Moral Stories

[SS91]

Five More Minutes

While at the park one day, a woman sat down next to a man on a bench near a playground.  “That’s my son over there,” she said, pointing to a little boy in a red sweater who was gliding down the slide.  “He’s a fine looking boy” the man said. “That’s my daughter on the bike in the white dress.”

Then, looking at his watch, he called to his daughter. “What do you say we go, Melissa?”  Melissa pleaded, “Just five more minutes, Dad. Please? Just five more minutes.”  The man nodded and Melissa continued to ride her bike to her heart’s content. Minutes passed and the father stood and called again to his daughter. “Time to go now?”

Again Melissa pleaded, “Five more minutes, Dad. Just five more minutes.”  The man smiled and said, “OK.”  “My, you certainly are a patient father,” the woman responded.

The man smiled and then said, “Her older brother Tommy was killed by a drunk driver last year while he was riding his bike near here. I never spent much time with Tommy and now I’d give anything for just five more minutes with him. I’ve vowed not to make the same mistake with Melissa.  She thinks she has five more minutes to ride her bike. The truth is, I get Five more minutes to watch her play.”


Moral: Life is all about making priorities, and family is one and only priority on top of all other, so spend all time you can with loved ones

[SS91]

Faith is the First Step

The man who is full of faith, who is devoted to it, and who has subdued the senses obtains this knowledge; and, having obtained this knowledge, he goes at once to the supreme peace.



Shraddha is faith. Faith is the greatest thing in the world. Even the highest rationality has faith as its background. One cannot ratiocinate on things in which one has no faith. Even the greatest philosopher has faith as his stronghold. No intellectualism can prove good if it is not supported by faith. The whole world stands on faith and is guided by it. Religion has faith as its root. One cannot prove God if one has no faith in God. God is only a matter of faith. This faith is the outcome of previous spiritual impressions. Certain men are born philosophers and certain others do not grasp the fundamentals of religion even at the age of seventy. This is all due to the past spiritual impressions. Faith is guided by the impressions of actions done in the previous births and the present faith is nearer or farther away from the Truth in accordance with the advance made in spiritual evolution.

Blind faith should be turned into rational faith. Faith without understanding is only blind faith. Devotion is the development of faith. Knowledge is the development of devotion. Faith leads to the final spiritual experience. Whatever a person strongly believes in, that he experiences and that he becomes. The whole world is a product of faithful imagination. If you have no faith in the world, the world does not exist. If you have no faith in sensual objects, they will not give you pleasure. If you have no faith in God, you will never reach perfection. Wrong faith turns even existence into non-existence.

“One who thinks that Brahman does not exist, himself becomes non-existent”, states the Taittiriya Upanishad. Faith is the fundamental necessity for spiritual Sadhana.

Faith in God is the first step to God-realisation. Not an iota of progress is ever possible on the path of spirituality without faith. The faith must be a living faith. It must be unwavering faith. Lack of faith is a stumbling block on the path of realisation.

Faith is an important qualification for an aspirant on the path of spirituality. Students of all Yogas, whether of Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga or Jnana Yoga, should possess this fundamental virtue. No faith, no devotion. No faith, no Jnana. The Sanskrit equivalent of faith is “Shraddha” or “Visvas”. The student should have faith in the existence of God, in the teachings of his Guru, in the Vedas and in his own self. The whole world runs on faith only. The Raja has faith in his Dewan. The husband has faith in his wife. The shopkeeper has faith in his customers. The patient has faith in his doctor. The client has faith in his lawyer. The engineer has faith in his head clerk.

Man lives by faith. When faith is directed to God, it becomes the cause of the liberation of the individual.

jAIsAIrAM

[SS91]

A Disciple’s Test

 

       

Ramanujacharya was the disciple of Shathakopa Swami. Swami had revealed the secret of God-realisation to Ramanuj and had warned him not to tell anybody about this; but Ramanuj did not obey this order.  He started giving away all the knowledge given by his Guru -  the path for God-realisation - to the people.  Swami got very angry when he came to know about this. He called for Ramanuj and told him, “You are revealing the secret of spiritual practice by disobeying me. This is Adharma (unrighteousness). This is a sin.  Do you know what will be the effect of this?”
 
