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Amma's stories on Karma / Fate – Part 1 (7 more stories)
1. The fruit of Karma returns anyway
[Amma: "The fate or the fruit of your past karma is like an arrow that you shot to hit a target and return. When the arrow comes back, invariably, you fail to catch it and it attacks you too. The only difference may that the return of the arrow (the fruit of your karma) may not happen immediately. It may come late, but sure it will."]
Once a farmer worked very hard in order to own a big farm, so that he, his sons and grandchildren could live very comfortably. He bought a barren land and toiled very hard to make the soil fertile. Fighting against draught, pests and storms, he protected his crop. He could get great yields. After years of hard work, he could really become quite rich. He got old. He thought the time has come for him to rest and he handed over the responsibility of managing the form to his son,
Once the son took charge, the old man felt very relaxed. He used to lie down in front of his farm in an easy chair and enjoyed his rest and leisure.
The son who took full charge of the farm initially felt very happy and proud. He too worked hard. But as days passed, his enthusiasm waned. He started feeling unhappy about his father. "While I am working so hard and straining every nerve and muscle of mine in the farm, how come this old man is spending the whole day idling and playing with grand children? This is so unfair" thought he.
As he was frequently gripped by such thinking, he started hating his father. 'This old man is simply eating, doing nothing and enjoying his life from my hard labor'. He started feeling that his father was a burden on his head. 'He might have worked hard in the past; so what? Times are changing; I must ensure well being of my family and my children. Why should I take care of this idle old man?' so thinking, he was overpowered by a desire to get rid of his father once for all.
He made one large wooden box that can fit his father. He placed it on a cart. "Go and lie inside the box" he ordered his father. The old man obeyed without any protest. The son closed the box and drove the cart up over an adjacent hill. Upon reaching the summit, his plan was to push the box down a steep cliff to kill his father once for all.
When he was trying to push and and roll the box, he heard heard a knocking sound from the box. He shouted, "What do you want?". The father replied from the box, "I can understand what your intention is. You are thinking I am old, and useless and you want to get rid of me once for all. Fine. But open the box. I will come out and you can push me from the cliff. Thus you need not waste this wooden box. Keep it safe and it could be handy for your son in in future!"
[Amma: "In this story, when the old man said that the box could be useful for his son in future, he meant that the account of karma for his present act would be tallied by his son in the future. You should also note that the old man too must be reaping what he sowed. He must have treated his own father or someone else like that in the distant past."]
2. The lost wealth
Once a building contractor at a project at site temporarily engaged an accountant locally to handle the money matters. Every month end, he used to give a small bunch of currency to the accountant and ask him to keep it safe under a separate account-head. First time, the accountant asked, "For whom is the payment meant?"
The contractor said, "I am setting off this money for a good cause — something like giving to an orphanage, or for educating the poor children which I will decide at the end of this project".
The accountant thought: 'Why give away the money to unknown beneficiaries? Let me misappropriate the money and enjoy life'. Without following the instruction of the contractor, the accountant pocketed the money himself every month and wasted it away in drinking and gambling at week ends. He was otherwise an efficient man at his duty.
Over a period of time, the specific contract work came to an end. The contractor wanted to settle the accounts of temporary employees at the site and move to the next project.
He called the accountant and said, "It is time for us to part; you have done your job well; I want to reward you specifically for your efficient work. You know I was giving you an unspecified amount every month to put it in a separate account for donating to a good cause. Actually, I had planned that money as a bonus for you. You can bring that money and take it as a gift from me; please get that money and we will settle and close that account."
The accountant was shocked to hear it.
[Amma: "By engaging in bad karma, we ourselves block the way of good karma in reaching us in future"]
3. What is the real cause?
[Amma: "Karma and its effects are very complicated to comprehend. There could be so many indecipherable causes behind effects and it is beyond the comprehension of common people. One should not jump into conclusion in passing judgement about others. "]
One a very benevolent king was ruling a small country. He had great respects for sannyasins and mendicants. He built a huge dining hall to feed renunciates and brahmacharis on a daily basis. He would personally visit the place and even serve food with his own hands with reverence and humility to the travelling mendicants. This practice was going on for long.
One day, after partaking the food in the dining hall, many of the mendicants fell sick and several of them died.
The king was shocked beyond measure when such a calamity happened. He could not grasp why such a calamity would strike for a benevolent act that he had been doing with utter sincerity and commitment. He felt that a great sin would befall on him for causing death to somany pious sannyasins. He started to undertake a fast and he was even prepared to die as atonement of the sin.
Nobody could find out how the food poisoning happened.
In order to find out the truth and apportion the sin of killing so many innocent mendicants, the God sent a messenger for investigation.
The messenger conducted a thorough inquiry amidst the working staff, the cooks and other servants working in the dining hall. He also did a thorough physical inspection of the dining hall. In this investigation, as directed by the messenger, a workman was made to climb up to the ceilings of the tiled hall and check the tiles and the beams. There, right above the place where food used to be kept ready just before serving, a dead snake was found in between some tiles and the beam.
From further inquiries done on eye witnesses, he came to know that on the fateful day, an eagle was found attacking a poisonous snake above the roof of the building. The wounded snake seemed to have escaped the clutches of the eagle and somehow sneaked through the gaps in the tiles and entered into the underside of the hall roof.
The snake was almost dying and just before it breathed its last, it had opened its mouth and ejected poison. It was exactly at that moment the lids of the vessels carrying the food items were opened for serving right below and the droplets of poison fell into the food and got mixed with the food. It was by eating that poisonous food that the mendicants died.
The messenger made a mental analysis: The king was not definitely responsible for this happening. The sin cannot be apportioned to the eagle because it is its basic nature to attack and kill snakes. It was not responsible for the snake's escape. The snake too was not responsible because it was not spitting venom intentionally. The servers were not responsible for they were not knowledgeable about a snake right above vessels spitting venom at the point of opening of the food vessels.
The messenger was at a loss. God had given him the responsibility of apportioning the sin of the death of the mendicants on the right recipient. Whom to give it?
Thinking deeply, he was walking at the outskirts of the city. He saw a group of travelling mendicants coming into the city. They were inquiring a woman vendor at the street about the location of the king's dining hall where mendicants were served free food.
The woman said to them: "Oh! No, no. Please never go there to take your food. The king is evil and very wily. He is poisoning and killing saintly people who come and take food there!"
The messenger heard the conversation. He decided to assign the sin of killing of the mendicants to the lady vendor who was spreading rumor by unjustly blaming the king without any basis of truth.
(Amma US Tour Satsang June 2016)
4. Escaping death?
[Amma: "Death is always stalking us. It is always behind us like our shadow. If one can clearly understand that death is inevitable and it can come at any time, then one can get the determination to know God before the body falls. No one can ever predict at which moment one would die."]
Once a king was very curious to know when he would die. He called an expert astrologer, who was extremely reputed for correct predictions about future, to his court for this purpose. The astrologer analysed the king's horoscope in detail and finally said, "I am sorry to say this, your majesty! As per my calculations and observations, you are bound to die today itself immediately after sunset."
The king felt devastated hearing this shocking revelation. He could not digest it. He frantically wanted to escape death and immediately called learned pundits and experts in Shastra to his court. He asked them to suggest ways and means to escape death.
The pundits started brainstorming to find out ways to escape death. One pundit suggested to perform a particular ritual and chanting of mantras. Another pundit would oppose it and suggest some other means. That suggestion would get vetoed by a third pundit. Thus arguments and counter arguments went on and on amid the learned pundits and the clock was running too. It was already past noon. Unfortunately, the pundits could not come to any consensus on the right method to escape death by the king. The king was getting more and more tensed up and desperate to get a solution.
Watching this, one old, wise man in the king's court came and whispered in his ears: "YOur majesty, Never trust these pundits. They are incapable of finding any solution to your problem. If you want to save your life, fetch a strong horse that can run the fastest, mount on it and leave from the capital as far off as possible. Don't waste your time! Quick!"
For the confused king, that advice appeared to be a good solution. He fetched his best horse from his stable, and rode on it as fast as possible, as far as possible from his palace so as to escape death. By evening, the king had travelled many miles away from his capital. Both the horse and the king were extremely tired. He stopped the horse and lied down under a tree for rest.
All the happenings of the day ran through his mind. He felt relieved that he could travel so much far away from his palace before sunset. He felt confident that by doing so, he had managed to hoodwink death. He closed his eyes peacefully and soon dozed off.
The sun set at the west and soon darkness started engulfing the place. Suddenly the king woke up. At that very moment, up from the branches of the tree, the messenger of death jumped down and landed adjacent to the king. Laughing aloud, he said, "I know you will come here; I was waiting in this tree for your arrival for quite some time. I was even wondering whether, by any chance, you may not end up at this place! Any way, thank you, you have arrived in time!"
He caught hold of the king and instantly the king fell dead!
5. Destined to happen
Amma narrated the following real incidence.
During the time of tsunami disaster, a group of Ashram brahmacharis were engaged in relief and rehabilitation work at Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu. One of the brahmacharis wanted to visit and pray at the famous Shaneshwara temple at Thirunallar nearby. When he went to the temple, it was extremely crowded. A very long queue was waiting to have the darshan of Lord Shani at the temple.
The brahmachari too joined the queue. He was rather impatient and was getting exasperated by the slow moving queue. Restlessly, he was looking this way and that way, getting out of the queue and joining the queue and causing disturbance to others due to his impatience. The policemen on duty to control the crowd somehow felt suspicious of the brahmachari's movements; they suspected that he could be a pickpocket! They grabbed him and started enquiring him. Somehow they were not convinced; they took him to the police station and retained him in the lockup overnight.
The other brahmacharis who noticed that this person was missing in the night, got worried. After inquiring here and there, they came to know that the person had ended up in the lock up at the police station. They met the sub-inspector and explained to him about the brahmachari and the purpose of their staying in Nagapattinam. The sub-inspector immediately released the Brahmachari from the lock up and allowed him to go.
The Brahmacharis reported the matter to Amma. They were somewhat restive and asked Amma why a person, engaged in good social service and also visiting a temple for prayers get into trouble like this.
[Amma: "There are certain untoward incidents that are destined to happen will happen, even when one is engaged in actions with good intentions. If you ask why should it happen to such a good person at such a time, we could only say that there are certain unfavorable positions of planets in one's life when such things do happen. The destiny might be that he should end up in jail for long. But an unknown divine grace on account of his punya may also behind it in such a way that the evil effects of his prarabdha are lessened and he is relieved by just a night of stay and suffering in a police lockup."]
6. Pitying the queen!
Once a new servant maid was engaged in cleaning the Queens' room in the palace. The servant maid who was seeing the queen's room for the first time was awestruck at the grandiose furnishings seen in the room. The furniture were finely carved, smooth and impeccably polished; the carpets, the window drapes, and other artefacts were extremely fine. The servant maid touched them and felt thrilled. She pressed the queen's bed and wondered how soft it was.
Suddenly she had an unstoppable urge to lie down at the bed and have a feel of it. She looked around to ensure that there was none else in the room. She lied down on the bed and felt exhilarated. Suddenly, quite unexpectedly the queen opened the door and entered into the bedroom. She saw the servant maid lying in her bed.
The queen got extremely angry. The servant maid was shocked to the core. She jumped up from the bed and stood there shivering. The queen took the broomstick and started beating the servant maid left and right. She called out her guards and commanded to them to arrest the maid and put her behind the bars.
Instead of crying for the beating she received and the punishment meted out to her, the servant maid started laughing. The queen was surprised. "Why are you laughing?" she shouted.
The servant maid said, "Your highness, just for the small mistake I did, you have beaten me so hard and also ordered to put me in jail. If such a severe punishment is meted out to me for such a small mistake, I thought what sort of punishment God will be giving you later, for all the various acts of arrogance and hatred you would have committed in life on account of your royal status as a queen. I could not control laughing!"
(From Amma's Krishna Janmashtami Satsang 10/9/2020)
7. Cyclic reaction!
Once a Court Jester was telling some funny stories in the king's court. There were a couple of jokes for which everyone was laughing but the king could not understand them. He thought that the Court Jester was mocking at him; out of anger, the king slapped the jester. The jester felt an unbearable pain. Anger rose up in him but he had to control it with difficulty. He gritted his teeth in frustration as he could not question the king's action.
In order to vent out his anger, the jester slapped a person standing next to him. That man asked "Why are you hitting me? I have not done anything to you".
The Court Jester replied,"It doesn't matter. You can give a slap to the person next to you. This world is like a huge wheel. When it revolves, everyone gets his due share. Now don't hesitate; give a slap to the person next to you!"
[Amma: "Every good or bad action done by us can affect many people. Nowadays we see similar things happening around us. People tend to vent out their frustrated anger and enmity on people around them. In reality, the person affected by our outburst of anger might not have anything to do with it. Anyway, whatever we do unto others will come back to us one day or other."]
(Source: Oliyai Nokki – Tamil Vol 2)
7. The ropes
Once a businessman was traveling across a dense forest where dacoits usually roam about. The businessman was unfortunately caught by a group of dacoits. They robbed him of all his possessions. To ensure that he would not make any trouble, they bound his libs and threw him inside a dried up well.
Fortunately, the well was not too deep and there was a thick growth of bush inside the well. So, he was not injured. After the dacoits left, he started shouting in full throat asking for help.
After a while another traveler came along the path. He heard the shouts of the man and started looking around. He noticed that the voice was coming from the well. As he peeped into the well, he saw the man shouting from inside. He noticed that the man was bound by ropes. The traveler had a big rope with him. Tying its one end to a tree, he got down into the well. He untied the ropes from the man's limbs and both of them climbed up using the other rope hung from the tree.
Thus the businessman's life was saved by the traveler.
[Amma: "In this story, the businessman got tied by a rope; but he was also saved by another rope. Our karmas are just like ropes. Our selfish actions bind us. Actions done with unselfishness and compassion, with dedication to God unbind and release us. "]
8. The end? Not yet
Once a man was walking along the beach. He found a human skull on the way. Out of curiosity, he took it and inspected it. Surprisingly he found something written on the forehead of the skull — "This is not the end". The man got curious.
He had heard elders saying that everyone's fate is written on their heads. The man thought 'If so, is this the fate of this man? He is already dead, but the skull still contains the words "This is not the end". Does it mean something more is still pending?'
With that curiosity, the man took the skull with him back home. He kept it inside a box and placed it under his cot.
Every day, he would secretly open the box and look at the skull to find whether any change had happened in it.
His wife noticed the man's stealthy action of opening the box and looking inside. She got suspicious. She was also curious to know what was inside the box. One day, when the man was not at home, she opened the box and was surprised to see a skull inside.
She thought, "Why is my husband keeping this skull inside? Could it perhaps be the skull of his ex-lover? Is he still re-running his memories of her love, by looking at her skull daily?" She got disturbed and angry.
She brought a pestle from her kitchen and banged at the skull again and again till it was broken to pieces. She closed the box, kept it back under his cot and felt very relieved.
After a couple of days, when the man opened the box, he was very surprised to see only its broken pieces.
He thought to himself 'Oh! This must be the 'end' that had been written on the skull! The writing seems to be true indeed!"
(Source: From one of Amma's satsangs)
9. Useful, at last
Once there was a very narrow pass way adjacent to a house which many people used. A l branch of a tree from the house's backyard had grown outward, interfering with the pathway. People found it difficult to cross the passage and many of them requested the householder to cut the branch.
The householder refused to oblige saying, "In another 20 years, that branch will grow thick and strong; If I cut it then, I can sell it for 30,000 rupees. Am I a fool to cut it off, for your convenience sake?"
Years passed. The householder started suffering from diabetes. He developed gangrene in his toes. He refused amputation, and soon it spread to his foot. As he refused to heed to his doctors advice, the gangrene spread to his leg. Doctors advised him to amputate his leg, but he did not agree. Soon, it spread further up and he died.
When he died, 20 years had passed from the time he refused to cut the tree branch. His family members arranged to cut the tree branch so as to use the wood for his pyre.
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Amma-amidst-western-audience.png 379 578 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2020-07-17 14:52:482022-09-11 21:48:54Amma's stories on Karma / Fate – Part 1 (7 more stories)
August 2, 2019 /0 Comments/in Stories told by Amma /by C.V.Rajan
1. When money comes in excess
[Amma: "Children, it is not wrong to make money. But it should not be as if the entire life is only for that. You can have enough money for your needs; but you should not accumulate money excessively."]
One there lived a man who earned his living by making and mending umbrellas. He used to make umbrellas peacefully, by chanting God's name all the time. He would speak about God's great qualities to the people who come to him. Whatever he could earn this way, he lived a very contented and happy life. His customers loved him. He was never short of income needed to run his family.
One day, a very rich Zamindar came to buy an umbrella from him. He was impressed by the quality of the umbrella, its low price and also the nice behavior of the umbrella maker. He wanted to reward him. He generously gave a huge sum of money to the maker for buying the umbrella.
It was the first time the man ever got to see such a huge sum of money at one go from selling an umbrella. The money started playing with the nature of the man. His mind lost concentration in work; he constantly thought how to save that money. Will it be safe if he kept it at his house? Will it get stolen by thieves?
The thought of money blocked his chanting of God's names. He could not finish the jobs in hand in time. 'How to invest this money? Shall I start building a new house? Should I start a new business?' such thoughts kept crowding his mind. He lost concentration on work totally. He felt irritated to speak to others. He lost his habit of talking nicely with his customers. If anybody disturbed his thoughts about money, he felt angry at them.
In due course, his customers started dwindling. His income nosedived. As his mind was constantly on money, it lost its peace. As greed and selfishness increased, he felt painful and agitated. As his income from making umbrellas started drying, he had to spend all the money for his sustenance.
