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” Listen to a story. Some cowherd boys used to tend their cows in a meadow where a terrible poisonous snake lived. Everyone was on the alert for fear of it. One day a yogi was going along the meadow. The boys ran to him and said: ‘Revered sir, please don’t go that way. A venomous snake lives over there.’ ‘What of it, my good children?’ said the yogi. ‘I am not afraid of the snake. I know some mantras(sacred verses).’ So saying, he continued on his way along the meadow. But the cowherd boys, being afraid, did not accompany him.

In the mean time the snake moved swiftly toward him with upraised hood. As soon as it came near, he recited a mantra, and the snake lay at his feet like an earthworm. The yogi said: ‘Look here. Why do you go about doing harm? Come, I will give you a holy word. By repeating it you will learn to love God. Ultimately you will realize Him and so get rid of your violent nature.’ Saying this, he taught the snake a holy word and initiated him into spiritual life. The snake bowed before the teacher and said, ‘Revered sir, how shall I practise spiritual discipline?’ ‘Repeat that sacred word’, said the teacher, ‘and do no harm to anybody’. As he was about to depart, the yogi said, ‘I shall see you again.’

“Some days passed and the cowherd boys noticed that the snake would not bite. They threw stones at it. Still it showed no anger; it behaved as if it were an earthworm. One day one of the boys came close to it, caught it by the tail, and, whirling it round and round, dashed it again and again on the ground and threw it away. The snake vomited blood and became unconscious. It was stunned. It could not move. So, thinking it dead, the boys went their way.

“Late at night the snake regained consciousness. Slowly and with great difficulty it dragged itself into its hole; its bones were broken and it could scarcely move. Many days passed. The snake became a mere skeleton covered with a skin. Now and then, at night, it would come out in search of food. For fear of the boys it would not leave its hole during the day-time. Since receiving the sacred word from the teacher, it had given up doing harm to others. It maintained its life on dirt, leaves, or the fruit that dropped from the trees.

“About a year later the brahmachari came that way again and asked after the snake. The cowherd boys told him that it was dead. But he couldn’t believe them. He knew that the snake would not die before attaining the fruit of the holy word with which it had been initiated. He found his way to the place and, searching here and there, called it by the name he had given it. Hearing the teacher’s voice, it came out of its hole and bowed before him with great reverence. ‘How are you?’ asked the yogi . ‘I am well, sir’, replied the snake. ‘But’, the teacher asked, ‘why are you so thin?’ The snake replied: ‘Revered sir, you ordered me not to harm any body. So I have been living only on leaves and fruit. Perhaps that has made me thinner.’

“The yogi said: ‘It can’t be mere want of food that has reduced you to this state. There must be some other reason. Think a little.’ Then the snake remembered that the boys had dashed it against the ground. It said: ‘Yes, revered sir, now I remember. The boys one day dashed me violently against the ground. They are ignorant, after all. They didn’t realize what a great change had come over my mind. How could they know I wouldn’t bite or harm anyone?’ The brahmachari exclaimed: ‘What a shame! You are such a fool! You don’t know how to protect yourself. I asked you not to bite, but I didn’t forbid you to hiss. Why didn’t you scare them by hissing?’ “So you must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they should do you harm. But never inject your venom into them. One must not injure others.

Is this possible? Let us find out.

You might have experienced it in your life that there are few people who might give you a hard time. They will go out of their way to ensure that your day is ruined. No matter what you do they are hell bent to destroy you . So what do you do in such circumstances?

I will answer this in my next post. It is one of the closely guarded secrets of all the wise men and women who walked in this wonderful kingdom .

http://www.vish-writer.com/Spirituality2009/ZeroEffort/ZeroEffortmainPage.html

Vish

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There was a poor man who wanted some money; and somehow he had heard that if he could get hold of a ghost, he might command him to bring money or anything else he liked; so he was very anxious to get hold of a ghost. He went about searching for a man who would give him a ghost, and at last he found a sage with great powers, and besought his help. The sage asked him what he would do with a ghost. ‘I want a ghost to work for me; teach me how to get hold of one, sir; I desire it very much,’ replied the man. But the sage said, ‘Don’t disturb yourself, go home.’ The next day the man went again to the sage and began to weep and pray, ‘Give me a ghost; I must have a ghost, sir, to help me.’

At last the sage was disgusted, and said, ‘Take this charm, repeat this magic word and a ghost will come, and whatever you say to him he will do. But beware; they are terrible beings, and must be kept continually busy. If you fail to give him work, he will take your life.’ The man replied, ‘That is easy; I can give him work foe all his life.’ Then he went to a forest, and after long repetition of the magic word, a huge ghost appeared before him, and said, ‘I am a ghost. I have been conquered by your magic; but you must keep me constantly employed. The moment you fail to give me work I will kill you.’ The man said, ‘Build me a palace,’ and the ghost said, ‘It is done; the palace is built.’ ‘Bring me money,’ said the man. ‘Here is your money,’ said the ghost. ‘Cut this forest down, and build a city in its place.’ ‘That is done,’ said the ghost, ‘anything more?’

Now the man began to be frightened and thought he could give him nothing more to do; he did everything in a trice. The ghost said, ‘Give me something to do or I will eat you up.’ The poor man could find no further occupation for him, and was frightened. So he ran and ran and at last reached the sage, and said, ‘Oh, sir, protect my life!’ The sage asked him what the matter was, and the man replied, ‘I have nothing to give the ghost to do. Everything I tell him to do he does in a moment, and he threatens to eat me up if I do not give him work.’ Just then the ghost arrived; saying, ‘I’ll eat you up,’ and he would have swallowed the man. The man began to shake, and begged the sage to save his life.

The sage said, ‘I will find a way out. Look at that dog with a curly tail. Draw your sword quickly and cut the tail off and give it to the ghost to straighten out.’ The man cut off the dog’s tail and gave it to the ghost, saying, ‘Straighten that out for me.’ The ghost took it and slowly and carefully straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go, it instantly curled up again. Once more he laboriously straightened it out, only to find it again curled up as soon as he attempted to let go of it. Again he patiently straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go, it curled up again. So he went on for days and days, until he was exhausted and said, ‘I was never in such trouble.’ ‘I will make a compromise with you;’ he said to the man, ‘you let me off and I will let you keep all I have given you and will promise not to harm you.’ The man was much pleased, and accepted the offer gladly.

This world is like a dog’s curly tail, and people have been striving to straighten it out for hundreds of years; but when they let it go, it has curled up again. How could it be otherwise? One must first know how to work without attachment, then one will not be a fanatic.

We are often too much obsessed with the historical events of the world. We give far too much attention to social reform. If you notice the history of mankind you will find out that while we have advanced to a great extent on the technological and economic front our progress has been dismal when it comes to leading a quality life. One of the biggest mistakes we make is we equate increase in the standard of living to a quality life. We have so far been busying ourselves in matters of economy and social reform and so our standard of living has exponentially increased. However, in this mad rush towards changing the outward circumstances we have distanced ourselves from the present moment which forms an important aspect of our life.

Social reform of any measure will never be able to increase the quality of human life. Never. It has to be backed by spiritual reform. The present moment has to be strengthened without which all our efforts, all our work in the external world would only give a momentary high and very soon would curl back to its original position like the story of the dogs curly tail.

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