DIVINE STORIES 07-2022-06 Dear friends,
I have started posting a few divine stories. Hope thesestories could be refreshing. These werestored in memory device earlier after reading from different websites. There are variations in these stories as heard popularly. Gopala Krishnan 21-7-22 1 When to do Good Things Once there was a rich man. But not even once in his life had hedone any charity. One day, he felt a sudden urge to do some “dana”. He decided to give goldsmall pieces to poor people every day. Unfortunately, he told hiswife about his intention. She said, “My beloved one, instead of giving smallpieces, you can give a larger quantity of gold, by gathering all the pieces. Therich man accepted her words as divine mantras. Hence from that day onwards, hestarted to gather the golden pieces. He decided to make them into a big goldenball and then give it away before his death. Years rolled on and he collected a good many small pieces, whichhe made into a golden ball and kept it inside his pillow. Allof a sudden, one day, he fell ill and his condition became quite serious. Hecould not even move his hands. His tongue lost its power and he could notspeak. He hi-cupped and the sputum blocked his throat. He understood that death was near andresented very much for not performing the cherished ‘dana’ already. Hesaid to himself “At least now I should do the thing”. But he couldn’t evenspeak out what he was thinking. He could not move his hands and take the goldball out of the pillow. He tried to remind his wife oftheir resolve. Collectingall his energy, he showed by signs to his wife, “As we had discussed earlier, Ihave made a gold ball with the pieces of gold intended for giving in charitydaily. The ball is now inside the pillow. Now, my end has come. But I have nostrength to take it out and give it to the needy people. Without making any further delay, youplease take it out and give it in charity”. Thewife understood what her husband meant. But she thought, “Myhusband is going to die soon. There is no surety that my children will takecare of me, after they grow. So now is the time for me to act intelligently. Iwill not give the golden ball in charity now. Rather I can keep it with meuntil my lifetime. That is the only safety for my life”. Hertwo sons standing nearby could not understand what their father wanted toconvey by his signs. The younger one asked his mother, “Mother, Father shows signs of aball, what he wants to say?” Themother did not want to tell him the truth. She said, “Son, before you wereborn, we regularly took wood-apple fruit, and we both liked it. He used tobring the fruit and I would mix it with sugar and give it to him. Now also hewants that fruit”. Theelder son said, “Mother, it is our duty to fulfil the last wish of our father.So, we shall bring the fruit”. He started with his younger brother. It was notthe season for that fruit. However after a great deal of searching the boysfound out a wood-apple tree. But a new problem cropped up. None of them knewhow to climbing a tree. They stood below worrying how to pluck the fruits. Theywere sad. Afew monkeys were living in that tree. Imitating the two boys they also mockedat them by putting up a sad appearance. On seeing that, the younger brother gotan idea, “Brother, the monkeys showsad faces like us. Let us throw a stone at them. In return, the monkeys willhit us with those fruits”. Immediatelythey picked up a stone each and threw them at the monkeys. The monkeys likevery much to imitate the actions of human-beings. Immediately they plucked thefruits from the tree and threw them at the boys. Thesons picked up the fruits and ran to their mother. Shetook the pulp from the fruits, mixed it with sugar and gave it to her husband.The husband was already suffering with sputum blocking his throat and hecouldn’t speak. But just to save the gold, the wifecompelled her husband to eat that fruit. Due to her compulsion, he also had toeat it. Itis a well known fact that anyone who takes that fruit too much, while sufferingwith cold and sputum has to die. This is a common truth. It became true in thematter of that rich man also. He died. This is a Jain story. What do we understand from this? Good things are to be done immediately, because wedon’t know whether tomorrow belongs to us or to the God of Death. The thing that we want to do on a future day should be donetomorrow itself. That, which we intend to do tomorrow should be done todayitself. Finally what we intend to do today should be carried out now itself. InSanskrit they say - Subhasya Seegram. 2 Where is GOD? Once an inquisitive devotee asked a realized saint, “Bhagavan, whatis the form of God? Where does he live and where can I find him?” Thesaint said, “God is everywhere and is allpervading. He is blissful,omniscient and immortal and He is your own self”. The devotee asked, “If it isso, why do I not perceive and have an experience of Him?” The saint replied, “Asthe God is all pervading, He is within your own mind as well but your mind isnot in Him. Your mind is engrossed in theworld.” Thesaint in many ways tried to make him understand the existence of God but thedevotee could not comprehend and realize God. The saint then told him, “Go toHaridwar, there in Ganga, there is a fish of a strange colour and it can speakin the voice of human beings. The fish will give you an appropriate answer toyour question”. Theinquisitive devotee bowed to the saint, touched his feet and started on his wayto Haridwar. There he sat down in a corner and began to wait for the arrival ofthe strange fish. Whenever he saw any fish he repeated his question and asked whereGod lived and how could he see Him? After sometime the strange fish came and asked thedevotee “where from have you come?” The devotee replied, “A saint asked me to see you and I wantto know where does God live and how can I see Him?” The fish said to him, “I am thirsty for thelast seven days. So tell me where I can get water from.” Onlistening to the words of the fish, the devotee laughed and said, “Oh foolishone, water is above you, below you, it is on your right, on your left and thereis water on all you sides”. Whenthe devotee spoke like this, the fish became serious and said, “Oh, you innocent devotee. You are alsofoolish like me. God whom you are searching is above you, below you, on yourright, on your left, and in brief he is on all your sides. Thedevotee was a bit satisfied and said, “If so, why am I unable to see theblissful God and why am I so miserable?” The fish said, “The same is my question. If water ison all my sides why is my thirst not quenched? Thedevotee knew the construction of the body of the fish and knew that so long asthe fish swam straight with its face upward, no water can enter its mouth. To quench its thirst the fish has toswim upside down. If theconstruction of the body of the fish is not been like this, water can enter itsbody freely and it will die. So the devotee advised the fish to take a turnupside down to quench its thirst. Thefish then said to the devotee, “As we have to take a turn to quench our thirst,you should also take a turn to see God. Turn away from the desires to see God.In other words, when you turn the flow of the thoughts of your mind from theworld to the blissful omniscient God, then all your sorrows will come to an end. The devotee didaccordingly and realized his real Self. 3 Where is the Power? Once, in Heaven there was a discussion among the gods to decidewhere the miraculous secret power, the power by which man can achieve anythingin this world was to be kept hidden. One of the Gods suggestedthat it could be kept hidden in the depths of the Sea. Another said it could beburied on top of high mountains. The third one thought of a cave in the woodsas the right place. At last, the most intelligent among them said, ‘Keep it in the depths of man’s mind.He will never suspect that the power ishidden there because right from his childhood, his mind is prone to wanderingand he will not look within. Onlythe intelligent among them will look within, and use the power and becomegreat.’ All gods agreed. So,do you see that the difference between two people lies in their minds? Oneknows how to tap its power and the other does not. So, the truth expressed hereis that in the depths of man’s mind lies hidden the miraculous power, usingwhich one can become great. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Thatha_Patty" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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