Thus the peace and tranquility that prevailed in his life was totally lost on account of the arrival of a huge sum of money.
2. Forbearance
[Amma: "When the goal is high, the amount of patience and forbearance needed to achieve it is also high. Without these qualities, any grand declaration of intentions might turn to be a laughable declaration. It applies to spiritual quest too."]
Once there was a famous wrestler. He had lots of fans; he was challenged by many other wrestlers. The wrestler had a dream that he should be the conqueror of all wrestlers in the world and he should be overawed by others by his sheer looks. So, he thought of an idea. He thought that if he could have a picture of a ferocious tiger tattooed on his back, he would look intimidating.
He called a famous tattoo artist. The artist showed a picture of a wild tiger that looked quite fierce and violent and he agreed. The tattoo artist started his work. He first started with the left ear of the tiger. The wrestler never expected that the tattooing process would be so prickly and painful. After a short while, he said, "Oh no! That area feels so painful. Please stop there and do the tattooing in some other area".
The artist stopped there and started to work on the right eye of the tiger. After patiently bearing the pain for a while, the wrestler could not contain himself any more. "Wait, wait! The pain is really excruciating there. Please leave that portion and start somewhere else".
Now the artist shifted his work to the mouth of the tiger. As usual , within a short while the wrestler started shouting in pain. "No, no! I just cannot bear this pain any more! Better erase everything; I am abandoning this idea".
The artist said that there is no way of erasing a tattoo work done on the skin. But, the wrestler was not ready to continue with the torture on his back!
Thus, the back of the wrestler now looked ridiculous with a few patches of lines and dots drawn incoherently at his back. Instead of creating an awe, it only created ridicule from the onlookers!
3. Setting example
[Amma: "Any preaching is best done by living as example. Mere verbal preaching cannot effectively drive home philosophy. People tend to follow prominent personalities in the society. Hence people in high posts and positions should set examples for others."]
Once a minister went to the the house of the Head of the Village as a guest. That village was extremely dirty. In every street and road junctions rubbish had accumulated in huge mounds. Gutters were stagnant overflowing with filthy water. Bad smell permeated the entire atmosphere of the village.
The minister inquired why the whole village was so dirty. The Village Head replied: "The people who live here totally lack civic sense. They cannot even understand that we should keep our localities clean. However much we advise or teach them, they would not listen. They are extremely lazy. I have tried my best to give sermons to them on cleanliness but I am fed up as they just don't bother. "
The minister did not say anything. After taking his dinner at the house he went to sleep.
Next day early morning, the village head woke up but he could not find the minister in his bed. He searched for him in the entire house in vain. He came out of the house and looked around. The minister was on the street with a broomstick on hand. He had swept the surroundings clean and was igniting a huge mound of waste. Seeing it, the village Head could not remain a mute spectator. When the minister himself was engaged in scavenging work, how can he be an idle onlooker? He too started cleaning the streets.
As people in the village started coming out of their houses in the morning, they saw the minister and the Head of the village busy in sweeping the village. They were surprised! How could they sit idle when such eminent persons were engaged in cleaning work? Everybody started joining the work. Soon, all the rubbish were cleared and burnt. The gutters were cleaned. the whole village became spic and span. Very soon, the culture of the village changed and cleanliness became their part of life.
(Source: Oliyai nokki-Tamil-Part 1)
5. Never lose hope
Once a huge flock of birds were flying away from the forest where they were living all along. After flying for while, they came down to rest. They noticed a huge contingent of snails moving slowly towards the direction of the forest. "Where are you going?" asked the birds. The head of the snails said, "We are moving to the forest ahead of us; we want to go and live there".
The chief of the birds said. "What? To that forest? I would advise you not to go there. We are all coming only from there; we have abandoned it and going in search of greener pastures. That forest is unfit to live; As all ponds there have dried up, there is no source of water there; trees have withered; there is nothing to eat and live there. You can't find any green leaf there".
The head of the snail said, "It does not matter. By the time we reach there, we are sure, things would change. We have enough time and enough hope".
6. Gaining attention
Once a man was standing at the terrace of his house. He saw his friend walking along the road. Instead of calling him aloud, he somehow wanted to get the attention of the friend. He plucked a bunch of flowers from an adjacent tree and threw towards his friend. The friend stopped, picked up the flowers and smelled them. Taking them along, he moved forward.
Now the friend from the terrace throw a coin towards him. The walker noticed the coin on the road; he looked around to see whether anyone is noticing him. But he did not look upward towards the house. He picked up the coin, put it into his pocket and walked away. Now the friend from the terrace threw a pebble stone at his friend; it hit him on the head. Infuriated, the man looked around in all directions and also upward and only then he noticed his friend standing at the terrace and smiling at him.
[Amma: "This is how most of us behave with God too. When good things happen in our lives, we never bother to think of God. But when a calamity strikes, only then we start looking for God's help!"]
7. The little boy and the pilot
A pilot on duty on a specific and regular flight route always would fly low over a meadow and look eagerly down. Noticing his habit, the co-pilot asked him, "What is so special about this meadow? Why are you eagerly looking at it each time?"
The pilot said, "When I was a boy, I lived in a village in this meadow. I used to go for fishing in the stream nearby. As I sat there with my fishing rod, normally, a plane would fly overhead; I used to eagerly look at the plane; I longed to become a pilot and fly a plane those days. Over the years, I have indeed become a pilot. But now, as I fly over this meadow, I long for my childhood. I would love to sit peacefully by the stream with a fishing rod in hand and do my fishing leisurely!"
[Amma: " By thinking of the past or worrying about the future, most of us miss to live in the present fully."]
8. Donated Air?
Once an Old Age Home was celebrating its anniversary. A cultural show was arranged for the celebration and all the inmates and other invitees were sitting in the hall and enjoying the program.
Suddenly, a person came into the hall and switched off all the ceiling fans. He was a well known businessman in the town. One of the inmates asked him, "Why did you switch off all the fans? Don't you see that people are sweating profusely in this hot climate without air circulation?"
The businessman said, "It is me who donated all the fans in this old age home. My name has been written in all the fans in this hall.If all the fans are running, no one would be able to read my name written in them. I wanted to make sure that people who have come here for this program should know that it is me who has donated all these fans. That's why I switched off the fans".
[Amma: " Such a donation can never be called a real donation. Such an attitude will even cancel out the punya that one accrues through donation".]
9. Selective hearing
A small crowd of people were waiting outside a shop to buy various provisions. The shopkeeper was busy picking up things that the customers asked and packing them.
Suddenly, the shopkeeper stopped all his work, closed his eyes and joined his palms in prayer. A couple of minutes passed and then he opened his eyes. He noticed that there was a look of irritation in the customers' faces. One of them said to him curtly, "What is it you are doing all of a sudden by closing your eyes? When all of us are waiting to be taken care of in the shop, aren't you showing disrespect to your customers by stopping your work and doing like this?"
The shopkeeper relied patiently, "It is evening arati time in the adjacent temple. Did you not hear the temple bell ringing? Hearing the sound of the bell, I just closed my eyes and prayed to God for a few moments".
"None of us heard any bell ringing from the temple" said the customers.
The shopkeeper did not speak further and was busy with his work. After a while, when others were not noticing, he threw a coin on to the road. When the coin hit the road, it made a clinking sound. All the customers immediately turned back. Some of them rushed to pick up the coin.
Immediately the shopkeeper said to them, "See, when the sound of the bell from the temple was loud and clear, none of you noticed it; but all of you did not miss the mild clinking of a coin!"
[Amma: " The awareness of all the people who came to the shop were only in money and worldly matters; That's why they all could hear the mild sound of a coin hitting the floor. On the other hand, the shopkeeper gave considerable significance to the thoughts of God in his life. That's why, despite being extremely busy with his work, he could instantly turn his attention towards God at the sound of the temple bell. Like this, our centre of attention should always be God in our lives. Then whether we are engaged in worldly matters or extremely busy in some activity, our awareness on God will always be sharp".]
(Source: Amritam gamaya-Malayalam- Vol 1)
10. The signature signifies…
[Amma: " In the past, men had a bloated pride claiming 'I am more powerful than women' and the tendency to dominate and subjugate women. Women of the present day tend to think differently. They think, "Across so many years in the past, men dominated and controlled us. We shall no longer allow it. It is time to teach them a lesson". Now there is constant wrangling in the present day families; both men and women are busy trying to teach the others who is bigger. This tendency should go. Instead of supporting and nurturing each other, couples tend to become two banks of a river with no connecting bridge in between."]
Once a man got married. After the formal ceremonies in the traditional way are over, the couple proceeded to the Registrar Office to formally register the marriage.
After going through the formalities, the husband first signed in the register. Subsequently, the wife too signed. After seeing his wife's signature, the man shouted, "Finished. I don't want to live with this woman. I want divorce immediately!"
Everyone who accompanied them were shocked. The registrar asked, "What nonsense are you talking? What went wrong?"
The man said, "You are asking me what went wrong? Open your eyes widely and note what you see here…" saying so, he pointed out his signature and that of his wife below. "Do you notice how small and compact my signature is? Now look at hers. See how big and long — as if she is occupying the entire page for it? I have rightly understood its meaning and purport. Even in life, she wants to dwarf me and dominate me. I just can't allow it. I will not allow her to make me small".
11. Judgement depends (1)
Once a relative came to meet his aunt after a long time. They were chit chatting on various family matters.
"Your son got married recently, right? How is your daughter-in-law?" asked the relative.
The aunt said, "Oh don't ask me anything about her. The less said, the better. She is the laziest woman I have ever seen in my life. She never gets up from her bed before 8 AM. My son prepares coffee and wakes her up with the cup of coffee in hand. She does not know the spelling of 'cooking'. She hardly does any household chores. .."
"So, your son must be suffering a lot?"
"Suffering? Poor fellow. He is such an idiot that he does not find anything faulty with her. Instead, he is totally supportive to her and does all the domestic chores himself. It is he who pampers her and dances totally to her whims. He is just a puppet in her hands; that's all".
After a while, the relative asked about the aunt's daughter.
The aunt's face brightened up immediately. She said, "Oh! My daughter is extremely lucky. She has got such a nice and loving husband, who treats her virtually like a queen. He simply does not allow her to do any domestic work; he permits her freely to sleep till late in the morning; he has engaged maids to do all the domestic work; he is such a gem of a person!"
[Amma: "If we develop liking on something, we will start praising it. If a man falls in love with a not-so-good-looking girl, he would see her only as an epitome of all beauties. At the same time, however good looking a person may be, one who hates him/her will only see shortfalls in him/her. This is how, unknowingly our own likes and dislikes tend to dictate our judgements."]
Once a woman was busy in her kitchen and she was listening to radio too. She heard a woman singing beautifully. She said to her husband, "Oh! This song is so nice. It is sung so beautifully. When I hear this, I feel dropping all my work in the kitchen and sit aside to hear and enjoy the singing".
The husband asked: "Do you know who is singing?"
The woman said, "I don't know".
The husband said, "It is our neighboring woman who gave a police complaint about you is the singer!"
The moment she heard it, she asked her husband to switch off the radio saying, "Oh! I don't think this song is so good. The voice is horrible and there is no alignnment with shruti and tala too!"
13. Two beggars
Once in a village two beggars lived together, sharing a small space in a choultry. One of them was blind and the other, lame. They would sit outside the choultry and beg at the passersby. Since there was not much of crowd in that area, they could hardly get any income and they found it extremely difficult to get even one square meal a day.
One day, the blind beggar said, "It is becoming hopeless to sit here and eke out a living. Let us do one thing. I have strong legs ; I can carry you on my shoulders and walk. Since you have eyes, you can show me the way. We can walk to the market place where there will be a big crowd and we can get more money from people who will take pity on us."
The idea immediately appealed to the lame beggar. Soon the blind beggar carried the lame one on his shoulders and they walked to the market place by inquiring their way. They sat together and begged at the people. Many people started dropping coins and currency in their begging bowl.
It was indeed proved to be a big bonanza for them. At the end of the day, they shared the amount collected equally. A few days went smoothly like this and their pockets started swelling with more and more money. But the arrival of money started creating cracks in their friendship. They started fighting over the money. Each one demanded a higher share.
"You must thank me for the fortune we are receiving daily. Unless I carried you on my shoulders and took all the trouble of walking to the town, you would never have earned such an amount. Naturally, I deserve a higher amount in the collection!"
The lame man said, "But unless I had guided you in the path, how could you reach the market place? It is me who deserve a better share."
Soon they started arguing. The argument grew to become a big fight. The next morning, each of them did not want to talk to the other. The blind man did not want to carry the lame man and the lame man was in no mood to go with the blind man unless the money sharing issue was sorted out. They did not go to the marketplace for begging. It continued for more days, till all their cash collection got exhausted. They started sitting outside the choultry to beg once again. Their hunger and poverty returned to them as earlier.
(From Oliyi Nokki – Tamil Vol 3)
14. Which world?
[Amma: "People nowadays are driven by attraction towards new things. Once attained, only dissatisfaction increases. Constant unhappiness widens gap between family members. Though husband and wife life under the same roof, they seem to live in two different worlds. Amma remembers a funny anecdote:"]
Once a man asked his friend, "When do you think this world would come to an end?"
His friend asked: "Which world are you talking about?"
Man: "What do you mean? How many worlds are there?
Friend: "As for me, there are two worlds. "
Man: "How?"
Friend: "There is one world of my wife and there is another world of mine. When my wife dies, her world would cease to exist. When I die, my world would come to an end!"
[Amma: "Nobody wants to die. Every being wants to live life the fullest. But no one seems to have any idea of how to lead that life to bring happiness to oneself and to others."]
Once there lived an old woman in a village all alone; she had no relatives to call her own or to take care of her at her old age. She was eking out a living by going into the forest to collect some firewood, bring it to the village on her head and then selling it for money.
Because of aging, she found it very difficult to carry heavy loads on her head. Her suffering became unbearable. She would call out to God panting and cry, "Oh God, Can't you bring an end to my suffering by taking away my life? What is the point in living a life like this?"
One day, mid way, the old lady dropped her load, unable to carry it any more. She prayed, "Oh God, please end my suffering. I can't go on like this anymore".
At that moment a dark and ugly figure came and stood in front of her. The old lady got terribly scared. "Who are you?" she asked.
The figure replied, "I am the lord of death. I have come to take away your life. Didn't you call me just now? I have come conceding to your prayers".
The old lady shook in fear, hearing his words. She suddenly thought of an idea. She said, "You mean my crying just now? Actually I called out somebody to help carry this load of firewood. Will you please help me?"
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Amma-laughing.jpg 352 623 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2019-08-02 16:42:582020-09-21 16:34:28Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 6 (15 more stories)
[Amma: "Only the present is in our hands. We have no control on what is going to happen in future. The past is like a cancelled cheque. What is important is the present and we should think good thoughts and do good deeds in the present. That's why, training the mind to be in the present is always recommended as a good spiritual practice.
"Children, don't think that it is not possible to remain in the present at all times, without drifting to thoughts of the past or the future. Everyone has the potential for it. Listen to the following story carefully:"]
Once the only child of a couple became extremely sick. The child's life was in grave danger. The doctor injected a medicine to the child and said, "This is my last ditch effort. I can't say for sure whether the medicine will work or not. Recovery of your child rests only with the grace of God. Please pray to God. It is only by His will that the child caan recover."
The parents were not rery theistic so far in their lives. But, in the present critical juncture, they decided to do what the doctor said. Why? Simply because they had no other alternative.
Both of them praying feverishly to God to save their child, Their entire mind was occupied in the present — to see their only child alive — that was their only wish now.
As husband and wife, the couple had so many fights in the past; they were not seeing eye to eye on many matters. Forgetting all their past bickerings, they now prayed together with mutual love for saving their child; they had no thought of what would happen the next day.
They look at the child; touch and caress his face and body; they watch weather the child is breathing normally; they eagerly look forward for some movement in the child's body; they look at his eyes eagerly to see whether they would open and look at them. When they see no progress, they pray more feverishly.
Their relatives come to see them. The couple might have had some bitter experiences with some of them in the past. Yet, at this critical situation, they speak to them politely without any hatred. It is because they are in the present — gripped with their only desire of seeing the child alive, they are able to behave nicely with them. They sincerely think that they need God's grace as well as the blessings and good will of the visitors too. They tell them, "Please pray for saving our child."
Thus, despite what the past was and future could be, the couple live in the present and it has made them polite and loving people. Presently they are freed from hatred and bitterness.
It is likely that the couple would behave so till the child is either saved or dead. Afterwards all their past old habits and idiosyncrasies might return. Yet, as long as they are in the present, their condition is sober and amenable.
2. Be happy with what you have
[Amma: "Children, be contented with what you have. Never aspire for what others have. Don't desire for what you don't have. Don't think that you will be happier if you live your life like someone else. Don't think your sorrow is more painful than others. Everyone has his/her share of pain and sorrows in life. None can share the burden of others or exchange with others."]
Long ago, people living in a land were very unhappy about the state of their lives. No one was happy. Everybody thought that the next person was better off then him/her. By constantly thinking like this, they felt very agitated and furlorn. They could no longer bear their sorrows and burdens.
They got together to pray and cry to God to save them from their miserable lives. Moved by the intensity of their prayers, God appeared before them. He asked them to gather together in a meadow.
I have come after hearing your prayers. Now all of you unload your pains, sorrows, sickness, mental disturbances, physical handicaps etc in bundles in this meadow. People happily unloaded their every problem and pains. Soom the meadow got filled up and grew to be a mountain!
