Spiritual Stories

LESSONS FROM TEA CUP
A group of working adults got together to visit their University lecturer. The lecturer was happy to see them. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

The Lecturer just smiled and went to the kitchen to get an assortment of cups - some porcelain, some in plastic, some in glass, some plain looking and some looked rather expensive and exquisite.

The Lecturer offered his former students the cups to get drinks for themselves.

When all the students had a cup in hand with water, the Lecturer spoke: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal that you only want the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all you wanted was water, not the cup, but we unconsciously went for the better cups."

"Just like in life, if Life is Water, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold/maintain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change."

"If we only concentrate on the cup, we won't have time to enjoy/taste the water in it." This is our problem. We are spirit souls and parts and parcel of Krishna. We have got this human life to search for our real relationship with Supreme Lord Krishna. To remain alive we have to do something to keep the body and soul together. But if we waste our time in indulging in decorating the body and satisfy the senses then we have lost the real taste of water. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita that He is the taste of water!! Think about it - seriously. Do we need expensive cups or pure, tasty, thirst quenching water?

DEVOTIONAL SERVICE IN ADVERSITY
Once Buddha was walking from one town to another town with a few of his followers. This was in the initial days. While they were traveling, they traveling, they happened to pass a lake. They stopped there and Buddha told one of his disciples, "I am thirsty. Do get me some water from that lake there." The disciple walked up to the lake. When he reached it, he noticed that right at that moment, a bullock cart started crossing through the lake. As a result, the water became very muddy, very turbid. The disciple thought, "How can I give this muddy water to Buddha to drink!". So he came back and told Buddha, "The water in there is very muddy. I don’t think it is fit to drink."

After about half an hour, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back to the lake and get him some water to drink. The disciple obediently went back to the lake. This time too he found that the lake was muddy. He returned and informed Buddha about the same. After sometime, again Buddha asked the same disciple to go back. The disciple reached the lake to find the lake absolutely clean and clear with pure water in it. The mud had settled down and the water above it looked fit to be had..

So he collected some water in a pot and brought it to Buddha. Buddha looked at the water, and then he looked up at the disciple and said, "See what you did to make the water clean. You let it be. and the mud settled down on its own - and you got clear water. Your mind is also like that! When it is disturbed, just neglect it. Give it a little time. It will settle down on its own. You don’t have to put in any effort to calm it down. It will happen. It is effortless."

Srila Prabhupada writes a punching statement in his purport to SB 5.11.17: "There is one easy weapon with which the mind can be conquered — neglect." If we neglect its useless demands it will calm down. If we keep encouraging it to demand more and
more, then it will eat us away.

Our real test for devotional service is not based on how we behave when things are going favourably, but on how we react in adverse situations. If we are getting angry, agitated or blaming each other then it is a sure warning sign for us from the Lord to wake up to our senses and sincerely endeavour to improve our behaviour - and take shelter of the 2 important qualities - peace and patience, which the Lord is insisting to the demigods, when they took shelter of Him in fighting with the demons in the pastime of churning the milk ocean.

In Srimad Bhagavatam verse 8.6.24, the Lord says,

yuyam tad anumodadhvam / yad icchanty asuraah suraah
na samrambhena sidhyanti / sarvaarthaah saantvayaa yathaa

"My dear demigods, with patience and peace everything can be done, but if one is agitated by anger, the goal is not achieved. Therefore, whatever the demons ask, agree to their proposal."

ADDING KRISHNA IN OUR LIVES
There was once a very wealthy man in a village, he had 19 horses and when he was dying he made his will and in the will he distributed all his property and he said, "Half of the horses should go to my son, one forth of the horses I have should go to the village priest, and one fifth of the horses I have should go to my servant" and the man died.

How will anyone divide up the horses that way??

Everyone came there scratching their heads, 19 horses, half of the horses should go to the sons, that is 9 and ½ horses, how to divide, one forth of horses, how are we going to divide the horses in that proportion. Then a very wise saint came riding on a horse, he said that "I will give the solution to your problem. You want to divide 19 horses into 1/4th,and 1/5th and ½ very simple."

The saint got off the horse and then he also put his horse with the 19 horses, that became 20 horses. Now half of 20 is how much, 10 which goes to the son, 1/4th of the 20 is 5 which goes to village priest and 1/5th of 20 is 4 which goes to the servant, 10+5+4=19, i.e. how the 19 horses of the man were divided and the saint then took back his horse and rode away.

Solutions are very simple. We have multiple problems in our life, 19 problems in our life, add God, the 20th. Add Krishna to your life, everything will be worked out smoothly. Here is the proof. Solutions to our problems comes by adding Krishna in our lives.

DON'T RUN AFTER DIAMONDS OF MATERIAL EXISTENCE
There was a farmer in Africa who was happy and content. He was happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy. One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of diamonds and the power that goes along with them. The wise man said, "If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own your own country." And then he went away. That night the farmer couldn't sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He was unhappy because he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.

The next morning he made arrangements to sell off his farm, took care of his family and went in search of diamonds. He looked all over Africa and couldn't find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn't find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and financially broke. He got so disheartened that he threw himself into the Barcelona River and committed suicide.

Back home, the person who had bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the farm. Across the stream, the rays of the morning sun hit a stone and made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That afternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, "Is Hafiz back?" The new owner said, "No, why do you ask?" The wise man said, "Because that is a diamond. I recognize one when I see one." The man said, no, that's just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I'll show you. There are many more." They went and picked some samples and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They found that the farm was indeed covered with acres and acres of diamonds.

There are few morals:

1. When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamonds.
" Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.
2. The grass on the other side always looks greener.
3. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy to trade places with us.
4. When people don't know how to recognize oppotunity, they complain of noise when it knocks.
5. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never the same one
6. Have faith in Krishna's grace. Don't run after diamonds of material happiness and lose your spiritual happiness.