STORY OF THE DAY

[ANKITA]

A Mother's Sacrifice:

A Very Heart Touching and Inspirational  Story!...........

My mom only had one eye. I hated her... she was such an embarrassment. My mom ran a small shop at a flea market. She collected little weeds and such to sell... anything for the money we needed she was such an embarrassment. There was this one day during elementary school.
I remember that it was field day, and my mom came. I was so embarrassed.
How could she do this to me? I threw her a hateful look and ran out. The next day at school..."Your mom only has one eye?!" and they taunted me.
 
I wished that my mom would just disappear from this world so I said to my mom, "Mom, why don't you have the other eye?! You're only going to make me a laughing stock. Why don't you just die?" My mom did not respond. I guess I felt a little bad, but at the same time, it felt good to think that I had said what I'd wanted to say all this time.
 
May be it was because my mom hadn't punished me, but I didn't think that I had hurt her feelings very badly.
 
That night...I woke up, and went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. My mom was crying there, so quietly, as if she was afraid that she might wake me. I took a look at her, and then turned away. Because of the thing I had said to her earlier, there was something pinching at me in the corner of my heart. Even so, I hated my mother who was crying out of her one eye. So I told myself that I would grow up and become successful, because I hated my one-eyed mom and our desperate poverty.
 
Then I studied really hard. I left my mother and came to Seoul and studied, and got accepted in the Seoul University with all the confidence I had. Then, I got married. I bought a house of my own. Then I had kids, too. Now I'm living happily as a successful man. I like it here because it's a place that doesn't remind me of my mom.
 
This happiness was getting bigger and bigger, when someone unexpected came to see me "What?! Who's this?!" ...It was my mother...Still with her one eye. It felt as if the whole sky was falling apart on me. My little girl ran away, scared of my mom's eye.
 
And I asked her, "Who are you? I don't know you!!!" as if I tried to make that real. I screamed at her "How dare you come to my house and scare my daughter! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!" And to this, my mother quietly answered, "oh, I'm so sorry. I may have gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared. Thank good ness... she doesn't recognize me. I was quite relieved. I told myself that I wasn't going to care, or think about this for the rest of my life.
 
Then a wave of relief came upon me...one day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house. I lied to my wife saying that I was going on a business trip. After the reunion, I went down to the old shack, that I used to call a house...just out of curiosity there, I found my mother fallen on the cold ground. But I did not shed a single tear. She had a piece of paper in her hand.... it was a letter to me.
 
She wrote:
My son...
I think my life has been long enough now. And... I won't visit Seoul anymore... but would it be too much to ask if I wanted you to come visit me once in a while? I miss you so much. And I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion. But I decided not to go to the school.... For you... I'm sorry that I only have one eye, and I was an embarrassment for you.
 
You see, when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with only one eye... so I gave you mine...I was so proud of my son that was seeing a whole new world for me, in my place, with that eye. I was never upset at you for anything you did. The couple times that you were angry with me. I thought to myself, 'it's because he loves me.' I miss the times when you were still young around me.
 
I miss you so much. I love you. You mean the world to me.
 
My world shattered!!!
 
Then I cried for the person who lived for me... My Mother

[tana]

Om Sai Ram~~~

Don't Change the World - NOT MINE~~~
 
Once upon a time, there was a king who ruled a prosperous country. One day,
he went for a trip to some distant areas of his country. When he was back to
his palace, he complained that his feet were very painful, because it was the first time that he went for such a long trip, and the road that he went through was very rough and stony. He then ordered his people to cover every
road of the entire country with leather. Definitely, this would need thousands of cows' skin, and would cost a huge amount of money.

Then one of his wise servant dared himself to tell the king, "Why do you have to spend that unnecessary amount of money ? Why don't you just cut a little piece of leather to cover your feet ?"

The king was surprised, but he later agreed to his suggestion, to make a
"shoe" for himself.

There is actually a valuable lesson of life in this story : to make this world a happy place to live, you better change yourself - your heart; and not the world . . .

Jai Sai Ram~~~

[Ramesh Ramnani]

UNDERSTANDING....

