The Masters !

Welcome to 77^th Monday Musings:

---

When one Guru was dying, one of his disciples asked him "Guru ji, who was your master? “He said, "I had thousands of masters. If I just relate their names it will take months, years and it is too late. But three masters I will certainly tell you about.

One was a thief.

Once I got lost in the desert, and when I reached a village it was very late, everything was closed. But at last I found one man who was trying to make a hole in the wall of a house. I asked him where I could stay and he said 'At this time of night it will be difficult, but you can say with me - if you can stay with a thief’. And the man was so beautiful. I stayed for one month! And each night he would say to me, 'Now I am going to my work. You rest, you pray.' When he came back I would ask 'Could you get anything?' He would say, 'Not tonight. But tomorrow I will try again, God willing.' He was never in a state of hopelessness, he was always happy.

When I was meditating and meditating for years on end and nothing was happening, many times the moment came when I was so desperate, so hopeless, that I thought to stop all this nonsense. And suddenly I would remember the thief who would say every night, 'God willing, tomorrow it is going to happen.'

And my second master was a dog.

I was going to the river, thirsty and a dog came. He was also thirsty. He looked into the river, he saw another dog there -- his own image -- and became afraid. He would bard and run away, but his thirst was so much that he would come back. Finally, despite his fear, he just jumped into the water, and the image disappeared. And I knew that a message had come to me from God: one has to jump in spite of all fears.

And the third master was a small child. I entered a town and a child was carrying a lit candle. he was going to the mosque to put the candle there.

Just jokingly, I asked the boy, 'have you lit the candle yourself?' 

He said,  'Yes sir.' 

And I asked, 'There was a moment when the candle was unlit, then there was a moment when the candle was lit. Can you show me the source from which the light came?' And the boy laughed, blew out the candle, and said, 'Now you have seen the light going. Where has it gone? You will tell me!'

My ego was shattered, my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt my own stupidity. Since then I dropped all my knowledgeability.

It is true that I had no master. That does not mean that I was not a disciple

I accepted the whole existence as my master. My Disciple hood was a greater involvement than yours is.

I trusted the clouds, the trees. I trusted existence as such. I had no master because I had millions of masters I learned from every possible source. To be a disciple is a must on the path.

What does it mean to be a disciple? It means to be able to learn, to be available to learn to be vulnerable to existence.

With a master you start learning to learn.

Moral of the story :

The master is a swimming pool where you can learn how to swim. Once you have learned, all the oceans are yours.

Always be ready to learn!

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

What goes around, comes around !

Welcome to 76^th Monday Musings:

---

One day a man saw an old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help.

So he stopped in front of her Mercedes and got out.  His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried.  No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so.

Was he going to hurt her?  He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry.  He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold.

He knew how she felt. It was those chills which only fear can put in you.

He said, "I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson."

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough.

Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.

As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him.  She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk.

The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.

Bryan never thought twice about being paid.  This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past.

He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.  He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, "And think of me."

He waited until she started her car and drove off.  It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home.

It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her.

The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase.

The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.

The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan. After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill.

The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door.

She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be.

Then she noticed something written on the napkin. There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: "You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you."

Under the napkin were four more $100 bills. Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day.

That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it?

With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard.

She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, "Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson."

Moral of the story :

There is an old saying "What goes around comes around." Whatever good act you perform God will never fail to compensate you in a different way beyond your wildest imagination...

Always do the Good Karma, and good things will come back to you!

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh

How Would You Like to be Remembered ?

Welcome to 75^th Monday Musings:

It’s a true incident that occurred about a hundred years back.

---

There was a man who once got surprised by seeing his name in the obituary column of the morning newspaper.

The newspaper had reported his death by mistake.

That man was really shocked to see what was written, at an instance he thought ‘am I really dead’ after a while when he gained consciousness he searched the column to find out what the people might have said about him.

The column begins as follows “Dynamite King Dies”, followed by the phrase “He was the merchant of death”.

This man was actually an inventor of dynamite technology, when he read the column he went in great worry and stress that is this how he’ll be remembered by others.

He was really hurt by what the newspapers said about him, the harsh words made him get emotional and touch with his feelings.

He stood up realizing that this is definitely not the way he wants himself to be remembered.

He promised himself that he’ll work in a way that makes him remembered by others with great respect and positivity.

From that day on he started working towards peace.

His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the famous Nobel Prize

---

Moral of the story :

It’s never too late to start doing good things, start today so you will be remembered in way you always want to be.

Do Good work and keep doing it, and Make your life worth remember !

Make it a great Week!

Shailesh

Always Value Friendship !

Welcome to 74^th Monday Musings

---

An old man and his dog were walking along a country road, enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to the man that he was actually dead.

He remembered dying, and that his dog too had been dead for many years. He wondered where the road would lead them, and continued onward.

After a while, they came to a high, white stone wall along one side of the road. It looked like fine marble. At the top of a long hill a tall white arch that gleamed in the sunlight broke it. When he was standing before it, he saw a magnificent gate in the arch that looked like mother of pearl, and the street that led to the gate looked like pure gold.

He was pleased that he had finally arrived at heaven, and the man and his dog walked toward the gate. As he got closer, he saw someone sitting at a beautifully carved desk off to one side.

When he was close enough, he called out, "Excuse me, but is this heaven?"

"Yes, it is, sir," the man answered.

"Wow! Would you happen to have some water?" the man asked.

"Of course, sir. Come right in, and I'll have some ice water brought right up."

The gatekeeper gestured to his rear, and the huge gate began to open.

"I assume my friend can come in?" the man asked, gesturing toward his dog.

But the reply was "I'm sorry, sir, but we don't accept pets."

The man thought about it then thanked the gatekeeper, turned back toward the road, and continued in the direction he had been going.

After another long walk, he reached the top of another long hill, and he came to a dirt road that led through a farm gate.

There was no fence, and it looked as if the gate had never been closed, as grass had grown up around it. As he approached the gate, he saw a man just inside, sitting in the shade of a tree in a rickety old chair, reading a book.

"Excuse me!" he called to the reader. "Do you have any water?"

"Certainly, There's a pump over there," the man said, pointing to a place that couldn't be seen from outside the gate. Come on in and make yourself at home."

"How about my friend here?" the traveler gestured to the dog

"He's welcome too, and there's a bowl by the pump," he said.

They walked through the gate and, sure enough, there was an old-fashioned hand pump with a dipper hanging on it and a bowl next to it on the ground. The man filled the bowl for his dog; he then took a long drink himself.

When both were satisfied, he and the dog walked back toward the man, who was sitting under the tree waiting for them, and asked, "What do you call this place?"

"This is heaven," was the answer.

"Well, that's confusing," the traveler said. "It certainly doesn't look like heaven, and there's another man down the road who said that place was heaven."

"Oh, you mean the place with the gold street and pearly gates?"

"Yes, it was beautiful."

"Nope. That's hell."

"Doesn't it offend you for them to use the name of heaven like that?"

"No. I can see how you might think so, but it actually saves us a lot of time. They screen out the people who are willing to leave their best friends behind."

Moral of the story :

Always Value Friendship, those who leave their friend behind for own sake are never welcomed in Heaven.

Good Friends are Hard to find, and only way to have a good friend is to be one ! A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.

Make it a great Week !

Shailesh