towards a lake. There were three villagers on a small island in the lake who sat under a tree, with thousands of people who thought they were saints.

Finally he decided to go and see who these people were. So he took a motorboat and went to the island. And those three villagers... they were uneducated, simple people, utterly innocent, and the archbishop was a powerful man; next to the czar he was the most powerful man in Russia. He was very angry at those three villagers and told them, ”Who made you saints?” They looked at each other. They said, ”Nobody. And we don’t think we are saints, we are poor people.”

”But why are so many people coming here?”

They said, ”You have to ask them.”

He said, ”Do you know the orthodox prayer of the church?”

They said, ”We are uneducated and the prayer is too long, we cannot remember it.”

”So what prayer do you say?”

They all looked at each other. ”You tell him,” said one.

”You tell him,” said another. They were feeling embarrassed.

But the archbishop became more and more arrogant, seeing that these were absolute idiots, ”They don’t even know the prayer. How can they be saints?” So he said, ”Anybody can tell me. Just say it!” They said, ”We are feeling very embarrassed because we have made our own prayer, not knowing the authorized prayer of the church. We have made our own prayer, very simple it is. Please forgive us that we did not ask your permission, but we were feeling so embarrassed we did not come.

”Our prayer is – God is three and we are also three, so we have made a prayer – ‘You are three and we are three, have mercy on us.’ This is our prayer.”

The archbishop was very angry: ”This is no prayer. I have never heard this kind of thing.” He started laughing.

Those poor fellows said, ”You teach us what the real prayer is. We thought it was perfectly alright: God is three, we are three, and what more is needed? Just have mercy on us.”

So he told them the orthodox prayer, which was a long prayer. By the time he ended, they said, ”We have forgotten the beginning.” So he told the beginning again. Then they said, ”We have forgotten the end.”

The archbishop was getting angry and irritated. He said, ”What kind of people are you? Can’t you remember a simple prayer?”

They said, ”It is too long and we are uneducated, and such big words. We cannot... You just be patient with us. If you repeat it two or three times perhaps we will get the knack of it.” So he repeated it three times. They said, ”Okay, we will try, but we are afraid that it may not be the complete prayer... some things may be missing... but we will try.”

The arrogant archbishop was very much satisfied that he had finished these three saints and he could tell his people, ”They are idiots. Why are you going there?” And he left in the boat. Suddenly he saw that behind his boat those three people were running on the water, coming after him. He could not believe his eyes; he rubbed his eyes. By that time they had reached the side of his boat, standing on the water. And they said, ”Just one time more, we forgot.”

But seeing the situation: ”These people are walking on water and I am going in the motorboat,” he said, ”You continue your prayer. Don’t bother about what I have said to you. Just forgive me, I was arrogant. Your simpleness, your innocence is your prayer. You just go. You don’t need any certificate.”

But they insisted, ”You have come so far. Just one time more... We know we might forget it, but one time more so we can remember it.”

But the archbishop said, ”I have been repeating that prayer my whole life, and it has not been heard. And you are walking on water, and we have heard only in the miracles of Jesus that he used to walk on water. This is the first time I have seen the miracle. You just go back. Your prayer is perfectly alright!”

The prayer was not the thing because there is nobody to hear it, but their utter innocence and trust transformed them into totally new beings, so fresh, so childlike, just like roseflowers opening in the early morning sun in all their beauty.

Now that the arrogance was dropped, the archbishop could see their faces, their innocence, their grace, their blissfulness. They returned back on the water, running hand in hand, and reached their tree. -- OSHO 

Alexander Fleming

His name was Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.

There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what could have been a slow and terrifying death.

The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.

'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'

'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the door of the family hovel.

'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.

'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.

'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.

Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from St Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on to become known throughout the world as the noted

Sir Alexander Fleming, the discoverer of Penicillin.

Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin.

