Most probably for the first time, Valmiki Ramayanam for children is now available in audio form in Tamil, as a serial, narrated in the most child-friendly tone and texture in the Internet, available for free listening.
அனேகமாய்த் தமிழில் முதன் முறையாக வால்மீகி ராமாயணக் கதை, குழந்தைகள் கேட்பதற்கென்று ஒலி வடிவில், இணையத்தில் ஒரு தொடராக வரத்தொடங்கியுள்ளது.
Deepika Arun, is one of the most famous Audio book narrators, whose Tamil audio books are very popular in her Kadhai Osai Channel (both in Youtube and other podcast channels), is rendering the story of Ramayana through her Podcast for Children — Chittukuruvi in famous podcast sites like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast etc. In fact, this podcast contains many children stories in Tamil narrated by Deepika.
ஒலி வடிவில் தமிழ்க் கதைகளை வழங்கிவரும் கதை ஓசை ஒலிப்புத்தகத் தளத்தின் மிகப் பிரபலமான கதை சொல்லியான தீபிகா அருண், தமது அருமையான குரலில் தமிழில் ராமாயணக் கதையை தமது “சிட்டுக்குருவி போட்காஸ்ட்” மூலம் ஸ்பாட்டிஃபை, கூகிள், போட்காஸ்ட், ஆப்பிள் போட்காஸ்ட் போன்ற தளங்கள் வழியே சொல்லத் தொடங்கியுள்ளார். அவர் குழந்தைகளுக்காகவென்றே சொல்லியுள்ள பல பிரபல கதைகள் ஏற்கனவே ‘சிட்டுக்குருவியில்’ இருக்கின்றன.
This Tamil Valmiki Ramayanam audio series for children is now available at Spotify. It has started from the auspicious Pongal Day, 15th January 2023. Each episode will be for about 15 to 20 minutes and are scheduled to be released weekly, every Sunday. New listeners can register at Spotify free of cost and continue to listen it every week.
இப்போது தமிழில் வால்மீகி ராமாயணம் ‘ஸ்பாட்டிஃபை’ தளத்தில், இந்தப் பொங்கல் நன்னாள் (ஜனவரி 15, 2023) அன்று தொடங்கி, முதல் அத்தியாயத்தை வெளியிட்டுள்ளார். இனி வாரா வாரம் ஞாயிறன்று ஒரு அத்தியாயம் வெளியிடுவது எண்ணம். புதிய ரசிகர்கள், அத்தளத்தில் தங்களைப் பதிவு செய்துகொண்டு, இலவசமாக இக்கதையைக் கேட்டு மகிழலாம்.
(Links given at the bottom of this article)
அதற்கான இணைப்புகள் கீழே தரப்பட்டுள்ளன.
The story is being written by writer ‘Sandeepika‘ (who also writes in English by name C.V.Rajan). Beginning with the popular story of Ratnakar, the bandit who turned into the poet Valmiki, the narrative will continue, reasonably elaborately with Bala kandam, Ayodhya Kandam, Aranya Kandam and so on. The narrative by Deepika is in a very children-friendly conversational tone, in simple Tamil, with enough dose of emotions and voice modulations.
இந்தத் தமிழ் ராமாயணக் கதைத் தொடரை எழுதுபவர் எழுத்தாளர் சாந்தீபிகா. சி.வி.ராஜன் எனும் பெயரில் எழுதும் எழுத்தாளரும் இவரே. ரத்னாகரன் எனும் காட்டு வழிப்பறிக் கொள்ளைக்காரன், வால்மீகி முனிவராகப் பரிணமித்த கதையிலிருந்து தொடங்கி, ஓரளவு விரிவாகவே பால காண்டம், அயோத்தியா காண்டம், ஆரண்ய காண்டம் என்று கதை தொடரும். குழந்தைகளுக்கு எளிதில் புரியும் வகையில், மிகுந்த நட்புணர்வுடன், எளிய பேச்சுத் தமிழில், உணர்ச்சிகரமாகவும், கதா பாத்திரங்களுக்கு ஏற்பக் குரல் மாற்றியும் வெகு சுவையாக இக்கதையை வழங்குகிறார் தீபிகா அருண்.
