Children's Corner
Story for children: God is Everywhere
This is a real incident from the life of a wealthy merchant named Ratanji, who lived in a place called Nanded (a town in western India). He had several daughters, but no sons. He was, therefore, very dejected. His friend, Das Ganu, a great devotee of Sadguru Sai Baba, advised him to go to Shirdi (a town in western India) to visit Sadguru Sai Baba.
Ratanji earnestly wanted to visit the Sadguru, but due to a busy work schedule, was unable to do so.
A few days later, a local Saint, Mouli Baba, visited Ratanji’s house. The merchant was very happy and treated the Saint with utmost respect. He offered Him flowers and sweets and served Him with a lot of devotion. Upon this, Mouli Baba blessed him.
A few months later, Ratanji got the opportunity to visit Shirdi. As he sat before Sai Baba with hands folded, Baba said to him, “You have already offered me a donation of 314 Rupees (Indian money) and now you have yourself come to this place. So don’t worry. God will grant your wishes.” Ratanji returned with satisfaction, but he was puzzled about what Sai Baba meant when He spoke about the donation of 314 Rupees, since he had not made any donation there.
Once Ratanji returned, he met his friend Das Ganu and narrated what Sai Baba had said. During the conversation, Ratanji also mentioned about Mouli Baba’s recent visit to his place. When Das Ganu asked Ratanji about the expense he incurred due to Mouli Baba’s visit, Ratanji recollected the expenses made. And what a wonder! The expenses added up exactly to 314 Rupees. It was clear that all that he offered to Mouli Baba in Nanded, had reached Sai Baba in Shirdi.
Moral: Dear children, what we can learn from the above story is that God is everywhere. When offerings are made with spiritual emotion in one’s heart, no matter where you are or where God or the Guru is, it reaches the Him and He takes care of you as He is everywhere and knows everything.
Spiritual experience of a child seeker
Shyness overcome by spiritual practice
Kiran Punjabi is a shy, twelve-year-old girl. Once she was told the importance of chanting* the Lord’s Name, she started this spiritual practice immediately and has had many spiritual experiences since then. In one children’s satsang before the summer break, we played a game to review whatever we had learnt so far about the science of Spirituality. Surprisingly, Kiran was the child who was most enthusiastic and outspoken during the game. She also knew all the answers to the questions asked in the satsang. Despite her extremely shy nature, she appeared to be most comfortable in the satsang atmosphere.
- Mrs. Shilpa Kudtarkar (New Jersey, U.S.A.)
[Dear friends, the benefits of spiritual practice are many and varied. Since the spiritual practice of chanting God’s Name results in one imbibing His qualities, many of one’s own shortcomings, such as shyness, are removed, as seen in the experience above.
-Editor.]
* Chanting means constantly remembering or repeating God’s Name according to our religion. Young children should also chant 'Om Gan Ganapataye namaha' (Lord Ganesh's chant) for at least 15-30 minutes daily for divine protection. Older children, who have been doing spiritual practice for some time, can determine their exact chant from the experiment in Issue 124, Message to Seekers section. Parents should repeat (chant) The Lord's Name for children too young to do so themselves.