KING'S GRACE & GOD RAM'S GRACE

Once upon a time a King by name Sundaravadanan who ruled over the kingdom of Kannapuri. He was great in all respects except that he never believed in God.

One night, he was traveling through his city in disguise. He heard two beggars begging loudly. One was invoking Lord Rama's grace and the other was invoking the King's grace.

The King was intrigued and had both the beggars brought to the court. His minister asked the question, "Yesterday, you both were begging. One of you said "Rama's grace and other said Kings grace. Now what does that mean?"

One who said Rama's grace replied, "Sir, this whole world is protected by the Lord Rama. He is the one who gives wealth and riches to everyone".

The minister now spoke to the other beggar. He replied, "Sir, God is invisible. King is the visible God. If he so desires, he can make anyone rich"

That night, the King argued with the minister that one who called on the King was the clever beggar. The minister however disagreed. He said, "However a man may try to help, if the receiver does not have God's grace it will never reach him."

The King decided to put "King's grace" and "Rama's grace" to test.
The next day a King's order was announced. "On the Rama Navami day the King will distribute presents to everyone. All can come and receive the presents."

Accordingly people gathered. The two beggars were also present. The King gave out a new piece of cloth and a pumpkin to everyone. When the "King' grace" beggar's turn came up, the King recognized him and whispered something in the minister's ears. The minister went in and
brought a pumpkin. The pumpkin and the cloth were given to the beggar.

After sometime, the King and his minister went around the city in disguise. They noticed that the "Kings' grace" beggar still begging the same way.

The King summoned the beggar to the court the next day and asked him, " Are you still a beggar despite my presents?" The beggar replied, "King! I sold the pumpkin in the market for 2 silver coins.
How can I become rich with that?

The king replied, "You are a fool. That pumpkin had precious jewels and pearls. If you had only cut open the pumpkin you would have become rich."
After sometime when the King was on his rounds he noticed a rich man in a palanquin. The minister recognized him as "Rama's grace" beggar.

This man was also summoned to court.

The King asked, "Aren't you the beggar who used to beg in the streets? How did you become so rich?"

This man replied, " King! By the grace of Rama. I was to feed the brahmins on a particular day to bring peace to my dead father. All I could purchase was a pumpkin. But, to my surprise, I found jewels when I cut open the pumpkin. By the grace of Rama I became rich"

The King understood that one truly required God's grace to prosper in this world.

Shark Bait

Shark Bait

During a research experiment a marine biologist placed a shark into a large holding tank and then released several small bait fish into the tank.

As you would expect, the shark quickly swam around the tank, attacked and ate the smaller fish.

The marine biologist then inserted a strong piece of clear fiberglass into the tank, creating two separate partitions. She then put the shark on one side of the fiberglass and a new set of bait fish on the other.

Again, the shark quickly attacked.  This time, however, the shark slammed into the fiberglass divider and bounced off.  Undeterred, the shark kept repeating this behavior every few minutes to no avail.  Meanwhile, the bait fish swam around unharmed in the second partition.  Eventually, about an hour into the experiment, the shark gave up.

This experiment was repeated several dozen times over the next few weeks.  Each time, the shark got less aggressive and made fewer attempts to attack the bait fish, until eventually the shark got tired of hitting the fiberglass divider and simply stopped attacking altogether.

The marine biologist then removed the fiberglass divider, but the shark didn’t attack.  The shark was trained to believe a barrier existed between it and the bait fish, so the bait fish swam wherever they wished, free from harm.

The moral:  Many of us, after experiencing setbacks and failures, emotionally give up and stop trying. Like the shark in the story, we believe that because we were unsuccessful in the past, we will always be unsuccessful. In other words, we continue to see a barrier in our heads, even when no ‘real’ barrier exists between where we are and where we want to go.

Life

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it. She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Moral:In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?

Time

KNOW THE VALUE OF TIME

Once day, father was doing some work and his son came and asked, “Daddy, may I ask you a question?” Father said, “Yeah sure, what it is?” So his son asked, “Dad, how much do you make an hour?” Father got bit upset and said, “That’s none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?” Son said, “I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?” So, father told him that “I make Rs. 500 per hour.”
“Oh”, the little boy replied, with his head down. Looking up, he said, “Dad, may I please borrow Rs. 300?” The father furiously said, “if the only reason you asked about my pay is so that you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or other nonsense, then march yourself to your room and go to bed. Think why you are being so selfish. I work hard every day and do not like this childish behavior.”
The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy’s questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down, and started to think, “May be there was something he really needed to buy with that Rs. 300 and he really didn’t ask for money very often!” The man went to the door of little boy’s room and opened the door. “Are you a sleep, son?” He asked. “No daddy, I’m awake,” replied the boy. “I’ve been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier”, said the man. “It’s been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you, Here’s the Rs.300 you asked for”.
The little boy sat straight up, smiling “oh thank you dad!” He yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled some crippled up notes. The man, seeing that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. The little boy slowly counted out his money, then looked up at his father.
“Why do you want money if you already had some?” the father grumbled. “Because I didn’t have enough, but now I do,” the little boy replied. “Daddy I have Rs. 500 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you”. Father was dumbstruck.

