Test is a Taste of God

Sathya Sai Baba in ‘My Dear Students’, Vol 3, Ch 3, Jun 30, 1996

One Sankaranti day, Rukmini, Sathyabhama, Jambavati, Gopikas, and Draupadi among others were with Lord Krishna, joyously munching sugarcane.

Krishna, in order to test them, pretended as if His finger was cut. God always tests His devotees. Test is nothing but a taste of God. If the devotee is successful in the test, he/she receives God’s bounteous Grace. 

God does not conduct tests as a sign of hatred or enmity; He always does it out of intense love and compassion. 

As soon as Krishna’s finger was cut, it started bleeding. 

Sathyabhama asked a servant to quickly get a piece of cloth. 

Rukmini ran herself. 

Draupadi saw this and immediately tore a piece of her own sari and tied it to Lord Krishna’s thumb to stop the bleeding.

Witnessing this, Rukmini and Sathyabama were ashamed that their love and actions did not match Draupadi’s love. 

Later Lord Krishna showered infinite grace when Draupadi needed it the most.

image curtsy: commons.wikimedia.org

The Ripple Effect

The Master was walking through the fields one day when a young man, a troubled look upon his face, approached him.

"On such a beautiful day, it must be difficult to stay so serious," the Master said.

"Is it? I hadn't noticed," the young man said, turning to look around and notice his surroundings. His eyes scanned the landscape, but nothing seemed to register; his mind elsewhere.

Watching intently, the Master continued to walk. "Join me if you like." The Master walked to the edge of a still pond, framed by sycamore trees, their leaves golden orange and about to fall. "Please sit down," the Master invited, patting the ground next to him. Looking carefully before sitting, the young man brushed the ground to clear a space for himself.

"Now, find a small stone, please," the Master instructed.

"What?"

"A stone. Please find a small stone and throw it in the pond." Searching around him, the young man grabbed a pebble and threw it as far as he could.

"Tell me what you see," the Master instructed. Straining his eyes to not miss a single detail, the man looked at the water's surface.

"I see ripples."

"Where did the ripples come from?"

"From the pebble I threw in the pond, Master."

"Please reach your hand into the water and stop the ripples," the Master asked. Not understanding, the young man stuck his hand in the water as a ripple neared, only to cause more ripples. The young man was now completely baffled. Where was this going? Had he made a mistake in seeking out the Master? After all he was not a student, perhaps he could not be helped? Puzzled, the young man waited.

"Were you able to stop the ripples with your hands?" the Master asked.

"No, of course not."

"Could you have stopped the ripples, then?"

"No, Master. I told you I only caused more ripples."

"What if you had stopped the pebble from entering the water to begin with?" The Master smiled such a beautiful smile; the young man could not be upset.

"Next time you are unhappy with your life, catch the stone before it hits the water. Do not spend time trying to undo what you have done. Rather, change what you are going to do before you do it. Take the responsibility for living your own life. No one else can do that for you."

The Master looked kindly upon the young man.

We hold on to so many things that cause us a great deal of pain, stress and suffering and instead of letting them all go and allowing ourselves to be stress-free and happy, we cling on to them. Its best to give up on our need to blame others for what we have or don't have, for what we feel or don't feel, stop giving our powers away and start taking responsibility for our life.

The Tea-cup

Found at http://www.inspirationalarchive.com/1692/the-tea-cup/#ixzz20kxOcdOY

There was a couple who used to go England to shop in the beautiful store. This was their 25th wedding anniversary. They both liked antiques and pottery and especially tea-cups. They said,”May we see that? We’ve never seen one quite so beautiful.”

As the lady handed it to them,suddenly the tea-cup spoke, “You don’t understand.” It said, “I have not always been a tea-cup.There was a time when I was red clay. My master took me and rolled me and patted me over and over and I yelled out, “Let me alone,” but he only smiled, “Not yet!!”

“Then I was placed on a spinning wheel and suddenly I was spun around and around and around. ‘Stop it !! I’m getting dizzy!’ I screamed. But the master only nodded and said, ‘Not yet.’

Then he put me in the oven. I never felt such heat. I yelled and knocked at the door. I could see him through the opening and I could read his lips as he shook hid head, ‘Not yet’.

“Finally, the door opened, he put me on the shelf, and I began to cool. And he brushed and painted me all over. The fumes were horrible. I thought I would gag. ‘Stop it, Stop it!!’ I cried. He only nodded, ‘Not yet!’.

Then suddenly he put me back in to the oven, not like the first one. This was twice as hot and I knew I would suffocate. I begged. I pleaded. I screamed. I cried. I would never make it. I was ready to give up. But the door opened and he took me out and placed me on the shelf.

An hour later he handed me a mirror and said ‘Look at yourself.’ And I did. I said, ‘That’s not me; that couldn’t be me. It’s beautiful. I’m beautiful.’

