STORY OF THE DAY

[snatarajan]

Great one !! Ramesh Ji,

Welcome Back.

Om Sai Ram,
Natarajan S.

[Dipika]

OMSAIRAM Ramesh ji,
It's really Beautiful !We were missing all these stories for so many days.Thanks Sai baba !
WELCOME BACK!
Are u in Delhi?

Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM



dipika duggal

[Ramesh Ramnani]

ARE WE NOT BLINDS?

An ancient Eastern story is that ten blind men crossed a stream. The current was very strong, so they took hold of each other's hands because they were afraid somebody may be taken away by the current.

They reached the other shore, and somebody amongst them suggested, "It is better we should count because the current and the stream were really dangerous. Somebody may have slipped, and we may not even be aware."

So they started counting. It was a great shock, and they were all crying and weeping; everybody tried, but the count was always nine --because nobody was counting himself. Naturally, he would start counting, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.... My God, one has gone!" So they all were crying.

A woodcutter was watching all this drama and he said... he had never seen ten blind men together, in the first place. Second, what a stupid idea these people had. What was the need to cross the stream when it was so strong and flooded? And, above all, now they were counting, and crying and weeping for someone -- they did not know who, but certainly someone had been taken away by the current.

Watching them counting, he was simply amazed how was it possible that they were ten persons, but the count always came to nine?

Some help was needed, so he came down from his tree and he said, "What is the matter?"

They all said, "We have lost one of our friends. We were ten, and now we are only nine."

The man said, "I can find your tenth man. You are right, you used to be ten, but there is a condition."

They said, "We will accept any condition, but our friend...."
 
He said, "It is not a very big condition, it is a simple condition. I will hit on the first man's head; he has to say "one." Then I will hit on the second person's head two times; he has to say "two." Then I will hit on the third person's three times; he has to say "three."

As many times as I hit, the person has to speak the number."
They said, "If this is the way to find the lost friend, we are ready."

So he enjoyed hitting very much, and he hit them in turn. When he had hit the tenth man ten times he said "ten." All the nine said, "You idiot, where have you been? Unnecessarily we have all been beaten! Where you have been hiding up to now?"

He said, "I was standing here, I was myself counting, and it always came to nine. This man seems to be a miracle man; he managed to find the tenth man."

The story is significant for the simple reason that it has become our habit not to count ourselves.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Our Ego is Exhibition?

It happened once that Henry Ford came to England. At the airport inquiry office he asked for the cheapest hotel in town. The clerk in the office looked -- the face was famous. Henry Ford was known all over the world. Just the day before there were big pictures of him in the newspapers saying that he was coming.

And here he was, asking for the cheapest hotel, wearing a coat that looked as old as he himself.

So the clerk said, "If I am not mistaken, you are Mr. Henry Ford. I remember well, I have seen your picture."

The man said, "Yes."

This puzzled the clerk very much, and he said, "You are asking for the cheapest hotel, wearing a coat that looks as old as you yourself. I have also seen your son coming here, and he always inquires about the best hotel, and he comes in the best of clothes."

Henry Ford is reported to have said, "Yes, my son's behavior is exhibitionist, he is not yet attuned. There is no need for me to stay in a costly hotel; wherever I stay I am Henry Ford. Even in the cheapest hotel I am Henry Ford, it makes no difference. My son is still new, afraid of what people will think if he stays in a cheap hotel. And this coat, yes, this belonged to my father -- but it makes no difference, I don't need new clothes. I am Henry Ford, whatsoever the dress; even if I am standing naked, I am Henry Ford. It makes no difference at all."

When you are really attuned, really rich in the inner world, you are not concerned with exhibition. When you first go to a temple, your prayer is a little louder than others. It has to be. You want to show off.

The showmanship is part of the ego, what you show is not the problem. You show, you exhibit.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

In love, in hate, everything is permitted

I have heard about one wise man who was known as The Madman. Nobody knew anything else about him, his name or anything, he was just known as The Madman. He was a Jew, and Jews have created a few really wise men, they have something of the inner source. That is why Jesus could be born amongst them.

This madman behaved in such a foolish way that the whole community became disturbed because nobody knew what he was going to do next. On the religious days, Yom Kippur or other festivals, the whole community was afraid, because it could not be predicted what this rabbi would do, how he would appear there, how he would behave. His prayers were also mad.