A great jeweller died. He had left many valuable stones to his wife, and she was in troubles so she called another jeweller, a friend of her late husband, to sell these stones.

He looked into the stones and he said: Keep them. Right now the market is not running well, and they will not fetch much.

Keep them, whenever I see that the right time has come we will sell them. But, send your son to my shop every day so that I can teach him the art.
 
Years passed. And then the woman again said: Those stones are lying there, and we are poor and we are in difficulty, now sell them. The jeweller said: I will come today.

The jeweller came. He brought the woman's son who had been learning the art of jewellery with him and he told the boy: Now bring those stones. The boy opened the box, looked at the stones. They were useless. The boy laughed, went out, threw the whole box into the road.

The mother started crying: What are you doing? The boy said: They are all useless. They are not valuable at all, not even semi-precious.

But for years the woman had been keeping them as a great treasure, protecting them, so she asked the friend of her dead husband: Why didn't you say this before? He said: Then you may not have believed me. They were useless, but you may not have believed me because that would have been just a knowledge to you. It would have been difficult to trust me. Hence I asked your son to be trained. Now he knows. Now I am not in between.

Did the son wait for a single moment? Once he knew that they were ordinary stones he simply went out and threw them into the street. Not a single moment was lost. It was not a treasure -- finished!

The same happens in life.
 
If you understand a thing, you understand. You never ask, How to do it? The HOW comes only to a knowledgeable person, not to a man of understanding.  Be aware! And there is no HOW to it that understanding is enough unto itself. No effort is needed to practise it. If effort is needed it is not an understanding. And through effort no one reaches the truth, only through understanding.

[tana]

Om Sai Ram~~~

God has the answers~~~

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited
island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned
the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to
protect himself from the elements, and to store his few possessions.

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his
little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky. The worst had
happened - everything was lost. He was stunned with grief and anger.

"God, how could you do this to me?" he cried.

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was
approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.

"How did you know I was here?" asked the weary man of his rescuers.

"We saw your smoke signal," they replied.

It's easy to get discouraged sometimes when things appear to be going badly.
But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in
the midst of pain and suffering. Remember, next time your little hut is
burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace
of God.

For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for it.

Jai Sai Ram~~~

[Ramesh Ramnani]

The Power Of Devotion


A man and his wife lived a simple, pious life. They were so poor that they had barely enough food or clothing. The man made both ends meet by begging and whatever he got the couple offered to God before consuming it themselves.
   
One morning, while reading the Bhagavad Gita, the man came across verse 9.22 where Lord Krishna says: “To those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, constantly absorbed in thoughts of Me — to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they already have”.
   
Perplexed, he thought: “I am a singularly staunch devotee of the Lord and i have Him in my thoughts constantly. Yet He keeps us in abject poverty, giving us nothing. Moreover, why should He who is the creator and master of all the universes, personally carry a devotee’s necessities? I am sure the Lord could not have said these words; someone has interpreted them incorrectly”. So thinking, he struck off the words ‘vahaamy aham’ (i carry) with red ink. He now felt relieved.
   
As the husband set off to seek alms, his wife called out: “There is not a morsel to eat in the house. Get something and come home quickly”.
   
A while later the wife heard someone at the door. At the threshold stood a dark, handsome lad of some 12 years with a huge basket on his head. She could not take her eyes off the young boy, so strikingly attractive was he.
   
“Here, help me put down the basket, Maiya. Your husband has sent these for you”, he said. She lent a hand and as he bent down to put the basket on the floor, she noticed three ugly red gashes on his back, raw and bleeding, as if someone had just struck him with a whip. “Oh my God! What wretched man did this to you?” she burst out. “Maiya, it was your husband who whipped me because he doubted my willingness to deliver this basket to you”. “Wait here”, she said, “I will clean up your wounds”. But when she came back the boy was gone.
 
Soon the husband returned and was surprised to see his wife busy in the kitchen. “What are you cooking?” he asked, “You had said that you did not have anything to eat in the house”. “Why, you sent that huge basket full of fresh vegetables, fruits and grains, lentils and condiments enough to last us six months. But why did you beat the handsome young boy and inflicted three ugly red lash-wounds on his tender back?”
   
