“What is the high prospect?” He showed his eagerness to
know it.
“My master has a very beautiful and shapely daughter. She is the life of our group. She moves on a tight rope some seven feet high in the sky. She is an expert and crosses the rope from one end to another then turns and returns back.”
“But what is the prospect in it?” He was not interested in rope walking.
The ass of the magician continued: “At the start of every walk on the rope when she is up on the rope and try to steady her attractive body and small staff, the magician makes an announcement – if you walk up to the other end and come back to this side again, I’ll marry you to a prince but if you fail and fall on the way, then I’ll marry you to this very ass. He clearly indicates towards me. I’m sure, someday, my lucky day the beautiful dame would fall and get married to me. This is the high prospect!”
Soul Searching
Imaginary and dreamy prospect! The expectations of unexpected wealth, luxurious living and sensual pleasure force one to be satisfied in the unhealthy and unhygienic condition and not to try for a concrete shift. Such men hardly do anything to grow from inside and do something concrete . They remain at the end almost the same what they were at the beginning.
“But you don’t know the high prospect in my job.”
34. Biting is Prohibited not Hissing
A seer was passing through a village when he heard the weeping of many men and women in a chorus. He stopped and enquired. The villagers said that there was a cobra in the hole of the banyan tree. He had a habit of biting someone after every few months. No one ever survived. This time he has bitten the only child of a very gentle farmer. Though the farmer is not weeping but most of the villagers are weeping for the growing child.
The seer went straight to the crowd and looked at the child. Foam was oozing out of his mouth. He was almost senseless and was about to die. The seer came into action. He took out some herbs from his carry bag and administered the child. He cut open the biting place and rubbed the herbs. After a few hours, the boy regained his senses. He administered more herbs and the boy was out of danger.
The seer then went straight to the hole shown by the people. He called the cobra out. The cobra obeyed. He then said, “From now on don’t bite any one.”
The seer went away. The villagers were happy.
The seer was returning through that very village after two months when he saw many children throwing stones at something. He stopped and enquired. Someone who did not recognise him informed that a saint once ordered the dangerous cobra not to bite anyone. He obeys. But some unruly children now and then throw stones on it. He is wounded and in a state of dying.
The seer straightway went to the snake tearing off the children and asked, “Why are you in such a state?”
The cobra could hardly utter, “It was you who admonished me from biting anyone and are asking me why I’m in such a state.”
The seer said in the same vein, “O fool! I had admonished you from biting but not from hissing. It is your duty to save yourself.”
The cobra understood. With pain all over the body, he raised his hood as high as he could and hissed at his wounded best. The children ran away helter and skelter as fast as they could. It gave a message to the villagers that the kind seer has again given order to the cobra to bite anyone who throws stones
on him.
Soul Searching
It is a sin and a crime to be destructive or to bring harm to anybody which results in the loss of life or property. But it is the pious duty of every living creature to save one’s life by applying whatever power one possesses, and of course by ethical means.
What is important in life? People usually answer that wealth or house or wife or son is important in life. No. It is gross error. The only thing important in life is life. If one has no life then what is the use of the wealth or house? If one has no life then his own relatives and neighbours will put him on pyre to burn or place in the grave.
35. On the Roof
One summer noon when the sun was too hot to bear, the son of a farmer was repairing the roof of his hut. The farmer was anxious. He asked him to come down and try to finish the work in the afternoon or tomorrow. The monsoon was about a month away. The son did not listen to his father. He said, “It is just a work of fifteen minutes more. Then I will come down.”
The farmer was tensed. He waited for fifteen minutes but the son showed no sign of descending from the roof. The farmer asked him in angry tone, “Come down immediately or I will take some drastic step.”
The son laughed, “Don’t be angry. I will finish it soon and come down.”
The farmer entered the house and came out with his one-year-old grandson. He put him on the hut roof while holding him with both hands. The son saw and cried, “What are you doing. The sun is very hot. He will get a sun stroke. Take him inside.”
The farmer said plainly, “Why? Your son will get sun-stroke and the sunrays will spare my son.”
The farmer’s son immediately came down, took his son and went inside.
Soul Searching
One realises the love, anxiety and suffering of parents when one attains parenthood. God is eternal parent as Prakriti and Purush or Ardhanārishwar and loves, cares and is anxious. He gives an opportunity to grow stronger from inside so that one enters into him for eternal union and for metamorphosis and Nirvāna.
“I had admonished you from biting but not from hissing.”