Once he called the court, the Jewish court, all the ten judges of the court.

The court came, because the rabbi called, and he said, "I have a case against God, so decide how to punish this fellow God. I will present all the arguments to prove that God is unjust and a criminal."

The judges became very much afraid but they had to listen because he was the rabbi, the head of the temple. And he made out his case like a lawyer in court.

He said, "God, you created the world, and now you send messengers telling us how to renounce it. What foolishness! You gave us desires and now all your teachers keep coming and saying: Be desireless. So what do you think you are doing? And if we have committed any sins it is really YOU who are the culprit, because why did you create desire?"

What should the court decide? He was right, but the court decided that this man had gone completely mad and should be expelled from the temple.

But this man is really telling the truth. He loves God so much that it is an I/thou relationship, so intimate. He asks, "What are you doing? Enough, now stop, no more fooling." He must have loved the divine so much that he could behave in that way.

And it is said that God immediately stopped when he called. He had to listen to this man.
 
And the angels asked, "Suddenly you stopped, what happened?"
 
He said, "That madman is praying. I have to listen, because whatsoever he says is true, and he loves me so much that there is no need for formality.

..." In love, in hate, everything is permitted, everything is allowed.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Undivided you are life, divided you become dead - Part-I

Have you heard the story about the centipede? A centipede was walking along on his one hundred legs -- that is why he is called a centipede. It is a miracle to walk with a hundred feet, even to manage two is so difficult! To manage one hundred legs is really almost impossible. But the centipede has been managing to do it!

A fox became curious -- and foxes are always curious. The fox is the symbol in folklore of the mind, of the intellect, of logic. Foxes are great logicians.The fox looked, she observed, she analyzed, she couldn't believe it. She said, "Wait! I have a question. How do you manage, and how do you know which foot has to follow which? One hundred legs! You walk so smoothly. How does this harmony happen?"

The centipede said, "I have been walking all my life but I have never thought about it. Give me a little time."

So he closed his eyes and for the first time he became divided: the mind as observer, and himself as the observed.

For the first time the centipede became two. He had always been living and walking, and his life was one whole; there was no observer standing looking at himself, he was never divided, he had been an integrated being. Now, for the first time, division arose. He was looking at his own self, thinking. He had become subject and object, he had become two, and then he started walking. It was difficult, almost impossible. He fell down -- because how do you manage one hundred legs?

The fox laughed and he said, "I knew it must be difficult, I knew it beforehand."

The centipede started crying and weeping. With tears in his eyes he said, "It has never been difficult before, but you have created the problem. Now I will never be able to walk again."

The mind has come into being; it comes into being when you are divided. The mind feeds on division. That is why when the observer has become the observed you are in meditation.
 
The opposite happened to the centipede. The wholeness was lost, he became two: the observer and the observed, divided; the subject and the object, the thinker and the thought. Then everything was disturbed, then bliss was lost and the flow stopped. Then he got frozen.

Whenever the mind comes in, it comes as a controlling force, a manager. It is not the master, it is the manager. And you cannot get to the master unless this manager is put aside.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Undivided you are life, divided you become dead - Part-II

The manager won't allow you to reach the master, the manager will always be standing in the doorway managing. And all managers only mismanage -- mind has done such a great job of mismanaging.
 
Poor centipede. He had always been happy. He had no problems at all. He lived, moved, loved, everything, no problems at all, because there was no mind. Mind came in with the problem, with the question, with the inquiry. And there are many foxes around you. Beware of them -- philosophers, theologians, logicians, professors all around you -- foxes. They ask you questions and they create a disturbance.

It is said: When there was not a single philosopher, everything was solved, there were no questions, and all answers were available. When philosophers arose, questions came and answers disappeared. Whenever there is a question the answer is very far away. Whenever you ask, you will never get the answer, but when you stop asking, you will find that the answer has always been there.

I do not know what happened to this centipede. If he was as foolish as human beings, he would be somewhere in a hospital, crippled, paralyzed forever. But I don't think that centipedes are so foolish. He must have thrown the question out. He must have told the fox, "Keep your questions to yourself, and let me walk." He must have come to know that division wouldn't allow him to live, because division creates death.