Narrator Deepika Arun says, “The Itihas Ramayana has been living with us across thousands of years, enthralling kids and grownups alike, teaching dharma, values, morals and devotion to children generations after generations. Ramayana and Mahabharata continue to be the most popular bed time stories for children from time immemorial, verbally told by grandmas, grandpas and also parents. Is it not a wonder by itself? Present day parents are not able to spend enough time with their children to narrate stories. Even many parents may not remember the whole story of Ramayana with all its details and nuances to tell their children. I thought it will really benefit parents and children alike if Valmiki Ramayana, which is the source of all other Ramayana forms, is narrated verbally. Unlike seeing a tele serial of Ramayana, the verbal narration will kindle lots of imagination in children to mentally form their own images of the scenes and characters.”
The author C.V.Rajan adds, “As for as I know, Rajaji was the pioneer in writing Ramayana and Mahabharata keeping children in mind as the potential readers, in addition to adults. In fact, I grew up reading Rajaji’s Ramayanam. But he, just like Kambar who wrote the Tamil magnum opus Kamba Ramayanam, opted to end the story with Rama Pattabhishekam (crowning of Rama as the king), after he annihilated Ravana and returned to Ayodhya after 14 years of exile. It may be because most children and adults love stories that end in a happy note. But Rama’s story will not be complete unless Uttara kandam is also narrated. Uttara kandam covers the detailed story of the Rakshas Ravana and also Rama abandoning Sita in the forest. The story goes on till the end of Rama’s life. I do believe that we should not shy away from narrating these stories too to children. Only then Rama’s story will be complete. Let children too try to grasp the nagging questions behind Rama leaving Sita at the hermitage of Valmiki. ”
Tamil children and parents are welcome to enjoy Valmiki Ramayanam episode by episode narrated in Deepika’s sweet voice. Here are the links:
தமிழ்ப் பெற்றோர்களையும் குழந்தைகளையும் வால்மீகி ராமயணக் கதையைக் கேட்டு மகிழ வரவேற்கிறோம். கீழ்க்கண்ட இணைப்புகளை சொடுக்குங்கள்:
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Yajna-Purusha-giving-pot-of-divine-pudding-in-Yaga.jpg425556C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2023-01-15 21:59:452023-06-02 07:23:59Valmiki Ramayanam in Audio Form for Tamil Children — தமிழில் வால்மீகி ராமாயணம் – ஒலி வடிவில்
An young man received call for a prestigious job interview, which he was eagerly waiting to receive for months. He had to travel to a distant city where his interview was scheduled. For that, he had to travel by air and the travel plan involved changing a plane at an intermediate station. Once his first flight descended in the intermediate airport, the next plane was scheduled to depart after a gap of half an hour. As he was waiting at the departure lounge for the flight, he felt hungry; he decided to utilize the time gap to have a quick bite.
He went to the Restaurant there and ate some fast food. When the bill came, he was shocked as the amount was Rs 500, which was too hefty for him. He went to the cashier and argued with him: “Hey! This is very unfair. I have not eaten anything heavy to demand such a high payment”. After arguing for a while, the cashier decided to pacify the customer and offered a 100 Rupees reduction. But the young man was not happy. He kept on insisting that the bill was still unfair. He was very particular not to spend more than Rs 300. After lots of arguments, finally, the cashier agreed for Rs 300.-
The young man was very happy. He felt very proud of himself for arguing so strongly and smartly saving Rs 200.- in the bargain. He walked proudly towards the departure gate. There he came to know that the flight had departed about 5 minute ago!
Forgetting the very significance of his journey for which he had indeed been waiting for months, the young man had wasted his precious time in arguing, just for saving a small amount of money!