God said, "Now, in lieu of what you have unburdened, each of you can pick up the bundle unloaded by someone else that you may feel as more bearable to you."
The people vied with each other to take the burden of someone else that they thought to be 'less heavy' than theirs. The beggar took up the problems and pains of a rich person. A barren woman took up the problems of a woman who had problems due to multiple children. Thus took up alternative problems and they appeared to be happy. God disappeared from the scene.
People too returned to their homes. From the very next day, people started crying and complaining once again! This time, their their prayers and crying appeared 100 times more powerful than the previous occasion!
God appeared before them and asked them to gather at the meadow once again. They all cried to God saying that they could not handle their new worries and sorrows. They unanimously felt that their previous problems were far more tolerable than the present ones and they wanted their old worries to be given back!
The God permitted them to do so and disappeared.
The people seemed to be relieved and went back to their homes. Bur very soon, they started complaining as usual!
3. There is purpose behind inequality
[Amma: "Why doesn't God make everyone live happily? Why is it that he has made some people suffer in life? People ask such questions. It is not God's will that some people should go without food or some people to suffer more. God has given everyone what is basic and essential for them. Everything just to meet the need".]
Once a sage with occult powers visited a village. The village people went and requested him to make all the people in the village happy and prosperous. The sage, in deference to their wishes. used his occult powers to give them all lots of money, jewelry, new houses and so on. The people of the village received everything with joy and bid farewell to him after expressing their thanks to him.
After a few months, the Sage visited the same village again. This time, he found the village totally different from what he saw last time.
In fact it was even difficult to walk through the village. Dirt, waste and garbage were found strewn everywhere. The whole village was stinking. There was absolutely no cleanliness anywhere. Consequently, people of the village were suffering under different ailments. Cattles were not being reared, lands were not ploughed; no agricultural activity was going on.
When he inquired why, he came to know that ever since he gave lot of money to all the villagers, provided houses to stay and so on, no one was coming forward to do any work. There were no laborers to do farming. None came forward to clean the streets and surroundings as none was dependant on work to earn money to run their livelihood.
The people now begged the sage to reverse what he had done so that they can return to the old, healthy way of leading their lives!
(Source: Unaruvin Makkale- Malayalam)
4. "My life is best"
[Amma: "Everyone lives in his own world and thinks of himself to be great. Even a mosquito may feel its world is better than anyone else's!"]
Once there lived two astrologers who were very good friends. They were very good in predicting future from horoscopes. Once they got curious to know of their next birth. After going through their horoscopes in depth, they concluded that one of them will be born as a mosquito and the other a bullock. They also predicted that they would meet in the next birth too.
The astrologer destined to be born as mosquito said to his friend, "Please do me a favour when we meet in our next birth. Please crush and kill me to death when you see me.That way, you will shorten my pitiable life of being born as a lowly mosquito. That way, I can hasten to take a better higher birth so as to reach God faster". His friend agreed.
After their death, they took their fresh births as a bullock and a mosquito as predicted. THe bullock remembered its promise and kept looking for locating his mosquito friend. One day, he noticed that one mosquito living with a swarm of other mosquitos in an adjacent pool of extremely dirty sewage water amid a mound of filth was indeed his friend of the previous birth.
The bullock did not even feel like walking through the filth to reach out to his friend. However in order to fulfil his promise, he reluctantly walked through the filth. His friend mosquito was sitting over some dirt. The bullock lifted up his front leg to crush the mosquito. Noticing the intent of the bullock, the mosquito cried aloud, "Hey you! Stop, stop! What a cruel act you are trying to do? What harm have I done to you?"
The bullock said, "Don't you remember me, your old friend of previous birth? Have you forgotten your request to me in the last birth to kill you the moment we meet in this birth? Haven't you told me that you did not wish to live the worthless, lowly birth of a mosquito, but wanted to quickly die and take higher births?"
Hearing this, the mosquito laughed and said, "What do you mean by saying this life of mine is lowly and worthless? You just don't know how beautiful and comfortable this life of mine is! I have a beautiful wife and nice kids; I have no desire to leave this heavenly location and take any higher birth or to reach God. I simply don't think any other world would be any better than this! I am quite contented to live here and I request you to allow me to live in peace!"
5. Ignoring sane advice (1)
[Amma: "God is full of compassion. A mother who gives birth to her children also tells them dos and don'ts for leading a trouble-free life. If we follow them, our life will be smooth. Likewise, God, the creator, gives and knowledge and power to discriminate what is permanent and what is transitory. Without using discrimination if we do wrong, we have to suffer the consequences. There is no point in blaming God for it".]
Once in a village a mother had two sons named Viveki and Aviveki. One day, she sent the boys to the adjacent town to buy so milk. As they were going to the town for the first time, she gave detailed instructions to them.
She said, "My dear children, on your way to the town, you will find two bridges. The one on the eastern side is made of teakwood and the other on the western side is made of a low quality wood. The teakwood bridge is strong and sturdy, but is far off from here to cross. On the other hand, the other bridge on the western side is closer by, but it is very old, rickety and shaky. If you use that bridge, you have to walk extremely carefully as it will shake and crack. If you are not careful, you can falter your steps and fall into the river. The bridge may even collapse.
"So, I advise you to take the longer distance path and cross the river using the teakwood bridge in your onward journey to the town. At the house where you have to buy the milk, they would give you a wooden staff. On your return journey, you can cross the river by the old, creaky bridge. Now the wooden staff will be very handy for you to support and stabilize yourself to safely cross the bridge without falling down and reach home faster on your return.
"So, remember — never use the old bridge on your onward journey and take the risk of falling down".
As the brothers started their long walk to the town, they first noticed the old, rickety bridge. Seeing it, Aviveki got tempted to cross the river quickly using it. He said, "Why should we walk unnecessarily to such a long distance to reach the Teakwood bridge? We will just cross the bridge very carefully using this bridge itself. It will save lot of time".
Hearing this, Viveki said, "No. Mother has given us very specific and clear instructions that we should use this bridge only on our return journey and not on the onward journey. She has told us that it is very risky. So, drop the idea and come along with me". However, Aviveki was adamant. "I know all that. I can be very careful and manage without using any stick. I will go alone if you are not joining me". Viveki refused to give him company and he proceeded further to go to the east side Teakwood bridge.
He reached the town, located the house, collected the milk as well as the wooden staff given by them. He walked back and reached the west side rickety bridge. There he saw his brother lying in waist deep water, unable to move because of broken leg.
[Amma: "When God created the world, he has also taught people how to conduct themselves in this world. If people got into trouble and hardship by not heeding to his words of wisdom, how can God be blamed for it? God never punishes; even what you perceive as punishment too is God's way of correcting and improving you".]
Once a boy wanted to go to the neighbor's house to play. The mother said, "There are two ways to go to the neighbor's house. One is to go to the front of our our house, open the gate, go to the neighbor's gate and enter it and reach the house. There is another shortcut about which I will not tell you. I would only want you to go by the gates".
The boy came out of the house and he became curious to find out where the short cut was. He inspected the fence separating the two houses and there he noticed a small opening. He decided to sneak through the gap. When he entered through it, the sharp thorns in the fence pieced his skin and he started bleeding. Hearing his cry, the mother came out and retrieved him back to the house. Without telling a word, she applied medicines on his skin and soon it became alright.
Within a couple of days, the boy again got permission to go the neighbor's house for playing. This time too, he decided to sneak through the opening in the fence, with a determination that he would be careful enough not to wound himself. But, his manoeuvres did not work and he got injured once again by the thorns. Again, without a word, his mother came forward to help him, cleaned the wound and applied the medicine.
Same thing repeated after a couple of days. This time, the thorn made a deep scratch on his skin and he bled. His mother noticed his mischief but did not come forward to help him. She left the wound to remain as it was. The wound did not cure; pus formed in it and the boy was suffering in severe pain.
The mother now said, "Last two times, I came to your rescue and you did not get the wound septic. Since you did not experience the pain, you decided to do the mistake again and again. This time, I intentionally did not apply medicine, because I wanted you to learn the hard way. Only when you feel the real pain, you would desist from committing the same mistake in future. You will not resort to going by shortcuts. It is not because I didn't care about you that I ignored you the last time. Since I truly care about you, I wanted you to come back to the right path and increase your awareness. That's why I let you suffer".
7. Bad omen!
[Amma: "It is our good thoughts, good intentions and good prayers that we do in the morning as we get up that could lead to a happy and fruitful day. However, some people wrongly attribute the day's happenings — good or bad, to the face of the person that they saw first in the morning".]
Once a king, after waking up in the morning, came out of his room to the balcony and looked outside. There, on the street, he saw a beggar in tattered clothes. The beggar too looked at the king and bowed. The king immediately withdrew to his room with revulsion, thinking "Oh! What a bad sight to see first in the morning! It is so inauspicious to see a beggar first.I am worried what is going to happen today. Will there be any arrival of a war or any news of famine?" With such a thought troubling his mind and his heart welling up in hatred on the beggar, the king restlessly paced up and down in his room. Unexpectedly, he slipped, fell down and sprained his leg.
The king's physicians attended to him immediately, wound a bandage to the king's leg and prescribed complete bed rest for a few days.
Attributing this misfortune to the beggar whom he saw first in the morning, the king asked his minister to fetch the beggar from the street and ordered that he should be hanged.
The beggar was arrested and brought to the court. The minister conveyed to the beggar about the king's order and the reason for the punishment. Before he was taken to the gallows for hanging, the minister asked "Do you wish to say anything?"
The beggar said, "As the king saw my face first in the morning, he met with a small misfortune by spraining his leg. But see my misfortune. I too saw the king's face as first thing in this morning and I am going to lose my life for it. Tell me whose face is more inauspicious? Mine or the king's?"
(from Amma's Vishu message 14/4/2017)
8. Destructive mindset
Once upon a time there were three countries which were antagonistic to each other always and were fighting with each other. Each country wanted to destroy the other two and both the kings and peoples of the countries nurtured deep rooted hatred against the people of other nations.
God felt bad about such a mindset. He wanted to bring the antagonism to an end and he called for a meeting of the representatives of the three countries. He said to them, "My children, why are you always fighting with and hating each other? What do you want? I am here to fulfil your wishes; tell me your problems and I will solve them".
The representative of the first country rose up and said with total disregard to God and said, "First of all, we don't even believe Your existence. We believe only our leaders. If you really want us to believe you, then you should demonstrate your power to us".
"What do you expect me to do, so that you will believe in my power?" asked God.
The representative of the first country pointed out the rep of the second country and said, "If you destroy his country fully, we will start believing in your power. We are even willing to build temples for you and worship you in our country."
God was shocked to hear such a statement. He could not talk for a while. Seeing his silence, the first man said, "YOur silence proves that you are not capable of doing what I asked. It does not matter. We will do it ourselves; perhaps it might take a longer time, but it does not matter; we will do it."
Without responding to him, God looked at the rep of the second country. He knew that the people of that country were theists. So, he thought the rep will speak more amicably. The rep said, "My lord! Our request is extremely simple: The first country should no longer be found in the world map. Let that place remain empty. Just in case you are not going to do it, our army will definitely do it with your blessings and grace".
God was shocked much more when he heard this. If such was the state of people who believe in God, what to speak of non-believers? He sighed and looked at the face of the third person. He got up, bowed his head reverentially to God and smiled. God felt some hope seeing his gesture. 'Oh! I hope at least this fellow understands me; let me at least save his country from destruction' — thinking so, he asked, "My son, what is your wish?"
The representative of the the third country said, "My lord, I just have no separate opinion of my own. I will be happy if you concede to the wishes of these two persons."
9. Priceless indeed
Once there lived a beggar, who was quite healthy and looked young too. However, out of sheer laziness to work, he would beg at the passersby, saying, "Oh gentlemen, please look at my pitiable state; God has created me extremely poor and I am an orphan. There is no one to take care of me. Please have pity on me and give me a few coins."
One day, a wise man was passing the street and the beggar begged money from him too.
The wise man said to him, "Why should you beg like this? I will give your ten lakh rupees. You give me both of your hands".
The beggar was shocked. He said, "Sir, how can I live without hands; aren't they priceless?"
"Fine; then give me both of your legs instead. I will give you the same amount" said the wiseman.
"Sir, are you mad? How can I ever give my legs? They are priceless"
"Then give my your eyes. I will give the same amount".
The beggar got irritated. He said, "Not just eyes, I will not give any part of my body for a price".
The wiseman smiled and said, "My dear friend, you have been begging by saying God had created you a pauper. But now you say your legs, hands, eyes and every organ in your body is priceless and you are not willing to give any of them for any money. Is it not now clear to you that God has given you a wonderful, priceless body? Using this body, why not you do work and earn your livelihood? When you are quite healthy, don't extend your hands for begging. It is nothing but utter laziness. God never loves anyone who wants to get everything given to him by charity. God does not like people who live like parasites in the society. Better find a job and live by earning."
10. The Solution!
[Amma: "Children, By serving others, you are blessed. In the same way, by doing evil to others, you will suffer. Let me tell you a story:"]
A person walking on the road, met a friend on the way. The friend looked a very agitated and disturbed. "What happened? Why do you look so disturbed?" he asked.
The friend said, "At the end of this street where taxi drivers park their cars, there is one driver who hits me at my back whenever he sees me. I have not been able to stop his behaviour. I am getting uncontrollably angry with him day by day. I want to teach him a fitting lesson one day".
"Be careful; don't do something hasty and get into trouble " advised the person. But his friend said, "That driver's behaviour has crossed the limits of my tolerance. I am going to give him a fitting punishment that he could not forget in his life"
What do you intend to do with him?"
"This is what I plan to do today. I am going to buy a country bomb and fit it on my back and cover it with my shirt. From tomorrow, that driver will not have a hand to hit me again. Haha!"
11. The dress makes difference
[Amma: (When asked about her dressing up like Krishna and Devi during Bhava Darshans): "It helps people understand what bhava is. People have special preconceived ideas about Krishna and Devi and Their dress. When one says "Devi" nobody will think of an ordinary girl. There must be a distinctive quality in the manner of dress. By wearing those beautiful sarees, crown and jewels, mother is planting an impression of Devi in the mind of the devotees and trying to help them to make their faith stronger in order to grow spiritually. Mother will make this point clear through a story:"]
One man was cutting down a tree which was growing by the side of the road. Another man who noticed it and said, "Don't cut down the tree; it belongs to Government and cutting it down is against the law". The first man not only did not listen but also started scolding the other severely. Actually, the person who tried to prevent the man from cutting down the tree was a policeman. He left the place immediately and soon returned in his official dress.
Even from a distance the man cutting the tree noticed that a policeman was approaching him. He stopped cutting and immediately fled from the place!
[Amma: "See the difference in the impact created when the policeman came in ordinary dress and later in the official dress! Therefore, special attire is needed to to teach ignorant people."]
(From Awaken Children-2)
12. Pride and its effect
Once a king who went to a forest for hunting, got separated from the rest of the party. As he was walking, tired and weary due to hunger, he saw some forest dwellers.
He asked them, "Which fruit is good to eat?"
They said, "Any fruit in this forest is good to eat. Even naturally bitter fruits are sweet here."
The king was astounded and he inquired as to how it could be so. They said, "The king who rules this country is a repository of good qualities. Therefore the subjects are good-natured. Maybe it is because there is no one evil in this country that the trees give sweet fruits only. Nature is pleased with the good acts and qualities of the king and his subjects."
The forest dwellers did not know that it was the king himself who was standing in front of him. Even so, they received him in a respectful way.
When the king returned to his place, he was brimming with pride. He was inflated with ego thinking that because of his greatness, even bitter fruits became sweet. His manners changed; his pride made him arrogant. He started doing unrightful acts soon.
Later, the king went to the forest once again. The forest dwellers saw him while he was about to eat some fruits and said, "Don't eat that fruit; it is very bitter. Everything is spoiled now due to the evil rule of the king of this country. Due to his wicked behavior, the subjects too are acting in a evil way; Nature has become displeased. None of the fruits here are good to eat."
The king was shocked to hear this. He returned home thinking about all his evil actions with repentance.
[Amma: "Our character will be the cause of good and evil in this world. Knowing that, you should live cautiously. The actions of human beings are the basis of nature's goodness".]
13. Too busy!
Once a man returned from office.
He found lots of letters delivered at the doors by the postman. He collected them and started opening them one by one and began reading them.
Suddenly he remembered that it was the last date to pay the electric bills. He wanted to write a cheque for the bill amount and he started looking for his cheque-book. As he started frantically searching for the missing cheque book, he noticed that all the utensils, plates and glasses were lying unwashed after the dinner party he had at his house the previous night.
He started washing them one by one at his kitchen sink. While he was doing it, he noticed that the plants he had kept at the windows were withering because they had not been watered for the past couple of days. He stopped the cleaning work and started watering the plants. As he walked around to water various plants, he noticed that his car in the garage had gathered lots of dust as he had not bothered to clean it since a couple of days. He suspended watering the plants and went to the garage to wash his car.
Suddenly he remembered about the electric bill and his search for the cheque book! He also realized that he had not finished any of the tasks that he undertook that evening!
At that point of time, he received a phone call and it was his friend. The friend asked: "How was the day?"
The man sighed and said, "Don't ask me. It is too busy a day!"
[Amma: "This is the state of affairs with most of us. Being busy has become a disease! Nowadays everyone including children say, "I am too busy". But the reality is that there is no focus on the job at hand. Instead of living in the present, we live either in the past or in the future. Only when we learn to be in the present, we will be able to finish our tasks in hand effectively. Plan while you plan in the present. Once planning is over, undertake the task in the present. While planning don't think and worry about future. "]
(Amma's Monday Satsang 16/12/19)
14. The hidden treasure
Once there lived a very rich man who had four sons. All the four sons were lazy and they lived an easy life rolling on luxuries and spent money lavishly from their father's earnings.
