But, the saint continued, “You need not hurt some one”. “Just to keep who trouble away, you could have merely hissed at them”.
“That would frighten them and they would not have come near you”, said the saint.
Post Script:
* Every spiritual master known to mankind is kind hearted persons. They lead an impeccable life. They were never troubled by any one, anywhere. This is possible through appropriate posture in public.
* Both, Agori Baba in Himalayas (Reference : Swamy Rama, Living with Himalayan Masters), Seshadri swamigal of Tiruvannamalai, behaved as through they were insane people. Often, their behavior used to be unpredictable. That kept away people whom they do not want around.
* The unwritten law for people in the Spiritual path is that they should never come under spot light. Their yogi powers should not be displayed for public attention. They should maintain a low profile.
* While remaining a soft personal internally, one can give an appearance of being taught externally.
Theme: Lies with good intentions. Know this:
(1) ideally, one should desist from telling lies in a situation.
(2) some times a lie told with good intentions are seen better than a truth said with ill intentions.
How is that? Let us read a nice story originated from the Arab world.
Theme: Lies with good intentions.
Short story. 10.
A lie told with good intentions.
A scene in the king’s court.
A spy caught by the guards was broughtbefore the king. Typically, spies were handed down death penalty.
Only two ministers in the king’s court knew the language spoken by the spy. But they were competitors to win the heart of the king.
During questioning, for a long time the spy was silent. Finally, as per the law of the land, the king sentenced him to death.
When the spy realized that death sentence was pronounced by the king, he became upset and scolded the king in his mother tongue. The two ministers looked at each other.
The first minister addressed the kind and stated that the prisoner had quoted from the Koran.
The King looked at his ministers inquiringly. The minister replied that
the spy quoted the following verse from the Holy Koran, “that the person who controls his anger and forgives will find a place in heaven because God loves good people”. Immediately, the king looked at the prisoner and exclaimed. He addressed him “Friend, at the right moment you have reminded me about God’s desire. You have saved from committing a wrong”. The King ordered the prisoner to be freed.
The second minister was nervous. He felt this would be the right time to take revenge on the other minister by informing the king the truth that the spy in fact abused the king. This will anger the king against the first minister. He addressed the king, “Lord, what the minister translated for you are nothing but lies”. “The spy had, in fact, abused you. And choose a foul language against you.”
The king thought for a while and replied the second minister that first minister’s lie was better than his truth.
The king said, “Your truth reflects your ill-intention of taking revenge on the other minister with whom you do not get along well”. Whereas, the king continued, “the other minister lied but the lie had a good intention that I shoud not drift from the path shown by the Holy Koran”. (The quote from the holy Koran which the minister pointed out to him to show mercy to the enemy).
Theme: Live life. Do not prepare for a living...
Know this:
(1) Life is like a journey, enjoy the journey.
(2) We gather material money and other preparation as though we are preparing for a journey.
(3) We fail to realize that we are already in the journey and the journey would come to an end any time soon. All that gathered for the journey will be left behind when the journey comes to an end.
(4) So, stop preparing for the journey and start enjoying it.
Theme: Live your life, rather than preparing for a living.
Short Story 11.
How much you need for your life?
Living in Poverty is a hell on earth. We need resources to live our lives. The issue is, “how much is good enough”. There are numerous stories that convey the same message, “Stop preparation, Starting enjoying the life popularly called life”.
It is possible you have read the short story by the Russian Short story by Leo Tolstoy with the same theme. There are several other stories that were told in various parts of the world.
Now lets move on to two very short stories here.
Story A: A farmer felt that the land that he owned was not enough for a happy living.
He undertook a penance for several years. Some day, the Gods were moved by the
devotion of their disciples and descended on
to the earth. God offered the farmer, three boons. The farmer said he would be happy with just one.
He wanted to lead a happy life and so wanted more land than what he possessed.
God said, “Your wish is granted”.
The offer was that, at dawn the farmer would start running or walking at sun-rise and come back to the starting point before the sun-set. The area covered in the intervening time, will be his.
Should he fail to reach the starting point, he would not get any land.
Next day, at sunrise, the devotee started running. This greedy person ran without having food or rest. He ran over hills, stones and thorns. His feet were injured. Blood was ooze out of his injured feet. That did not deter him. He ran under scorching sun, hungry and thirsty.
The sunset was fast approaching. His body was tired but not yet, his spirit.
There were only few tens of steps to reach the finishing point (the starting place), when the sun had set. Driven by despair and fatigue he dropped down dead.