Moral: It’s just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life! We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of days. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than to our family.

BENEFITS OF STRUGGLING

BENEFITS OF STRUGGLING

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.

Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther. Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily.

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened!

In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
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Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

And we could never fly.

REALTY OF LIFE

REALTY OF LIFE

It shouldn’t take you much longer than a minute to finish reading this story and by the time you’re done, your way of thinking will be completely changed.

Two men are seriously ill and in the same hospital room. For an hour each day, the nurses would let the man closest to the room’s only window sit up in order to help drain the fluid in his lungs.

The other man in the room spent all his time flat on his back.

As you can imagine, with little else to do, the men would talk for hours. They spoke about their families, homes, their lives in the military and where they had travelled.

And each day, the man sitting away from the window longed for the hour when his roommate would be able to sit up and describe the details of the world outside their room.

He would speak of children playing, of animals peacefully roaming and of happy families playing in the water.

Sadly, after months of this, the day arrived when the man closest to the window died in his sleep. After his body has been removed from the room and some time had passed, the other man asked if he could take the bed by the window. The nurses were happy to oblige him and they made the switch.

Once they were gone, the man slowly and painfully pulled himself up so he could take his first good look at the world outside the hospital room, the world whose description had brought him so much comfort.

To his dismay, he found that the view was not as vibrant as he’d been told; in fact, the window faced a blank wall.

Upset, the man called for the nurse and explained the situation.

“Why would he lie to me,” he questioned the nurse.

After thinking for a moment, the nurse looked at him and said:

“Maybe he just wanted to encourage you.”

This should be a lesson to all of us that no matter our situation, we can do tremendous good for those around us by looking on the bright side of every situation.

Even when we’re faced with what seem like impenetrable brick walls, we can bring so much happiness and joy to those around us if we find positive ways of looking at the world.

The man in the story could just as easily have described the bland, brick wall that stood outside the window but instead of simply passing along his misery and grief, he shared whatever happiness he did have, doubling it.

Solution of problems in life

SOLUTION OF PROBLEMS IN LIFE

A father left 17 camels, as the inheritance for his three sons.
When the father passed away, his sons opened up the
will.

The Will stated that THE ELDEST SON SHOULD GET
HALF of 17 camels while
THE MIDDLE SON SHOULD BE GIVEN
1/3RD (ONE-THIRD)
 &
THE YOUNGEST SON SHOULD BE GIVEN
1/9TH (ONE-NINTH) of the 17 camels.

As it is not possible to divide 17 into half or 17 by 3 or 17 by 9,
the three sons started to quarrel with each other.
So, the three sons decided to go to a wise woman.

The wise woman listened patiently about the Will.

The wise young woman, after giving some thought, brought one camel of her own and added the same to 17. That increased the total to 18 camels.

Now, she started reading the deceased father’s will.
Half of 18 = 9.
 So she gave the eldest son 9 camels
1/3rd of 18 = 6.
So she gave the middle son 6 camels
1/9th of 18 = 2.
So she gave the youngest son 2 camels.
Now add this up: 9 plus 6 plus 2 is 17,
and this left one camel, which the wise woman took away.

LEARNING 1
The attitude of negotiation and problem solving is :
To find the 18th camel, i.e. the COMMON GROUND.
Once a person is able to find the 18th camel,
that is the COMMON GROUND…
…ANY ISSUE GETS RESOLVED.

It is difficult at times to find the COMMON GROUND.
But the spirit is this only

LEARNING 2

To reach  solution of any problem….

First step is to believe
that there is a solution.

Otherwise there won’t be any!

Don't talk lose

A TRUE FRIEND

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem. One day one fellow met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?". "Hold on a minute," Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test.". "Triple filter?". "That's right," Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say. That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?" "No," the man said, "actually I just heard about it and...". "All right," said Socrates. "So you don't know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?" . "No, on the contrary...". "So," Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?" "No, not really." "Well," concluded Socrates, "if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

Lesson:
Well we can always participate in loose talks to curb our boredom. But when it comes to you friends its not worth it. Always avoid talking behind the back about your near and dear friends.

Black or white

BLACK OR WHITE

When I was in elementary school, I got into a major argument with a boy in my class. I have forgotten what the argument was about, but I have never forgotten the lesson I learned that day.

I was convinced that “I” was right and “he” was wrong – and he was just as convinced that “I” was wrong and “he” was right. The teacher decided to teach us a very important lesson.

She brought us up to the front of the class and placed him on one side of her desk and me on the other. In the middle of her desk was a large, round object. I could clearly see that it was black. She asked the boy what color the object was. “White,” he answered.

I couldn’t believe he said the object was white, when it was obviously black! Another argument started between my classmate and me, this time about the color of the object.

The teacher told me to go stand where the boy was standing and told him to come stand where I had been. We changed places, and now she asked me what the color of the object was. I had to answer, “White.”

It was an object with two differently colored sides, and from his viewpoint it was white. Only from my side it was black.

Sometimes we need to look at the problem from the other person’s view in order to truly understand his/her perspective.

Woodcutter

Story of a woodcutter

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”



Reflection:
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.