The rule of love

 
A mighty king was marching home after a triumphant victory in a gruesome battle. He had slain the ruler of the neighbouring kingdom and had captured their crown prince too.

The army, on its way back, passed through a dense jungle. As it was eventide, the army decided to halt for the day, and began to set up camp. 

Close by in the forest was a hermitage, the abode of a famed sage and his disciples. Deciding to pay his respects to the sage, the king sent his minister and soldiers to the hermitage, directing them to seek an audience with the holy man. 

"Maharaj wants to meet the sage," they told the disciples there. The disciples, however, requested them to come the next day saying, "Guruji has retired for the day. Please come tomorrow." 

The next morning, the King went to the hermitage attired in his regal paraphernalia, and accompanied by his retinue of ministers and attendants. The sage was sitting under a tree, scattering millet seeds. All around him were hundreds of birds of different kinds, pecking at the seeds and filling the air with the music of their twittering. 

The King walked up to the sage whose attention remained on his birds. 

"Pranam (salutations), Guruji!" the King said. There was no answer. 

The King raised his voice, "Pranam, Guruji!" Still, no answer. 

"Guruji, I said Pranam!" the King said in an angry voice. The sage looked up and said, "Stop shouting, you are frightening the birds away." 

That made the king even more furious. "Do you know who I am?" he yelled. The sage said calmly, "Yes, I do. You are the one who kills for the love of power. You are the one who knows not that this power is temporary. One day, another king shall kill you in the same way. Your love of power shall bring about your downfall." 

The king was beside himself with rage. He said, "Your impertinence is intolerable. I shall kill you right now!" He drew out his sword and raised it to strike the sage. In an instant, hundreds of birds flew from all sides and attacked the king. 

They flapped their wings vigorously and fearlessly on his face, jabbed at his arms, and pecked at his legs and body. The desperate king flailed his arms up and around to ward off the fowls, which had suddenly become ferocious and dauntless. But the birds wouldn't leave him. 

Finally, the sage called out, "Leave him! Leave him! Come to me, my dears!" All at once, the birds quietened down and sat meekly at the feet of the sage. 

The sage then said in a grave voice, a voice which commanded authority and spoke of his great wisdom, "All I ever gave these birds is love. Oh King! Realize the power of that love. Conversely, the love of power has blinded you, and brought you to the level of a killer. 

"These birds would have killed you – a reflection of your own misdeeds – had it not been that they love me. I rule over them like a king too, but the only power I exercise over them is the power of Love and that is the greatest power on this Earth.” 

This story’s potent affirmation has been reiterated innumerable times by Swami ji who constantly exhorts us to foster love. In His divine discourse in November 23, 1996, Baba said, “Transform your entire life into a saga of Love. You will then lack nothing to make you happy. All wealth and position will be added unto you, for Love conquers all!” 

But what exactly is this love that Baba refers to? He has Himself explained, “Pure, unselfish Love towards all living beings, considered as embodiments of the Divine, with no expectation of reward, is true Love… Happiness will come in the same measure as your love for God.” 

~~Heart2HeartTeam~~

Finding abiding abundance

 

After years of searching, the seeker was told to go to a cave, where he would find a well. “Ask the well, ‘What is truth?' And the well will reveal it to you,” Thus was he advised by a wizened old lady who, he surmised, was a seer. Struck by this tantalizing remark and full of curiosity, he looked for the cave and found it amidst a dark forested valley hidden by creepers. Water dripped from its walls and ran down to a hole which formed the well. Gathering up courage, though feeling a little silly at the same time, he asked the well the fundamental question. 

Instantly came the answer from the depths, “Go to the village crossroads: there you shall find what you are seeking.” The seeker was astonished at the stentorian reply and questioned the voice’s origin. “Who are you?” he called out. But no reply came and none, even after several minutes elapsed. Realizing that the taciturn oracle did not waste words, the seeker proceeded to his next destination. 