His friends and relatives came running to see him crashing to the ground and were shocked. He was dead. They conducted his last rites and dug a six feet length and four feet width land and buried him.
In the sky, an angel stopped over to see what was happening down below. God explained the angel, the following:
“Man requires only this much piece of land that is all. But, he becomes greedy, ruins his life and returns to me in a hurry!”
Man in his greed, spends his entire life accumulating wealth. In this processes he deprives the people around of their dues. Becomes responsible for poverty and distress of several people in his society.
Never introspect whether he needs so much of wealth? Would he live so long, to enjoy such a wealth he amasses?
Theme: Don’t cheat and don’t be cheated.
Know this:
(1) in a society, a few people cheat many other people, all the time.
(2) People cheat others to deprive others of their possession or position.
(3) Ignorance or lack of knowledge makes one vulnerable to be cheated.
(4) Ignorance in conjunction with greed makes one more vulnerable to be cheated.
(5) Poorest among the society are the people who were cheated by many people, all the time.
(6) Cheating can be defined as a method of systematic exploitation of ones ignorance in combination with a need or greed.
Superstitions. Are untested or unverifiable knowledge, reaching us through our culture? No one knows its origin or the situation in which it emerged. Some of the superstitions may be based on wrong application of statistics. Even well lettered people do not want to take chances when confronted with situation involving superstition.
Inauspicious time: Hindu calendars have slots of good or auspicious time and inauspicious times every day. People do not step out of their home for activities considered important. No important actions are initiated at the inauspicious hours of the day.
There is no proof that every activity initiated at auspicious time was bucketsful from start to end or the opposite.
Let us hal
t the discussion here to read a story.
Theme: Don’t cheat and don’t be cheated. Short Story 12.
Inauspicious tree. (Superstitions)
A teacher was lecturing his students about rational thinking and he tells a story to drive home his point.
The hero in this story is a quite, pious person
called Ganesh . He has a neighbor called Amar. Amar was a talkative, outgoing and street smart.
There was a tree in front of Ganesh’s house. It was too old. The leaves withered away and branches dying gradually.
Amar approached Ganesh with a suggestion, to uproot the dying plant. He reasoned that the shadow of a dying plant would bring ill luck on which it falls. He listed several instances in his family and friend circle such disasters fell upon.
It requires the knowledge of a scientist or the conviction of saints to pay no heed to such lunatic suggestions. We, the ordinary mortals. Successfully establish a strong connection between our small problems in our lives and superstitions. Thereafter, live through nightmares.
So did Ganesh. He was happy to hear the reasons for his problems through his neighbor who traced his problem to a dying tree. Ganesh was confident that his problems would cease to exist after the tree is razed to the ground.
His neighbor came along with a woodcutter and cut the tree into small pieces. Ganesh paid the fees and Amar took the cut wood to his home.
Amar’s wife was too proud of her husband who with a few words managed to get fire wood that would meet their need for several months to come.
It took Ganesh a few months and a few friends to understand that his neighbor had exploited his foolishness.
Years rolled by. Ganesh planted a sapling in the place they uprooted the tree.
A NEW version of this story.
40 years had passed, quickly. In both the houses, their sons live happily with their children and grand children. Ganesh and Amar passed into past.
The tree planted by Ganesh grew. That mango tree gave fruits for two generation of Ganesh and Amar family.
The Tree became old and was wilting and stood with all its leaves fallen.
Amar must have explained his son the way he fooled his neighbor and met his fire wood needs from neighbor’s tree.
History repeats. Like his father Amar, the son now asked the neighbor, Ganesh’s son to cut down the tree. He explained in detail the problems his friends and relatives had undergone due to the shadow of a dying tree falling on humans.
On hearing this, the neighbor, a thought flashed through his mind. (Some instances from his life when he lost out to others due to ignorance). It must be his father who cheated my father. The smart son became alert instantly.
He replied his neighbor that he was very well aware of the problem but he did not have sufficient money for doing that.
The neighbor was disappointed. He quickly calculated the cost of cutting and cost of the firewood the tree could fetch. The cost of cutting is an insignificant portion of the fire would he would get.
He informed his neighbor that he will finance cutting of the tree. He reasoned that they were good neighbors for generations. The price he would pay for the wellbeing of his neighbor, he observed is too little.
Next day, the woodcutters came and cut down the tree. The neighbor waited for the tree to be cut into small pieces.
When the wood cutters have completed
the job, the son Ganesh, the owner of the tree profusely thanked his neighbor for both arranging to cut the tree and bearing the expense. It is rare to find such neighbors.