The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill ... His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill

Someone once said: What goes around comes around. Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching. Sing like nobody's listening. Live like it's Heaven on Earth. May there always be work for your hands to do; May your purse always hold a coin or two; May the sun always shine on your windowpane; May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain; May the hand of a friend always be near you; May God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

The Saint and The Angels

There once lived a saint so good that the angels came from heaven to see how a man could be so godly. This saint went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without being aware of it. His day could be summed up by two words — he gave, he forgave — yet these words never passed his lips. They were expressed in his ready smile, his kindness, forbearance, and charity. The angels said to God, “Lord, grant him the gift of miracles.” God replied, “Ask what it is that he wishes.” They said to the saint, “Would you like the touch of your hands to heal the sick?” “No,” answered the saint. “I would rather God do that.” “Would you like to convert guilty souls and bring back wandering hearts to the right path?” “No, that is the angels’ mission. It is not for me to convert.” “Would you like to become a model of patience, attracting men by the luster of your virtues, and thus glorifying God?” “No,” replied the saint. “If men should be attracted to me, they would become estranged from God.” “What is it that you desire, then?” asked the angels. “What can I wish for?” asked the saint smiling. “That God gives me his grace; with that would I not have everything?” The angels said, “You must ask for a miracle, or one will be forced upon you.” “Very well,” said the saint. “That I may do a great deal of good without ever knowing it.” The angels were perplexed. They took counsel and resolved upon the following plan: every time the saint’s shadow fell behind him or to either side, so that he could not see it, it would have the power to cure disease, soothe pain, and comfort sorrow. When the saint walked along, his shadow, thrown on the ground on either side or behind him, made arid paths green, caused withered plants to bloom, gave clear water to dried-up brooks, fresh color to pale children, and joy to unhappy men and women. The saint simply went about his daily life diffusing virtue as the stars diffuse light and the flowers scent, without being aware of it. The people, respecting his humility, followed him silently, never speaking to him about his miracles. Soon they even forgot his name, and called him “The Holy Shadow.”

This is the ultimate: one has to become the holy shadow, just a shadow of God. This is the greatest revolution that can happen to a human being: the transfer of the center. You are no longer your own center; God becomes your center. You live like his shadow. You are not powerful, because you don’t have any center to be powerful. You are not virtuous; you don’t have any center to be virtuous. You are not even religious; you don’t have any center to be religious. You are simply not, a tremendous emptiness, with no barriers and blocks, so the divine can flow through you unhindered, uninterpreted, untouched — so the divine can flow through you as he is, not as you would like him to be. He does not pass through your center — there is none. The center is lost. This is the meaning of this sutra: that finally you have to sacrifice your center so you cannot think in terms of the ego again, you cannot utter “I,” to annihilate yourself utterly, to erase yourself utterly. Nothing belongs to you; on the contrary, you belong to God. You become a holy shadow.

The Death of Ram

One day, Ram was informed that it was time for him to die. He had no problem with that. He understood that creatures who take birth have to experience death. “Let Yama come to me. It is time for me to return to my heavenly abode, Vaikuntha,” he said. But Yama dared not enter Ayodhya. Yama, the god of death, was afraid of Hanuman who guarded the gates of Ram’s palace and was clear no one would take Ram away from him.

To allow Yama’s entry, it was necessary to distract Hanuman. So Ram dropped his ring into a crack in the palace floor and requested Hanuman to fetch it. Hanuman reduced himself to the size of a beetle and entered the crack only to discover that it was no crack but the entrance to a tunnel that led to Nag-lok, the land of serpents. Hanuman met Vasuki, king of serpents, there and informed him of his mission.

Vasuki took Hanuman to the centre of Nag-lok where stood a mountain of rings! “There you will surely find Ram’s ring,” said Vasuki. Hanuman wondered how he would do that. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. But to his delight, the first ring that he picked up was Ram’s ring. To his astonishment, even the second ring he picked up was Ram’s ring. In fact all the rings that made up the mountain of rings were Ram’s ring. “What is the meaning of this?” he wondered

Vasuki smiled and said, “This world we live in goes through cycles of life and death. Each life cycle of the world is called a kalp. Each kalp is composed of four yugs or quarters. In the second quarter or Tret yug, Ram takes birth in Ayodhya. Then one day his ring falls from earth into the subterranean realm of serpents through a tunnel. A monkey follows it and Ram up there dies. So it has been for hundreds of thousands of kalpas. All these rings testify to that fact. The mountain keeps growing as more rings fall. There is enough space for the rings of the future Ram.”

Hanuman realized that his entry into Nag-lok and his encounter with this mountain of rings was no accident. It was Ram’s way of telling him that he could not stop death from coming. Ram would die. The world would die. But like all things Ram would be reborn each time the world is reborn. So it would be forever.

This cyclical view of life is the essence of Indian thought. This was destroyed by the British and their linear view of life was adopted by everyone, including India’s political parties. That is why everyone wants to locate Ram in history and geography, and fight over dates and addresses.

