The Wise Judge. Story.

                                         

  A farmer in ancient China had a neighbour who was a hunter, and who owned ferocious and poorly trained hunting dogs. They jumped the fence frequently and chased the farmer's lambs. The farmer asked his neighbour to keep his dogs in check, but this fell on deaf ears.
One day the dogs again jumped the fence and attacked and severely injured several of the lambs.

    

                                  

The farmer had had enough, and went to town to consult a judge who listened carefully to the story and said: "I could punish the hunter and instruct him to keep his dogs chained or lock them up. But you would lose a friend and gain an enemy. Which would you rather have, friend or foe for a neighbor?" The farmer replied that he preferred a friend.
                             

“Alright, I will offer you a solution that keeps your lambs safe, and which will keep your neighbour a friend." Having heard the judge's solution, the farmer agreed.

Once at home, the farmer immediately put the judge's suggestions to the test. He took three of his best lambs and presented them to his neighbor's three small sons, who were beside themselves with joy and began to play with them. To protect his son's newly acquired playthings, the hunter built a strong kennel for his dogs. Since then, the dogs never again bothered the farmer's lambs.

                         

Out of gratitude for the farmer's generosity toward his sons, the hunter often shared the game he had hunted with the farmer. The farmer reciprocated by sending the hunter lamb meat and cheese he had made. Within a short time, the neighbours became good friends.
                              

A saying in old China went something like this, “One can win over and influence people the best with gestures of kindness and compassion." A similar American saying is “One catches more flies with honey than with vinegar

Buddha's wife

                                                 

When I heard the story of Gautam Buddha, my question was always about his wife and son that he left behind...

this write-up by Vikram Bhattacharya touches that part of the story 

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He left her in the middle of the night. 

When she heard the news she was devastated. Yet, she did not complain but her life lost all meaning. The only reason for her to live now was her son. She wanted him to grow up to be a man that the world would look up to. 

                                                 

Her friends and relatives came around and asked her to forget about the man who had left her and start life again. They asked her to marry again but she refused. She was young and beautiful and suitors queued up outside her door, but she refused each one of them. 
As the years went by she turned into a shell of her former self. She ate only one meal a day, did not care about how she looked, hardly slept the long nights and focused only on her son.

Then one fine day he came back!
He stood in front of her and she could hardly remember him as the man who had left her. “They call you the Buddha now?” she asked him gently. “I hear they do,” he answered in a calm fashion. “What does it mean?” she further inquired. “I think it means the enlightened one, a knower,” he informed. 

She smiled and then a silence.
“I suppose we have both learned something. Your lessons will make the world richer in spirit, but my lesson will unfortunately, remain largely unknown,” she reflected deeply.

“And what lesson is that?” he probed.
Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, 

“That a woman alone does not need anyone to complete her. She is complete on her own.”...

Dedicated to all women on karva chauth.

Shared by Rashid Falak.

Maria's new hat.

                                     

Maria lived with her mother in a small apartment in a city. She was an average woman; not too young or old, not too short or tall; not particularly beautiful or ugly.
She worked as a secretary at a large company, and her life was pretty much boring and mundane. No one paid her any attention.

One morning, on her way to work, Maria saw that a new hat shop had opened down the street.

In a spurt of curiosity, she walked in. There were ladies trying on hats. Maria too tried on a few until she found one she liked. She put it on and it looked nice!

A little girl with her mom noticed her "Mommy, look how pretty that woman looks with the hat on!" The mother said: "Ma'am, I must say, this hat looks wonderful on you!" Another buyer also came to look: "Ma'am, you look lovely with that hat on!" Maria went to the mirror. She looked at herself and for the first time in her adult life, liked what she saw.

Smiling, she went to the counter and bought the hat. As she walked outside a new world revealed itself to her. She never before noticed the colors of the flowers
or the scent of the fresh air. The sound of the cars and the people were like a harmonious melody. She walked as if drifting on a cloud with a song in her heart.

When she passed by the coffee shop, one of the young handsome men called out to her "Hey darling, looking good! Are you new here? Can I buy you a cup of coffee? "She smiled shyly and kept walking; floating on her cloud. When she got to the office, the doorman opened the door and wished her a good morning. Never before had he even noticed her!

The people in the elevator asked her the floor she needed and pressed the button for her.
The people at the office, as if seeing her for the first time, flattered her on how lovely she looked today.
The manager asked her out to lunch to talk about how she felt at work!

When this magical workday was over she took a cab home instead of the bus. As soon as she put her hand up 2 taxis stopped!
She took the first one and thought about the miraculous day she had had and how her life changed thanks to the new hat!

When she got home, her mom opened the door. The sight of Maria took her breath away!
"Maria," she said surprised "How beautiful you look! Your eyes are all lit up like when you were a little girl! "

"Yes, mother." Said Maria "It's all thanks to my new hat, I had a marvelous day!"

"Maria!" said her mother "What hat??" Maria panicked. She touched her head and saw that the hat that changed her life was not there.
She didn't remember taking it off in the cab or at lunch, nor at the office.

She thought back to the store where she had bought it. She remembered painfully now how she’d put it on the counter to get her purse out to pay and how she had forgotten the hat right there. Then she had walked out to the street. Hat-less yet glowing!