“I did not get any alms today, dear wife, so how could i have sent any foodstuffs to you? I never saw the young lad you speak of, so how could i have beaten him?”
   
Thoroughly bewildered by what his wife had said, the husband went into deep thought. He rushed to the Gita he had been reading that morning and opened it to verse 9.22. His heart missed a beat as his eyes focused on the verse. Gone were the three red lines that he had drawn across the words vahaamy aham. He was dumbfounded.

Slowly, tears flowing down his cheeks, he prostrated himself before the deity, “Hey Jagannatha! Forgive me. The wretch that i am; how could i have ever doubted Your words”. Then he turned to his wife: “It was He! How blessed you are to have had darshan of Bhagvan Himself ”.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

Of Goodness, Intimacy And True Sharing

A crow found a piece of meat. The moment it picked up the meat, the other crows and eagles began chasing it. The crow soared higher and higher to safeguard the meat. The others chased it relentlessly. Then, suddenly, the crow dropped the meat; the crows and eagles left the chase, and dived towards the meat that had fallen to the ground.
   
Now that the crow was free from its pursuers, it realised a great truth. “I lost the meat, but then, i have gained great freedom!” Similarly, if we drop our ego, our life will get released from tension. Just as the crow could fly at will in the vast sky, we too can soar in the beauty of life!
   
Vedas have four sections — Moksha Shastra, Artha Shastra, Kama Shastra and Dharma Shastra. The Moksha Shastra says: “Only when we drop our ego, do we realise the bliss that is within us!” The Artha Shastra advocates: “Earn money out of love; not out of greed”. Greed can never satisfy us. The Kama Shastra advocates: “Convert sex into prayer”. The Dharma Shastra says: “Let goodness, not ambition, be the foundation of life”. Out of goodness, let ambition arise.
   
Our parents, siblings, spouse and children deserve our love and care. But while we do not share everything with them, we confide freely with a few friends. Over a period of time, a feeling of intimacy develops.
   
To help intimacy grow in your marital relationship; treat your spouse as your friend. Let there be transparency in your words and deeds. Some declare with pride, “I do not discuss office matters at home!” The reason given by couples is, “If i share office matters with my spouse, it might not be understood. It might lead to confusion and worry”. This may be true to some extent. But it is not so difficult to overcome this simple hurdle, it is to prevent a wall rising between the two of you.
   
When you share your troubles, dreams or worries... what will a good friend do? He would just listen, letting you unburden yourself. He would create an atmosphere for meaningful sharing. Mother Teresa would say: “Don’t spend your time in judging others; then you will not have time to love them!”
   
It is absolutely essential that such an intimacy exists between husband and wife. It is worth looking at an advice provided in Christianity to nourish the intimacy between husband, wife and children. “The family that prays together stays together!”
   
In married life, you have to compromise on certain issues which you may not really like or enjoy. One should learn to accommodate the other’s likes and dislikes. Intimacy is bound to develop in the environment of such readiness to accommodate.
   
You receive as much as you give. One is more blessed in giving than in receiving. One should develop an attitude of giving in to the taste and interest of the spouse on less important issues.
   
You have to learn to like what you dislike too and even dislike what you like; so that you are above likes and dislikes. Then you will have likes and dislikes, instead of likes and dislikes having you! This is true mastery. Be a master of likes and dislikes.

[fatima]

A Lobhi cannot get sat-gati

Long time ago, there used to be a Sanyaasi. He was a great Gnyaani. Many used to respect him and many used to come and get Divya-Upadeshams from him. He was a well known Aadhyaatmavetta. He had many shishyas. He did uddharana of many. Even Kings and Mantris used to come to him, have his darshanam and get Gnyaanopadeshams from him.

