Stay near a critic

Here is a short anecdote on critics, criticism.

Long time ago there was a great king in the Raghukul dynasty (Lord Rama also belonged to the same dynasty). He was suffering from leprosy. He fell on the feet of his master, Guru Vashishtha and said: "Oh Master! So much of suffering… ?"

The master kept his hand on his eyes and asked him: "Look far. What do you see?"

"A huge sparkling golden mountain. And another black coal like mountain."

"One is the mountain of your good karma which gave you your kingdom, richness, power & fame. Another is the mountain of your sins because of which you have the painful disease, worries & troubles."

"Master! Is there a way to get relieved of these?"

"Eat up that mountain."

"Oh lord! Eating that mountain is out of my control."

"Then eat up the pile of garbage lying behind your palace."

"Oh great soul! I will not be able to eat that. Please tell me a simple way."

For a few seconds Guru Vashishtha made his mind peaceful and thought of a solution and said: "Sleep in a bed placed near main door of the palace of your widow sister-in-law everyday at 6:00 PM."

The king of Raghukul dynasty… In the palace of widow sister-in-law… ? What will people say? But there was no other solution. The king did as his master told him. Whoever passed by commented on the bad character of the king and humiliated him. People even used abusive language. At ten o’ clock in the night the king silently went back to his palace. The next morning he saw that a part of his body was cured. The next day the disease was further cured. In this way his body was getting cured day by day. His mind was also more peaceful now. On the fourth day Vashishtha ji kept his hand over his eyes and asked him to see again. This time he saw that the golden mountain of good karma was as big & sparkling as earlier but the black mountain of sins became very small.

Vashishtha ji said: "All those who spoke ill about you & criticized you have taken the portion of your sins. Now they’ll have to suffer the consequences of your bad karma. You have become pure."

After two days that black mountain was reduced to a small pebble. The king was totally cured except for a small mark on his face.

"Oh Master!The big mountain has vanished and a small pebble is remaining now. There is a small mark on face now and a little grief in the heart."

"The remaining part is mine. Why should I commit the sin of criticizing & blaming an innocent & pure man and then bear the consequences? You bear the remaining yourself."

Moral of the story: Never criticize anyone, When someone criticizes you, thank them, for they are taking your bad karma away.

Source and Credits: http://www.reocities.com/Yosemite/2021/spirit_stories/critic.html

Broadening our identity beyond religion–An anecdote

This is a short story which I heard in a discourse by Suki Sivam on Bhagavad Gita.

A group of doves are living in a temple tower. The temple’s renovation works begin and many people start frequenting the temple tower. The doves leave the temple tower and move to a church tower. There are a few doves which were already staying in the church tower and they are happy to have new friends. The doves heartily welcome the new doves and they start living together happily.

After a few months it is Christmas time, they start painting the church and many people start frequenting the church tower. The doves leave the church tower and move to the tower of a mosque. There a few doves in the mosque tower and they too happily welcome the new doves and share their place with the new doves. All the doves are now living happily in the mosque tower.

One day a group of people below are fighting in front of the mosque, below the tower. A little dove gets curious and asks his mother to find out why they are fighting. The mother dove explains they are different groups of people and that’s why. Some of them go to the mosque and they are called Muslims, some of them go to the church and they are called Christians and some of them go to the temple and they are called Hindus. They are fighting amongst each other as to who is right, who is great.

The little dove really gets puzzled and asks the mother dove, we were living a temple, and then the church and then the now we live in the mosque. We are all still doves we did not change to something other than doves because we live in a different place, how can it be so different for humans. The mother thinks for a while, lets out a sigh and then responds: that’s why we get live in a place where God lives and humans cannot live here, they have to be visitors. And that’s why we live above the humans and they live below us. Once they realize that regardless of the church, mosque, temple they all are humans, they will join us as doves.

Patience or Anger – Purity of mind – An anecdote from Sant Eknath’s Life

Here is an anecdote from Sant Eknath Maharaj’s life.

One day a group of people were gambling. A small fight began within them and they started fighting within themselves. One of them tried to stop the fight and asked them not to get angry and fight among themselves.

One of them immediately replied that he was not Eknath to be calm and collected and never to get angry for anything. One of them listening to this asked if Eknath really will not get angry for anything. All others said that even the sun may rise in the west but Eknath will never get angry. He then said that if someone doesn’t get angry then he is not human. The others then said that he was not human and that he was god. The guy then betted the whole money they were gambling and said that he would make him angry.

The gambler who had betted, had a house near the banks of Godhavari. He went home and the next morning he was waiting for Eknath to come to Godhavari to have his bath. Eknath had his bath and was returning back. The gambler was chewing pan and spitted on his head from the terrace of his house on Eknath. Eknath dint even bother to look up to see him, nor did he shout at him and he went back to Godhavari to bath again. When he came back the gambler again spit the pawn on him. Eknath still dint say anything and went back to bath again.

Eknath would clean himself and come and the gambler would spit on him, this happened several times and by noon the gambler had finished his entire pan and was also tired standing in the terrace and spitting. Now the gambler came down and was waiting for Eknath to come. This time when Eknath was going back from the river the gambler blocked him and asked him how he had so much of patience and that why he did not get angry with him when he has been spitting on him since morning.

Eknath then replied to him that he came to Godhavari to clean his body before performing pooja to god. He also said that one should perform pooja with clean body and mind. When he spitted on him, he only dirtied his body and went back to clean it. He then said that if he had got angry and shouted at him, his mind would have become dirty and that it would be even more difficult to clean his mind than cleaning his body. The gambler was moved hearing this and said that he had read about this but never seen this in practice.

Source & Credits: http://indiansaints.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/sant-eknath/