The richman who had come up in life in the hard way, was extremely worried about the future of his four sons. No amount of good counselling had any effect on them.
Worrying about his children, the richman got sick and soon he was in death bed.
He was constantly thinking of ways to inculcate some value for working and earning into his children.
One day, he called his sons and said, "I am not going to live any longer. I am sharing this secret with you. Please listen; I have got a huge treasure containing lots of gold and diamonds earmarked for your inheritance, I have kept them buried in four huge pots under four different trees in our orchard. After my death, you may dig them out and make use of it for your future". He breathed his last.
After doing his last rites, the four men went to the orchard enthusiastically. They started digging the land under the shade of each tree one after the other. There were several hundreds of fruit trees in the orchard and they did the digging under all the trees. However they were disappointed that there was no treasure buried anywhere.
One of the four sons said "Our father has squarely cheated us. What to do now? Having dug so many holes all around the orchard, let us at least do one thing. Let us put fertilizers and manures in them and fill them up again with soil". The others agreed.
Six months passed by. The fruit season came and all the trees, having received lots of nourishment through the manure, gave bountiful yield of fruits. The brothers could make lots of money selling the fruits.
They understood the real secret behind the treasure their father had hinted to them.
[Amma: "There is no doubt that divine grace is always there for the sake of devotees. But one has to really put effort to become eligible for that grace".]
(Amma's Tuesday Satsang 7/1/2020)
15. The nature of children
Once, in a village, two little children were playing a game with a stone. The game involved keeping a small stone at the back of a hand, throwing it up and catching it. It had to be done 100 times continuously without fail to get 100 points. Whatever number of times a player failed to catch the stone, that many points will be lost. In the game, one of the children scored hundred while the other scored only eighty. As per the rule of the game was that the winner would give 20 mild beatings in the palm of the loser for having scored less by 20 points.
On that day, the winning child happened to give harsh beatings in the hand of the loser that caused considerable pain. The child got angry and ran away to his home crying. He went and complained to his mother that the other child beat him severely while playing with him.
The mother got worked up. She went to the house of the other child and started scolding him harshly for having beaten her son. The mother or the other child got very angry on the lady who came and made a big issue of it. She started scolding the lady. Soon they started verbally fighting with each other on the streets. Hearing the matter, the husbands of the two women came to support their wives. They started shouting angrily against each other. In the process, they lost temper and started physically abusing each other. Seeing the men attacking each other, lots of village people rushed in. Soon they got divided into two groups, each supporting one of the men and soon it evolved in to a group clash.
Someone reported the matter at the police station.
Policemen rushed to the scene and brought the mobs to control. Once a semblance of order was restored, the Policemen started inquiring the cause for the group clash. Finally they came to know that it all started with the fight between two children.
"Where are the children? I want to enquire them too" said the Sub Inspector.
Everyone started looking around but the children were not to be seen anywhere nearby. As the parents started searching for the children across the village, they found them at the river bank playing together joyfully.
[Amma: "Children, unlike the elders, don't get entangled in the past or future. They live in the present and enjoy it."]
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Amma-amidst-western-audience.jpg 379 578 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2019-04-19 18:58:212020-07-11 16:34:21Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 5 (15 more stories)
March 31, 2019 /0 Comments/in Stories told by Amma /by C.V.Rajan
1. Who knows?
One day, a man came out of his house very early in the morning well before dawn and started walking alone in the darkness of the road. There were no other people on the road. A police van on night patrol came by. Noticing the man walking alone in darkness, the policeman stopped the vehicle.
"Where are you going?" asked the policeman.
The man said, "How do I know?"
"What do you mean?" insisted the policeman.
"I mean, How can I ever say for sure?"
The policeman got very suspicious. Is this fellow a criminal who is out to do some mischief and trying to evade questions? He ordered the man to climb into the vehicle, took him to the police station and locked him up. The policeman said, "Don't try to play dirty tricks with police. Tell the truth or you will not be released".
The man laughed and said, "How can I ever be sure of where I am going to end up? You see, early this morning I wanted to go to the temple and have a darshan of the Lord; but see what has happened? I have ended up in the jail. That's why I said 'how can I ever say for sure?' "
[Amma: There are many things in life that happen beyond our control. We may want to something and end up doing something else in life."]
(Amma's Tuesday Satsang 15/5/2018)
2. The lost key
[Amma: "You are searching for joy in place where you can't find it; Joy is within you and you are searching it in the outside world. All your worldly beliefs and hopes are bound to become naught one day. Only when they leave, you will get the true yearning for knowing your atman, your own inner Self."]
Once an old man was kneeling down and searching for something outside his house. A passer-by asked, "What are you searching for, Sir?" The old man replied, "I have lost my key; I am searching for it". The passerby too started searching for the key.
After searching for long, they could not find it. The man asked, "Are you sure you lost the key here in this vicinity?"
The old man said, "I lost it inside the house".
"Oh God! Then why are you searching here?"
The old man said, "There is no light inside the house; Here streetlight is available; that's why I searched here".
3. The lost watch
Once an old man, possessing an old model watch misplaced it somewhere inside his house and was frantically searching for it. He called a couple of neighborhood boys and sought their help to search and locate the watch.
The boys asked, "Grandpa, are you sure you lost the watch inside your house?"
The old man said, "Yes, yes! I remember seeing my watch this morning and also winding it. I remember wearing it before I went for the bath."
All the boys were searching here and there and they were also talking aloud and making some fun and frolic. However they could not locate it.
One of the boys who was smarter than others asked, "Grandpa, where do you normally keep your watch?"
The old man said, "I keep it mostly in my bed room. Occasionally I may keep it in the kitchen or in the cupboard in the hall".
Then the boy said to his companions: "You please go out of this room and search for the watch in the kitchen and the hall. I will do the search inside the bedroom".
As soon as the other boys went out, the smart boy locked the bedroom from inside, closed the windows and went close to the bed, near the pillows, at the wardrobe and so on very silently sharpening his ears to hear any sound, since the room was very silent now. At a corner of the cupboard, hidden under a bunch of books, the boy located the watch!
"How did you manage to get it?" asked the old man appreciatively.
"The boy said, "Instead of 'looking' for your watch, I started my search by 'hearing'; now that this room is silent, I was seeking the 'tick-tick' sound that your old watch produces and thus located it".
[Amma: "Truth of the Self gets revealed in the silence of the mind."]
4. The neighbor's wood
[Amma: "People experience extreme happiness or extreme dissatisfaction on two occasions; if their enemy or the person they hate to the core undergoes severe suffering, they become extremely happy; if their enemy is living a grand or happy life, they become extremely forlorn! This is unfortunately the state of mind of many people."]
Once there lived two neighbors who were extremely antagonistic towards each other. One day, one of them went to a wood mart and bought two logs of wood for doing some carpentry works at his house. When he brought the material and started cutting on it, he noticed that both the logs had been eaten by termites inside and they were unfit for any woodwork. The wood mart did not offer any guarantee and hence he was forlorn on account of the loss. For a change of mood, he went out of the house for a walk.
After some time, he returned the house; his face looked bright and he was laughing. His wife was surprised to see his change of mood; she asked: "What happened? Why are you laughing?"
The man replied: "How can't I be laughing? Have I not bought two termite eaten logs of wood? You see, it is not a big loss at all! Our neighbor has bought 20 such logs from the same mart and all of them are spoiled!". He continued to laugh aloud!
(Amma's Arul Mozhigal (Tamil) -Part 4)
5. Give or Take?!
Once a person was walking along a forest alone. Suddenly, he heard a voice — someone shouting "Help, help!". The man looked around and at a distance, he saw a pit from where the voice seemed to come.
He ran towards the pit and there he noticed that a man had fallen into the pit and was not able to climb up. It was he who was shouting for help.
The passerby lied down at the edge of the pit, extended his hand into the pit and shouted "Give me your hand".
The man inside the pit saw the passerby trying to help him. But he was hesitating to grip the hand. The passerby shouted again: "Come on, don't delay; give me your hand!" Still the person in the pit was hesitating.
The passerby wondered what was wrong. He thought for a while and then changed his call; "Come on, take my hand! Take my hand and grip it well; I will pull you out of the pit".
Hearing this, the person in the pit immediately came forward to grip the helper's hand and soon he was pulled out of the pit.
[Amma: "That's the nature of the world! Most of the people are so selfish that they are not willing to give anything to others; but when it comes to taking something from others, they willingly comes forward. The world has become so selfish nowadays!"]
(Amma satsang 16/2/17)
6. End of greed
Once in kingdom, there was a river that contained lots of corals and gemstones in its bed. The king one day announced that whosoever rowed a boat upstream and downstream along the river across 16 hours and come back to the starting point can possess all the gemstones lying in the river bed that he covered by rowing.
As 16 hours of rowing was physically a very demanding task, no many came forward to take the challenge. However, one greedy person came forward to take up the challenge. He resolved within himself to cover as much distance as possible so as to accumulate a real huge wealth. Lots of people including his friends and wellwishers crowded the river bank to witness the feat. He started rowing the boat continuously for 8 hours and covered a long distance.
He thought, "If I can manage to row for one more hour in the forward direction, then I can speed up my return so that I will be able to accumulate that much of extra treasure". He rowed for one more hour. Again greed clouded his mind and he rowed for one more hour. At the end of each hour, he was prompted by greed and finally he ended up rowing for 12 hours in the forward direction. It meant that he had only 4 hours left for his return journey.
He reversed the direction and started rowing fast. However, as he had been rowing continuously for 12 hours, he was already feeling quite tired. However, his greed prompted him to row faster, for, if he missed reaching the starting point, all his effort would be futile. Breathing heavily and sweating profusely, the man kept on rowing, straining his every muscle and nerve in the process.
He lost so much energy that he could not even sit and row. He lied down and still kept rowing. Exhaustion took him over completely. Still his hands kept moving albeit very slowly.
He started hearing voices. He raised his head up and noticed that people were standing in the river bank and shouting at him "Come on! Faster, faster! Only a few minutes are left!". Gathering whatever little energy left in him, he rowed with all his might. He vomited blood and fell unconscious as the boat touched the starting point.
When the king's messengers came to the boat to take him to the king, they found only his dead body there.
7. The trees that weren't
[Amma: "In Karma yoga, when it is said that one must work without expecting results, it does not mean that one can be careless and purposeless in carrying out a task. Every action must be done with total 'shraddha' (ernest awareness), only leaving the end result to God's will."]
Once a landlord wanted to grow lots of trees in his land; he engaged four workmen for this purpose and assigned them specific tasks that each one should carry out. The first person should dig holes on the earth; the second person should do the seeding, the third person should cover the holes again with soil after adding some fertilizer and the fourth person should do the watering. This way, he thought that the works would go on serially and also faster.
After the project was over, several weeks passed, but no saplings sprang forth from the soil. The landlord was surprised. He called the workmen and inquired what happened.
The first worker said, "Sir, I have been dutifully digging the holes on the earth; I have not faltered in my duty".
The next worker said, "I have sincerely done my assigned work of filling up the holes with the soil after adding fertilizer".
The next worker said, "I have done my duty of watering them; I have not faltered".
The landlord asked, "Where is the person in-charge of doing the seeding?"
All the other three said in unison; "We have no idea; We did our assigned work; that's all; it is not our responsibility to find out whether the person meant to do the seeding turned up or not".
10. There is purpose behind inequality
11. "My life is best"
12. Ignoring sane advice (1)
14. Bad omen!
15. Proud of what?
A person borrowed large sums of money from many people and bought an island. With the loaned money, he also built a huge mansion that looked like a palace and lived there.
He would receive whoever that visits the island in his mansion and show them around the palace, boasting about his prosperity and greatness.
One day a Sanyasi visited the island. He went to the palace seeking alms. When the man came out to see the sanyasi, the latter did not salute him. The man got angry. He said, "Do you know who I am? I am the owner of this island and also this palace. This is the first time anybody has ever failed to show respect to me".
Hearing this, the Sanyasi asked, "Do you really mean that this entire island and the palace truly belong to you?"
"Yes. I am the owner of these".
"Promise?"
"Yes. I vouch I am the owner".
But the sanyasi was a knower of his past. He smiled and said, "Ask your own conscience as to how you got the money and the number of people who loaned you the money!"
Hearing this, the man was shaken to the core. His face paled. He realized his mistake immediately. He understood that there is nothing that he could claim as his own in that place. He immediately fell and the feet of the sanyasi.
[Amma: "Whatever spiritual knowledge we possess today is not something got by doing intense austerities. What we know has been acquired by reading the books written by others and we foolishly claim "I am the Brahman". Except saying such hollow words, we don't have a trace of humility, compassion towards others, or the mindset of sacrifice which are the qualities of knowers of Brahman."]
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Amma-meditating-wit-hdevotees.jpg 350 532 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2019-03-31 21:30:372020-07-11 16:23:29Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 4 (15 more stories)
August 27, 2018 /0 Comments/in Stories told by Amma /by C.V.Rajan
1. The simpler solution
[Amma: "Changing external things is extremely difficult; it is much easier to change our internal mindset to face the external circumstances."]
Once a king went for a relaxed walk along with his minister barefooted. A sharp thorn pricked his foot and the king was hurt. Out of pain and instant anger the said, "Don't you know that I take casual walk in this place? How can there be a thorn in the path I walk? The whole country is mine and I can opt to walk anywhere any time at my own convenience. I don't want such a thing to happen again. By tomorrow, you shall have all the roads in this country to be carpeted; your head will roll if you don't do this".
The minister was furlorn to hear the command. He could not sleep over night. It was obvious to him that what the king ordered was not practical to implement and he was sure to get beheaded. He made up his mind to talk frankly to the king the next morning.
Early morning we went to meet the king and said, "Your majesty; I could not arrange to do carpeting of all the roads in the the entire country as per your order; consequently, you are free to behead me as per your dictum yesterday. Before I die, may I just make a suggestion? Instead of carpeting the whole city, will it not be prudent if you wear shoes before going for a walk?"
2. Unwanted curiosity
[Amma: "Bringing useless and purposeless thoughts into the mind and indulging in them for long has become the habit of people today."]
Once a man, putting on specs was reading a newspaper in the morning. He kept the newspaper very close to the eyes, then pushed it away from his eyes, kept it sideways etc and trying to read it. It looked obvious that he was struggling to read the newspaper. He bent himself over the newspaper, lifted it up above and still he was not able to read it properly.
His neighbor, who was observing all these for a while, asked him, "What happened? Aren't your glasses alright? Perhaps your eyesight has deteriorated over the years and may be it is time for a checkup and change the glasses".
The man said, "My eyesight is quite alright; in fact, I don't even need glasses to read the paper. The glasses I am wearing now are not mine. When I went for the morning walk today, these specs were lying on the road; I picked up and brought with me; I am now wearing them and testing how they are!"
[Amma: "Most of us are like this man who is undergoing suffering by wearing the glasses that are in no way useful to him."]
(Tamil Matruvani Nov 2015)
3. The Patient listener – 2
Once a famous sadhu was invited by people to deliver a series of lectures on dharma, right conduct and living. The first day, some 200 people had gathered to listen to the talk. One the second day, most of them turned up again, but he repeated the same subjects that he talked about the previous day. On the third day, the audience had dropped down considerably but again he delivered his lecture exactly in the same way he did in the previous days. One the fourth day, there was just one person only in the hall to listen to the talk.
On that day, he changed the subject and talked about more things.
At the end of the session, the sole listener went to the sadhu and said, "Sir, why didn't you change the subject on the second day itself? If you had done that, people would have continued to come to your lecture and got benefited by it. Why did you change the subject only today when I was the only listener?"
The sadhu said, "I not only give lectures but also watch people's reactions; I know people did not follow the things that I taught them in their lives. So, I felt compelled to repeat what I said again. However I was watching you and I understood that you are at least listening to my words and acting upon them. I saw you helping an extremely poor man with food and money yesterday. Today I saw you leaving your footwear at a wrong place as you entered the hall and the watchman scolded you for it; without arguing with him, you immediately removed your footwear and put it in a different place. It is precisely such behavioural changes that I was expecting from people when they listened to my lectures. I felt very glad that my teachings are working at least on one person like you. That's why I changed the topic today!"
4. Good intentions alone won't help
[Amma: "One's next birth depends on one's thoughts arising in mind at the moment of death. But whatever thoughts that come out at the death bed depends on one's innate nature developed and formed as mental impressions of one's past life".]
Once there lived an intelligent and rich businessman. He believed in the Hindu culture that uttering God's name would lead one to good life. He named all his children with names of God. His plan was that at the time of death (like the infamous Ajamila** mentioned in Srimad Bhagavatam) he could call out any of his sons by name and thus attain moksha.
When he was in deathbed and felt his death was nearing, he called out his sons "Rama, Govinda, Narayana!" All his sons were taking care of the family business (a shop) and they came rushing in. When he saw all the three of them together. He became angry. He shouted angrily at them: "If all of you come like this together, who will look after our shop?" With such a worldly thought in mind and words, he breathed his last!
** [Ajamila was a normal worldly person, who had named his son 'Narayana'. When he was at deathbed, he wanted to tell something to his son and called out Narayana. At that very moment, he breathed his last. The messengers of God of death (Yama) came to drag his soul; at the same time, hearing his call, Lord Narayana too sent his messengers to fetch the soul of Ajamila. Since Narayana was the supreme God, messengers of Yama could not take Ajamila's soul to their destination where he would be judged based his sins and good deeds. Lord Narayana's messengers took him to Narayana and thus Ajamila was lucky to get the blessings of Lord Narayana, even though his calling out the lord's name was totally inadvertent!]