For the Hindu mind, Ram is timeless and universal and so cannot be fettered to period or place. That is why the day of his birth is celebrated every year as spring gives way to summer. Every year he comes, every year he goes. But everyone has faith that he will keep coming back.

There is a famous Sufi story: A man went in search of a Master. He was ready to go around the world, but he was determined to find the Master, the true Master, the Perfect Master. Outside his village he met an old man, a nice fellow, sitting under a tree. He asked the old man, "Have you ever heard in your long life — you look like a wanderer…" He said, "Yes, I am a wanderer. I wandered all over the earth." The man said, "That is the right kind of person. Can you suggest to me where I should go? I want to be a disciple of a Perfect Master." The old man suggested a few addresses to him, and the young man thanked him and went on. After thirty years of wandering around the earth and finding nobody who was exactly fulfilling his expectations, he came back dejected, depressed. The moment he was entering his village he saw the old man who had become very old now, sitting under the tree. And suddenly he recognized that he is the Master! He fell at his feet and he said, "Why didn’t you say it to me, that you are the Master?" The old man said, "But that was not time for you. You could not recognize me. You needed some experience. Wandering around the earth has given you a certain maturity, a certain understanding. Now you can see. Last time you had met me, but you had not seen me. You had missed. You were asking me about some Master. That was enough proof that you could not see me, you could not feel my presence, you could not smell the fragrance. You were utterly blind; hence I gave you some bogus addresses so you could go. But even to be with wrong people is good, because that is how one learns. For thirty years I have been waiting for you here, I have not left this tree."

In fact the young man, who was not young anymore, looked at the tree and was even more surprised. Because in his dreams, in his visions he was always seeing that tree and there was always a feeling that he would find The Master sitting under this tree. Last time he had not seen the tree at all. The tree was there, the Master was there, Everything was ready but HE was not ready

The Yogi and The King

There once was a king who led his mighty army across the snowy peaks that bounded his kingdom, into his neighbor's realm. On the lofty pass thick with snow, he saw a mendicant or ascetic sitting on a bare rock, with his head between his knees evidently to protect it from the chill wind that cut across the gap in the peak. He had no clothes on his body. The king was overcome with pity; he took off his own shawl and coat and offered them to the Yogi (ascetic; one who has mastered the senses and the mind). The Yogi refused to accept them, for , he said "God has given enough clothing to guard me against the heat and cold. He gives me all that I need. Please give these to some one who is poor". The King was surprised at these words. he asked him where that clothing was. The Yogi replied "God himself has woven it for me; I am wearing it since birth and will wear it until the grave. Here it is, my skin! Give this coat and shawl to some mendicant beggar, some poor man". The king smiled for, who can be poorer than he, he thought. He asked him, "But where can I find a poor man?" The Yogi asked him , where he was going and why. He said, "I am going into the realm of my enemy so that I can add his kingdom to my own". The Yogi it was who smiled now. He said, "If you are not satisfied with the kingdom you have and if you are prepared to sacrifice your life and the lives of these thousands to get more land, certainly, you are much poorer than I. So offer the clothes to yourself. You need them more than I do". At this the King was greatly ashamed and he understood the futility of fame and fortune. He thanked the Yogi for opening his eyes to his own innate poverty. Contentment is the most precious treasure, he realized.

Moral - Great men spread the light of their wisdom through their every word and deed.

Forgiveness

A teacher asked her students to bring some tomatoes in a plastic bag to school. Each tomato will be given a name of the person whom that child hates. This way, the number of tomatoes will be equal to the number of persons they hate.

On a decided day, the children brought their tomatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and some had five, some even had 20 tomatoes in accordance with the number of people each ‪‎student‬ hate thus if a student hates 5 people, he/she will bring 5 tomatoes.

The teacher told them they have to carry the tomatoes with them everywhere they go for two weeks. As the days passed the children started to complain about the decay and smell of the tomatoes. The students who had many tomatoes complained it was very heavy to carry and the smell was too much.

After a week, the teacher asked the students: "How did you feel this one week?"

The ‪‎Children‬ complained of awful smell & heavy weight of the tomatoes especially those who carried more tomatoes.

The ‪‎teacher‬ said, "This is very similar to what you carry in your heart when you don't like some people. Hatred makes heart unhealthy and you carry that hatred everywhere. If you can't bear the smell of spoiled tomatoes for a week, imagine the impact of bitterness on your ‪‎heart‬ as you carry it daily."

The Heart is a ‪beautiful Garden‬ that needs regular cleaning of unwanted weeds. ‪Forgive‬ those who have angered you. This makes room for storing good things.

Get better not bitter. Must Share this story with your Kids and Students.

A Holy Man and The Angel

A Holy Man saw in a dream that while he was walking in the path of Truth an angel accosted him. “Whither are you going?” asked the angel. “I am on my way to the Royal Presence,” was the reply. “You are engaged in so many wordly affairs,” said the angel. “You have taken such a lot of baggage with you, so much wealth and property. How can you hope to be admitted to the Royal Presence with all this paraphernalia?” The saint thereupon threw away all the baggage he had and kept with him only a piece of blanket to protect him from inclement weather and serve as a garment. The next night he saw the angel again in a dream. “Well, where are you going today?” “To the seat of the Lord of Creation.” “O man of wisdom,” said the angel, “how can you get there with this piece of blanket? It is a terrible obstacle in your way.” Waking from his dream, the Holy Man put the blanket in the fire. On the third night the saint saw the angel once more. “O pure lover,” said the angel, “whither are you going?” “I am going to the Creator of the Universe.”

“O illustrious man,” observed the angel, “now that you stripped yourself of all that you had, remain where you are. You have no need to go anywhere in search of the Creator. He will Himself come to you.”

From the Book "The Conference of the Birds"

Once there was a man who came to visit his friend. His friend was a good host, and he said, "Oh, come in. It's great to see you old friend. Please come in, I'll get you something to eat."

The man spent a few days visiting his old friend and when it was time for him to go, he said, "Well it's been great visiting you, as always. I really should be going now though." The friend, his host, said, "I have an extra horse. He never gets ridden. Why don't you take the horse as a gift from me." The man said, "You are very generous. A horse! But I couldn't take your horse from you, that's too much. I'll be fine, I don't mind walking." "No, no, it's your horse now. Take your horse, it's a gift, take it." "Well I know you won't let me leave without it now, so I guess I have no choice but to take it."

The man gratefully mounted the horse and rode away. About ten days later the man came back. His friend said, "Welcome! Good to see you again, come in, have some food. Why are you back so soon?" The man said, "I don't know what happened. I was on my way to Pind City and everything was going fine. Then all of a sudden, the horse stopped listening to me. The horse turned around and started heading back here. I tried everything I could think of, but no matter what I did, the horse wouldn't listen. He just came right back to your house." The friend said, "I understand. This horse was born and raised here. This place is all he knows. He is attached to me and my wife, and everything else here." So the man stayed with his friend for a few more days and tried to train the horse to listen to him.

Then he left again, "Goodbye, thanks again. Farewell good friend." But then, after about another ten days the man and his new horse came back again. "Come in, come in. Welcome again my friend. It looks like you didn't get that far. What happened this time?" "The same thing as last time! I had traveled to two different towns. I was on my way to a third town and the horse just stopped. He turned around. I kicked him, I yelled at him him, I did everything I knew how to do, but the horse simply wouldn't listen. The horse headed right for your house, in fact he didn't stop until we reached here." The host realized what need to happen, "I think we need to give the horse some proper training, then he will listen to you and you can have him take you anywhere you like." "Oh good' said his friend, "If we could do some training, that would be awesome."

So for the whole next month the host gave his friend food and entertainment. During the entire time, he helped his friend train his horse. After the month ended, the man left once again. The host and his wife said goodbye, "Farewell old friend. Goodbye, have a safe journey." After he left the wife asked, "You were overly kind to this fellow. You gave him a horse, then he came back twice. We hosted him and gave him everything and even trained the horse with him for a whole month! Did we really have to do all that for him?"

The man said to his wife, "Everyone likes to get gifts. It's very good to get a gift from someone but what if someone doesn't know how to use it? What is the use of the gift if the person doesn't know how to use it? The person may need some help and maybe even some training to make the gift useful. Who do you think should give that training?"

God has given all of us a great gift. It is the gift of our own mind. We can use our mind to do everything good in our lives. Sometimes we don't know how to use our own mind, and so it gets us in to trouble. That is why God sends holy people. Holy women and holy men are here to train us how to use our mind. Once we train our minds, we don't ever have to be unhappy again. Our lives become filled with happiness.

Jesus and Lazarus

You have heard the story of Lazarus — that is a story of man as such. It is said Lazarus died. Jesus loved him very much. His sisters informed Jesus; by the time the news reached him, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Jesus came running. Everybody was crying and weeping, and he said, “Don’t weep, don’t cry! Let me call him back to life!”

Nobody could believe him. Lazarus is dead! And the sisters of Lazarus said, “He is now stinking — he cannot come back. His body is deteriorating.”

But Jesus went to the grave where the body was preserved for him to come. The stone was pulled aside. In the dark cave Jesus called out, “Lazarus, come out! ” And it is said he came out.

It may not have happened that way; it may be just a parable — but it is a beautiful parable about man. When I look into your eyes, that’s all I can say: “Lazarus, come out!” You are dead and stinking. You are not yet alive. You are born, but you need to be reborn. Your first birth has not been of much help. It has brought you to a certain extent, but that is not enough. You have to go a little further. The birth that has already happened to you is only physical — you need a spiritual birth.

It is said: One professor of Jerusalem university went to see Jesus. Of course, he went in the night. His name was Nicodemus; he was a very rich, respectable man, a great scholar, well known in the Jewish world. He was afraid to go to Jesus in the daylight, because what will people think? He was known to be a great, learned man, wise — what will they think? that he has gone to this carpenter’s son to ask something? He was older than Jesus — could almost have been Jesus’ father. No, it was not possible for him to go in the daylight. Cunning and clever, he went in the night when there was nobody else. And Jesus asked him, “Why didn’t you come in the day?”

He said, “I was afraid.”

Jesus must have laughed. He said, “Nicodemus, for what have you come? What do you want of me?”

He said, “I would like to know how I can know God, how I can know the truth.”

Jesus said, “You will have to be reborn.”

Nicodemus could not understand. Jokingly he said, “What do you mean? Have I to enter again into a woman’s womb? Are you joking or something? Are you kidding or something?”

Jesus said, “No, I mean it — I mean what I say. You have to be reborn. You are such a coward. This is not life. You don’t have any courage. You will have to be reborn! You will have to become a new man, because only that new man can come to truth and realize it. Even to see me you have come in the night. How will you be able to go and see the truth? How will you encounter God? You will have to go naked. You will have to go in deep humility. You will have to drop all your respectability, all your scholarship. You will have to drop your ego — that’s what to be reborn means.”

The first birth is only a physical birth; don’t be satisfied with it. It is necessary but not enough. A second birth is needed. The first birth was through your mother and father; the second birth is going to be out of the mind. You have to slip out of the mind and that will be your rebirth — you will be reborn.

And, for the first time, trees will be greener than they are, and flowers will be more beautiful than they are, and life will be more alive than you have ever known it, because you can know it only to the extent that you are alive. You cannot know life if you are not alive. Whatsoever you are, you know life only up to that extent

Krishna and the Bamboo

Everyday Krishna would visit the garden and say to all the plants, “I love you”

The plants were very happy and responded saying “Krishna, we love You too”.

One day Krishna rushed quickly into the garden very alarmed.

He went to the bamboo plant and the bamboo plant asked, “Krishna, what´s wrong?”

Krishna said “I have something to ask you, but it is very difficult”.

The bamboo said “Tell me: if I can, I will give it to you”.

So Krishna said “I need your life. I need to cut you”.

The bamboo thought for a while and then said “You don´t have any other choice. You don’t have any other way?”

Krishna said, “No, no other way”.

And it said “OK” and gave himself up.

So Krishna cut the bamboo n made holes in it, and each time, he carved the holes, the bamboo was crying in pain …

Krishna made a beautiful flute out of it n this flute was with him all the time. 24 hours a day, it was with Krishna. Even the Gopis were jealous of the flute.

They said, “Look, Krishna is our Lord, but yet we get to spend only some time with him. He wakes up with you, He sleeps with you, all the time you are with him”.

Gopis asked the bamboo, “Tell us your secret. What secret do you have, that the Lord treasures you so much?”

And the bamboo said “The secret is that, i gave myself up, and he did whatever was right for me, in the process i had to undergo a lot of pain.

And the Lord does whatever he wants with me, whenever he wants with me and however he wants with me. I have just become His instrument”.

So this is complete surrender: where God can do whatever He wants with you, whenever He wants, as He wants.

Trust Him completely and have faith in Him and Always Know.. that you are in His Hands… What can go wrong??

This is Sharanagathi.

The Broken Scale

Lisa, a poorly dressed lady with a look of defeat on her face, walked into a grocery store. She approached the owner of the store in a most humble manner and asked if he would let her charge a few groceries. She softly explained that her husband was very ill and unable to work. They had seven children and they needed food.

John Longhouse, the grocer, scoffed at her and requested that she leave his store. Visualizing the family needs, she said: "Please, sir! I will bring you the money just as soon as I can." John told her he could not give her credit, as she did not have a charge account at his store.

Standing beside the counter was a customer who overheard the conversation between the two. The customer walked forward and told the grocer that he would stand good for whatever she needed for her family.

The grocer said in a very reluctant voice, "Do you have a grocery list?" Lisa replied, "Yes sir." "Okay" he said, "put your grocery list on the scales and whatever your grocery list weighs, I will give you that amount in groceries."

Lisa hesitated a moment with a bowed head. Then she reached into her purse and took out a piece of paper and scribbled something on it. She then laid the piece of paper on the scale carefully with her head still bowed.

The eyes of the grocer and the customer showed amazement when the scale went down and stayed down. The grocer, staring at the scales, turned slowly to the customer and said begrudgingly, "I can't believe it." The customer smiled and the grocer started putting the groceries on the other side of the scales.

The scale did not balance so he continued to put more and more groceries on them until the scales would hold no more. The grocer stood there in utter disgust.

Finally, he grabbed the piece of paper from the scales and looked at it with greater amazement. It was not a grocery list. It was instead a prayer which said: "Dear Lord, you know my needs and I am leaving this in your hands."

The grocer gave her the groceries that he had gathered and stood in stunned silence. Lisa thanked him and left the store. The customer handed a fifty-dollar bill to the grocer and said, "It was worth every penny of it."

It was sometime later that the grocer discovered the scales were broken; therefore, only God knows how much a prayer weighs. 

Aristotle & Heraclitus

One day, Aristotle was walking on the beach. A glorious sunset was happening, but he had no time for such petty daily events. He was thinking seriously about some great problem of existence, because for Aristotle, existence is a problem, and he believes he is going to solve it. Thinking seriously, he was walking up and down the beach. There was another man on the beach who was doing something very intensely – so intensely that even Aristotle could not ignore him.

You know, people who think too much about their own nonsense end up ignoring life around them. They are the people who don’t smile at anybody or even look at anybody in the world. They have no eyes to look at a flower, a sunset, a child or a smiling face – or if it is an unsmiling face, they have no inclination to make it smile; they have no such small duties or small cares in the world! They ignore all the life around them because they are all busy, solving the problems of existence.

But Aristotle could not ignore this man, and he closely observed what he was doing: this man was going to the ocean, coming back, going to the ocean, coming back, all with great intensity.

So Aristotle stopped and asked, “Hey, what are you up to?”

The man said, “Don’t disturb me, I am doing something very important,” and went on and on.

Aristotle became even more curious and asked, “What are you doing?”

The man said, “Don’t disturb me, something very important.”

Aristotle said, “What is this important thing?”

The man showed a little hole he had dug in the sand, and he said, “I am emptying the ocean into this hole.” He had a tablespoon in his hand.

Aristotle looked at this and laughed. Now, Aristotle is the kind who can spend a year without a single moment of laughter, because he is intellect. It takes a heart to laugh. Intellect cannot laugh; it can only dissect.

But even Aristotle laughed at this and said, “This is ridiculous! You must be insane. Do you know how vast this ocean is? How can you ever empty this ocean into this little hole? And that too, with a tablespoon? At least if you have a bucket, there’s some chance. Please give this up; this is madness, I am telling you.”

The man looked at Aristotle, threw the spoon down and said, “My job is already done.”

Aristotle said, “What do you mean? Forget about the ocean being empty; even the hole is not full. How can you say your job is done?”

The other man was Heraclitus. Heraclitus stood up and said, “I am trying to empty the ocean into this hole with a tablespoon. You are telling me it’s ridiculous, it’s madness, so I should give it up. What are you trying to do? Do you know how vast this existence is? It can contain a billion oceans like this and more, and you are trying to empty it into the small hole of your head – and with what? With tablespoons called thoughts. Please give it up. It’s utterly ridiculous.”

If you want to know the experiential dimensions of life, you will never know it with petty thought. - Sadhguru

'You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says

This is a prepared text of the Commencement address delivered by Late Steve Jobs, then the CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned Coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and sans serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But 10 years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it's likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward 10 years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents' garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4,000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down — that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the world's first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope it's the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors and Polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: It was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

Copyright - Standford Univeristy