[Amma: “Some people tend to complain that time was not favorable to them. The fact is, time is always favorable. Only we are not in tune with the time.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
2. Why so excited?
A middle aged person and a young man were walking around a flower garden.
The young man asked his father excitedly in a loud voice, “Daddy! Isn’t this the flower called rose? Ah how beautiful it is!”
The father too spoke in an equally excited voice, “Yes my dear son! This indeed is the rose!’
“Is n’t its color known as pink, daddy?”
“Yes! Indeed!” said the father. The son pointed his hand towards the lawn and said, again loudly full of excitement, “Is it not the grass daddy? Isn’t its color called green?”
“Yes! My son. You are absolutely right!” The fathers voice too was equally loud and excited.
The young man continued to point one after other and they talked excitedly about each. In a nearby bench, an old man was seated. He had come to the garden seeking silence and mental peace. He felt irritated by the loud-mouthed talking by the father and his grown up son. With obvious expression of his irritation and disapproval, the old man said, “I came to this garden in search of some mental peace. Many people who visit this garden too are like me. When you two people talk so loudly oblivious of your surrounding, people like me have lost peace. Your dull headed son keeps on asking insignificant things and you are so excitedly replaying “yes my son!” to all his questions! Why don’t you go to some doctor and find a cure for your son’s retarded behavior instead of coming here?”
Hearing this, both the father and son stood there, stupefied for a while. Then the father said, “I am sorry. My son is not mentally retarded. He had been blind right from birth. Only two days ago his eyes were operated in order to bring eyesight to him. After the operation, at the time of removing his bandage, I had this desire to show him some really beautiful and heart-warming sights for the first time as he sees this world. That’s why I brought him here. This is the first time in his life that he is seeing all these beautiful things around here. That’s why he was talking so excitedly about them. I too was overwhelmed with joy when I my son has got his eyesight and naturally, when he asked the questions, I was equally excited and spoke so loudly. Suppose we got back the wealth that we had lost long back, how much excited we would become! In the same way, we totally forgot our surroundings; kindly excuse us”.
Hearing this, the old man felt extremely bad and ashamed about his hasty judgment and the way he had let out very hurting words against them. He immediately sought their pardon. He took a resolve that, in future, he would not get angry at others by framing his own preconceived judgements.
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
3. Revenge – Is it worth?
Once a person heavily drunk drove his car that ended up in an accident. A young man on the road got killed in the accident.
The mother of the young man who died started crying uncontrollably when she heard the news. He was her only son and his loss at his prime youth was unbearable to her. Despite the passage of several days and months, her sorrow did not reduce. It soon turned to anger — anger against the person who killed her son in the accident. She want to take revenge on him. She wanted to kill him; her heart started boiling with such a desire.
A few days passed this way. Gradually her mind cooled down; she was able to think more logically into the idea of avenging her son’s death. She thought, ‘What will I really gain by killing the drunkard? Will I ever get back my son? If my son’s accidental death could cause so much grief in me, then it will be natural that if I kill the drunkard, his mother and family too will grieve the same way. What will I gain by causing those innocent people to suffer mentally by my act of vengeance? Let them not face the same fate as I had faced’. Now her mind became calm.
She thought further: ‘What was the cause of my son’s death? Was it not the drinking habit of the person who drove the car? If he were to be a sober person, he would have driven the car carefully and my son would not have died. So the real problem is drinking and driving. If I could do something to make a few people aware of the evil consequences of drinking, to that extent the society would get benefited.’
She discussed the matter with some of her friends and wellwishers. They too came forward to support her enthusiastically. Soon she started a small Social service group through which she conducted sessions with people to propagate the evils of drinking. She dedicated her time considerably for this mission. Within a few years she was running a large organization dedicated to propagate the evils of drinking across the nation.
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
4. A shift in mindset
[NOTE: This is actually a real life story — from the life of young Ramakrishnan (now Swami Ramakrishnananda Puri, one of Amma’s seniormost sanyasis) during the early days of his association with Amma.]