Ramanuj said politely, “Gurudev, by disobeying Guru the disciple will have to go to Hell.”  Shathakopa Swami asked, “In spite of knowing this, why did you do this on purpose?”
 
On this, Ramanuj replied, “A tree gives everything it has got to the people. Is it ever selfish? Whatever I did, I did it with the intention of betterment of the people, people should also get the bliss of God-realisation and for this, even if I have to go to Hell, I will not regret a bit.”
 
The Swami was pleased  seeing the intense yearning of Ramanuj of spreading the knowledge of spiritual practice for God-realisation to the people. He blessed Ramanuj and sent him with great love to spread the real knowledge of spiritual practice among people.
 
Children, Ramanuj tried to spread the knowledge he had received from his Guru to others. Swami was pleased with this selfless attitude of His disciple.  Similarly, we too should spread the knowledge we have to others.
 
 

[SS91]

OM SAI RAM

Disciple Aruni - Devotion towards the Guru
 

 

         This is a story from the Mahaabhaarata. Aruni of Panchala (a place in ancient India) was a dedicated disciple of Sage Dhoumya. Aruni lived in his Guru's aashram and participated in the satsevaa (service into God) of the aashram's daily chores in order to receive the divine knowledge he sought.
 
         One cold winter day, Aruni was carrying back the firewood he had collected for the aashram. As he was passing by a field which belonged to his Guru, he noticed a breach in the embankment that was holding water in the field. He realised that the water would seep away due to the breach and the crops in the field would die without the water.
 
         Aruni thought, "What should I do? If I stop to rebuild the embankment, I will be delayed and there is no firewood at the aashram to keep the place warm. I'd better rush to the hermitage with the firewood and then come back to take care of the breach."
 
         Meanwhile, the Sage and His disciples had assembled for the day's lessons. Aruni was missing. Soon Aruni rushed in, dropped the firewood in the courtyard, informed the teacher about the break in the embankment and quickly rushed back out.
 
         Sage Dhoumya was pleased with the responsible disciple.
 
         Aruni ran all the way back to that field and tried to stop the leakage of water by blocking it with some logs and mud. However, this did not stop the leak. The heavy pressure of the water washed away the temporary dam Aruni had constructed. He felt helpless. It seemed impossible for him to stop the leakage without help, but time was running out! He thought for a while and then had an idea about how to stop the water from leaking out.
 
         As evening fell and it became dark, everyone at the ashram started worrying about Aruni. The Sage gathered the other disciples and they all set out to look for Aruni. When they reached the field and the Sage called out Aruni's name, they heard a faint voice, "Here I am, Master!"
 
         Everyone rushed towards the sound. They saw Aruni lying in the breach to prevent the water from leaking out. When nothing else had worked, he had used his own body to stop the flow. The disciples quickly pulled Aruni out of the freezing water. They assured him, "Don't worry Aruni! We will fix the breach."
 
         "My son you are more precious than the crop," said the Guru.
 
         Aruni was covered in a blanket and brought back to the aashram. Sage Dhoumya himself tended to Aruni. The Sage then blessed His disciple, "You shall be renowned forever, for your unmatched devotion and obedience to your Guru."

Moral: The kind of obedience that Aruni had was crucial in his quest to win the Guru's grace. We too can see what efforts we can make to develop this quality so that God and Guru will bless us. An example of this quality is, listening to our parents and teachers.

JaiSaiRam

[SS91]

Caretaker of all creation

         

Samartha Ramdas Swamî was a great Saint from Maharashtra, India. He was the Guru of Shivajî Maharaj, a great and pious king of 17th century Maharashtra. One day, as the king and His Guru were inspecting some construction in the royal palace, the king thought, "Indeed I am a great king, how well I take care of all my subjects!" The Guru, in His Omniscience, read His disciple's thoughts and decided to correct his thinking immediately.

         There was a huge boulder nearby. Ramdas Swamî asked some of Shivajî's soldiers to break it into two. When His request was carried out, everyone present witnessed an incredible sight. They saw that the rock had a small water-filled cavity with a little frog in it! As soon as the boulder was split into two, the encaged frog jumped out, breaking free.