Full of hope and anticipation, he ran to the nearby crossroads only to find three rather uninteresting shops. One shop was selling pieces of metal, another sold wood, and thin wires were for sale in the third shop. Nothing and no one there seemed to have anything to do with the revelation of truth. He even spoke to the shopkeepers in a vain attempt to glean some clue to the oracle’s meaning. But illumination lay beyond his reach. Stroking his chin in perplexity, he wondered – was he missing the point or had the oracle taken him for a ride? 

Disappointed, the seeker returned to the well to demand an explanation. 'You will understand in the future,' came the terse reply. When the man protested against this clearly unhelpful response, all he obtained in return were the echoes of his own plaintive questions. 

Indignant at having been made a fool of, the seeker left the cave in a huff, and continued his wanderings in search of truth. As years went by, the memory of his baffling experience at the well gradually faded away… 

…Until one night. A luscious moonlit night, when a gentle breeze wafted the soothing sounds of a sitar in the dark and brought the footsteps of the wayfarer to a halt. Somebody was playing a soulful composition with brilliance and inspiration. 

Profoundly moved, the seeker felt drawn towards the sitar player. He beheld the fingers dancing nimbly over the strings. He then became aware of the sitar itself. And then, suddenly, he exploded in a cry of joyous recognition: the sitar was made of wires and pieces of metal and wood just like those he had once seen in the three shops years ago, thinking them to be of no significance. 

At last, the message of the well dawned unto him, loud and clear: 

God has already provided us with everything we need. But we ignorantly perceive lack and disunity when God has created abundance and unity. In fact, His creation is Divine, Perfect and Blissful. If only we had the eyes to see it, and perceive it in the right manner. Bhagavan Baba always says that most often the mistake lies with our drusthi (vision) and not srushti (creation). Creation is a sublime symphony of unity, purity and divinity, and when we have the right vision we can live in a state of perennial serenity and peace. 

Nothing is meaningful so long as we perceive only separate fragments. But as soon as the fragments come together into a synthesis, a new entity emerges, whose nature we could not have foreseen by considering the fragments alone. We have already been given everything we need. Our task is to assemble and use it in the appropriate way…. 

~~Heart2Heart Team~~

Packed Blessings

A young man was getting ready to graduate college. For many months he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealer's showroom, and knowing his father could well afford it, he told him that was all he wanted. 

As Graduation Day approached, the young man awaited signs that his father had purchased the car. Finally, on the morning of his graduation his father called him into his private study. His father told him how proud he was to have such a fine son, and told him how much he loved him. He handed his son a beautiful wrapped gift box. 

Curious, but somewhat disappointed the young man opened the box and found a lovely, leather-bound Bible. Angrily, he raised his voice at his father and said, "With all your money you give me a Bible?" and stormed out of the house, leaving the holy book - and leaving home. 

Many years passed and the young man was very successful in business. He had a beautiful home and wonderful family, but realized his father was very old, and thought perhaps he should go to him. He had not seen him since that graduation day. Before he could make arrangements, he received a telegram telling him his father had passed away, and willed all of his possessions to his son. He needed to come home immediately and take care of things. When he arrived at his father's house, sudden sadness and regret filled his heart. 

He began to search his father's important papers and saw the still new Bible, just as he had left it years ago. With tears, he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages. As he read those words, a car key dropped from an envelope taped behind the Bible. 

It had a tag with the dealer's name, the same dealer who had the sports car he had desired. On the tag was the date of his graduation, and the words...'paid in full.' 

How many times do we miss God's blessings because they are not packaged as we expected? 

Let us not forget that whether we realize it or not, know it or not, feel it or not, God is there for us at every moment, doing all that is necessary for growth and well being. Let us be open to Him. Let us be in tune with Him and live in the conscious feeling that ‘He is there for us doing all that is good for us at every moment’. 

~~Heart2Heart Team~~

Before they call I will answer

 

This story was written by a doctor who worked in South Africa: 

One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two- year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive, as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. 

One student midwife went for the box we had for such babies and the cotton wool that the baby could be wrapped in. Another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst (rubber perishes easily in tropical climates). "And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed. As in the West, it was no good crying over spilt milk, in Central Africa, you can say, it was no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. 

