Wednesday, 24 June 2009
The four wives
There was a rich merchant who had 4 wives. He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to delicacies. He took great care of her and gave her nothing but the best.
He also loved the 3rd wife very much. He's very proud of her and always wanted to show off her to his friends. However, the merchant is always in great fear that she might run away with some other men.
He too, loved his 2nd wife. She is a very considerate person, always patient and in fact is the merchant's confidante. Whenever the merchant faced some problems, he always turned to his 2nd wife and she would always help him out and tide him through difficult times.
Now, the merchant's 1st wife is a very loyal partner and has made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and business as well as taking care of the household. However, the merchant did not love the first wife and although she loved him deeply, he hardly took notice of her.
One day, the merchant fell ill. Before long, he knew that he was going to die soon. He thought of his luxurious life and told himself, "Now I have 4 wives with me. But when I die, I'll be alone. How lonely I'll be!"
Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I loved you most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word.
The answer cut like a sharp knife right into the merchant's heart. The sad merchant then asked the 3rd wife, "I have loved you so much for all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?" "No!" replied the 3rd wife. "Life is so good over here! I'm going to remarry when you die!" The merchant's heart sank and turned cold.
He then asked the 2nd wife, "I always turned to you for help and you've always helped me out. Now I need your help again. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can only send you to your grave." The answer came like a bolt of thunder and the merchant was devastated.
Then a voice called out : "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go." The merchant looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the merchant said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have !"
Actually, we all have 4 wives in our lives
a. The 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.
b. Our 3rd wife ? Our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they all go to others.
c. The 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they had been there for us when we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.
d. The 1st wife is in fact our soul, often neglected in our pursuit of material, wealth and sensual pleasure.
Guess what? It is actually the only thing that follows us wherever we go. Perhaps it's a good idea to cultivate and strengthen it now rather than to wait until we're on our deathbed to lament
Life is truly a gift of god.
If you disagree.... just watch this video.
This motivational video is one of the most inspirational stories you will ever come across and can only inspire us to be the best we can – even if it is just for a little while…
When you hear somebody sigh, “Life is hard,” this story will tempt you to ask, “Compared to what?“. Do we measured life by the number of breaths we take, or by the moments that take our breath away?
If we could shrink the earth's population
*** Statistics may be a bit outdated
If we could shrink the earth's population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like the following.
There would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 would be Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
(ONE)1 would be near death;
(ONE)1 would be near birth;
(ONE)1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education;
(ONE)1 (yes, only 1) would own a computer.
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding and education becomes glaringly apparent.
And, therefore . . .
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.
If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
As you read this and are reminded how life is in the rest of the world, remember just how blessed you really are!
Monday, 22 June 2009
Quotes by Swami Vivekananda
1. Choose the highest ideal and live your life upto that. Look at the "ocean" and not at the wave.
2. That which tends to increase the divinity in you is virtue, and that which tends to increase brutality in you is vice.
3. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva.
4. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary for anyone to be religious. Purity is strength. Spiritual truth is purity.
5. The ideal of the man is to see God in everything. The real evil is idleness which is the principal cause of our poverty.
6. Everyone should know that there is no salvation except through the conquering of desires.
7. Death being so certain, it is better to die for a good cause.
8. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
9. Your country requires heroes, be heroes!
10. To me the very essence of education is concentration of the mind, not the collecting of facts.
11. Each soul is potentially divine.
12. Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.
13. All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that.
14. Work, work, work - let this be your motto.
15. Now the only way out is to listen to the words of the Lord in the Gita.
16. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no fear".
17. Struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it.
18. Feel that you are great and you become great.
19. To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.
20. At my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.
21. It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their bodies that piteously cry, 'Weak, weak, we are weak'.
22. Keep the motto before you: "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion".
23. Man never progresses from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lesser truth to higher truth.
24. Avoid all weakness, for weakness is sin, weakness is death.
25. Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that.
26. I shall inspire men everywhere until the world shall know that it is one with God.
27. Let us go forward and do yet greater things.
28. The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is.
29. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed.
30. Knowledge exists, man only discovers it.
31. Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or heaven.
32. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve them.
33. Be the witness and do not react, only thus can you be happy.
34. None can help you, help yourself; work out your own salvation.
35. Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work.
36. Try to love anybody and everybody.
37. You have to gwo from the inside out. None can teach you, non can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
38. Know it for certain that you are in everything.
39. Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year.
40. Let all your nerves vibrate through the backbone of your religion.
41. Do not talk much, but feel the spirit within you.
42. If you want to be spiritual, you must renounce.
43. Your way is the best for you, but that is no sign that it is the best for others.
44. Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher.
45. Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?
46. Your work is to serve the poor and miserable, without distinction of caste or colour.
47. Help another because yu are in him and he is in you.
48. The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted,...let these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.
49. If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp.
50. The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.
51. Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.
52. We only get what we deserve. It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good. It can never be so.
53. You will understand the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you.
54. It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is.
55. Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition and then acceptance.
56. First there should be strict integrity...Secondly, entire devotion to the cause
57. The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.
58. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.
59. Whatever you do, devote your whole Mind, Heart, and Soul to it.
60. Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.
61. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life - these failures.
62. He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else.
63. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.
64. Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
65. You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave's work
66. Believe that the soul is immortal, infinite and all powerful.
67. Even if the order be wrong, first obey and then contradict it.
68. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no fear".
69. Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God.
2. That which tends to increase the divinity in you is virtue, and that which tends to increase brutality in you is vice.