         Samartha Ramdas Swamî now turned to Shivajî and asked, "If you feel that you are taking care of everybody in this kingdom, pray tell me who was taking care of the frog trapped in the rock?" The king realized his mistake and felt remorse for his egotistical thinking. He realised that it was God Who had created everything and took care of all His creation.

Moral : One should do everything, including spiritual practice, with humility. Spiritual practice done with an attitude of surrender would eventually give the experience of the truth that God alone is Almighty and the Creator of all.

JAISAIRAM

[SS91]

Change yourself rather than changing the world !

 

         Once, a thorn pricked a princess’s sole. So, the king told his Minister to cover the land completely with leather to avoid the recurrence of such incident. Naturally, the minister did not know how to arrange for so much leather to cover the entire land. However, an idea struck his mind. He offered a pair of beautiful leather sandals to the princess.
 
Moral : There are thorns in the world; but they do not prick those who wear shoes. So change yourself rather than trying to change the world.

[SS91]

Gurupadesh
         Once, there was a disciple who used to go his Guru (spiritual Master) everyday and say, “Master, please give me Gurupadesh (Spiritual wisdom).”  However, the Guru used to tell him, “Come tomorrow."  When he went back the next day, the Guru again used to say to him, “Come tomorrow.” This went on for ten days and then finally, the disciple said to his Guru, “O Guruji, please give me spiritual wisdom now!” That time, the Guru said to him, “Come alone, why do you bring so many people with you?” The disciple was surprised to hear this because he always used to go to his Guru all alone. The same thing happened on second and third day. Finally, the disciple gathered courage and asked his Guru, “Guruji, why do you always tell me that I bring many people with me, although I always come alone?” The Guru replied, “My dear, do you know how many thoughts there are in your mind? There are thoughts of lust, anger, greed, fascination, haughtiness, jealousy, hypocrisy” Samarth has said that worldly life itself is the sixth enemy, but we have tightly embraced the domestic life. Then the disciple realised that he should wipe out all these thoughts from his mind, only then will his Guru give him spiritual wisdom !
         The moral here is that our mind should become pure. Only then will we understand the meaning of pious conduct and good behaviour. When our deeds will be pious, the fruit of Moksha (Final liberation) is inevitable !

[SS91]

Caretaker of all creation

         Samartha Ramdas Swamî was a great Saint from Maharashtra, India. He was the Guru of Shivajî Maharaj, a great and pious king of 17th century Maharashtra. One day, as the king and His Guru were inspecting some construction in the royal palace, the king thought, "Indeed I am a great king, how well I take care of all my subjects!" The Guru, in His Omniscience, read His disciple's thoughts and decided to correct his thinking immediately.

         There was a huge boulder nearby. Ramdas Swamî asked some of Shivajî's soldiers to break it into two. When His request was carried out, everyone present witnessed an incredible sight. They saw that the rock had a small water-filled cavity with a little frog in it! As soon as the boulder was split into two, the encaged frog jumped out, breaking free.

         Samartha Ramdas Swamî now turned to Shivajî and asked, "If you feel that you are taking care of everybody in this kingdom, pray tell me who was taking care of the frog trapped in the rock?" The king realized his mistake and felt remorse for his egotistical thinking. He realised that it was God Who had created everything and took care of all His creation.

Moral : One should do everything, including spiritual practice, with humility. Spiritual practice done with an attitude of surrender would eventually give the experience of the truth that God alone is Almighty and the Creator of all.

[PiyaSoni]

"An old man saw a scorpion drowning and decided to pull it out from the water. He calmly extended his hand to reach the creature. When he did, the scorpion stung him. With the effect of the pain, the old man let go the creature and it fell back into the water. The man realizing that the scorpion was drowning again, got back and tried to rescue it but then again it stung him. He let go of it again....

A young boy standing by, approached the old man and said, "Excuse me Sir, you are going to hurt yourself trying to save the evil-vicious creature, why do you insist? Don't you realize that each time you try to help the scorpion, it stings you?"

The man replied, "The nature of the scorpion is to sting and mine is to help. My nature will not change in helping the scorpion."

So the man thought for a while and used a leaf from a nearby tree and pulled the scorpion out from the water and saved it's life.

MORAL LESSON:
Do not change your nature. If someone hurts you, just take precautions. Some pursue happiness while others create it. Let your conscience be your guide in whatever you do."