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

It wasn't the hat that freed Maria, it was the quality of her thoughts!

Our thoughts can enslave us into a horrible bondage or liberate us towards sweet freedom: to be, do, or have anything we wish for!!!


Story shared by Sharda Rao

Spirituality and Wroldliness. OSHO:

Guilt creates the trouble, not the world.

And there is no division between the world and spiritualism. But the division is in the guilt.

So that guilt has to be dropped.

Not that you have to bring spirituality and the world together; they are together. There is no way to separate them.

You have to understand your guilt and drop it, otherwise guilt always creates schizophrenia.

That effort to bring spirituality and the world together is, from the very beginning, wrong. You have to understand your guilt.

The very categorization is wrong because then division starts.

Once you label something as spiritual, suddenly you have condemned the world.

When you say something is worldly, the division has come in.

There is no need.

If you enjoy food, if you enjoy the sunshine, if you enjoy the flowers and you enjoy meditation and prayer, in fact, it is all one enjoyment.

It does not matter that it is food or flowers or friends or prayer or meditation. It is one phenomenon -- enjoyment. It is joy.

There is no need to divide it because objects of joy are different -- they are immaterial.

The essential thing is that you have joy and delight.

You don't divide when you see the moon in the night and you enjoy it and then one day you see a child smiling and you enjoy.

Which is spiritual and which is material? You see a flower opening and something opens in you and you delight in it.

The food is being cooked and the flavour comes and suddenly there is joy in it. Which is spiritual and which is worldly?

If you ask me, I will say that joy is spiritual and the incapacity to enjoy, to celebrate, is worldly.

~ OSHO

From a message shared by Karen D'Souza

How do we develop our personality?

Someone asked Sri Ravi Shankar about Personality Development 

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

To develop your personality, you have to spend five days, to have these five experiences to really blossom in your life.
You have to sincerely play these five roles:

1. The first role which I would recommend to you is to be a School Teacher.
To teach lessons to children who are not learning, you need a lot of patience.
Being a nursery or primary school teacher, even for one day, you will see how you have to increase your patience.

2. Be a Gardener or spend a day with a Farmer.
If you are sowing the seeds,
if you are watering the plants,
you will know how you must care for water, the earth and the environment.
You will have a feeling for the environment.
You will value food and you will not waste it.
You know, what we do?
We bring so much food, and we put it in the fridge and, after a few days in the refrigerator, we throw the food.
We are wasting millions and millions of tons of food every day.
We should not waste food.
This we will learn if we spend one day being a farmer or a gardener.

3. You should spend a day in the mental hospital.
Whatever people talk in the mental hospital, you don’t mind.
If they scold you,
if they blame you,
if they curse you,
will you mind?
You don’t mind because you are aware that this person is mentally sick.
You know that many people are outside the hospital, but that does not mean they are mentally well.
So, in life, you come across people who blame you for nothing, who are jealous or angry, who say things that make no sense. Then, you know, you will have the patience to deal with them with a smile. You will not take the garbage inside and spoil your mind.
So one day if you spend in a mental hospital, you will know how to save your mind.
You will stop being a football of others’ opinions.

4. One day you must go to a prison. Maybe it is shocking to you.
You don’t have to do a wrong thing to go to a prison.
Just go visit a prison, spend a little time with the prisoners.
You will understand what compassion is.
What helplessness is.
Those people made a mistake without awareness.
So you will know how you must have a say on your emotions.

5. There are terminally ill people in the hospital.
One day with them, and you will realize how precious life is.
And you will start valuing health.
You will eat better,
you will exercise.
You will do all that is needed to be more vibrant in your life.

With these five days what would be the outcome?

I guess from these five days you will become
More Vibrant,
More Alive,
More Loving,
Compassionate
and Active.

                  ________________________________________

From a message shared by Purvi Joshi

Why Idol worship?

                                               

Once. Swami Vivekananda visited the King of Alwar in present day Rajasthan.

The king in an attempt to mock idol worship told Swamiji, "I've no faith in idol worship. How can one worship stone, wood and metal? I believe people are in an illusion and just wasting time!”
Swamiji smiled. He asked the king's assistant to take down the picture of the king that was hanging on the wall. Although confused, the assistant did so.

Then Swamiji ordered him, "Spit on the picture!". The assistant was shocked and looked at both of them. Swami repeated again and again, becoming sterner each time. The king was growing angry and the assistant started trembling. Finally, he cried out, "How can I spit on this? This picture is of our beloved and respected king!”

Swamiji then told him, "The king is sitting in front of you in person. This picture is merely a paper - it does not speak, hear, think or move. But still you did not spit because you see a shadow of your king in it, Spitting on it was like spitting on the king itself."

The king looked at Swamiji and bowed down, clearly understanding what he was alluding to.

This is the essence of idol worshiping. God is everywhere, but people want to pray to Him, ask favours, offer food, tell stories, bathe Him, play with Him and do what they do in their lives. Creating a human-like idol creates an image of God as a companion, a guide, a friend, a protector, a giver, a fellow being and so on.

An idol is just a concrete representation where they find Him. When I look into the eyes of an idol, I do not see stone or metal, but another pair of eyes looking affectionately at me, smiling.


From a message shared by Priti Sanghavi