Dry leaves

In ancient times in India, young boys were sent to ‘boarding school run by a spiritual teacher’ and lived there for many years till the completion of their education. When the pupils had gained enough knowledge and wisdom, they were sent home with the spiritual teachers blessings and settled down in life.

Once, two pupils who were to leave the boarding school for home, went to their teacher and said, “Dear teacher, please tell us what gift we may give you as an offering since you offered us so much knowledge?” The teacher was pleased with the pupils’ love and gratitude, and loved them for their devotion, discipline and sense of duty. He expected nothing more from them. However, He decided to add a little more to the pupils’ wisdom. So, He said to them, “Dear children, go into the forest behind our boarding school and bring me some dry leaves that are of no use to anyone.”

The pupils wondered why their teacher had asked for this strange gift. However, in obedience to the teacher, they set out to the forest to accomplish the assigned task.

As soon as they entered the forest, they came across a small heap of dry leaves beneath a tree. When they started picking up some of them, an old farmer came running and said, “Please put those leaves back into the heap. I have collected them for my field. After burning, their ashes will make excellent manure, which will help me grow a rich crop.”

The pupils left the heap and went a little further into the forest. There they saw three women collecting dry leaves and putting them into their baskets. “What do you do with these dry leaves?” asked the pupils. “I pin the intact leaves together with reed-pins to make dinner plates for the temples; this earns me enough livelihood to support my children. I use the torn leaves as fuel to heat water for bathing.”

The pupils then went still further into the forest. They saw some dry leaves under a tall tree. As both were looking at them, a big bird swooped down and, picking up one leaf, flew away. The pupils saw the bird carrying the leaf to the tree branch, where it was building a nest of dry leaves and grass. They did not wish to take away the dry leaves, which were useful to the bird.

Both the boys decided to go back to the boarding school. On the way, they saw a small pond in which a big dry leaf was floating on the water. “There is a big dry leaf which is of no use to anyone,” said one of them. The pupils ran to the pond and picked up the leaf. To their surprise, they saw two big red ants, who stopped moving, as if to say, “This dry leaf has been our life-boat. If not for it, we would have drowned in the pond!”

The pupils, thereafter, gave up any hopes of finding dry leaves that are of no use to anyone and dejectedly returned to the boarding school. In a sad tone, they said to their teacher, “Dear Teacher, we found that even the dry leaves have so many uses that we could not bring any to you. All the dry leaves that we saw were being used for some purpose or the other. Please forgive us for not bringing along with us an offering that You had asked for.”

“Dear children,” replied the teacher, I have received the offering I wanted. The knowledge about the importance of even seemingly unimportant things like dry leaves you have gained today is your real offering . Even a dry leaf is of great use and help to man, bird and insect. How much more precious then should a man’s body be when it is put to good use! So, take care of your body and use it to do regular spiritual practice such as chanting the Lord’s Name to make your life as well as the lives of others happy.”

Moral: Each person has the potential to serve God and His children. Regular spiritual practice enables us to discover this potential and directs us to use it in the best way.

My friend on the other side of the valley

A little boy lived near a valley. He used to be spellbound by the sound, which echoed from the other side of the valley when he shouted out loudly. He imagined that another little boy just like him lived on the other side. What started off as an amusing game soon became an unfriendly happening. “I hate you!” he would cry out.

“I hate you!” the echo would come back.

“He is a nasty boy, I hate him!” the little one complained to his mother.

“Just for once, why don’t you try telling him ‘I love you’?” suggested his mother one day.

Reluctantly, the little boy agreed. Overcoming his hatred, he screamed his heart out across the valley, “I love you!”

Back came the reply, “I love you! I love you!”

The boy rushed back to his mother to announce excitedly, “Mom, I have a friend on the other side!”

Moral: One’s mind is like the valley in this story. Whatever thoughts one thinks ‘bounce back’, that is, they strengthen the source of the thought, deep in one’s mind. Thus, one should always have pure thoughts in mind. The purest thought is that of The Lord, and the easiest way to keep Him in mind is by repeating His Name* (chanting) through out the day.

I am third

Once upon a time, there lived a boy called John who was very popular among his family, friends and teachers at school. He was a good leader, a grade ‘A’ student, and an all-rounder, a good role model for all the students. Everybody loved him so much; it was almost as if he had cast a spell on all those around him.

Fred, one of John's friends, once decided to find the secret of John's success. With this intention in mind he visited John's house. He found John's room to be very simple and neat. On one of the walls in the room hung a large, homemade plaque with the words, ‘I am third’ on it. When Fred asked John what it meant John replied, “That is the motto by which I try to live. It has made my life very easy and stress-free. It means, ‘God is first, others are second and I am third.’”

Moral: Dear children, we often get upset if things do not go our way, especially if our friends want to do things their own way and not our way. This story teaches us that the secret to true happiness is to do things God’s way. As we learn to do things others’ way, by listening to elders, by putting the wish of our friends or siblings over our own wishes, etc., slowly we learn to understand and follow God’s wish, and experience true happiness.