“I want you to remember, then,’ he said, ‘I know it hurts to be rolled and patted, but if I just had left you alone, you’d have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. I know it hurts and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if I hadn’t put you there, you would have cracked. I know the fumes were bad when I brushed and painted you all over, but if I hadn’t done that, you never would have hardened. You would not have had any colour in your life, and if I hadn’t put you back in that second oven, you wouldn’t survive for long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when I first began with you.” God knows what He’s doing [ for all of us ]. He is the potter, and we are His clay. He will mould us and make us, so that we may be made into a flawless piece of work to fulfill His good, pleasing and perfect will.

Brotherhood

Unknown Author

Ram received an automobile from his brother as Birthday present. One day when Ram came out of his office, he saw a street urchin was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it.

“Is this your car?” – He asked.

Ram nodded, “My brother presented me on my birthday.”

The boy was astounded. “You mean your brother gave it to you and it didn’t cost you nothing? Boy, I wish…” – He hesitated.

Of course Ram knew what he was going to wish for. He was going to wish he had a brother like his brother but what the lad said jerked Ram all the way down to his heels.

“I wish,” the boy went on, “that I could be a brother like that.”

Ram looked at the boy in astonishment, and then impulsively he added, “Would you like to take a ride in my automobile?”

“Oh yes, I’d love that.”

After a short ride, the boy turned and with his eyes aglow, said, “Would you mind driving in front of my house?”

Ram smiled a little. He thought he knew what the lad wanted. He wanted to show his neighbors that he could ride home in a big automobile.

But Ram was wrong again.

“Will you stop where those two steps are?” The boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then in a little while Ram heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car.

“There he is, brother. Like I told you upstairs, his brother gave it to him and it didn’t cost him a penny. Some day I’m going to give you one just like it then you can see for yourself all the pretty things in the shop windows that I’ve been trying to tell you about.”

Ram got out and lifted the crippled boy to the front seat of his car. The shining-eyed older brother climbed in beside him and the three of them began a memorable ride.

Bhagwad Gita

In short..........Bhagawad Gita is for ALL 

An Important Word to Learn

- By Steve Goodier www.LifeSupportSystem.com

An office reports that they have an answering machine that instructs callers to leave their name and address, and to spell any difficult words.

Early one Monday when an assistant was reviewing weekend messages, she heard an enthusiastic woman recite her name and address and then confidently say, "My difficult word is reconciliation. R-E-C-O-N-C-I-L-I-A-T-I-O-N."

Everyone's a comic. (And I love that.) But in another sense, reconciliation IS a difficult word. If not difficult to spell, then difficult to carry out. But it's also an important word.

When my son was eleven years old he came home from school in tears one day. A couple of the older kids had bullied him at the bus stop.

We soon learned that tension had been brewing for some time. For several days there had been taunts, then pushing and shoving. And now the conflict escalated to fists. Rob wanted to stay home from school so he wouldn't have to confront the boys in the future.

We called the school and found great support. "We'll be happy to call the boys' parents," we were told. "And you should call the police."

"We don't know what we will do yet," I said. I felt that calling the police was a resort to be used when everything else failed, and I wanted first to consider other ways of handling the situation. I asked him to hold off calling the boy's parents.

The next day was Saturday. Rob happened to look out the window and said in alarm, "There are the boys who beat me up!" Two older boys were standing in front of our house, as if they were waiting for Rob to step outside.

I immediately began to think of what I wanted to say to them, but my wife Bev, a natural peacemaker, acted first. She opened the door and said with a smile, "Hi guys. Would you like some ice cream?"

They looked at each other in puzzlement. But they were teenagers, after all, so they shrugged their shoulders and one of them said, "Sure. Why not?"

They followed her indoors and Bev promptly introduced herself, Rob's younger brothers and me. She even introduced Rusty the dog. "And I think you already know Rob," she said, pointing to our son. Her idea was to help them to see that Rob was a person, not a target. He had a family; he lived in a neighborhood and even owned a family pet.

Bev drew the boys into conversation while we ate ice cream. After a few minutes, she said, "I know there's been some trouble at the bus stop. I think there may be a misunderstanding."

They nodded that there had indeed been trouble at the bus stop.

She continued, "Maybe we can talk about the misunderstanding so you can be friends."

They nodded their agreement and we talked until the ice cream was finished. Eventually the boys apologized and said there would be no more trouble. And there wasn't. Ever.

The vice-principal of the school called back the following week and asked about the fighting. "Did you call the police?" he asked.

"No, but we've taken care of it," I said.

"What did you do?" he wondered.

I said, "We fed them ice cream."

Reconciliation is a difficult word...a difficult task. But what could be more important? It may be easier to control conflict by force than to persevere and find a way through to harmony and cooperation. Force can stabilize a situation; it can impose a truce. But reconciliation leads to peace, which is a far better outcome.