As a college student Ramakrishnan had a goal of studying medicine and becoming a doctor. Unfortunately, he lost the opportunity to join MBBS by scoring just one mark below the selection cutoff level in the entrance examination. He became dejected and depressed because of it. He had no interest in joining any other course. After few days, due to compulsion from his family, he applied for bank job. He got the job.
Even after joining duty, the frustration about not becoming a doctor as per his dreams continued to affect him. He could not deal with his bank clients with courtesy or friendliness; he could not smile at others. He understood that such a behavior was not right.
He went to his beloved Guru (Amma) and confessed about his mental turmoil. He said, “Amma, my mind is not in my control; even on petty matters, I get angry. I am not able to behave respectfully with the bank’s clients. With this mental state, I don’t think I will be able to continue in my job for long. Amma. what should I do?”
Amma listened to him patiently. Then consoling him, she said, “My son. Suppose I send a person who is close to me, to you to the bank seeking some assistance from the bank, how will you deal with him?”
Ramakrishnan said, “Of course I will receive him warmly and offer all possible help to him”.
“If so, you must do one thing. Think of every customer who comes to you seeking Bank’s help as though he is a person sent personally by me. If you develop such an attitude, you will be able to behave friendly and nicely with every person approaching you”.
From that day onwards, there was a sea of change in Ramakrishnan’s behavior. He was able to see every person coming to him for banking help as though he was sent by God (his guru) and was able to serve them with courtesy. Anger and frustration left him once for all.
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
5. The King gripped in fear
Once there was a King, who was extremely afraid of his enemies. He built a fort for him and lived inside a high security palace. His living room was surrounded by thick walls on all sides with just one small window opening, through which he would communicate with others. Once a Sadhu visited the palace and he wanted to personally meet the king to get some alms. As he looked harmless, he was allowed to see the king after he was put through all the security tests by the king’s guards.
When the king was informed of the arrival of the sadhu, the king agreed to see the visitor through the small window opening.
The sadhu said, “O king! I came to meet you to get some alms. But I am really surprised to see you living here in this room, so secluded and alone. May I know what your problem is?”
The king said, “My enemies are extremely powerful. If I live like any other king, I am afraid that they will attack and kill me . So I am staying securely in this fully protected room.”
The sadhu laughed and said, “O king, you are already dead”.
“What do you mean?”
“You are virtually inside a tomb, except that your tomb has just one small opening!” — so saying the sadhu left the palace laughing aloud.
(Source: Amma’s satsang dt 18/12/21)
6. Mother’s valuable advice
Once a person asked a famous social worker, “Sir, I have been observing you since long; I have never seen you getting angry with anybody. You are composed and pleasant in all circumstances. May I know how it is possible for you”.
The social worker said, “In my young age, I too was a very short tempered person. Once I had an angry fight with my friends and I came back home fretting and fuming. Noticing my agitation, my mother asked me what happened. After I explained to her, she said, “If you get angry simply triggered by the words of someone and if you express it, it means you have become an underdog in front of that person. If you get angry again, it only means the other person has defeated you. Dear son, you must remember this always”.
“After that Incident, whenever I am in a situation where I could get angry, my mother’s words will flash in my memory. Her face and words will appear right in front of me. If I get angry again, it only means I lack patience. Otherwise, I would contemplate on what the other person uttered that infuriated me. I will think: “Why did he say so? What is the reason for him to get angry with me? Why did he use such harsh words against me? Is it because of his ignorance? Is it an intentional display of his ego?”
“By thinking so, I would refrain from retaliating. As I stand unperturbed, it is he who gets defeated and not I. Now he would start thinking, “Despite my getting angry, this fellow has remained unmoved, I have become a fool now. My true color has been exposed”. It is this way that I learned a valuable lesson from my mother’s advice. That’s how I am able to face any situation with even mindedness” .
[Amma: “Children, we too should face every situation in life like this.“]
(Source: Amrita Ganga – Satsang)
7. The secret technique!
Once a husband and wife who stopped talking to each other on account of a fight between them. They slept separately in two bedrooms. The wife stopped doing any service to her husband and kept away from him as much as possible.