3. He who sees Shiva in the poor, in the weak, and in the diseased, really worships Shiva.
4. Purity in thought, speech, and act is absolutely necessary for anyone to be religious. Purity is strength. Spiritual truth is purity.
5. The ideal of the man is to see God in everything. The real evil is idleness which is the principal cause of our poverty.
6. Everyone should know that there is no salvation except through the conquering of desires.
7. Death being so certain, it is better to die for a good cause.
8. Religion is the manifestation of the Divinity already in man.
9. Your country requires heroes, be heroes!
10. To me the very essence of education is concentration of the mind, not the collecting of facts.
11. Each soul is potentially divine.
12. Religion is the idea which is raising the brute unto man, and man unto God.
13. All power is within you; you can do anything and everything. Believe in that.
14. Work, work, work - let this be your motto.
15. Now the only way out is to listen to the words of the Lord in the Gita.
16. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no fear".
17. Struggle hard to get money, but don't get attached to it.
18. Feel that you are great and you become great.
19. To devote your life to the good of all and to the happiness of all is religion. Whatever you do for your own sake is not religion.
20. At my will mountains will crumble up. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal.
21. It is those foolish people who identify themselves with their bodies that piteously cry, 'Weak, weak, we are weak'.
22. Keep the motto before you: "Elevation of the masses without injuring their religion".
23. Man never progresses from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lesser truth to higher truth.
24. Avoid all weakness, for weakness is sin, weakness is death.
25. Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that.
26. I shall inspire men everywhere until the world shall know that it is one with God.
27. Let us go forward and do yet greater things.
28. The more selfish a man, the more immoral he is.
29. Give to the weak, for there all the gift is needed.
30. Knowledge exists, man only discovers it.
31. Give up all desire for enjoyment in earth or heaven.
32. Be courageous. Do not try to lead your brethren, but serve them.
33. Be the witness and do not react, only thus can you be happy.
34. None can help you, help yourself; work out your own salvation.
35. Be not afraid of anything. You will do marvellous work.
36. Try to love anybody and everybody.
37. You have to gwo from the inside out. None can teach you, non can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.
38. Know it for certain that you are in everything.
39. Go on bravely. Do not expect success in a day or a year.
40. Let all your nerves vibrate through the backbone of your religion.
41. Do not talk much, but feel the spirit within you.
42. If you want to be spiritual, you must renounce.
43. Your way is the best for you, but that is no sign that it is the best for others.
44. Renounce the lower so that you may get the higher.
45. Where can we go to find God if we cannot see Him in our own hearts and in every living being?
46. Your work is to serve the poor and miserable, without distinction of caste or colour.
47. Help another because yu are in him and he is in you.
48. The poor, the illiterate, the ignorant, the afflicted,...let these be your God. Know that service to these alone is the highest religion.
49. If I am in the dark, let me light a lamp.
50. The earth's bravest and best will have to sacrifice themselves for the good of many, for the welfare of all.
51. Every duty is holy, and devotion to duty is the highest form of worship of God.
52. We only get what we deserve. It is a lie when we say, the world is bad and we are good. It can never be so.
53. You will understand the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you.
54. It is struggle against nature and not conformity to nature that makes man what he is.
55. Each work has to pass through these stages - ridicule, opposition and then acceptance.
56. First there should be strict integrity...Secondly, entire devotion to the cause
57. The will is not free - it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect - but there is something behind the will which is free.
58. You fail only when you do not strive sufficiently to manifest infinite power.
59. Whatever you do, devote your whole Mind, Heart, and Soul to it.
60. Whatever you think, that you will be. If you think yourselves weak, weak you will be; if you think yourselves strong, strong you will be.
61. Never mind failures; they are quite natural, they are the beauty of life - these failures.
62. He works best who works without any motive, neither for money, nor for fame, nor for anything else.
63. The new religion says that he is an atheist who does not believe in himself.
64. Neither seek nor avoid, take what comes.
65. You should work like a master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but do not do a slave's work
66. Believe that the soul is immortal, infinite and all powerful.
67. Even if the order be wrong, first obey and then contradict it.
68. Be a hero. Always say, "I have no fear".
69. Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; because to advance we must have faith in ourselves first and then in God.
Spontaneity
In his inspiring book Be A People Person, John Maxwell tells a true story about an important game of football that took place between two English schools. During the closing minutes of the contest, a boy named William Webb Ellis, more gifted with enthusiasm and school spirit than with experience, was sent into the game for the first time. Forgetting all the rules, particularly the one that says a player does not touch the ball with his hands, and conscious only of the fact that the ball had to be at the goal line within seconds if his school were to be victorious, the boy picked up the ball and, to the amazement of everyone, started the sprint of his life to the goal line.
The confused officials and players remained frozen where they stood, but the spectators were so moved by the boy's spirit and entertained by his performance that they stood up and applauded long and loudly.
This incident totally eclipsed the rest of the game's action. As a result, a new sport was born: Rugby. It wasn't because of carefully worded arguments and rule changes, it was because of one boy's enthusiastic mistake.
The bottom line is that sometimes spontaneity produces incredible results and enthusiasm is always an asset in life. Be spontaneous and enthusiastic and I'll see you at the top!
The confused officials and players remained frozen where they stood, but the spectators were so moved by the boy's spirit and entertained by his performance that they stood up and applauded long and loudly.
This incident totally eclipsed the rest of the game's action. As a result, a new sport was born: Rugby. It wasn't because of carefully worded arguments and rule changes, it was because of one boy's enthusiastic mistake.
The bottom line is that sometimes spontaneity produces incredible results and enthusiasm is always an asset in life. Be spontaneous and enthusiastic and I'll see you at the top!
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