Blessed are the reconcilers. May they be given all the ice cream they can ever eat! 

Hope, Faith, Peace & Love

Author Unknown

In a room there were four candles burning. The ambiance was so soft you could hear them talking.

The first one said, “I am PEACE, however nobody can keep me lit. I believe I will go out.” It’s flame rapidly diminishes and goes out completely.

The second one says, “I am FAITH. Most of all I am no longer indispensable, so it does not make any sense that I stay lit any longer.” When it finished talking a breeze softly blew on it putting it out.

Sadly, the third candle spoke in its turn. “I am LOVE. I have not gotten the strength to stay lit. People put me aside and don’t understand my importance. They even forget to love those who are nearest to them.” And waiting no longer it goes out.

Suddenly a child entered the room and saw three candles not burning. “Why are you not burning you are supposed to stay lit till the end.” Saying this the child began to cry.

Then the fourth candle said, “Don’t be afraid, while I am still burning we can re-light the other candles, I am HOPE.”

With shining eyes, the child took the candle of Hope and lit the other candles.

The flame of Hope should never go out from our life and that each of us can maintain HOPE, FAITH, PEACE and LOVE.

Are You God's Wife?

by: Author Unknown

It was a cold day in December. A little boy about 10-year-old was standing before a shoe store, barefooted, peering through the window, and shivering with cold. A lady approached the boy and said, "My little fellow, why are you looking so earnestly in that window?"

"I was asking God to give me a pair of shoes," told the sad faced boy hesitatingly.

The lady took him by the hand and went into the store, and asked the clerk to get a half dozen pairs of socks for the boy. She then asked if he could give her a basin of water and a towel. He quickly brought them to her. 

She took the little fellow to the back part of the store and, removing her gloves, knelt down, washed his little feet, and dried them with a towel. By this time the clerk had returned with the socks. 

Placing a pair upon the boy's feet, she then purchased him a pair of shoes, and tying up the remaining pairs of socks, gave them to him. She patted him on the head and said, "My little fellow, you feel more comfortable now?"

The astonished lad caught her by the hand, and looking up in her face, with tears in his eyes, asked her in turn, "Are you God's wife?"

Nasrddin's Flower Garden ising Children, Not Flowers!

by: Jack Canfield, A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul

One day David was teaching his seven-year-old son how to push the gas-powered lawn mower around the yard. As he was teaching him how to turn the mower around at the end of the lawn, his wife called to him to ask a question. As David turned to answer the question, the son pushed the lawn mower right through the flower bed at the edge of the lawn - leaving a two-foot wide path levelled to the ground!

When David turned back around and saw what had happened, he began to lose control. He had put a lot of time and effort into making those flower beds the envy of the neighborhood.

As he began to raise his voice to his son, his wife walked quickly over to him, put her hand on his shoulder and said, "David, please remember, we're raising children, not flowers!"

It reminds us how important it is as a parent to remember our priorities. Kids and their self-esteem are more important than any physical object they might break or destroy. The window pane shattered by a baseball, a lamp knocked over by a careless child, or a plate dropped in the kitchen are already broken. The flowers are already dead.

Not to add to the destruction by breaking a child's spirit and deadening his sense of liveliness.

My thoughts: The best way to raise positive children in a negative world is to have positive parents who love them unconditionally and serve as excellent role models. All that the kids need is a little help, a little understanding, a little hope and someone who believes in them. What a child does not receive, he can seldom give later.

Only One Childhood

By Author Unknown

I stopped to watch my little girl busy playing in her room.
In one hand was a plastic phone; in the other a toy broom.
I listened as she was speaking to her make believe little friend
I'll never forget the words she said, even though it was pretend.

She said, "Suzie's in the corner cos she's not been very good.
She didn't listen to a word I said or do the things she should."
In the corner I saw her baby doll all dressed in lace and pink.
It was obvious she'd been put there to sit alone and think.

My daughter continued her conversation as I sat down on the floor.
"I'm all fed up, I just don't know what to do with her anymore?
She whines whenever I have work and wants to play games, too.
She never lets me do the things that I just have to do?

She tries to help me with the dishes,
but her arms just cannot reach...
And she doesn't know how to fold towels.
I don't have the time to teach.

I have a lot of work to do
and a big house to keep clean.
I don't have the time to sit and play
don't you know what I mean?"

And that day I thought a lot about making some changes in my life;
As I listened to her innocent words that cut me like a knife.
I hadn't been paying enough attention to what I hold most dear.
I'd been caught up in responsibilities that increased throughout the year.

But now my attitude changed, because, in my heart, I realize...
I saw the world in a different light through my little darling's eyes. 

Let the cobwebs have the corners and the dust bunnies rule the floor,
I'm not going to worry about keeping up with them anymore.

I'm going to fill the house with memories
of a child and her mother...
For we are granted only one childhood,
and we will never get another.