Undivided you are life, divided you become dead -- the more divided, the more dead.

What is bliss? Bliss is the feeling that comes to you when the obser-ver has become the observed. Bliss is the feeling that comes to you when you are in harmony, not fragmented; one, not disintegrated, not divided. Feeling is not something that happens from the outside. It is the melody that arises out of your inner harmoniousness.

[san2004]

OM Sai Ram Ramesh Ji,
These are excellent depictions and do show us the right path.
Jai Sai Ram,
Sanjiv

[Ramesh Ramnani]

You give only that which you have.

Once a beggar came to a synagogue and he told the rabbi, "I am a great musician, and I have heard that the musician who belonged to this synagogue is dead, and you are looking for another. So I offer myself."

The rabbi and the congregation were happy because they were really missing their music. Then the man played -- it was horrible! It was more musical without his music. He created a hell. It was impossible to feel any silence in that synagogue that morning. He had to be stopped, because most of the congregation started to leave. People escaped as fast as they could because his music was just anarchic, it was like madness, and it started to affect people.
 
When the rabbi heard that everybody was leaving, he went to the man and stopped him. The man said, "If you don't want me, you can pay for this morning and then I will go."
 
The rabbi said, "It is impossible to pay you, we have never experienced such a horrible thing."

Then the musician said, "Okay, then keep it as a contribution from me."

The rabbi said, "But how can you contribute what you don't possess? You don't have any music at all -- how can you contribute? You can contribute something only when you have got it.

This is no music; rather, on the contrary, it is something like antimusic. So please take it away with you, don't contribute it to us or it will go on haunting us."

You give only that which you have. You always give your being. If you are dead within, you cannot help life; wherever you go you will kill. Knowingly, unknowingly, that is not the point -- you may think that you are helping others to live, but still you will kill.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Fallen in love with Sadguru Sainath?

Ramakrishna was dying and his last instructions to his wife were.... In India, the moment the husband dies the wife goes through a trauma. She cannot wear colored clothes, she has to shave her head -- she cannot have hair; she cannot use any ornaments, not even the cheapest glass bangles -- she has to break them.

But before dying Ramakrishna, called Sharda, his wife, and told her, "Remember, you are never going to become a widow. I am dying, but I will be here. I will not be confined in the body, but you have not loved only my body; you have loved me, my consciousness. So don't become a widow. Use beautiful clothes; just for my joy, use all the beautiful ornaments that I have given to you. And remember" -- he loved delicious food too much -- he said, "Remember, don't forget to create beautiful dishes for me. I will not be able to eat them, but even the aroma of your beautiful food will be a nourishment to me. And don't forget to prepare my bed rightly, particularly the mosquito net."

His disciples were feeling very embarrassed, "What is he saying? Has he gone insane? A dying enlightened person is worried about the mosquito net...."

Sharda followed his instructions for almost thirty years that she lived after him. She would prepare his food the same way she used to prepare it while he was in the body. She would take it to his room -- and nobody was there -- and she would say, "Paramahansdev, your food is ready."

She would sit like the way she used to sit, with her fan in her hand. There was nobody. The disciples tried to convince her -- "This is absolutely mad; you go on fanning and there is nobody...."

She said, "There may not be for you; there is for me." She would prepare the bed the way he liked, with many covers. She would take care about the mosquito net, that not a single mosquito entered inside.

Very few people have understood Sharda, but she really loved Ramakrishna -- not the body in which he was, but him, his being. Now the body is no longer there, but the being is spread all over existence; he is more than he was before. Before he was imprisoned in the body; now he is unembodied. Now he is just freedom.

The enlightened man helps people while he is alive, and he goes on helping people while he is not in the body. But if you cannot understand an enlightened man while he is in the body, it is very difficult for you to understand when he is not in the body.

Once you have fallen in love with a Sadguru, slowly, slowly he is no more a body to you. He becomes only a pure consciousness.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

WHERE ALL METHODS ARE DROPPED - (Part-I)

It is a Chinese story about an archer who was the greatest archer in the whole land. He went to the emperor saying that the whole country should be made aware that if anybody wants to contest with him, he's available. "If nobody turns up, then you have to declare me the champion of archery." The emperor knew the man, and he knew his art, his archery, and he knew there was nobody else who could even come close to him.
   