The evil neighbor attempted to shift the cut wood to his house. The owner stopped him. He reasoned that, even the fire from an inauspicious tree could cause insurmountable problems to one who comes under its influence. He, as a good neighbor would not allow that to happen.
The evil neighbor had no other rhyme or reason to take away the cut wood. Ganesh’s family enjoyed the fire wood for the next several months.
Good parents share their success and failures they experienced, with the generation next which guards them against exploitations that they went through.
Theme: Don’t cheat others and don’t be cheated. Short Story 13 High returns (Greed & ignorance).
Greed alone is sufficient for a person to embrace poverty. If greed accompanies ignorance, poverty never leaves a person
Mrs. Anthoni was jubilant today. She has shared her joy with the children who returned from school by presenting them sweets. She was awaiting Mr. Antony to return home to share the achievement she made.
Why was Mrs. Anthoni very happy today?
She used to save some money from the budgeted amount for monthly expenses for quite some time now.
Her neighbor, Mrs. Suma Reddy took her to a shop started within their colony. Mostly State government employees, teachers owned a small house in that middle class colony. Invariably, every one in that colony, the house wives included, was a graduate. They own Color TV, read news papers, discuss politics and happenings all over the country.
The shop was started in one of the houses in the colony. The owners, strangers to the city, wore expensive gold ornaments, displaying their affluence.
“They had an interesting scheme”, Mrs. Suma reddy observed, “You pay a third of the show room price of any electronic and electrical gadgets used at home. Wait for three months. Take home the piece without paying a Rupee more”.
Mrs. Anthoni was curious, how was it possible? Mrs. Suma Reddy replied, “Well, I also got the same thought and asked the owners”. Their answer was convincing,
they don’t have any establishment expense of such large show rooms in busy business centers. The show rooms have flashy interiors, heavy lighting uniformed graduate shop assistants. All costs a lot of money. Who pays all the expense? Mrs. Anthoni said, “It is we”.
Together, they invested some Rs 3000 for a refrigerator each. Both had an old, noisy refrigerator in their homes.
They did not inform their respective husbands till they got the piece delivered.
Today with Mrs. Suma Reddy and Mrs. Anthoni got their brand new refrigerator.
It is now, six months since the new shop was opened. Both Mrs. Suma Reddy and Mrs. Anthoni bought quite a few things, this time with their husband’s knowledge.
Now several relatives in distant districts were informed. Some had kept their money for their ward’s education and some others for their daughter’s marriage.
The promoters offered new deal. In the event they do not want to buy a gadget, he would return three times the amount by the turn of fourth month.
It is now nine months since the shop was opened. Now there is a queue to pay the deposits. Month eleven. The shop was found closed.
The initial news was that the promoters have gone home due to some emergency situation at home. That is what the watchman cum helper in the shop was told to inform who so ever the enquiries.
Now it is the start of the thirteenth month. Nearly four hundred people stand before the police station and demand action to bring the promoters.
News papers and TV channel crews are busy interviewing those who lost their money.
Top brass of police assures immediate action. The sketches of the promoters are made by the artist from police department.
An estimated Rupees 10 Crore were made good by twosome in less than a year.
(1) No one ever thought what kind of investment would fetch such a huge profit to give 300% returns to the investors!
(2) This is not the first such incidence. It
happened before ad it would happen again.
(3) Private finance companies, chit fund
companies, employment agencies take huge money from people round the year. Print and visual Media flashes the news day-in and day-out.
Still year after year people get deceived. Don’t know if such events take place in any other part of the globe?
IF some one offer returns much more than Government banks, sto
p and think. Do not rush to throw your life’s savings into such impossible schemes. Talk to a bank manager a chartered accountant or finance professional.
Ultimately do not become a victim of cheating by succumbing to silly tricks of the crooks.
Theme: Clinging. Know this:
(1) we cling to Material, people, faith, belief. But feel insecure without, even any one of them.
(2) Religions advice giving a substantial portion of your property in Charity. (We don’t do it).
(3) The people who take to spiritual path succeed to Un-cling. Said in other way, they give up whatever they help, consciously and happily.
(4)In the eastern religions, when one undertakes a pilgrimage to a holy place, should invariably leave something. Unfortunately, it is reduced to a symbolic, or a gesture instead of implementing both in letters and spirits.
(5) What you should leave is not what you
liked. Rather what you hold on to.
Theme: Clinging.
Short Story 14.
African Monkeys.