Famine

Once upon a time, the residents of a small village were affected by a famine. The villagers were already poor, and had a tough and hard life. Thanks to the famine, they now had to battle with starvation and various diseases.

The village priest was a 70-year-old man who was a great devotee of God. He was moved by the condition of the villagers. As each day passed by, their condition worsened. Ever since the famine started, the villagers would visit the temple thrice a day and pray to God to save them from the famine. They would hold a massive prayer service every Sunday in the hope that God would listen to their prayers. As their condition grew worse, they turned even more towards God.

One day, the priest could no longer bear to see the pain of the villagers. The priest wondered why God was not answering their prayers even when they were praying so devotedly and regularly. So, he intensely prayed to God, saying, “Dear God, why are you not answering the prayers of these poor villagers, who are so devoted to You? Until now I have never asked You for anything, but today, I pray that You please help the villagers. Please hear their prayers, God.”

That night, the priest had a dream where God spoke to him and said, “These villagers are not my true devotees and therefore, I did not answer their prayers. However, you are a true devotee and I will hear your prayer by saving the villagers from the famine.” The next day itself the whole village changed. The famine was gone. All the villagers were very happy. The priest did not understand why God was not happy with the devotion of the villagers, but he was extremely happy to see that the villagers were saved from the famine and he thanked God for it.

Soon after the priest noticed that the number of villagers visiting the temple slowly started reducing. Finally, no one wanted to visit the temple. The priest implored the people to come and visit the temple that they had come so often to in their troubled times, but everybody had some excuse or another for not visiting. The priest was very sad to see this. He then understood what God had meant by true devotion. He realized that most people come to God only to have their wishes fulfilled and forget Him once their wishes are fulfilled.

Moral: Dear friends, sometimes we too, may be praying to God to fulfill some wishes like doing well in a school test, winning in a competition, becoming rich, etc. However, this story tells us what kind of devotion or prayers please God. They are the prayers that we do out of love for God, to be close to Him, such as, “O God, please let me always remember you”, “Please let me always feel you close”, and so on. To develop such love for God, we can read stories about the life of Saints and devotees, and stories about God’s power and love.

God’s Name

Once a Saint was giving a lecture on the power of chanting (repeating God’s Name). He was saying, “Simply repeating God’s Name has the power of taking you to God.” As soon as a skeptic in the audience heard this, he stood up and shouted, “That’s nonsense! How can repeating a word take us to God? If I keep repeating ‘bread, bread, bread,’ will that get me a loaf of bread?”

The Saint snapped, “Sit down, you fool!” The man began to tremble with anger and his face turned red. “How dare you speak to me like that?” he cried. “You call yourself a Holy man and yet you go around insulting others! What kind of a person are you?”

“Sir, I am very sorry if I offended you,” the Saint said, “But tell me, what are you feeling at this moment?”

“Can’t you tell what I am feeling?” the man shouted. “I’m outraged!”

“Oh, sir,” said the Saint, “I used one bad word and it had such a bad effect on you! When this is the case, why shouldn’t The Name of God have the power to make you Godly and pure?”

Moral: Dear friends, this story shows us how powerful God’s Name is, and how it can purify us and bring us close to God. So, to become pure hearted and full of God’s joy, we can make it a habit to chant His Name everyday. We can get into this good habit by chanting for 5-10 minutes before going to bed and first thing after waking up. We can also learn to chant while doing something, such as playing, walking, eating, taking a shower, etc.

The Angel's Robe

Once there was a beautiful, small town. The people there had lived in the town for many years. They were all happy and hardworking people. They worked hard and had built a beautiful town, but they were still dissatisfied with their town. Only one thing pained them. They had no church. There was no place were they could gather together to pray, worship and make sacrifices in gratitude to God for their good fortune. So they all decided that they would build a church.

Everyone contributed what each one could. The rich people donated their money, the clever workmen did their best work, the strong men cut and carried the stones, while others cut down trees to make doors and windows. The women sat down to embroider lovely curtains and the beautiful robes that the priest would wear. They did not care how much it cost or how long it took, but it had to be the very best they could do. They all agreed that only the best was good enough for God.

One old man who was a stone carver came to offer his help. He was very old and not very strong, but he was an expert in carving beautiful figures. They asked him to carve the figure of an angel to be placed in a corner of the church. The corner was nearly always dark and no one would ever see the angel very closely. Only its face would be seen, but just a little.

He carved an angel with a very beautiful face. But he felt that this was not enough. Then he went on to carve its robes, as he carved he thought about God and how much he loved Him and wanted this angel to reflect his love for Him. His work was done so well that the robes looked like soft cloth rather than stone.

One day as he was patiently working, a man came up from behind and stood watching him. He saw how beautiful the carving was, and how the old man seemed to love doing it. “Why do you work so hard on these robes?” he asked, with a smile. “No one will ever see your work clearly, nor will any one know who did it.” The old man stepped back and looked at is work with a quiet smile. “No human, perhaps,” he answered slowly, “but God can see it all the time, and He knows the workman, too.”

Moral: Dear friends, whatever we do , we should always remember that God is watching us. It is most important that we do all our good deeds for God alone and not to please others.