The Sanyaasi became very old. Since he was a Gyaani, he came to know soon he has to leave his Bhoutika Shariiram. Hence he was doing Bhagavat-naama-smaranam and waiting for Mrutyudevata.
Knowing this, many many from all parts of the country came there to get the last darshanam of the Sanyaasi. True Bhaktas came to have Darshanam of the Sanyaasi and get some Upadesham if possible. However some came expecting to get some shakti or some materialistic benefit from the Sanyaasi. One of them was a Sampanna (rich fellow). He was a lobhi (miser), Kruuraatma, Muurkha. Hoping to get some more wealth he came to have the Darshanam of the Sanyaasi.

The Sanyaasi, who didnt want to meet anybody, seeing this Parama-lobhi, called him. As soon as the Sanyaasi called him, though many many were waiting, the Lobhi got Garvam. He looked at others with an expression like “see how great I am. The Sanyaasi called me only”.

The Lobhi wanted to ask the Sanyaasi why he chose him only to come in. Repeatedly he kept on asking this. Then Sanyaasi replied “I and these people waiting outside, some or the other time, have chance to meet again in some Uurdhva-lokas. Whereas a Lobhi can never get sat-gati. So I can never meet you. Thus I wanted to do some Hitopadesham to you now only”.

[fatima]

Creation Story

The Creator gathered all of Creation and said,

"I want to hide something from the humans until they are ready for it. It is the realization that they create their own reality."

The eagle said, "Give it to me, I will take it to the moon."

The Creator said, "No. One day they will go there and find it."

The salmon said, "I will bury it on the bottom of the ocean."

"No. They will go there too."

The buffalo said, "I will bury it on the Great Plains."

The Creator said, "They will cut into the skin of the Earth and find it even there."

Grandmother Mole, who lives in the breast of Mother Earth, and who has no physical eyes but sees with spiritual eyes,

said, "Put it inside of them."

And the Creator said, "It is done."

[fatima]

A Chance to Start Over
Thomas Edison

It was a cold December night in West Orange, New Jersey. Thomas Edison's factory was humming with activity. Work was proceeding on a variety of fronts as the great inventor was trying to turn more of his dreams into practical realities. Edison's plant, made of concrete and steel, was deemed "fireproof". As you may have already guessed, it wasn't!

On that frigid night in 1914, the sky was lit up by a sensational blaze that had burst through the plant roof. Edison's 24-year-old son, Charles, made a frenzied search for his famous inventor-father. When he finally found him, he was watching the fire. His white hair was blowing in the wind. His face was illuminated by the leaping flames. "My heart ached for him," said Charles. "Here he was, 67 years old, and everything he had worked for was going up in flames. When he saw me, he shouted, 'Charles! Where's your mother?' When I told him I didn't know, he said, 'Find her! Bring her here! She'll never see anything like this as long as she lives.'"

Next morning, Mr. Edison looked at the ruins of his factory and said this of his loss: "There's value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God, we can start anew."

What a wonderful perspective on things that seem at first to be so disastrous. A business failure, divorce, personal dream gone sour . . . whether these things destroy an individual depends largely on the attitude he or she takes toward them. Sort out why it happened, and learn something from the blunders. Think of different approaches that can be taken.

Start over.

[Ramesh Ramnani]

जय सांई राम।।।   

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream.
 
The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him.
 
She did so without hesitation.
 
The traveler left rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But, a few days later, he came back to return the stone to the wise woman.
 
"I've been thinking," he said.
 
"I know how valuable this stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me this stone."
 
Sometimes it's not the wealth you have but what's inside you that others need.
 
अपना सांई प्यारा सांई सबसे न्यारा अपना सांई

ॐ सांई राम।।।

[tana]

Om Sai Ram~~~

I want to share nice true story by Mother Teresa. I am sure it can inspire everyone. "Let's be like lamps or candles to light people's life."

Remember the Small Things~~~

Some of my sisters work in Australia. On a reservation, among the Aborigines, there was an elderly man. I can assure you that you have never seen a situation as difficult as that poor old man's. He was completely ignored by everyone. His home was disordered and dirty.

I told him, "Please, let me clean your house, wash your clothes, and make your bed."

He answered, "I'm okay like this. Let it be."