One day, the wife came running to her husband shrieking in fear and embraced him. The husband consoled her, spoke soothing words to her to drive away her fear. As the wife was afraid to go and sleep in her bed, she opted to sleep in her husband’s room.
After a couple of days, the same thing repeated. Again the husband showered his affection on her and allowed her to sleep with him in his bed.
This way, their mutual bitterness melted away. Soon they were on talking terms. The wife started serving food to her husband and taking due care of his needs. Their relationship returned to normalcy and joy and intimacy returned in their life.
Watching these happenings, their daughter asked her father with wonder, “What has happened papa? You were not talking with each other for long, and suddenly mother is back to normal and you have become a happy couple once again. What magic did you do?”
The father said, “If you promise me not to reveal anything to your mother, I will tell you the secret”. The little girl promised so.
“You know your mother is not afraid of anything in this world, except for cockroaches. Last week, as I was coming home, I was pondering how to end the cold war between us, and suddenly I noticed a cockroach near our house. I caught it and brought it home and placed it on her bed that night without her knowledge. When your mother came to sleep, she noticed it and started shrieking out of fear and came to my room. She had no courage to sleep alone in her room and hence slept in my room. I repeated the same exercise after a couple of days and it worked!”
8. Acceptance
[NOTE: This is actually a real life story that happened at Boston in one devotee’s life.]
During one of Amma’s US tour, there was Amma’s darshan program at Boston. One of Amma’d devotees, who came by his car to attend the program, met with an accident on the way. Though he was not wounded, he had to spend the whole night in the Police station. He could reach the program venue only the next day.
When he came to Amma for darshan, people around Amma mentioned to Amma about the accident he met with. Amma lovingly inquired, “Son, did you get hurt? Are you okay? Are you upset?”
The man replied, “No, problem Amma, I am quite fine. Also, I didn’t have to spend money on a hotel room as I spent the night in the police station!”
[Amma: “The Guru teaches us how to see things in their respective places. If we try, we can make our lives positive. Everything has a positive side to it. In this incident, the person was able to take it positively and even was able to joke that the situation had even helped him save money”.]
9. Right treatment
Once a drunkard went to a bar ordered his favorite drink. The waiter in the bar brought a glass of the drink and place it before him. The drunkard drank half of it in one gulp, and threw the balance at the waiter’s face.
The waiter became extremely angry and started shouting at the drunkard. Hearing the abusive words, the drunkard started crying.
The waiter asked, “Why are you crying?”
The drunkard said, “Unfortunately, it has become a habit for me to drink only half a glass and through the balance drink at the waiter space. I know pretty well that this is a very bad and evil habit. Unfortunately, however much I try, I am not able to change this behavior. I am sorry about this. I know I must change this. Can you help me in some way?”
The waiter thought for a while and then said, “Don’t worry; my brother too had one such evil habit; he tried on his own to set it right, but could not succeed. Finally I took him to a psychiatrist known to me. The psychiatrist gave him treatment for 3 months and at the end of it, my brother totally got rid of his is habit.”
The waiter then wrote down the address of the psychiatrist in a piece of paper and gave it to the drunkard. Profusely thanking him, the drunkard took the address and went away.
A few months passed. The same drunkard came back to the bar and ordered his favorite drink. Remembering him, the waiter asked, ” Hello! Did you go to the psychiatrist? Hope you have undergone treatment and got rid of your problem.”
The drunkard nodded his head.
The waiter served him the drink in a glass. The drunkard gulped down half of it, and, like the previous time, he splashed the remaining drink at the waiter’s face.
The waiter became uncontrollably angry and shouted, ” You reckless rascal, I thought you would have turned good after going to the psychiatrist; But there is no change in your behavior. Why ?”
The drunkard replied, “It is not right to say that I have not changed. There is indeed a change in my attitude after the treatment. Earlier, I used to feel very guilty after throwing the drink at the waiter’s face, but after treatment, I got rid of the guilty consciousness. Now a days I don’t feel bad at all about my habit!”