"All right," I said, "put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm." The following noon, as I did most days, I went for prayers with the orphanage children who used to gather with me. 

I gave the youngsters various suggestions on things to pray for and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them to look after the baby’s two-year-old sister, who was crying because she no more had her mother. 

During prayer, one ten-year old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God," she prayed, "Send us a water bottle. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon." While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?" 

As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen"? I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything, the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there? 

The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time, and I had never, ever received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator! 

Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the veranda, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears covering my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting. At least thirty or forty eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled. 

As I gave them out then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then, came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the... Could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out - yes, a brand-new, rubber hot water bottle! I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, "If God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted! 

Looking up at me, she asked: "Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she will know that Jesus really loves her?" That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child, five months before in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "that afternoon"! 

God’s ways are mysterious but more importantly, what prayer can do is unimaginable. Therefore, it is said, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." Let us pray as if everything depended on God, but work as if everything depended on us. For, with prayer in our hearts, we are the richest and most blessed. 
~~Heart2Heart~~

 Team

Jenny's necklace

 

Jenny was a bright-eyed, pretty five-year-old girl. One day when she and her mother were checking out at the grocery store, Jenny saw a plastic pearl necklace priced at $2.50. How she wanted that necklace, and when she asked her mother if she would buy it for her, her mother said, "Well, it is a pretty necklace, but it costs an awful lot of money. I'll tell you what. I'll buy you the necklace, and when we get home we can make up a list of chores that you can do to pay for the necklace. And don't forget that for your birthday Grandma might just give you a whole dollar bill too. Okay?" 

Jenny agreed and her mother bought the pearl necklace for her. Jenny worked on her chores very hard every day, and sure enough, her Grandma gave her a brand new dollar bill for her birthday. Soon Jenny had paid off the necklace. 

How Jenny loved those pearls! She wore them everywhere - to kindergarten, bed, and even when she went out with her mother to run errands. The only time she didn't wear them was in the shower - her mother had told her that they would turn her neck green. 

Now Jenny had a very loving daddy. When Jenny went to bed, he would get up from his favorite chair every night and read Jenny her favorite story. One night when he finished the story, he said, "Jenny, do you love me?" 

"Oh yes daddy! You know I love you," the little girl said. 

"Well, then, give me your pearls." 

"Oh, daddy! Please, not my pearls!" Jenny said. "But you can have Rosie, my favorite doll. Remember her? You gave her to me last year for my birthday. And you can have her tea party outfit, too. Okay?" 

"Oh no, darling, that's okay." Her father brushed her cheek with a kiss. "Good night, little one." 

A week later, her father once again asked Jenny after her story, "Do you love me?" 

"Oh yes, daddy! You know I love you." 

"Well, then give me your pearls." 

"Oh, daddy, not my pearls! But you can have Ribbons, my toy horse. Do you remember her? She's my favorite. Her hair is so soft, and you can play with it and braid it and everything. You can have Ribbons if you want her, daddy." 

"No, that's okay," her father said and brushed her cheek again with a kiss. "God bless you, little one. Sweet dreams." 

Several days later, when Jenny's father came in to read her a story, Jenny was sitting on her bed and her lips were trembling. "Here, daddy," she said, and held out her hand. She opened it and her beloved pearl necklace was inside. She let it slip into her father's hand. With one hand her father held the plastic pearls and with the other he pulled out of his pocket a blue velvet box. 

Inside the box were real, genuine, beautiful pearls. 

He had them all along. He was waiting for Jenny to give up the cheap stuff so he could give her the real thing. 

So it is with our Heavenly Father. He is waiting for us to give up the cheap things in our lives so that he can give us His beautiful treasure. 

We may ask ourselves, are we holding onto things which God wants us to let go of? Are we holding onto harmful or unnecessary relationships, habits and activities which we have become so attached to that it seems impossible to let go? 

Sometimes it is so hard to see what is in the other hand, but we must believe that God will never take away anything without giving us in return something precious in its place. For God, our Heavenly Father, truly loves each and every one of us! 