(Source: 'Sambhashanangal'-Malayalam- Part 2)
5. Whither the market?
[Amma: "Even in nature, you will find plants and animals strive to live with optimism a life in full against all odds. It is human beings who lack faith and confidence. That's why they get into sorrow. Amma will tell you a story she has heard"]
Long ago, a footwear manufacturing company sent two salesmen to a distant island where tribal people were living. The company wanted to explore sales opportunities in that island for their footwear products.
The two salesmen went by boat to reach the island and went around in two directions to make their independent assessments. They returned to the mainland by evening and sent telegrams to their company giving their individual feedback.The first salesman messaged: "No one in this island know what a footwear is; they had never worn any nor have any need for it as they were living like this for centuries. There is no scope to pitch a sales to them and convince them. Hence I am returning to head quarters".
The second salesman messaged: "People have never worn footwears here in this island nor know its use. Hence there is a great potential to sell footwear here. Please send a large lot of footwear by sea freight immediately and I shall start selling them right away".
6. The true colors
[Amma: "Habits and vasanas being carried by us across several births are very strong indeed. It is not easy to get rid of them. They are very powerful. When an appropriate moment comes, they raise up their heads strongly however much we try and keep them under check".]
Once there were two young and charming children — a brother and sister, who used to go to their neighbor's house for playing. The neighbors were very fond of these children and enjoyed spending their time playing with them. One day, these children dressed themselves like a king and queen. They had cardboard crowns decorated with silvery and golden shaded papers to adore their heads.
They went to the neighbor's house and knocked at the door. "The lady in the house asked: "Who is it?"
The children said, "We are the king and queen of the country; we have come to visit your house".
The amused lady decided to play with them in the same tune; She opened the door, bowed before the children and said, "Oh, welcome your majesty! How fortunate I am to have you as a guest in my house! Had I known earlier that you are coming, I would have arranged a red-carpet welcome for you!"
The children said, "It is okay; It is enough if you take us inside and offer us refreshments".
The lady respectfully took the children inside, arranged two chairs for them and said, "Respected king and queen may please be seated in this golden throne please!" The 'king' and 'queen' took their seats.
The lade went inside and brought a plate containing biscuits and two cups of milk. She placed them on a stool in front of the children and said, "I humbly request the king and queen to take my offering please!"
The biscuits in the plate were made in the shapes of various animals — lions, tigers, deers, cows, goats, crocodiles, oxen, dogs, fish, ducks and so on. The king and queen vied with each other two pick up the various biscuits; if the 'king' picked one lion, the 'queen' too would pick one. If the queen piked one dog, the king too would search frantically to locate a dog and pick it. Finally there was one elephant shaped biscuit only lying in the plate and there was no duplicate piece available. Both the king and queen wanted to possess that piece and they jumped over the plate to grab that piece! But the queen was smart enough to grab it first!
The king could not tolerate the defeat! He got angry. He tried to forcefully remove the elephant from the queen's hand and could not succeed. Seething in anger, he picked up the glass of milk and poured it on the queen; the queen too retaliated. The king started attacking the queen by throwing the 'wild animals' on her! Soon both of them were rolling on the floor fiercely engaging in wrestling. In the melee, their cardboard crowns fell away. Their royal dresses were getting torn!
Thus the 'royal couple' who were dignity personified at the time of entering the house became normal children in fighting for the biscuit pieces!
7. The right solution
[Amma: "If you clearly perceive your own mistakes, then you will take steps to remove them. Only when you become aware of them, you realize how bad they are. Recently Amma came to know of this real life story…."]
The manager of a hospital was facing a problem of keeping their elevator clean. Many visitors to the hospital had the habit of chewing tobacco/gutka. They get the urge to spit their saliva and many people shamelessly spat inside the elevator too at the corners. Thus cleaning the elevators frequently became a problem for the administration.
In a meeting of the hospital administrators, this issue was discussed, in order to find a workable solution to prevent people from spitting inside elevator.
Finally, a novel idea was implemented. 4 mirrors were placed on the 4 corners of the elevator. People who get the urge to spit inside the elevator will have to necessarily see their faces in the mirror and they could realize that it looks distasteful to do it! Hence people stopped spitting inside the elevator and the cleaning issue was solved once for all!
8. Like Whom?
Once a traveller was walking along a street in a small town. He saw an extremely beautiful mansion in the street. Attracted by its grandeur, he stood in front of it and gazed it with admiration for a while.
A person from the house came out and asked the on-looker: "What are you looking at?"
The traveller said, "It is a very beautiful mansion! I am just marvelling at it!"
The man said, "Well, I am the lucky owner of the house".
"Is that so? Very glad to know".
"You know how I got it? I have an elder brother who presented this mansion for me".
"Ah, fantastic".
"Now Sir, please be frank. Are you not thinking right now 'How wonderful it would be if only I have an elder brother like him' ?" asked the owner of the house.
The traveller smiled and said, "No. I was thinking: 'How wonderful it would be if I were like the elder brother'!"
[Amma: "True joy comes by giving; not in receiving"]
9. Reforming the world?
[Amma (Addressing a pseudo-sanyasin): "My son, Before correcting yourself, if you try to correct others or the world, nothing would come out of it. The saffron cloth you are wearing is not meant to give you good looks nor to fetch you respect from others. It is meant to remind you constantly of your true goal in life; it should not contribute to boost your ego. Rather it should destroy your ego."]
Once there lived an old man who loved to talk of his past to his friends.
He said, "In my youth, I was proud that I knew many things; I was confident that I could accomplish whatever I wanted. I was trying my best to correct others and their ignorance. I prayed, "Oh God, give me the power to correct the world". As days and years passed, I realized that I had reached my middle age and thus lost half of my life. I could clearly see that I had not achieved anything personally in my life, nor could I correct anyone in my life.
"Then I prayed to God, "My lord, please give me the power to correct at least those who are close and dear to me". I sincerely felt that it was my duty to correct the wrongs in others who are around me. Years have passed and now I have become old. Nowadays, my prayer is only this: "My lord, please give me enough powers at least to correct my own faults!"
(From Arul Mozhigal-6 – Tamil)
10. Outsmarting the opponent
[Amma: "In politics and business, the competition existing to outsmart the opposition is very strong and also problematic indeed. In order to gain upper hand, it becomes inevitable for them to overpower, control and manipulate the opponent. People even resort to unrighteous means, ignoring basic human values. "]
A rich man was once caught in a litigation. As the case was progressing, he felt that his side was weak and he may lose the case. He did not want it to happen; he wanted to win the case by hook or crook, even if it were to be by way of corrupting the judge and turning the judgement to his favor.
The rich man inquired about the judge's habits and he came to know that the judge was very fond of playing golf. He suggested to his advocate to buy a very costly set of golf game accessories and present to the judge. Shocked, the advocate said, "No! Never think of such ways. The judge is a very honest person; he takes pride in his honesty and would never accept any bribe. In fact, if you ever try to bribe him, the case could very well turn to be totally unfavorable to you". Hearing this, the rich man became pensive.
After a few days, the judgement was announced. It was in favour of the rich man. He arranged a party to thank his advocate. The rich man said, " I should really thank you for the timely warning you gave about the danger of bribing the judge. Actually, I did present the golf set to the judge, but I sent it across mentioning that it was a gift being sent by our opposite party!"
11. No way!
[Amma: "In the present day husband and wife relationship, there is no give and take. Both lack patience. Hence there is no progress in relationship; only repulsion is there! Only positive and negative poles in magnets can attract each other. If both poles are either positive or negative, they end up only in repulsing each other".]
Once two cars came opposite to each other in a very narrow lane, where there was not enough width for two cars to pass side by side. Unless one car took reverse to the end of the lane so as to give way to the other car, there was no way they could move forward.
Both the drivers of the cars started arguing. Each one wanted the other driver to take reverse. Neither of them were willing to yield.
The first driver got out of the car, walked to a nearby teas stall and started sipping a cup of tea. Seeing this, the other driver too got out, bought a cigarette and started smoking. After finishing his tea, the first driver noticed that the second driver had not done anything; he bought a newspaper and started reading it.
After noticing that the first driver was not taking any action, the second driver finished his smoke, came to the tea stall, ordered some snacks and started eating them leisurely!
Hours went by as both did not want to budge to the demand of the other. It was a matter of prestige for them. Thus they could not move forward in their path.
(Beach satsang Mon 16/1/2017)
12. Ineffective treatment!
[Amma: "Life is a blessing. But instead of using our discrimination to choose the right, we choose the wrong and suffer".]
Once a man was suffering from an eye disease as well as stomach pain.He went to consult a doctor. The doctor, after examining him, prescribed some eye drops and also a bottle of another medicine for his stomach pin. He instructed him to apply a few drops of the medicine for the eye and take a spoonful of the medicine for the stomach.
After coming home and the time came for taking the medicines, the patient got confused. Which bottle for which ailment? He took an spoonful of eye drops and drank it. He dropped a few drops of the stomach medicine into his eyes! On account of this, both his ailments got accentuated and he had to suffer much more!
[Amma: "We are like the patient in this story, confused always about our choices in life. The topmost priority to be given to our life is to realize our Atman — our real nature, through intense practice. We should give only a secondary importance to our boy and its needs. But we behave like changing the medicine! The effort needed to realize the atman is given to take care of the body!"]
13. Impermanence is mithya
[Amma: "Mithya does not mean non-existent, but impermanent. Everything in life is constantly changing. Only Atman is real and unchanging. According to Vedanta, our life is dreamlike".]
Once an extremely poor young man was suffering without food, shelter and clothing. He was sitting by the side of the road, feeling extremely depressed about his condition in life.
Suddenly there was a big commotion. An elephant was coming in the road with a garland in his trunk and lots of people including soldiers were following it.
The elephant came near the poor man and put the garland over his neck. There was a huge jubilation with this happened. He was told that the king of the country had died without a heir and it was decided, as per traditions followed in that country, to appoint whomsoever the king's elephant garlands would be made the king.
The young man was carried with lot of fanfare to the palace. He was bathed, draped in the finest of royal clothes, adored with golden and diamond ornaments and crowned as the king of the country in a grand celebration.
Thus, overnight, the poor man's life took an unpredictable and unimaginable turn! From utter poverty, he started rolling in royal luxury and he was enjoying every moment of it! Soon proposals came to get him married to a princess of another country too.
This is indeed what is known as mithya. The ways by which maya plays its delusive game is very unpredictable.
14. Selfish prayers
[Amma: "Amid theists, there are many people whose faith in God is just shallow. Their dealings with God are just for getting his grace for enjoying worldly pleasures. They will always have their doubts and also be unhappy and dissatisfied! Their prayers will be with selfish motive only — to get fleeting things or to complain about petty issues. True love and devotion would be missing; only selfishness, greed and hatred (against their adversaries) would dominate their prayers".]
Once a man invited a Sadhu to his house. His wife had died recently and wanted the Sashu to conduct specific prayers for getting peace for the departed soul. The sadhu conducted worship to God and made his prayers saying, "Let everyone in this world live happily; let there not be suffering anywhere; let peace prevail everywhere; let prosperity swell everywhere; let every soul attain liberation".
Hearing this, the householder intervened: "Swami, I was expecting you to pray for my wife's soul to attain peace. But you did not utter even her name; can't you pray for my wife exclusively?"
The sadhu said, "I cannot pray just for your wife alone. My guru has taught me that whatever and whenever I pray, it should be for the good of the entire universe. The scriptures of of the religious school that I belong to also teaches us the same way. In fact, when we pray for the wellbeing of all, naturally your wife's soul will also benefited for sure. Sorry, I can't pray just for an individual".
The sadhu did not yield to the repeated appeals of the householder. Finally, with no other go, the householder said, "Okay Swami, Please go ahead in your own way. But just make sure that my neighbor is excluded from the benefits of your prayers!"
15. How human beings got 100 years as lifespan!
After one pralaya (dissolution of the universe), Lord Brahma started another round of creation. He created different types of creatures — plants, insects, Animals and so on and he was about to finalize the lifespan of each creature.
He called man first and told him that he had decided to give him a lifespan of 30 years. Hearing this, the man looked very unhappy. He prayed to Lord Brahma to increase his lifespan. Brahma said, "I cannot show any special privilege to human beings alone. The lifespan for every creature has already been very meticulously planned and fixed". But man kept on persisting. He was begging Lord Brahma for a longer lifespan, again and again.
Brahma then said, "Okay. You stand here by my side; I will call other creatures and inform them their lifespan. If any of them feel that their lifespan is too long and they don't want that much, then I will add to human's account whatever lifespan they want to reduce". The man stood by the side of Brahma with anticipation.
Brahma called the bullock and said, "Your life span is 40 years". The bullock said, "My lord, I can't bear such a long lifespan. I pray to you to reduce it by half".
Brahma agreed and added those 20 years to man. Man looked happy, but he was still standing there, hoping to get more.
Next Brahma called the donkey and granted 50 years to it. The donkey pleaded woefully, "My lord, why are you punishing me like this? I would rather be happy had you not created me at all; I have no wish for a long lifespan; Even half of it is long enough; Please don't give me more than 25 years".
25 more years were thus added to man, thus increasing it to 75. Though happy, the man was still willing to have more; he was eagerly waiting for the other animals.
Next Brahma called the dog and granted it 30 years. Even before he finished saying it, the dog started barking, vehemently protesting it. "My lord, I have no wish to live beyond 15 years" said the dog.
Man happily received another 15 years. Brahma looked at man's face and he noticed that he was still not satisfied despite getting 90 years of age.
Brahma called the worm next and gave 10 years to it. The worm almost swooned on hearing it. "My lord, I shudder in fear to learn such a long life span for me. Please, please… I don't want it at all. Please give just a few days as my lifespan; nothing more".
Brahma transferred those 10 years of worms life too to man's account. Now the man looked happy to receive 100 years as his lifespan. He started jumping and dancing in joy.
Amma: "Dear Children, Up to 30 years, man spends his life in education and employment with no major worries or responsibilities. He leads a carefree life. By this time he gets married. Now like a bullock, he has to pull the 'cart of his family life' with all the responsibilities. His energy and health deteriorates. Thus he reaches middle age. He leads the remaining twenty five 'donkey years of life' carrying the burden of a thankless worldly life on his back. By 75, he becomes dead tired, totally losing energy.
He spends the remaining 15 years like a dog, sitting at home to guard the house and the grandchildren, just for the sake of his food and shelter. By the time he reaches 90, everyone including his grandchildren discard him, He keeps living in the memories of the past.
The last 10 years that he got from the worm, he leads a pitiable life. Unable to walk, he moves like a worm. Advanced age and sickness make him unfit for anything. He spends his life lying in bed and squirming like worm. He dies like a worm, immersed in total disappointment, despair, sorrow and pain."
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Amma-amidst-western-audience.png 379 578 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2018-08-27 16:53:292020-07-11 16:02:34Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 3 (15 more stories)
1. Value of money (1)
A very rich man used to go to the market from his house for shopping by walk always. Having noticed this for long, one of the shopkeepers asked him, "Why are you coming to the market walking? You can very well come by your car! I always see your sone coming to the market only by car!"
The rich man said, "When I was young, my father never earned enough money to provide me comforts. Whatever riches I have today have been earned by me by hard work. I know the value of money. As for my son, his father has earned enough to give a car to him. The son doesn't know the value of money because he has not struggled to earn it. That's why he comes in the car!"
Once a father and son lived together. The son was extremely lazy and he was simply living off his father's income. Fed up with his attitude, one day the father said to his son very strictly, "Look, you can have your meals at this house hereafter only if you earn at least two Rupees a day and give it to me".
The lazy son went around to meet the neighbours and his father's friends to borrow two rupees from someone or other and paid his father before taking food daily.
The father soon came to know of it and gave strict instructions to his neighbors not to give any money to his son. Next day, the son could not get any money from them. He went to a hotel, offered his services to wash the utensils and collected two rupees as his labor charges. That was the first time in his life he ever labored to earn money.
He brought home two rupee note to his father and asked for his food. The father said, "Wait". He went inside, brought a wick lamp and started burning the two rupee note. The son was shocked and angered to see what his father was doing and shouted, "Stop, stop! What are you doing ? Are you foolish to burn my hard earned money this way? Do you know how much I toiled to earn these two rupees?" Shouting like this, the son was about to hit his father.
The father said, "Now you understand the value of hard earned money? It is with the money that I had earned by toiling hard that you have been eating all along, sitting idle at home!"
[Amma: Only if we work hard to attain something, we will understand its value; otherwise, people will squander it or misuse it. Amma cannot give divine knowledge for free to anyone who is not willing to work for it.]
3. The learned parrot
Once a very learned sanyasi was walking through a dense forest along with his pet parrot. The parrot was very dear to him, as he had taught the parrot to chant many scriptures verbatim; it had taken many years of earnest effort to teach the parrot to such a capability.
In the forest, a ferocious tiger noticed him and came charging towards him. The sanyasi was very scared; he started running, but he was no match for the speed of the tiger chasing him.He did not know how to escape and thought his life would end very soon. Suddenly, most unexpectedly a forest dweller came on the way and he managed to chase away the tiger.
The sanyasi felt extremely grateful to the forest dweller for saving his life. He wanted to gift something valuable to the man, but being a begging mendicant, he had nothing to give. He thought for a while and decided to give as a present his dearest pet, the parrot, to the forest dweller. The hunter gracefully accepted it.