His art was perfect; he never missed a target. So the emperor was willing to declare him the champion of archery in the whole land of China.

Just at that moment, his old prime minister prevented him saying, "Wait a minute, because I know a man who lives far away in the mountains. Unless this archer goes to that old man, and that old man certifies that he should be declared the champion, you should wait. You should not be in a hurry, because that old man is not only the champion of this land, he is the champion of the whole world, although he's a non-competitive man, non-ambitious, and people don't know about him. Send this archer first to get a certificate from that old man." And he gave the directions where the old man would be found.

The archer could not believe that anyone could be better; he was one hundred percent successful in hitting the bulls eye exactly in the middle, he never missed the target. It was inconceivable for him that anybody could be a better archer! But there was no way.... The emperor told him to go to the mountains, and bring a certificate.

It was a difficult journey. The old man lived on a very high peak of the mountain, alone. He was really very old, almost ancient, and he had no bow, no arrows. He was just sitting under a tree. The archer asked, "Are you the man who is the greatest archer in the world?"

The old man said, "Perhaps, because on this mountain nobody else lives.

But I can't be certain because I have never been competitive. As far as archery is concerned, for twenty years I have not touched the bow, have not seen the arrows. In fact, I have lost track where they are. But what is the problem? Why have you traveled so far?"

The young man said, "I knew it before that this would be an unnecessary journey! A man who has not touched the bow for twenty years, and who has even forgotten where his bow and his arrows are...."

Still, because of the emperor's requirement, he said to the old man, "I want to be declared the champion of the art in the whole country, and the emperor has sent me to get your certificate."

The old man said, "That is not difficult. But seeing a bow with you, and the arrows, makes me suspicious that you are an amateur because the old saying is: `When the musician becomes perfect, he throws away his musical instruments; when the archer becomes really an archer, perfect in his art, he breaks down his bow, and throws the arrows.' They are good to begin with, but one has to transcend technique at a certain moment. You will have to pass two tests: one is, do you see that protruding rock over the valley?"
 
There was a long rock, very low, protruding over a very deep valley, thousands of feet deep. The old man said, "Go to that rock, to the very end. The test is to stand at the very end, with half your feet hanging over the rock, with just the front part, your toes, on the rock.
 
If you can stand there without any trembling, you have passed the first test."

The man said, "My God! But what kind of archery is this? This is sure death!"

But the old man said, "I will go first to show you the way it has to be done."

He could not believe his eyes. The old man went to the very end of the protruding rock; and he stood there with half the feet on the rock, over the valley thousands of feet deep. And there was not even a small wavering or trembling. He called the young man, "Now, come on, and stand by my side."

The young man tried just one step on the rock. As he looked downward, such fear overwhelmed him... he fell on the ground, trembling, perspiring. He could not reach the end -- he was only at the beginning of the rock.

The old man said, "What is the matter? Come on, have courage. If you are so fearful and trembling inside, your archery cannot be of great value, because it is your hands which will take the bow and it is your hands which will take the arrows; it is your heart which has to be used in it. This fear... try, make an effort."
 
He started crawling on all fours. Standing and moving on that rock, he found impossible. Those thousands of feet were so dangerous; just a single wrong step and you will never be found. You will be broken into bits and pieces and thrown over the whole valley.
But he could reach by crawling only to the middle.

He said, "More than that, I cannot do."

The old man laughed. He came back, supported the man to stand up, and took him back to the tree. He said, "I had said you are just an amateur; otherwise there is no need of this bow and these arrows. Now, look at me: when the archer becomes perfect his eyes become arrows, his very being becomes the bow."

He looked at a flying flock of twelve cranes, and they all fell down on the earth. He said, "If you can make even a single bird fall down on the earth, just with your eyes, I will certify you."

The young man said, "That is impossible. How can one do it?"

The old man said, "I have just done it, and not one, twelve cranes are just dead, lying before you."

The young man said, "You are right; I am simply an amateur. I would like to be accepted as a disciple; I would like to learn archery."

The old man said, "That sounds right. Be here."

[Ramesh Ramnani]

WHERE ALL METHODS ARE DROPPED - (Part-II)


After ten years, the old man said, "Now you can go back, but don't go to the emperor; go home. The day you suddenly realize, seeing your bow hanging on the wall, that you cannot recognize it, that is the day you can go to the emperor."