Let us give up more so that He can fill us with things that are truly priceless.. 

~~Heart2Heart Team~~

Outlook of a spiritual person on various religious practices

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One who has visualized the Atma principle that animates all can 

never condemn the religion of anyone. Such a person will never 

enter into any religious squabble or conflict, or talk in a light or 

demeaning manner about another’s faith, or disturb or despise the

 faith held by someone else. Only the ignorant with no spiritual 

experience, only those who do not know the depths of Truth, will 

embark upon the condemnation of the faith of others. It is very 

unbecoming of man to indulge in or encourage religious conflicts, 

to ridicule the rites and ceremonies through which others adore

 God, and to label the religious practices of other people as 

‘superstitions’. For, each one has accepted the practice and holds on

 to it, since it confers ananda (joy) to them!


- Sathya Sai Vahini, Chap 7, "Be Yourself". 


~~Heart2Heart Team~~

The Joy of Giving

 

Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this brood, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profes­sion, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying work that he could find in the neighbourhood. 

Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of the elder children, Albrecht and Albert, had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy. 

After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines. 

They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. 

Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works. 

When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht's triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. 

His closing words were, 

"And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you." 

All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, "No ...no ...no ...no." 

Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly,

"No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look, look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, my brother ...for me it is too late." 

More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer's hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office. 

One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands." 

The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one - no one - ever makes it alone! 

~~Heart2Heart Team~~

The trial and the taste

 

Isn’t it a typical human reaction to question God when we face rough weather or when it gets incredibly tough to confront certain situations in life? Do we not fret and fume and wonder when something we think we badly need is denied to us? Don’t we at times even accuse God for all the denials that we think we deserve? 

Well, if only we constantly reminded ourselves that He decides each and every situation for us based on what we really need and deserve. For, God can only do good to us. He is our creator and only wishes to see smiles on our faces, even though it may not always seem that way. And this is because, unfortunately, our vision is often narrow. All we need to do is believe that everything that happens is for our best, and that there could be no other way to progress in life. 

Here is a beautiful story. Jimmy found a cocoon of a butterfly in his back garden one evening. He decided to take it indoors to watch it break through its shell and arrive in this world safe and sound. 

After a few days, he saw that the cocoon cracked at a point through which he could see the butterfly struggle to get out. Feeling pity for the butterfly, and assuming that the fighting creature needed his help, he enlarged the hole through which he could see the butterfly trying to break free. The scissors did the job alright, and Jimmy was excited in anticipation of watching the caterpillar turn into a butterfly. But he noticed that the butterfly seemed to have an unusually oversized body with wings that looked weak, feeble, and shrivelled. 

Isn’t it the normal way for a caterpillar to transform into a butterfly once out of the cocoon? Did Jimmy even doubt that things would go wrong? Well, while Jimmy waited and watched to see the caterpillar grow into a beautiful butterfly, the caterpillar really never grew anymore. He was hoping that the butterfly would spread its wings that would eventually get large enough to pick its body up for its first flight. Unfortunately, such a thing never happened. The body of the butterfly remained strangely large, and it stayed there, crippled, with shrivelled wings. 

Jimmy’s heart broke when he realized that in his concern and impatience to get the caterpillar to be a butterfly, he had actually deprived it of a normal life. The apparent struggle of the butterfly that Jimmy had witnessed was the time required by it to gain enough strength in its wings to fly out of its shell. The struggle to break the cocoon was very much necessary for its wings to become strong. 

That one moment of ill-timed intervention had crippled the life of the caterpillar forever. It could never become what it came into the world to be – a butterfly. 

Therefore, all that we go through in our lives is for our good, whether we realise it at that point or not. We must trust Him and accept everything, pleasant and sad, that happens in our lives as His gifts. There is no other better way to lead a happy, contended and fulfilling life. 

Swami says, “Tests are the taste of God. The most precious ornaments arise from the fiercest of fires… A spiritual aspirant is one who undergoes all suffering smilingly.” 

~~ Heart2Heart Team~~