Poor man gifted grapes

Krishna story:  A poor man gifted grapes!

One day, a poor man gifted grapes to Mohamed Nabi.

Nabi Mohamed took a fruit and tasted it. 

After that, he took one by one and ate all the grapes given by that man.

Usually, Nabi would share the gifts with others before eating. 

But, he ate all grapes himself. 

So, that poor man was very much excited that Nabi ate all his grapes and then left the place..

Nabi's followers asked:

"Oh, the messenger of God, why did you ate all the grapes without giving to others?"

Nabi replied:

"All the grapes given by that poor man was very sour. If I give them to all of you, your face itself would have shown that man that you did not like them and hence he would have hurted. SO, to avoid that, I ate all the grapes happily"

MORAL:

Never do anything that makes others sad or that insults others.

Vulture and Sparrow

Krishna story: Vulture and sparrow on the way to sun!

An Vulture and a sparrow were somehow friends and, in a spirited competition, decided to fly to the sun to see Surya Narayan, the sun god. 

Soon, however,the sparrow began to fatigue and his wings fluttered. 

Finally, in exhaustion, he fell from the sky. 

As he was falling he watched as the Vulture soared and disappeared from sight.

When the sparrow came to earth he gathered all the other animals and told of the glorious vulture, the great bird that soared off to meet Surya Narayan.

 All the animals became excited and prepared a grand reception for the divinely inspired vulture. 

Thousands assembled and brought numerous flowers and fruits.

TheVulture, although far ahead of the sparrow, enough to be out of sight, was still nowhere near the Sun.

He also began to totter and flap his wings desperately to keep equilibrium. 

It was too late, however, and he began to fall rapidly until he crash! 

He landed right in the middle the assembled forest animals. 

The animals cheered wildly"Jaya Vulture! Jaya Vulture! Vulture Vulture! Jaya Jaya!"

They garlanded the hapless creature thinking that he had attained saksad-dasrhan, direct vision of the glorious sun-god, Sri Surya Narayan.

The vulture looked around in surprise and disgust. "What's going on? Why are you glorifying me? I have done nothing of merit," he said. 

But the animals replied, "That's not true, you are the glorious bird who visited the sun god!"

"I did not!"

The sparrow spoke up, "But you soared so far that you were out of sight!"

"I may have been ahead of you," he quickly retorted, "but I was also far, far away from reaching sun. Therefore I think I am really still no better than you or anyone else!"

Moral: 

You may be ahead others, but rather than seeing them in relation to yourself it is better to see yourself and others in relation to the final goal, which most likely will be of little variance. 

Better to judge things from an absolute, rather than relative perspective.

However, a Vaishnava is encouraged to make certain practical distinction among for the purpose of relating properly, avoiding offense, and giving and accepting instruction.

Wife's encouragement

A very inspiring article worth reading:

Once there was a man who did not make it to university. So, his mother got him a wife. After the marriage, he worked as a teacher in a primary school.  Due to the lack of experience, he was squashed by the students in less than a week. 

When he returned home,  his wife dried his tears. She comforted him with these words. 'When one is too full, he could either pour it out what's in him or he just could not pour it out at all. You should not be too sad about it. Probably there is a more suitable job waiting for you out there.'

Later on, he found another job and not for so long, he was fired due to his slowness. This time, the wife commented. 'There are always people who are skilful and non skilful. Some have experience from their years of work. As for you,  you were in school all this while. So, how could you acquire these needed skills?'

He went for a number of jobs but never stayed long in those jobs. Each time,  he would return home with a dejected spirit. His wife would always comfort him and never for once, she was disappointed or resentful.

He was in his thirties when he aquired a flair in languages.  He became a counselor in a school for the deaf and mute. Later on,  he opened a school for the disabled. A few years later, he set up chain stores in different cities and provinces selling apparatus & equipment for the disabled. He became a multi-millionaire. He was John Doe!

One day he asked his wife. 'When I was looking bleak at my own future, what's the reason that you have so much faith in me?' 

His wife gave him a very simple reply.  She said, 'When a piece of land is not suitable for planting wheat, we could try planting beans. If the beans are not growing well,  we could try planting fruits or gourds. If the vegetation is not economical,  we can instead scatter buckwheat seeds. These seeds will one day bloom into flowers. On this land itself, there will be one seed that will germinate and grow.' 

After having listened to the wife's explanation, he cried.  His wife's faith, love, patience, and persistence in him is liken to the one seed in the land. This is the seed that persists and creates the miracle on this piece of land. 

"In this world,  there's no one person who is useless. It is just that they have not positioned themselves firmly in right place"

Mosquito and Elephant

A mosquito saw an elephant crossing a

bridge and asked for a ride. The mosquito

said, "Hello mate! What if I sit on your back

and give you some company as you cross

the bridge?" 

 The elephant said nothing.

The mosquito sat on the elephant's back. He felt very proud that he

could persuade the elephant to be a co-rider. As they

were crossing the bridge, the mosquito cried out, 

"Watch out brother, two of us are very heavy, make sure the

bridge does not collapse!" 

 The elephant said nothing.

 As they crossed over through the bridge, the mosquito said,

"See, how I guided you safely through!" 

The elephant said nothing. 

Finally, the mosquito got off the elephant's

back and buzzed, 

"Here is my business card. If you need

any help in the future just call me on my cell phone." 

The elephant thought that he heard some whisper somewhere.

But he dismissed this as a daydream and

marched on…

Flash-1: 

You are an elephant with enormous qualities with full control on 

your life. No matter what you do, people having mosquito-like-attitude 

will always disrupt you, criticize you, mock you but you need to remember

 the fact that you are the boss and no one is in-charge of your happiness. 

So just ignore such people, ignore their criticism and move on with your life. 

Flash-2: 

The elephant is the enormous flow of our life. 

The mosquito is our restless ego that thrives by sucking life's attention.

 There is an interior life beyond our ego that is connected to a vast and 

infinite expanse of awareness. Be aware, be the elephant!

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