The emperor was becoming very old, and he enquired again and again from his prime minister, "What happened to that young man?"

The prime minister said, "He has reached the old man; I have been watching.

He's learning, he has reached his home, and now he's waiting for the sign to come."

The emperor said, "I am becoming very old."

One day, a few years after coming home, the man looked at the bow hanging on the wall, and enquired of his son, "What is that object?"

The son said, "Have you gone mad? It is your bow, those are your arrows."

He said, "Bow? Arrows? Am I an archer?"

The son said, "Are you laughing at me, or kidding me? or just going senile?"

He said, "No, the time has come. I have to go to the emperor."

The son asked, "For what?"

He said, "To be declared the champion of archery in the land."

He went to the emperor. The prime minister said, "Have you brought the certificate?"
 
He said, "I am the certificate."

They were sitting in the garden. He looked at a bird flying faraway in the sky, almost invisible. But as he looked at the bird, the bird came falling to the feet of the emperor.

The emperor said, "Is this archery or some kind of magic?"

The man said, "I don't know, but this is what that old man has taught me: that if you are a perfect archer, you don't need the bow, you don't need the arrows; your eyes are enough. If you are a perfect musician, you don't need instruments; your silence is music enough."

It is a beautiful story, very ancient, almost three thousand years old.

Lao Tzu used to tell this story to his disciples, and that was twenty-five centuries ago. The story must have been far older.
 
As you become more and more in tune with me, just being here with me, there is music, there is dance. Your ears will not hear it, and your eyes will not see it, but you will feel it; your being will be soaked with it.

Every art has to reach to a point where technologies are dropped. Every meditation has to reach to the point where methods are dropped. They are good for the beginners, for learning the ABC's, but when you have reached to the point of XYZ, they are of no use.
 
Silently, you are filled with music.

Without moving, you are dancing.

Without any thought, any feeling in you, there is just pure grace, gratitude arising out of you, just like fragrance arising out of a lotus flower.

One has to reach to this point. Only then one is fulfilled. Only then, one has attained his destiny.

[san2004]

Om Sai Ram,
You are dot right. There is no method to experience this Bliss.That is what I have always heard. I feel only when Baba wants will HE let me experience this BLISS.When that time will come only HE knows. Whether I deserve it or not only HE can tell.
I can only pray ,"Baba I seek your love ,your affection.I seek pardon for any wrong doing committed knowingly or elsewise. I seek atonement of my sins"
BABA DO NOT KEEP ME AWAY FROM YOUR BHAKTI. DO NOT LET ANYTHING ELSE BOTHER ME.BABA IF I EVER WEEP IT SHOULD NOT BE FROM PAIN OF THIS WORDLY EXISTANCE BUT  FROM THE PLEASURE FELT AND EXPERIECED ON FEELING YOU,SEEING YOU.BABA GIVE ME YOUR AASHIRWAD SO THAT I CAN SEE YOU IN ALL LIVING-NON LIVING THINGS.BABA ALWAYS BE MY SIDE.

JAI SAI RAM,
SANJIV

[Dipika]

OMSAIRAM Sai baba u send Ramesh ji to this form so that we devotees of yours feel your presence always.
Blessed were Sai devotees of Shirdi who had darshan of Baba and also lived with him for 60 years.
They all realised he was a Sadguru.
Whereas we fools Don't realise the Greatness of our Guru Sai baba.
Sai baba give us the eyes to always see u .
GIVE US THE EARS TO ALWAYS HEAR YOUR LEELAS.
Give us the tongue to always sing your leelas.
Devaa this body u have given We should feel your presence always.
Bless all of us with Shraddha and Saburi that Mahalsapathy had on u.

Sai baba let your holy lotus feet be our sole refuge.OMSAIRAM


dipika duggal

[Ramesh Ramnani]

JAI SAI RAM DIPIKAJI AND SANJIV BHAI!!!

Thank BABA for all your likings. You can't even develop your likings without the wishes of BABA. So keep on liking whatever you have in your life, whatever you experience in life; whether pain or happiness. Just keep on accepting. No rejections!!! Thanks for your likings of fulfilling BABA's wishes; that's the way to live. So Enjoy reading!!!

OM SAI RAM!!!