The sanyasi bid farewell to the hunter and left. After he reached his hut in his village, he suddenly remembered that he had totally forgotten to tell the hunter how valuable the parrot was since it can chant many shashtras. On a second thought, he felt that it was wrong on his part to have given the parrot to the forest dweller form who the parrot's chanting abilities would be of no use. He decided that he should give some other valuables and coins in his possession to the hunter and retrieve his beloved parrot.
The next next day, the sanyasi went into the forest and fortunately he could meet him on the way. He eagerly inquired, "How is the parrot?" The forest dweller replied, "Oh! It was quite tasty; thank you!"
[Amma: There is no point in gifting something to one who does not know the value of it. A sadguru can easily give realization to a disciple but he will not give to a person who may not know the value of it]
4. The useless pride
Once a very rich man travelled in his car in a highway. He was carrying with him lots of jewels and so many costly and valuable items in the car.
When he was passing through a deserted place, a few highway robbers stopped his car enroute. They forced him to come out of the car at gun point.
One of the robbers took him away from his car, drew a circle on the ground using a stick and forced the rich man to stand inside the circle. He said, "Don't ever dare to come out of the circle; if you put a step outside this circle, we will kill you".
Then all of them surrounded his car, checked it thoroughly and took away all the jewelry and other valuables found in the car. Finally, they poured some petrol on the car and torched it.
Then they came back to the place where he was standing, in order to kill him. On seeing them, the rich man started laughing. "What is there to laugh, you fool?" they asked him angrily.
The rich man said gleefully, "I am not a fool; actually I fooled all of you. Did you not say that if I step out of the circle, you will kill me? When you were busy looting and burning my car, I stepped out of the circle so many times and none of you noticed it!"
[Amma: Many of us live in this world like this rich man. Instead of escaping and running away to save his life when the robbers were busy, the rich man was priding himself in his foolish act of jumping in and out of the circle. When dire things are happening in our lives, we take pride and pleasure in our petty achievements, forgetting the great calamities we are to face in life]
5. The most beautiful girl on earth
Once a great artist drew the painting of an extremely beautiful girl. Whomsoever saw the painting fell in love with the girl, so lured by her exquisite beauty. Some of them asked the artist "By any chance this girl is your lover?" When the artist said no, each of them expressed their desire to marry the girl and all of them wanted the artist to reveal her whereabouts.
In fact each one of them was so madly got infatuated with the girl in the picture that each was very determined not to allow any other to try and woo the girl in any way!
They kept on pestering the artist to reveal her identity and location. The artist said, "I am sorry; she is not a real girl at all. I have never seen such a girl anywhere in my life. She has no specific language, religion or country. Whatever beauty I found inside my heart, I expressed it through this painting – her eyes, her nose, her face and all her limbs are only the expressions of my own imagination of the best of all beauties. Please don't ever blindly believe existence of any such real girl in the world".
But people refused to accept what he said. They said, "You are lying because you want to get married to that girl" they accused him. The artist said, "No. Even if you travel all over the world to locate her, you will not find her because she is the essense of all that is beautiful that I could conceive as an artist".
Refusing to heed to the artist, the people started blindly believing that such a girl really existed. In order to possess her, they started fighting with each other. Soon it became a melee; burning with desire and rage, people started physically attacking each other and all of them got killed in the bitter fight.
[Amma: We too are like these people. We are in search of God as seen in pictures or as described in poetic mythological stories. In that search we also fight with each other and cause damage to ourselves.]
6. The lean elephant!
[Amma: It is our mind that makes one beautiful or ugly in our point of view. If we love someone, he/she will look beautiful, even if the looks are otherwise. If we don't like someone, they would look ugly even if really beautiful]
Once a lady, sitting from her house peeped outside and saw someone roaming at the gate of the house. She said to her servant, "Someone as fat as an elephant is standing at our gate; go and find out who it is".
The servant went and came back excitedly. He said, "Madam, it looks it is your eldest son who ran away from the house a few years ago!"
The lady got up immediately and rushed out. Seeing her son there, she hugged him and said, "Oh my son! Where have you been all these years? Why have you become so thin?"
Once it became known that she was indeed her son, how her outlook changed!
7. Initiating a change
[Amma: Any change for the improvement of the outer world has to come from the minds of the people. A change in an individual's mind can trigger a change in the entire society.]
Once there was a village inside bordering a forest. At night, it was engulfed in darkness. A main road passed through the village into the forest which served as a thoroughfare to go to towns beyond the forest. As the village remained a secluded place, lots of robberies and murders took place. It was becoming very unsafe to travel through the road during nights.
A good hearted person living in the village felt pained to see such criminal activities taking place. He sent several petitions to the Government to provide electricity and street lights to the village, but nothing happened. Crimes continued to happen along the way in the village at nights. People in the village started living in perpetual fear and they were too afraid to venture out at nights.
Finally, the person decided to do whatever little part he could do: he kept a hurricane lamp outside his house at night so that there is atleast a little light on the street near his house. When the neighbor noticed it, he thought, "It is really nice to see this place lit at night; let me also keep a lamp outside my house at nights". Soon it caught up with everyone in the village. Soon the whole thoroughfare passing through the village got illumined at night on account of lamps kept outside every house every night.
On account of it, robberies and murders happening there gradually came down.
Thus, on the initiative of one person to do a good for the society, a positive wave was created in the whole village. If one thinks 'let others change before I change' no progress will ever happen.
8. The power of words
[Amma: "Words have the power to change the nature of men"].
Once a Brahmin was teaching moral lessons to children in a temple. Te king of the country happened to visit the temple at that time. The Brahmin, who was fully immersed in teaching the lessons failed to notice the arrival of the king.
The king felt offended that the Brahmin failed to extend him the necessary reverencial welcome to the king; he came close to the Brahmin and started chiding him for his negligence. The Brahmin apologized and explained to the king that he did not to it intentionally bu missed noticing the arrival of the king due to his active engagement with the children. The king refused to accept such excuses; "What is such a great subject that you are teaching to the children without even noticing me?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"I was teaching the children the importance of developing good conduct and character; unless I do it with full involvement and concentration, it will not be effective" said the Brahmin.
"Do you believe mere words can change the behavior of the people?"
"Sure, my venerable king; words do have the power to create change in one's nature"
"I don't believe it" said the king.
Just then, one of the students watching their conversation came forward suddenly and shouted at the king: "You get out from here".
The king got extremely angry. He took out his sword and rising it, he said, "You young brat! How dare you talk to a king like this? I will behead you and your guru right now and destroy this place!"
The Brahmin said, "Excuse me, your excellency! You said a moment ago that you don't believe that words can change the nature of people. But see what happened now! A couple of words uttered by a young boy has caused such a great mental agitation in you! You have even decided to kill us and destroy the place!"
[Amma: "Children, from this story, it is clear that words have the power to change the nature of people. When even ordinary words can make a change, think of the power of mantras embellished by Bijakshararas (seed syllables) given to us by great sages"].
(Source: Arul Mozhigal-1 -Tamil)
9. Thanklessness
[Amma: "Man shamelessly take things from nature with utter greed. He never seems to be thankful for whatever he has received"].
Once a man was standing in a bus stop. Since the bus he was waiting to board broke down, there was lot of delay. As the man kept looking around idly, he noticed an ice-cream vendor nearby. During the long period of waiting, nobody seemed to buy any icecream from the vendor. Seeing his impoverished looks, the passenger took pity on the vendor and asked, "How much does a cup of ice-cream cost?"
"Five rupees" said the vendor. The man took out a five rupee coin from his pocket gave it to the vendor, and walked away without collecting the ice-cream, intentionally. The but too gor repaired by that time and he boarded the bus and went away.
A couple of days later too, the man came to the ice-cream vendor, asked for the ice-cream, gave another 5 rupees, and went away without collecting the ice-cream.
Within the next one year or so, the same thing happened several times.
One day the man came to the vendor once again. This time the vendor could not contain his curiosity. He asked, "Sir, may I know why you are giving me five rupees again and again but not collecting the ice-cream?"
The man said, "See, I have no liking for ice-cream. When I gave you five rupees for the first time, I was feeling that I should do some little help to you, since you were not doing any business for long, as I watched you from a distance from the bus stand. Actually, I was waiting in the bus stand that day to catch my bus to go to a job interview. Surprisingly, I got the job and I came and donated another five rupees for you"
"You were giving money a few more times too subsequently; why?" asked the vendor.
The man said, "At one time, I got a huge order for my company and I received a good incentive money for it. I came here the next day and gave money to you. Subsequently, I got a promotion quickly and I came here again. To day, i have come here to give your five rupees because I got promoted to Manager post today!"
The vendor said coolly, "Sir, it's all fine. But I have to tell you something; since last week, the price of the ice-cream has been increased from five rupees to ten rupees".
(Devi bhava satsang abroad 4/3/2015)
10. The cost of love
[Amma: "There is hardly any true love in worldly relationships; if people love each other, it is practically for selfish reasons"]
Once a little girl was hospitalized for treatment for a a serious ailment. She had to remain in the hospital bed for about a week and her parents took turns to be with her. The doctors and nurses took good care of the girl and they moved very nicely and affectionately with her.
Once she was cured and was about to be discharged, the girl said to her father, "Papa, I think we should express our heartfelt gratitude to the doctors and nurses; they were so kind, affectionate and caring towards me all these days!"
As she was talking like this, a nurse came in and handed over a bunch of papers to the father of the girl. The father looked at it and then smiled at the girl. The girl asked, "What is it, papa?"
The father said, "It is the bill I have to pay for all the love, affection and care that you were mentioning a while ago!"
11. Nature gives free
Once an old man was hospitalized due to breathing problem. He got treatment for a couple of days. When he was about to be discharged, the ward boy brought the hospital bills. As he looked into the details, he noticed that he was charged a couple of thousands of rupees for Oxygen. Looking at it, the man's facial expression changed. He knelt down and started praying God.
"Why sir, any problem with money?" asked the ward boy.
"The old man uttered his prayer aloud: "Oh God! How magnanimous you are and what a thankless guy I have always been! Right from birth till this old age, I have been breathing the oxygen that you have given in the air so magnanimously without expecting anything in return from me! Please forgive this thankless guy!"
12. Father's advice
Once an experienced shopkeeper was keen to put his son in charge of the shop and train his son well in the art of salesmanship.
He brought his reluctant son to the shop and gave him essential instructions and put him on the job straight away.
A customer came and asked "Do you have Colgate toothpaste?"
The son searched the shelves and could not find any Colgate paste. He said, "Sorry, I am afraid it is out of stock". The customer then asked soap of specific brand which was also not available in the shop. When the son said so, the customer went away.
The father was watching all these from a distance. He came to his son and started coaching him: "Dear son, this is not the way to do business. You must never allow a customer to go away without buying anything. If Colgate toothpaste is not there, you should offer him some other branded paste, saying "this is a much better product; this has special ingredients to make your teeth sparkling white and so on. You should convince your customer with your impressive salesmanship to make him buy the alternative toothpaste. You got it?"
"Yes, papa. I think so…" said the son.
Next day.
A customer came and asked for a roll of toilet tissue paper. The son looked around for it and could not find it in the shelves. In a voice brimming with enthusiasm and confidence, he said, "Why toilet paper, sir? I have got a much better product to offer to you. You see, we have this X brand of emery paper, a superb product that can meet your needs better!"
13. Limited Support
[Amma: "Only God could be a true companion under dire circumstances; help and succeor received from near and dear ones have limitations."]
Once a clod of mud and a dry leaf were close friends. One day they went for a walk together. On the way, it started drizzling. The dry leaf said, "Don't worry; I will protect you from rain". So saying, it covered the clod of mud and saved it from dissolving in rain water.
After a while, the rain stopped and wind started blowing. Now the clod of mud climbed over the dry leaf and stood over it, thereby preventing it from getting blown away.
A little later, heavy raining started along with gusty winds. Now the clod of mud got dissolved in the downpour and the leaf got flown away. Neither could be of any help to each other.
(Tuesday Satsang 1/9/2015)
14. We are responsible
Once day, God went for a visit to Hell. The people in the hell complained to him: "O God, you are very partial. We have been living in this dirty and foul smelling hell for countless years. Those who are living in heaven too were living there for countless years with all joys and comforts. Is it not unfair? Should you not, at least for a brief period, do a mutual exchange?"
The God conceded to their request; he sent all those living in hell to heaven and vice versa.
After some days, God went to visit the hell once again. He could not believe his eyes. The hell was looking very clean, spic and span. There were lots of flowering plants around and the place was sweet smelling. People there were singing God's name and glories; some of them were dancing. Wherever he could see, only joy was there.
God then went to see the heaven. Again what He could see was unbelievable. Many beautiful plants that had existed had withered or dried up totally. There were no flowers to see. Paths were strewn with dirt and litter. People had urinated and defecated indiscriminately all around. There was only foul smell everywhere. People there were seen fighting with each other or in rioting. In other words, the old heaven was now a hell.
[Amma: "Children, this is the reality. It is we who create our own heaven or hell".]
(Source: Tamil Oliyai Nokki- VOl 3)
15. The Mayor's post
[Amma: "It is the nature of people to crave for others' attention towards them. Egoistic people constantly need others' attention on them. They could not live without it. Mind has such a madness. Those who are in its grip tend to act madly. As man grows, his mind and ego too grow and they become more subtle; their attempts to seek others' attention too becomes subtle. Nobody wants to be an ordinary person; everyone wants others to acknowledge him as high and give respect. Amma will share a story she has heard:"]
Once a correspondent from a news magazine wanted to write a news report about the Mayor of a city. He wanted to know what the people of the city felt about him and his administration. He interviewed a cross-section of the residents of the city; he was surprised to hear only negative opinion about the Mayor from the people whom he interviewed. Everyone had some complaint or other about the mayor. Some said he was inefficient and lethargic. Some said he was very corrupt; some blamed him to be the root cause of all the ills of the city administration. A majority of them said that they had indeed made a mistake in voting in favor of him earlier.
Finally, the correspondent met the mayor. While interviewing him, he asked casually, "May I know the salary you receive for your post?" The mayor said, "I have no salary; this is a honorary post".
The correspondent was surprised. He said, "At one end, you don't get a penny for your services; at another end, as per my survey with the people of this city, a vast majority of them seem to be totally antagonistic towards you and your administration; I am sure you would definitely be aware of the mood of the people against you; may I know why you are still occupying the post?"
The mayor said, "Please don't publish what I am telling you now. I may not get salary and I may not get people's acknowledgement; yet I love the prestige and respect the post of the Mayor of the city carries. I love the importance and attention that I get by holding this high post".
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Amma-with-children2.jpg 335 574 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2018-08-23 11:40:482020-07-11 15:44:33Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 2 (15 more stories)
Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 1 (15 stories)
1. The Imperfect Dog
[Amma: "If we do 100 bad things and do just one good thing, God will shower grace on us for that one good thing ignoring all the 100 bad things we did. On the other hand, if we do 100 good things and do one wrong thing, human beings will not see the good things but only point out the wrong thing."]
Human tendency is always to criticize the imperfection in others.
One a man, standing by the side of a vegetable shop, was surprised to see a dog coming to the shop with a bag hung on its neck. It came near to the shop keeper and barked twice. The shop keeper asked "What do you want?" The dog looked at the potatoes and barked once. "One kilo?" asked the shopkeeper. The dog barked twice. "Two kilos?" asked the shop keeper. The dog wagged its tail. The shop keeper measured two kilos of potatoes and put it in the bag that the dog carried.
The dog went on to buy a couple of more vegetables this way. Then based on a further barking signal, the shop owner took out a wallet kept in the bag, counted and took the correct money that was due for the vegetables and put the wallet back into the bag. He also hanged the bag in the dog's neck.
The dog started walking away. The onlooker was very surprised to see such an intelligent dog. he was very curious to meet the owner. Hence, he followed the dog.
The dog walked across a couple of streets and reached a house. It lifted up its front legs and scratched the door. After a while, hearing the scratching sound, a person from the house opened the door and let the dog in.
The onlooker said "Hello there! Actually I followed your dog to see who the owner is. You are very lucky! What a smart dog you have with you!"
"Smart? Frankly he is not really that smart. You see, I have been trying to make him learn to lock the door while going and then unlocking it himself when he returns; that way I don't have to get up and come to open the door; but his is not good enough in learning and doing it" said the dog owner.
2. A rose for the grand father
[Amma: "In Sanathana Dharma there is the practice of conducting Pirtru Karma (annual food offerings to deceased parents ) by ceremonial offering of food. While such practices are good and beneficial, it is all the more important that the parents in old age are taken due care of with love and respect when they are alive, rather than doing ceremonies after their death for fear of curse from ancestors."]
A young boy's father was accompanying him to the school; on their way, the boy mentioned to the father that it was the birth day of the school Principal.
Father said: "Oh! Then I will buy a nice rose for you. You take it and give it to your principal and seek his blessings; he will feel so happy with you!"
While he was buying a rose, the boy said "Father, please buy one more rose; I want to give it to Grandpa. He too will feel very happy to receive it from me".
Father said "Oh, no. That old man need no such pampering. He is always sitting idle at home and complaining about us. Forget him. It is your principal who is instrumental for giving studies to you through your school; let us show respect to him".
The boy said "Why do you say so? Grandpa is also full of wisdom; he tells me so many stories containing morals; I want to give a rose to him too".
"Forget it" said the father curtly and bought just a rose.
A few weeks later the grandfather passed away. The father bought a beautiful rose garland to place on the dead body of his father. As he was about to place the garland, the young boy stopped his father.
Why are you now placing the rose garland on your father's dead body? When I wanted to present him with a single rose when he was alive, you did not agree. Why waste a garland now?"
3. There is a limit to patience!
[Amma: "People are generally so selfish that their honesty will take a backseat so long as their selfish interests are not affected". ]
Once a Office employee collected his monthly salary from his manager. Upon counting it, he noticed that he had been paid 500 rupees in excess. He coolly pocketed the money and left the place quietly. On the salary day on the next month, the employee found that he had been paid an excess of 700 rupees this time. Again he opted to keep the money with him without mentioning about it to anyone.
On the third month, when he counted his salary, he noticed that he had been paid 300 rupees less. He got very angry. He thumped at the table of the manager and shouted: "What is this blunder? We work so hard every day in the office shedding our sweat and at the end of the month, you are cutting our already paltry salary by three hundred rupees! How can you be so careless and cruel?"
The manager replied softly, "Look Mister. Two months back, we had paid 500 rupees in excess by mistake and you never reported about it to us. Last month again, by mistake, we had paid you 700 rupees in excess and you never bothered to return that amount. But today, when we paid 300 rupees short, you are making such a hue and cry!"
The man said, "Sir, two months back when you paid me excess, I thought it could be a human error. Everybody is bound to make a mistake at some time and I felt that I should not make an issue out of it. Hence, I kept quiet. Last month when I received excess salary again, I thought that I should be dignified enough to maintain patience so that you will have another chance to correct your mistake on your own. But when negligence happens for the third time in a row, then I thought it is not right to keep mum any longer. That's why I brought the serious lapse on your part to your immediate attention this time!"
4. The play of fate
[Amma: "One reaps what one sows. It is not easy to understand how our prarabhdha karma accumulated in previous lives work their way in the current birth. Ordinary mortals do not have the power to change the course of fate."]
Once a Garuda was sitting in a tree near a pond. It noticed a large frog at the bank of the pond. Suddenly the garuda noticed that a Yama Doota (a Messenger of death God) was standing here next to the frog and intently looking at it.
The garuda instantly felt that the Yamadootha was there to take the life of the frog. In a sudden rush of compassion, the garuda flew from the tree, fetched the frog in his claws and flew swiftly to a distant place up on a hill and released the frog. Noticing that the frog was very scared and had nothing to eat in the nearby vicinity, the Garuda flew nearby to fetch some worms for the frog to eat. When it returned, it was shocked to find that the frog was in the firm grip in the mouth of a large snake. The snake swallowed the frog and swiftly hid itself in the gaps of a rock.
Feeling very disappointed, the garuda flew back to the tree near the pond where it was resting earlier. As he arrived there, the Yama dootha was still there. He was now intently looking at the garuda and smiling. The garuda asked him, "Why are you staring at me? You want to take my life too?"
"No" said the messenger. "Actually I am here to thank you!"
"What?" asked the garuda with surprise.
"When I was here to take the life of that frog, I was wondering like this: 'It is alright that the frog's time has almost come; but as per my records, its death should really take place in the mouth of a snake at the top of a hill which is quite far off from here; I was wondering as to how this frog can reach that place so quickly? Even if it goes jumping as per its nature, how can it reach the top of hill in such a short time?' Then you came into the picture and ensured that the frog is taken to his destined place of death! That's why I thanked you!" said the messenger.
The Garuda felt humbled. It asked "May I know why the fate of the frog was such that it should die at the mouth of that snake?"
The messenger of death said "In its previous birth, the frog was a rat. The rat bit two little snakes that were born to the snake in the hill. The rat bit the two little snakes half way and then ran away. The mother snake had to witness the long drawn and agonizing death of the small snakes. She felt so helpless and pained to see the prolonged suffering of her two kids. She cursed the rat and took a vow to kill the rat. However, the rat had died subsequently and took birth as the frog. It is in this birth as a frog that the snake's curse had to take effect!"
[Amma: "It is the attachment to me and mine that causes grief."]
6. The last wish
Once a criminal who had committed murders and dacoity was caught and sentenced to death. As he was being taken to the gallows for hanging, the authorities asked him what his last wish was.
He said he wanted to meet his mother. His mother was brought in. He said he want to convey something privately to his mother. He was allowed to speak to his mother at her ears in a hushed tone. At that point of time, the criminal bit his mother's ear lobe. His mother cried out in pain and agony. Immediately the guards intervened and took the mother away.
When they enquired the criminal why he bit his mother's earlobe, he said, "I wanted to punish her in some way for what she failed to do. Right from my very young age, I started stealing. At that age, I did not know right and wrong. Whenever I brought the stolen booties, she was happy to receive them and never warned me of the evil of stealing and its consequences; she did not prevent me from stealing. Had she punished me at that young age itself and corrected me, I would not have ended as a hard core criminal and end up getting hanged to death today".
[Amma: "It is the duty of the parents to teach what is right and what is wrong to their children right from young age and lead them in the righteous path."]
7. No enemies
Once a notorious person celebrated his 100th birthday and a news correspondent came to interview him.
The correspondent asked "In this long 100 years of your life what is that one thing you are most proud of?"
The old man replied; 'In all these 100 years of my life, I have no enemy on earth"
"Ah how, great your life is! It should become an example for others to follow. How did you achieve it?"
"Not easy, but I did accomplish. I simply did not allow any of my enemies to remain alive on earth! That's all".
[Amma: "Without eradicating such destructive mentality, we can never bring wars and incursions to an end,"]
Matruvani – Avani 2008
8. The Handicapped King
Once there ruled a king who had lost one eye and one leg in a war. He had a strong desire that a beutiful portrait of him be drawn. His desire was made known to the famous artists in his country.Hoping for a great royal reward, many of them came forward to see the king.
They were told by the ministers that the king was expecting a great artistic work that should show him truly but without the ugliness of his physical handicaps.
How to really draw the portrait of a king beautifully when the truth was that he did not have one eye and one leg? Most of the artists backed out.
However, one artist came forward and accepted the challenge. He painted the picture of the king very meticulously and once he finished, everyone marveled at his skill and brilliance.
In the picture he had drawn showing the king holding a rifle in his hands and aiming to shoot some distant animal; in focusing the target, he was shown with one eye closed as that was what snipers do when they focus through their rifle. The king was also shown sitting in a kneeling posture with one leg shown folded.
Thus the artist had the brilliance to show the king as he was, but judiciously camouflaging physical faults of the king!
[Amma: "One should always try to focus on the goodness of the others, ignoring their negative aspects"].
9. Learning a lesson
Once a lion went for hunting along with a hyena and a jackal. The lion attacked a deer and killed it while the other two animals were only spectators. The lion said to the hyena to split it into three parts so that all the three can eat it. The hyena split the body of the deer into three equal parts. On seeing it, the lion became very angry. It attacked the hyena and killed it on the spot.
The lion then directed the jackal to spit the carcass of the deer into two parts so that both of them now can eat. The jackal then split the carcass with three fourths of the portion reserved for the lion and one-fourth for himself. Seeing this, the lion nodded appreciatively and asked, "How did you become intelligent?"
The jackal said, "I learned it from hyena"
[Amma: "If you have enough alertness, you can learn even from idiots."]
10. The Alteration work
Once a young boy got a new jeans pant. When he wore it for the first time, he noticed that the legs of the pant were rather extra long; he wished that they were shorter by at least 2 inches.
He went and asked his mother, "Mom, will you cut and re-stitch the bottom of my pant by 2 inches; the leg is too long". The mother said, "I am very busy cooking right now. Go and tell your father".
The boy approached his father and explained to him his problem. The father replied patiently: "I am studying an important office file now as I have to make a presentation immediately as I reach my office. Will you please aske your sister to do it?"
He went to his sister; she said, "I am preparing for my class test in the college today. Ask the servant maid…"
The servant maid too said she was busy with her chores and would do it later if she found time. The boy felt very frustrated. He threw the jeans over the sofa and left for the school.
The mother, after finishing the cooking came to the hall and saw the jeans lying on the sofa. She remembered her son's request. Immediately, she did the alteration by cutting off 2 inch of length at the bottom and then stitching it. When the servant maid finished off her duties, she noticed the jeans lying at the sofa. She too remembered the boy's request and she too took the scissors, cut off two inches from the bottom and re-stitched it.
In the evening, the boy's sister returned from her college. Seeing the jeans, she too altered it by reducing the length by two inches, not knowing the fact that it had already been shortened twice by others.
The boy returned from the playground late in the evening. Noticing the jeans lying at the sofa, he was curious to know whether anyone had done the alteration desired by him. When he lifted it up, what he saw looked like an half pant!
[Amma: "We have a tendency to criticize and discard the values of the past as outdated. If we keep on discarding the past again and again, nothing of value will remain for us to save us from the present day ills. It is like bathing a baby and throwing balance water along with the baby".]
Tuesday satsang 15.9.2016
11. The envious businessman
Once there lived two businessmen who knew each other; both of them were doing well in business, but one of them was highly envious of the other; he would always try to imitate the lifestyle of what the other person was doing, in order to prove that he was in no way less rich or inferior to the other person.
Once the first businessman bought the latest model of a very costly luxury car. On seeing it, the second businessman too bought the same model car, spending lots of money.
Unfortunately, the first businessman's car met with an accident and got damaged heavily. Seeing it, the second businessman felt happy. But, soon, his car too met with an accident and got damaged beyond repair.
After a few days, the first businessman was up on the road with another brand new car! Unfortunately, the second businessman who lost heavily due to the damage of the car, could not afford to buy the same model car.
He felt very disturbed. He went to meet a saint for gaining mental peace. He told the saint about his mental status and asked, "How come he managed to buy another costly car, while I could not?"
"He must have insured the car; did you insure your car?"
The man said, "No".
"Then, that's why" said the saint.
[Amma: "The good acts we did in our previous lives and do in the present give us punya which comes to our protection at the time of need like an insurance cover".]
(Amma birthday message 2016)
12. Eating with 2 hands
Once a man was extremely hungry. He sent his servant to buy food from a restaurant. The moment the food arrived, he started eating it hurriedly using both his hands.
People around him were surprised to see him eating like this! They asked him, "Sir, What are you doing? why are you eating in such a hurry using both your hands?"
The man replied, "Because I don't have a third hand!"
[Amma: "Most of us have no honesty to speak the truth or accept a defect. Whatever happens, we only try to justify our actions always".]
13. The piglet's love
Once a man went to see his friend at his house. The friend warmly received the guest and offered him soup to drink in a bowl.
At that time a little piglet came there. It was the pet of the friend. It came close to the guest, ran around him, licked his feet and tried to climb on him and so on. The guest was very surprised to see that a piglet can be so cute and lovable and he was very impressed how it became so friendly to him. "I have seen pet dogs and cats showing affection to the owner; I am really surprised how this piglet could express so much affection to me despite my being a stranger! Does the mother pig have a few more piglets? Can I take one of them as my pet?"
The friend said coolly, "You don't know the secret behind this love. You see, the bowl in which I have served soup to you is the one in which I regularly feed this piglet; it is his affection to the bowl that made him try and climb over you and reach to it, so that he can have his share of fill from it!"
[Amma: "Most of the love we get from the world are only selfishly motivated."]
14. Fine? Fine!
[Amma: "Education, when sown in a moist soil which is humility, will only produce good yield. In the present day culture where people believe that human effort alone will be sufficient, an important aspect known as divine grace has been totally forgotten. This only grows vanity in man. The dearth of good values is obviously seen in the present day educational institutions."]
In a college there was a total ban on smoking.
The principal of the college one day noticed a student smoking in the corridor.
The principal went near the student and told him, "You are breaking the college rules by smoking here. You must pay a fine of 100 rupees for your indiscipline".
The student inserted his hand into his pocket and fished out a 500 Rupee note.
He gave it to the principal and said, "Sir, May I smoke four more cigarettes, please?"
(Source: Oliyai Nokki-3 Tamil)
15. Checklist!
Once a man was returning home by walk after work. On his way, a dog bit him. The man did not take it seriously and did not go to a doctor. As days passed, he became sick and he went to a dispensary to see the doctor. After examining him, the doctor said, "It appears you have been bitten by a mad dog. Since you have ignored it over these days, your condition is very precarious. It is impossible to cure it. I am sorry".
The moment the man heard it, he took a piece of paper from the doctor's table and started scribbling something seriously. Seeing this, the doctor said, with compassion, "Oh! You have started writing your will so urgently? No need for such a hurry. There are indeed some new medicines for dog bit. If you take them, you may be able to live a little longer". The doctor was attempting to console him with care.
The patient said, "Who said I am writing my will? Since I am going to live only for a few days, every minute of my life is precious now. That's why I am preparing the list of all my enemies. Before I die, I want to go and bite as many of them as possible; that's how I am going to take revenge on them".
[Amma: "Children, None should have an attitude like this person. God has given a limited slife span to all of us. We should utilize it best by expressing mutual love, giving a helping hand and supporting each other by sharing. We must understand that only when we pardon others' mistakes, God will pardon ours."]
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Amma-with-retarded.jpg 387 583 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2018-07-25 15:18:382020-07-11 12:24:47Amma's stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 1 (15 stories)
Amma's stories related to Sadhana for sadhakas (Spiritual practices for Earnest seekers of God/ Self) – 14 stories
1. The subtle vasanas
Once a spiritual aspirant who was a mendicant went for begging his food. A family invited him for lunch and served food to him in a silver plate. After eating the food, the mendicant washed the plate himself. Then he left the place and walked away. He carried the silver plate too along and the hosts did not notice it.
After going away for while, the mendicant suddenly realized that he had taken the silver plate with him instead of returning it to the hosts. He felt shocked about himself. He never had any tendency to steal in the past. Feeling remorseful, he rushed back to the host's house and returned the plate, profusely apologizing for his slip. He said, "I really don't know how such an awful desire to slip away with the silver plate ever came to my mind unknowingly. I had never stolen anything in my life".
The householder unquestioningly accepted the mendicant's confession and bid him good bye. However he felt intrigued. What could suddenly cause a Sadhu to get a fleeting desire to steal? He called the cook, who was a recently appointed person. He started asking probing questions to the cook. Upon this inquiry, he came to know that the new cook, ever since he saw the silver plate, wanted to steal it and this thought occupied his whole mind when he cooked the food that day.
Amma: The thoughts of a person cooking food in a subtle way goes into the food and it has the potential to affect the person eating the food. That is why it is advised that a person cooking food should do mantra japa while cooking so that good vibrations enter into the food.
(Tuesday Satsang 30/8/2016)
2. The effect of company
Once a young man, who had no interest in seeing movies, was visited by his friend. During their course of chitchatting, he visitor said, "Have you seen such-and-such movie recently? It is a great picture! What a story, what a classic acting and photography! If you have not seen it so far, you have really missed something in life!" The young man listened to it and did not react.
After a couple of days, the friend visited again and this time too he spoke very highly of the movie and urged him to go and see it.
In a couple of more visits too, the friend kept on talking about the movie. The young man by now got very intrigued; he felt tempted to go and watch the movie.
He went to the theatre and watched the movie with curiosity. Indeed it was spectacular and he got very much attracted to it. He watched the movie a couple of times and gradually developed desire to watch other movies too. He started frequenting other theatres and soon became such a regular movie goer that the number of pictures that he watched every week outnumbered his friend, who originally tempted him to watch one movie!
Amma: That is the effect of a company. Company with holy persons is the true satsang and through satsang one can develop good samskaras and habits. If the company is bad, one will only get into evil habits.
3. Single pointed mind
Amma: Whatever excitement you get in Amma's presence is indeed a focus on Amma. Instead of mentally getting disturbed on so many other things, your excited thoughts are only focused on Amma and it is good.
Once a Woman went to a Fair with her child. The fair was extremely crowded. There were plenty of stalls selling a variety of garments, food, ice-creams, snacks, fancy items, toys and so on. Music programs, dance and drama were going on several open venues and people were excitedly moving around in all the places, watching and enjoying. While the woman too was excitedly looking around and watching everything, she suddenly noticed that her child has last the grip of her hand. The child got separated from her in the milling crowd.
The mother was shocked when she realized the situation. She started frantically searching around for her child, crying out her name. 'Where is my child? Where is my child?' – this was the single thought that occupied her mind now and none of the goings-on the fair could distract her attention any more.
Amma: If the entire focus becomes the guru, then all the worldly attractions fall away on their own.
4. The count of leaves in the tree!
Amma: For every earnest spiritual aspirant, getting self-realization is a very long drawn process. It requires lots of patience and effort. One cannot afford to slack efforts and abort one's goal midway.
Once two spiritual aspirants were doing sadhana under a banyan tree for quite some years. The Celestial Sage Narada happened to pass by one day. As Narada had his daily contacts with the Lord Narayana, the aspirants were eager to know from God when they would attain God-realization. They appealed to Narada to inquire about it when he would meet Lord Narayana the next time. Narada agreed.
A few days later, Narada came by. One of the aspirants eagerly asked whether Narada spoke to Lord Narayana and got the answer. Narada said that he did and what Narayana told him was that this person would require as many births as the number of leaves found in the Banyan tree to attain his self-realization. The person who heard this was devastated. He felt highly infuriated. "I have been doing severe sadhana for so many years and still Narayana says I will require so many births? Oh! Then its all a waste of time. It's all a mere humbug then; I would rather go back to the world and enjoy it instead of wasting my time here" . He left the place fretting and fuming.
Now the other aspirant posed the same question and Narada gave the same reply. Upon hearing it, the second aspirant was full of joy and started dancing in ecstasy! "O! Is it true that Lord Narayana indeed said that I would get my salvation after these many births, for sure? Oh! I am really lucky then! I am indeed blessed!" So saying, he continued to jump around and dance.