I said again, "You will be still better if you allow me to do it."

He finally agreed. So I was able to clean his house and wash his clothes. I discovered a beautiful lamp, covered with dust. Only God knows how many years had passed since he last lit it.

I said to him, "Don't you light your lamp? Don't you ever use it?"

He answered, "No. No one comes to see me. I have no need to light it. Who would I light it for?"

I asked, "Would you light it every night if the sisters came?"

He replied, "Of course."

From that day on the sisters committed themselves to visiting him every evening. We cleaned the lamp and the sisters would light it every evening.

Two years passed. I had completely forgotten that man. He sent this message: "Tell my friend that the light she lit in my life continues to shine still."

I thought it was a very small thing. We often neglect small things. 

Jai Sai Ram~~~

[fatima]

Finding Buddha

A monk set off on a long pilgrimage to find the Buddha. He devoted many years to his search until he finally reached the land where the Buddha was said to live. While crossing the river to this country, the monk looked around as the boatman rowed. He noticed something floating towards them. As it got closer, he realized that it was the corpse of a person. When it drifted so close that he could almost touch it, he suddenly recognized the dead body.

It was his own! He lost all control and wailed at the sight of himself, still and lifeless, drifting along the river's currents. That moment was the beginning of his liberation.

[fatima]

Sharing Happiness

Two men, both seriously ill, occupied the same hospital room. One man was allowed to sit up in his bed for an hour each afternoon to help drain the fluid from his lungs. His bed was next to the room's only window. The other man had to spend all his time flat on his back. The men talked for hours on end. They spoke of their wives and families, their homes, their jobs, their involvement in the military service, where they had been on vacation.

Every afternoon when the man in the bed by the window could 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 began to live for those one hour periods where his world would be broadened and enlivened by all the activity and color of the world outside.

The window overlooked a park with a lovely lake. Ducks and swans played on the water while children sailed their model boats. Young lovers walked arm in arm amidst flowers of every color and a fine view of the city skyline could be seen in the 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 couldn't hear the band - he could see it in his mind's eye as the gentleman by the window portrayed it with descriptive words.

Days and weeks passed.

One morning, the day nurse arrived to bring water for their baths, only to find the lifeless body of the man by the window, who had died peacefully in his sleep. She was saddened and called the hospital attendants to take the body away. As soon as it seemed appropriate, the other man asked if he could be moved next to the window. The nurse was happy to make the switch, and after making sure he was comfortable, she left him alone.

Slowly, painfully, he propped himself up on one elbow to take his first look at the real world outside. He strained to slowly turn to look out the window beside the bed. It faced a blank wall. The man asked the nurse what could have compelled his deceased roommate who had described such wonderful things outside this window. The nurse responded that the man was blind and could not even see the wall.

She said, "Perhaps he just wanted to encourage you

[fatima]

Life Explained

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican village. An American tourist complimented the Mexican fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them.

"Not very long," answered the Mexican.

"But then, why didn't you stay out longer and catch more?" asked the American.

The Mexican explained that his small catch was sufficient to meet his needs and those of his family.

The American asked, "But what do you do with the rest of your time?"

"I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, and take a siesta with my wife. In the evenings, I go into the village to see my friends, have a few drinks, play the guitar, and sing a few songs. I have a full life."

The American interrupted, "I have an MBA from Harvard and I can help you! You should start by fishing longer every day. You can then sell the extra fish you catch. With the extra revenue, you can buy a bigger boat."

"And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"With the extra money the larger boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can then negotiate directly with the processing plants and maybe even open your own plant. You can then leave this little village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles, or even New York City! From there you can direct your huge new enterprise."

"How long would that take?" asked the Mexican.

"Twenty, perhaps twenty-five years," replied the American.

"And after that?"

"Afterwards? Well my friend, that's when it gets really interesting," answered the American, laughing. "When your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions!"

"Millions? Really? And after that?" asked the Mexican.

"After that you'll be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children, catch a few fish, take a siesta with your wife and spend your evenings drinking and enjoying your friends." 

[fatima]

The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away.

Ryoken sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon."