The Pursuit of Happiness

There were two men, both seriously ill, were in a hospital sharing the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour a day. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. 

There was a window next to the bed of the man who was allowed to sit.  The man kept viewing from him window as long as he was allowed to sit.   

The men talked almost everything such as their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been injured and ended up in that hospital. Every afternoon when the
man in the bed next to the window was made to sit up, he would pass the time by describing to his roommate
all the things he could see outside the window. 

The man in the other bed enjoyed the narration, and would live for that one-hour period as though he himself is seeing the beautiful world outside his roommates window.  

As per the sitting man the window overlooked a park with a lovely lake.  There were ducks and swans playing in the water while children sailed their model boats. Lovers walked arm in arm in the park, and he could also  view of the city skyline in a distance. 

As the man by the window, described all this in exquisite detail, the man on the other side of the room would close his eyes and imagine the picturesque scene.

One warm afternoon the man by the window described a parade passing by.  Although the other man could not hear any band, he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window described vividly.

The lying mad started feeling jealous of the mad by the window.  He felt he was deprived of all the pleasure of seeing all the lively activities of the park outside.  He began to brood and started showing his irritation to his roommate.
One night suddenly. the man by the window began to cough. He was choking, and struggling to grab button to call for help. His roommate heard the noise but never moved, never
pushed his own button which would have brought the help. In less than five minutes, the coughing and choking stopped.

The next morning, when the day nurse arrived, she found the lifeless body of the man by the window.  She was shocked and called the hospital attendant and other formalities were finished.

Our friend asked the nurse if can to shift to the bed near the window. The nurse made the changes and left the place after making him comfortable.  

Slowly, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look. He was very very exited about the joy of seeing it all himself. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed.  Oh no, The window was facing a white wall.  There was no park or lake or anything else.  He could believe his eyes.  He realised what his friend was doing for him.  He also realised that,

"The pursuit of happiness is a matter of choice...
It is not a gift that gets delivered to our doorstep each morning, nor does it come through the window.  Its just a way of life."

Dealing with Fear

Once upon a time, there was a tortoise who lived on a ship.  One day the ship sank. After swimming for a long time, the tortoise reached a deserted land surrounded by water on all three sides. The landward side led up to a big, steep, craggy mountain. 

The tortoise was started and tired from the long swimming and there was nothing in that land for the tortoise to eat.  To avoid starving to death, the tortoise decided to climb to the top of the mountain, hoping that on the other side of the mountain he would find something to eat.

When he got to the snow-covered summit of the mountain, he was freezing cold.  Suddenly a snow storm started. He struggled hard and managed to make out a small pathway leading towards the other side of the mountain. 

But the path was guarded by a big monster.  They were making lots of noise.

The tortoise got terrified to death hearing that noise.  He wanted to hide his head inside his shell, but he controlled his fear and looked around him.  He saw that many other animals were lying dead.  The tortoise understood that those animals had died because of unbearable cold. So the tortoise didn't go into his shell for he understood that he too would die if he did not find a way to escape from that place.

He collected his courage and started his long journey towards the otherside, which meant he had to cross the monsters.  As the tortoise started towards the monsters,  the the monsters changed their shapes.  The tortoise came very close to the monster.  Suddenly, the tortoise realised that it was actually a large pile of rocks and not monsters at all.  The rocks were actually formed in the shape like monsters. As for the, the tortoise realised this was just the sound of the wind blowing through a small cave.

The tortoise felt confident and carried on with journey, and eventually descended into a beautiful valley.  The valley was filled with woods, and plenty of food. 

The tortoise lived in that valley very happily, and became known to the others in the valley as the Brave Little Tortoise.

The only way to success is to deal with the fear with bravery.

Saint Kabir

The great Saint Kabir Das was a simple weaver.   He was a man of principles and practised what he preached.   The Saint was a muslim by birth, but some also believed that he was a brahmin.   He had many disciples as well as many who were against him.  
One of his devoted disciple was Bir Singh, who was none other than the Kasi king himself.

Whenever Saint Kabir visited Bir Singh, he used to offer him the throne to sit on and he himself sat  on the floor, at the saint's feet.

One day Kabir decided to test Bir Singh, if he was really as simple as he behaved.

The Saint  walked in the bazaars of Kashi with Ravi Das, the cobbler and a woman disciple who was once a prostitute, singing devotional songs. He carried in his hands, two bottles filled with coloured water, that resembled alcohol.

Some, both Hindus and Muslims who were against Kabir saw this act, created a commotion in the city. People gossiped about the prostitute, the cobbler and the bottles of alcohol.  The news also reached The King.

Saint Kabir entered King Bir Singh’s palace in just this kind of manner.

On seeing Saint Kabir, the King’s faith in the Guru wavered.  He did not get up from the throne.  

Saint Kabir was amused by the kings action and understood that the king thought just as the others did.  Immediately he dropped the bottles of coloured liquids with a crash at his feet.

This made the King think, 

“How odd, an alcoholic would never spill a drop of alcohol. There must be something else in the bottles!”

He got up from his throne and drew Ravi Das  aside and asked,

“Ravi, what is all this about?”

Ravi Das replied, “Oh Maharaj,  don’t you know that the Jagannath temple is on fire, and Kabir is putting out the fire with the water in his bottle?”

The Raja noted down the date and the time. He sent a messenger to make the long journey to Jagannath temple to enquire about the fire.

The people near Jagannath temple confirmed about the fire and  told, 

“Yes, there was a fire and Kabir did indeed put it out.” The Raja’s faith was strengthened again."

A Master can act in many ways but for the good of the disciple.  "

Only a rare disciple can pass this test.

Winning over ones Mind

There was a Great King.  He had conquered many territories and people. 

One day the King met a rishi.  The used to be a great king a long time back.  He gave up everything and went to forest to meditate.  The king invited the rishi to his palace.  The rishi accepted the kings invitation and came to the palace.  The king wanted the rishi to come to his court in the morning.  The rishi refused to come because he had to perform his rituals.  The king tried to impose his commands on the rishi and the rishi refused to obey the king and went back to the forest to continue his peaceful, pious lifestyle.  This annoyed the king.  He wanted to power over the rishi and wanted to make the rishi obey his commands.  People in his kingdom thought it was strange that the king would focus on conquering a rishi who had neither property nor kingdom.

The king went back to the forest in search of the rishi.  He found the rishi in deep medication.  The King tried to attract the rishi’s attention.  He shouted,

“Oh Rishi!!  Come for a fight with me”  The King challenged the Rishi.

To this Rishi laughed out softly and said, “Oh Great King!! Fight! I have ran away from my worldly life because my fear of fighting my one great enemy.  My soul shudders and heart quivers when I hear the sound of my enemy’s name.

This annoyed the king and he asked the rishi angrily, “Tell me oh great sage!!  Who is your enemy?  I will fight and win him for you.  If I cannot win him I will consider myself a failure.”

The saint said, “The great enemy I am talking about is the mind”.

From that day on the king tried everyway to conquer his mind.  He tried all the possible techniques and could not conquer  the mind.  Finally, the king had to admit his failure and accept the mind is truly the strongest enemy.

The mind can be controlled only by way of meditation and it is not easy.  It will wonder in every direction possible while meditation.  The mind will find all kinds of excuses to keep us from meditation. 

Use this tendency of the mind to form positive habits.  The mind likes habits.  If we tell our mind that we need to sit for meditation each day at the same time and place, a habit will form.  Then if we miss meditation for one day, we will start to feel like something is missing.  When we leart to concentrate fully, wholly and solely, we will experience peace. 

The saint taught the king these ways of meditation to the king and he won over his mind.

Eagles and Storm

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it actually reaches the earth?

During that time the eagle will fly to some high place and wait for the stormy winds to come. When the stormy wind reaches where the eagle is waiting, the eagle will opens  its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it.  This will make the eagle glide above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle will be soaring above it.

You know what the eagle is actually doing?  It does not escape the storm but it simply uses the storm to lift itself higher. It rises with the help of the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us, (all of us will experience them) we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward God. The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God's power to lift us above them.

God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure and disappointment in our lives. We can soar above the storm, with our faith.

Burdens of life cannot weigh us down, if we know how to handle them.

Mother

A man lived in a city and his mother lived in a village that was about 200 kilometers away from his place.
It was mothers day.  The  man stopped at a flower shop to order some flowers to be delivered to his mother who lived two hundred miles away.   As he got out of his car he saw a young girl sitting on the the small wall,  sobbing.
He asked her what was wrong and why she was crying.
The little girl replied, "I wanted to buy a red rose for my mother.  But I do not have enough money to buy."
The man smiled and said, "Come on in with me. I'll buy you a rose."
He bought the little girl her rose and ordered his own mother's flowers.
As they were leaving he asked the girl if he can drop her home.
The girl said, "Yes, please! You can take me to my mother."
She directed him to a cemetery, where she placed the rose on a freshly dug grave.
The man was so shocked that he could not talk for a moment.
He became thoughtful.  He returned to the flower shop, and canceled the order for flower delivery.  He picked up the bunch of flowers and drove the two hundred miles to his mother's house.

Physical presence is more than the delivered gifts.

Uncommon Friendship

In a forest there lived a lion along with his family in a den.  One chilly evening, the lion returned to his den with a baby fox cub in his hand.  Mamma lion was waiting for dinner to be served. She was quite sad to see the tiny fox and said, 
“I don’t have the heart to eat him. He is so much like my kids.” 
The lion agreed with the lioness and they decided to raise him with their other two cubs. The little fox learnt to romp, play and eat like the lions.

Both the lion cubs and the little fox grew together.  They started wandering on their own. They all had lot of was fun just wandering together. One day an elephant came along. Elephants are also enemy of the lion. The lion cubs were scared and they whimpered back to the den. But the fox stayed back growling at the elephants. On reaching home, the fox laughed and made fun of the lion cubs for their cowardness. Mamma lioness watched all this with concern.

Late in the night, as the children slept peacefully she told the Lion about her fear, 
“I don’t think our fox child should stay with us. Today he was teasing the cubs, but as they are children now, they will forget about it and play again. But as they grow, the lions will not like the his attitude and at some angry moment they would not hesitate to eat up the fox.” 
The Lion nodded in agreement. Early in the morning Mamma lion told the fox, with tears in her eyes, 
“Though you are my child you are not a lion. For your happiness you must go to your fox family. Be happy and live with them.”

The fox became very sad to leave but understood the matter. He suddenly noticed some fox cubs in the bushes and quickly raced with them. At night, the fox howls and Mamma Lion knows that he is safe somewhere in the forest.  Everyone lives peacefully.


'Uncommon friendship should be respected with some distance.'