At that very moment, the second aspirant got his self-realization instantly. Such was the reward he got for his mental attitude and patience.
5. Be kind hearted, but have common sense first!
Amma: It is not just enough if you are a good and kind-hearted person. You should apply your mind and act with presence of mind and shraddha; otherwise, your act of charity may become futile.
This is a real story happened in the Ashram as narrated by Amma:
Brahmacharnini L- in the Amritapuri Ashram is an extremely kind-hearted person, who loves to run to the help of anyone needing help and succor.
One day, a physically handicapped old man came to see Amma and was walking up the stairs with difficulty with his crutches. Brahmacharnini L- was so overwhelmed with the suffering of that person that she wanted to extend a helping hand to him and make him seated.
Saying "Aiyo paavam" (Oh what a pity) she received one of his crutches. While the man was struggling to stabilize himself with a single crutch, our Brahmacharini, in an excited state to somehow help the person to stabilize, extended her hand, saying another "Aiyo" and took off the other cruch too, without applying her mind to catch hold of the person before removing the other crutch!
Right infront of her eyes, the old person, with nothing and none to support him collapsed on the floor, while our Brahmacharnini could only help crying out a big and louder "A-I-Y-Y-O…"
[Amma was at her mimicking best when she enacted all this with her actions and voice. The whole crowd burst into laughter!]
This is yet another real story that happened in the ashram, as narrated by Amma:
Some time ago, a mentally disturbed person came to the Ashram with a purported desire of settling down as a householder in the Ashram. His worried wife and mother too were there together with him in the darshan queue.
Even before he could open his mouth before Amma, the wife wanted Amma not to concede to his request because she has lots needs and desires to be met in the outside world. Amma reassured her that She would never take people just like that and started probing deeper into the man's troubles. It was reported that he seemed to behave as though mentally disturbed, after a recent bout of fever, but Amma suspected a deeper and long existing ailment in him that caused his quirky behavior. Amma suggested a thorough medical check-up for him and assured them that everything will be alright sooner. Amma made him sit behind her for a while.
After Amma retired to her room at the end of darshan , the person suddenly got very violent; he was shouting at his wife, started spitting at her and behaved uncontrollably. Lots of people gathered around, including some brahmacharis, who wanted to intervene with good intentions.
One Ashram resident, assuming that the man was under fits, started frantically searching for a iron piece to be given in his hands (as there is a common erroneous belief that people affected by fits get calmed down when they grip a piece of iron). And lo, he could only locate a knife and without thinking a second time, he thrust the knife into the hands of the man in fits!
More chaos! (When Amma narrated this with her gestures, the whole gathering at the Beach Satsang was rolling with laughter). Then a group of brahmacharis somehow managed to pin down the violent man and snatch the knife from his hands.
And there, adjacent to the man was Brahmachari S, who was always known for his calmness and serenity, who was never seen expressing anger or outward emotions. And people saw him for the first time with eyes bulging out in anger and tell-tale facial expressions of pain, anguish and rage. Reason?
In an over enthusiastic attempt to prevent the man from spitting at others, he had put his hand over his mouth and the man caught the bramhmachari's fingers with his teeth and was applying his full jaw pressure on the fingers; Brahmachari S- could not do anything to wriggle his fingers out from the man's vice-like grip of the jaw and that pain and anguish came through his facial expressions.
[Amma, in her inimical way, with a doze of exaggeration perhaps, was emoting the facial expressions of the brahmachari to the utter entertainment of the crowd!]
Finally, when the Brahmachari managed to get his finger freed, it was bleeding and he had to be rushed to the hospital to have a few stitches and a bandage over the finger!
[Amidst all these fun and frolic, Amma made sure to drive home the point that one requires viveka Buddhi to handle such situations. How foolish it was to thrust a knife in the hands of a mentally disturbed person! How inappropriate it was to close the mouth of the person who seemed to be under the grip of fits!]
8. In search of a soul mate
Once a young, beautiful and intelligent western woman wanted to get married to a person who would be most suited to her taste, preferences and temperaments. She searched for such a mate for years but she could not come across any male who could win her heart. She dropped the idea of getting married; she was still feeling restless in her heart; in order to get some peace of mind through mental diversion, whe undertook a travel across the globe visiting several countries.
She came to a distant eastern country on sight seeing. She took a room in a hotel in a large city in that country. One day, while she was eating in the restaurant, she chanced to meet a western guy. They started talking to each other. She developed a liking for him. They decided to meet again. As they started interacting more and more, both of them developed a mutual liking which soon blossomed into love.
As they exchanged details about their personal lives, she came to know that he too was from her home town from her own country. Inquiring further, they came to know that they had been living in the same street at neighboring houses all these years! Despite such a close proximity, they never had come across each other in their home town!
[Amma: Children, you may also go on searching for God everywhere, but you won't find him because he is indeed unimaginably closest to you! As long as you are steeped in ignorance, you think he is somewhere too far off in the heavens. Remove your ignorance. Get rid of your body consciousness and go beyond it. Awaken and remain in pure awareness. Then you will realize that God is closer than the closest to you.]
9. Brainwashing
Once there was a grand feast at night arranged by a rich man in his mansion. Several guests had arrived and the party was going in full swing. All the arrangements had been made impeccably and everyone was enjoying the good ambience and the food.
While the feast was going on, an uninvited person somehow managed to come into the mansion and join the gathering. He caught hold of the host and started talking to him. He said, "What sort of feast is this? It is so lacklustre and boring; Nothing is good or pleasent here…." He kept on criticizing and complaining about the food, arrangement etc. He was an extremely impressive and tactful talker. Through his forceful and persistent talking, he succeeding in confusing the host and making him to believe that the food was indeed horrible the arrangements were poor.
Forgetting that it was he who hosted the feast and made all the arrangements, the rich man, who was so far enjoying the whole thing, started feeling very negative and he totally agreed with the views of the uninvited intruder. "Yes; you are right; this place is really disgusting; come, let us move out of here" he said to the stranger.
"That's right. Let us go out. I shall host a grand feast exclusively for you tonight. By my honored guest. I will show how a really grand feast shall be", so saying the visitor took the rich man along with him to his place. On the way, the person kept on bragging how his feast would consist of the rarest of all exclusive delicacies, grand decor, impeccable ambience and so on. The rich man was mesmerised by the visitor's talk.
Finally they reached the visitor's house. It was a godforsaken place, totally in disarray, dirty and ugly. No one else was there in the house. But the visitor kept on talking, trying to impress the rich and make him believe that they were indeed in a grand palace, wonderfully decorated. He insisted that all the preparations of food were going on already in full swing and the feast would start very soon.
Nothing happened. The rich man regained his senses. He understood that the visitor was indeed a mentally deranged person and a maniac. With lots of difficulty, he managed to interrupt the incessant talking of the mad person and said, "Stop, stop! This is enough". The mad person's face turned pale, "Why? what happened?" he asked in a jittery voice.
The rich man said, "What a fool I have been to come with you to this dirty place! I was actually giving a wonderful feast to my guests and all were indeed enjoying it thoroughly. My own mansion was so beautiful and wonderfully decorated for the function! How happy I was there before you came? Why the hell I forgot all about it and came behind you like an idiot!"
So saying, he started walking away from the house. The mad man tried his best to stop him but the rich man pushed him aside and rushed back to his mansion.
The feast was still going on and no one seemed to have noticed his absence for a while. With great relief and he joined the gathering once again.
[Amma: We are all like the host in the story. We have forgotten who we really are.We are blessed to enjoy creation and life in our own place. We are the source of the joy, like the host. But not knowing it, we allowed our ego, the uninvited guest, into us, who successfully hoodwinked us and made us lose our sensibility. Like sleep-walkers, we lost our awareness and went behind our ego; thus we lost the joy of the feast — our life.We forgot our true self — Atman and we became a pupper to our ego.
We should awake from our intoxicated state and realize that we indeed are the 'host' — the root cause of creation. Once we understand the wily machinations of our ego, we will understand that we have gone to a wrong place. We will immediately come back to our own house, where bliss is ever present.]
(Arul Mozhigal- vol 9 p 90-92)
10. Dig deep at one place
Once there was a famous devotee. A man from the next village heard about him and therefore came to see him. The visitor waited outside the front yard of the house as the devotee was performing his worship inside the house at that time.
The man peeped inside and noticed that the devotee was sitting in front of his pooja shrine and doing the worship of Lord Ganesha. The visitor, seeing this dug a hole in the ground. The devotee then started worshiping his Guru. The visitor, now dug a second hole. After finishing the hymns praising the Guru, the devotee then started worshiping Lord Muruga. The visitor dug a third hole.
As the devotee then proceeded to worship Lord Vishnu, Goddess Lakshmi, Lord Shiva, Goddess Kali and so on, the visitor too dug one hole each corresponding the the God worshiped.
After finishing the puja, the devotee came out and he was surprised to see so many holes at his yard. He shouted at the visitor: "What is this? Why have you dug so many holes in my yard?"
The visitor said, "I wanted to get some water and so I dug one hole. Since I didn't get water there, I dug the next one and the next and so on. I have dug everywhere but could not get any water. Had I dug at one place deep enough, I would have got the water by now and need not have wasted my time".
The devotee understood immediately. Had he surrendered to any one of the Gods wholeheartedly and concentrated worshiping him, he could have become a liberated soul by then.
[Amma: The Gods and Goddesses have diverse forms, but in reality all are one. The various names and forms are only to help us in our spiritual practice to suit our diverse tastes. Each one can choose a deity according to his taste and mental make up which will serve as the ladder to reach the supreme.]
[Source:'Awaken Children' – Vol.2 ]
11. A Mahatma among you
Once there was a Mutt where a saint lived there as guru; several disciples were living with him in the mutt and practicing spiritual austerities. They were extremely sincere, earnest and focused in their spiritual practices. An excellent, spiritually surcharged atmosphere was present in the Mutt that attracted countless people from near and far to the mutt. People found peace and solace in the ambience of the mutt.
The Guru passed away. The disciples felt orphaned and were in grief for some time; however, they continued to stay in the mutt and continued with their spiritual austerities. However, as time passed, gradually their enthusiasm and commitment to spiritual life and practice started waning and then deteriorated considerably. The arrival of visitors seeking peace and spiritual guidance from the mutt too deteriorated and then stopped. Now new spiritual aspirants joined the mutt. The inmates of the Mutt felt very disturbed. There were lots of fights among themselves. Love and devotion dried up in their hearts.
The eldest of the disciples felt very bad about the sorry state of affairs at the mutt. He deeply felt the urge to revive the relevance and reputation of the mutt. He came to know that a Mahatma was living in a forest adjacent to the mutt. He felt he should go and seek his counsel on this matter.
He went to the forest and prostrated before the Mahatma. He explained the current state of affairs of the mutt to the saint and sought his guidance.
The saint smiled and said, "One among your present residents of the Mutt is indeed a Mahatma. But he is intentionally hiding his true status; he will not express it outwardly. Since no one ever understood him and extended love and respect to him, your mutt has come to such a sorry state". Immediately after saying this, the Saint closed his eyes and went deep into samadhi. Hence the visiting disciple could not get any more information on who that Mahatma among them was". He prostrated before the saint and walked back to the mutt.
On his way, the disciple kept on wondering who that Mahatma could be, living in cognito among them. "Could it be that sanyasi who does washing of clothes? No. He is extremely short tempered. Is it the sanyasi in charge of the kitchen? Oh! He does not even know how to cook properly…." the disciple kept on mentally analysing and judging each resident in the Mutt but he was only finding faults in almost all of them. "But the saint said that only one among all these people is the Mahatma. Since I am only looking at each one's fault, I am not able to grasp who that Mahatma is. As the saint said, it is quite likely that the Mahatma could be intentionally showing weird behavior in order to hide his saintliness from others' eyes" he thought.
After reaching the mutt, he called the meeting of all inmates and announced what the saint had said. Everyone was very surprised; they looked at each other's face to see the signs of a saint! At the same time, each of them consciously knew that he is not the person fit to me a Mahatma. Everyone else too looked to be faulty enough not to fit to the mold of a Mahatma! The discussed among themselves but could not decipher the mystery.
Finally they resolved to themselves that since it is not at all right to insult a saint who could be one among them, it is best to treat each one with respect and love.
The put their resolution into daily practice. By trying to love and respect one another, they were also looking at the good things in others and started wondering whether the person in front of them could be a Mahatma. In this process, soon they started loving each other. Gradually, their evil and negative tendencies started dissolving. They came to a stage where each one could see a Mahatma in each other. It became so strong that soon they could see Godliness in anything and everything. They all became jivan muktas (liberated while living). The very atmosphere of the Mutt thus underwent a sea change. Outside people started noticing the divine glow in the face of the inmates. People gradually started visiting the mutt again to benefit from the company of holy people.
[Amma: "This story tells us that love and liberation are interdependent. For the love to spring up, the mind should be freed of ego."]
(Source: Arul Mozhigal- vol 8 Tamil)
12. The sign of dawn
Once a Guru asked his disciples: "How will you know that the night has ended and dawn has happened?"
One disciple said, "If you can identify whether a person coming at a distance is a male or female, it means it has dawned". The guru did not give his nod of approval to this answer.
Another disciple said, "If you can identify whether a tree at a distance is a mango tree or a neem tree, it indicates it has dawned". For this answer too, the guru did not give his approval.
The disciples wanted to know the correct answer from the guru. The guru said, "Only when you can see every man as your brother and every female as your sister, one can say the darkness of the night has ended and the light of the dawn has come. If this attitude does not come, even if it is midday, you are still in the darkness of the night only.
The disciples now understood the inner meaning of the Guru's question and the answer too.
[Amma: "Children, this is an important story to remember. Only when you are able to love one and all on equal measure, you are blessed with the light of realization."]
13. Usage that never was
Once there lived a sage, who gave an instruction to his wife soon after they got married: "Whenever I sit to eat, make sure to keep a needle and a cup of water next to me". The wife did so. She did not ask for the reason. It became a routine that the wife never missed across many years of their married life.
The husband got old. Death was nearing him. Then he asked his wife, "Do you wish to ask something from me?"
The wife said, "I have nothing to ask from you. But I am curious to know about a matter. You had instructed me to keep a needle and a cup of water next to you whenever you sat to eat and I have been ceremoniously doing it all these years. May I know the purpose for which you asked them to be kept?"
The husband said, "Suppose while you serve me or while I eat, if a grain of rice falls outside the plate, I thought I should pick it with the needle, wash it in the cup of water and put it on my plate; But as both of us were extremely cautious, there was not even a single occasion when a grain of rice fell outside the plate; hence there was never a need for using them!"
[Amma: "Children, notice how much awareness the couple had while eating to prevent even a single grain of food from falling outside the plate! It is persons with such a high degree of shraddha who have turned out to be saints!"]
14. Meditating – Oh, really?
[Amma: "My son, Once you sit for meditation, yous should make your whole mind dwell on God. YOur mind should not wander to external things. Only your personal God should occupy your entire mind. THat much of dispassion is needed".]
Once a Sanyasi was sitting in meditation. At that time, a man rushed right in front of him, making noises that disturbed the sanyasi. The sanyasi did not like it, as he felt disturbed by the commotion.
After a while, the man returned by the same path, with a little boy. Seeing him, the sanysi said angrily,"Didn't you notice that I was meditating here? Can't you have some self-restraint in not disturbing me in this place?"
The man replied politely, "Sir, I am sorry that I did not notice you".
"Why? Are you blind?" asked the sanyasi.
"My son was missing for quite some time; he had gone to play with other boys. I was disturbed and started wondering whether he had fallen into the adjacent pond; my mind disturbed in such a though I rushed in search of him and that's how I missed you sitting here in meditation; I am sorry about it". But the Sanyasi was unrelenting.
"Mind you, it is totally an unacceptable behavior to disturb me while I am meditating" said he.
The man replied, "Sir, you were immersed in meditation and yet you saw me running in front of you. At the same time, I was running in search of my son but did not see you. I wonder why you did not have even that much of attachment I had on my son on the God you were meditating! What sort of meditation is it? If you don't have patience and humility, what is that you will gain by meditation?"
(From Upadesamritam-2 Tamil)
15. Nothing is useless
[Amma: "In nature, everything has its place and relevance. One should know the place and value of each and utilize it accordingly. If used so judiciously, one will know that nothing is useless. If we realize this and act, we can convert natural wastes to natural manures. If we act with discernment, what is considered a waste will find a reuse".]
Once a disciple went to Sri Buddha and asked for a new cloth to wear as his old one had been soiled on account of long usage. Buddha immediately agreed. After some time, he asked the disciple, "Is the new cloth good enough for you? Do you need anything more?"
The disciple said, "Yes, Master, the new one is fine. I don't need anything more".
"What did you do with your old cloth?" asked Buddha.
"I am using it as my bed spread, Master".
"Does it mean you threw away your old bed spread?"
"No master; I am using it as a curtain cloth for my window".
"What happened to the old curtain cloth?"
"As it had soiled too much, I am using it as a cleaning cloth in my kitchen".
"What happened to the old cleaning cloth?"
"Since it had torn too much, I have teared it into thin pieces and using those pieces as a wick for my oil lamp Master"
Buddha felt very satisfied with his responses. He smiled and blessed his disciple.
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Satsang-with-Amma-at-beach.jpg 399 600 C.V.Rajan https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.png C.V.Rajan2018-07-24 13:15:062020-06-29 14:26:15Amma's stories related to Sadhana for sadhakas (Spiritual practices for Earnest seekers of God/ Self) – 14 stories