38. Deeds and Misdeeds
A certain man had laid his net across the river; having laid his net, he killed a quantity of fish. Meanwhile, there came a raven, and perched beside him. It looked hungry and seemed to be greatly interested in the fish. It was much to be pitied. So the fisherman washed one of the fish, and threw it to the raven. The raven ate the fish with great joy. Afterwards the raven came again. Though it was a raven, it spoke thus, just like a human being, “I am very grateful for having been fed on fish by you. If you will come with me to my old father, he too will thank you. So you had better come.”
The man went with the raven. Being a raven, it flew through the air. The man followed it on foot. After they had gone a long way, they came to a large house. When they got there, the raven went into the house. The man also went in. When he looked, it appeared like a human being in form, though it was a raven. There were also a divine old man and a divine old woman besides the divine girl.
The girl was the raven who had led the man to that house. The divine old man spoke thus, “I am very grateful to you. As I am very grateful to you for feeding my daughter with good fish,
I have had you brought here in order to reward you.”
Then there were a gold puppy and a silver puppy. Both these puppies were given to the man. The divine old man spoke thus, “Though I should give you treasures, it would be useless. But if I give you these puppies, you will be greatly benefited. As for the excrements of these two puppies, the gold puppy excretes gold and the silver puppy excretes silver. This being so, you will be greatly enriched if you sell these excrements to the officials. Understand this!”
Then the man, with respectful salutations went away carrying with him the two puppies, and came to his own house. Then he gave the puppies a little food at a time. When the gold puppy excreted, it excreted gold for him. When the silver puppy excreted, it excreted silver for him. The man greatly enriched himself by selling the metal.
Thereupon another man, for the sake of imitation, set his net in the river. He killed a quantity of fish. Then the raven came. The man smeared a fish with mud, and then threw it to the raven. The raven flew away with it. The man went after it, and at last, after going a long way, reached a large house. He went in there. The divine old man was very angry. He spoke thus, “You are a man with a very bad heart. When you gave my daughter a fish, you gave it smeared all over with mud.
The man thought thus, “If I feed the puppies plentifully, they will excrete plenty of metal. It would be foolish to have them excreting only a little at a time. So I will do that, and become very rich.” Thinking thus, he fed the puppies plentifully on anything, even on dirty things. Then they excreted no metal for him. They only excreted dirty dung. The man’s house was full of nothing but dirty dung.
As for the former man, who had received puppies from the divine old man, he fed them on nothing but good food, a little at a time. Gradually, they excreted metal for him. He was greatly enriched.
As for bad-hearted man, the Gods became angry at his various misdeeds. It was for this reason that, on account of their anger, even a gold puppy excreted nothing but dung.
Soul Searching
In ancient times, with regard to men who wished to grow rich they could grow rich if their hearts were as good as possible. It is the good deeds that give gold and silver. The bad deeds change the gold and silver into dung.
So the fisherman washed one of the fish, and threw it to the raven.
40. Inspired Performance
One day a writer was going through a street. He saw a labourer who was hammering and crushing stones into chips. He was murmuring something in an unpleasant tone. He could not make out what his utterances were but through the tone it was clear that he was expressing his anguish. Before he could pass him on, he heard the whistling sound of a pleasant tune. He turned towards it and saw another labourer that hurried up to the stone-chips. He kept on whistling the pleasant tune, threw his iron cauldron down, filled it up with the chips, lifted it up and placed on his head and returned back. The writer was amazed. He could not move away. He stood there for some time and watched them. The same process continued.
Out of curiosity, the writer walked up to the first labourer and asked, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you see I’m crushing my fate?” promptly came a harsh reply. He stepped back.
When the other labourer came whistling another nice tune, he asked the same question, “What are you doing?”
“Don’t you see I’m constructing a temple?” He promptly gave a confident and enthusiastic reply. That is the highest kind of spirit and most inspired performance. The difference in the approach of both the workers was obvious.
Soul Searching
An inspired performance can come to the fore only when a person possesses such enthusiastic, confident and spirited approach, nature and character. One thing is sure, inspired workers are more productive. They show greater skill and accuracy. The higher and greater the level of inspiration, the more will be the output of the workforce. Disgruntled workers fail to complete the task, and have an alibi for everything. One needs ethics, design and security. Only then one can perform in an inspired way and feel the pleasure, rather a blissful state after every inspired performance.
Out of curiosity, the writer walked up to the first labourer and asked, “What are you doing?”
“I drank it with them.”
“He is the only honest man among them.”
“Rājan! We are brothers, the off-spring of the same parents.
“See what you did to make the water clean.”
The man was staying with a saint with the idea that the place of a saint is the safest place.
k#K
50 Soul Stirring Stories Page 6