The waiter said, ” It means you definitely require totally different treatment; and I am good enough to give the treatment to you”.
The waiter took a stick in his hand and started beating the drunkard black and blue.
(From Amma’s Janmashtami satsang 2022)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Amma-singing-emotionally.jpg365820C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2021-10-18 18:07:462022-11-09 14:21:00Amma’s stories on managing anger and other emotions – 2
[Amma: If there is some thing that can rid us of fear and give us the power to move forward overcoming all hurdles, it is love.]
Once there lived in a village a widowed milkmaid with her little daughter. She sold milk to the residents of a kingdom who lived inside a well guarded fort. The fort was on top of a small hill and her village was situated outside, at the foothills.
One evening, after she finished selling milk inside the fort, she got delayed. As she returned to the exit gate, she found the gates locked. She appealed to the guards to open the gates for her, saying, “I have left my little child alone in my hut. It is already late in the evening. If I don’t return before dark, my daughter would be gripped in fear and start crying; if something happens to my daughter, there is no point in my living any more; please take pity on me; please allow me to go out!”
But the guards were extremely rigid and they refused to open the gate for security reasons. They told her to stay somewhere inside for the night and leave once the gates open early at sun-rise.
Overwhelmed by disappointment and grief, the woman left the place and started frantically searching for some way or means to escape from the walls of the fort.
In the next day morning, the guards opened the gates. They were surprised to see the milkmaid waiting outside the gate with her milk cans to enter into the fort! They were taken aback. How on earth did she manage to sneak out of the walls of the well protected fort on the previous evening?
The took her to the king.Upon inquiry, the milkmaid explained her predicament and anguish on the previous evening. She told the king that after a thorough search, she found out a small crack on the wall of the fort through which she escaped. The king was curious to know where the weak spot was and he went along with the maid to see the location.
The king was extremely surprised to notice that it was almost impossible to notice the existence of such a small crack in the wall through which a person can escape with difficulty. It was indeed a very dangerous endeavor to climb the wall to that cracked area; further, on the other side, the slope of the hills were really treacherous and it was indeed a very dangerous task to descend the hills that way. It really looked to be a superhuman effort to accomplish it.
The king asked her, “Were you not gripped by fear to escape through this extremely dangerous path in darkness?”
The milkmaid replied, “There was only one thought in my mind last evening. I have got to got out somehow or other from here and reach my little daughter. I know how scared she would be if I were not to reach her before night. I totally forgot about the safety of my own life; there was no place for fear in my heart at that time”.
2. Tuned mind
[Amma: “True love or relationship depends on the depth of inseparable sense of togetherness. Such a deep emotional bond happens in the mind and hence it cannot be measured. In proportion to that feeling of togetherness, it manifests in the outer physical plane too. People having such a deep love on each other will have resonating thoughts too. A husband will understand the wife thoughts even before she expresses them; so does the wife.”]
Once a husband was sitting in his room at his house deeply engrossed in some office work that he had brought home on a holiday. He was feeling tired and wanted to relax for a while. However the work was so urgent that he had to finish it off and hand over it to the office the next day.
He was fighting sleep and trying hard to concentrate. He thought, “If only I get a good cup of coffee”. He knew his wife was busy cooking at the kitchen. It was an odd time when he did not normally drink coffee. He did not want to disturb his wife.
As he resumed work, his wife appeared in his room with a hot cup of coffee in her hand! The husband was surprised! “How come you know that I longed for a cup of coffee?”. The wife said, “I just felt you needed a cup of coffee; that’s all!”
(Source: Arul Mozhigal-8 Tamil)
3. For her sake
One young man used to go by his motorbike to meet his lover regularly. Driven by the urge to meet his beloved girl, the young man used to drive rashly, without bothering to obey traffic rules. Even if he sees Red light at traffic signals, he would just ignore it drive ahead without stopping. Many times he met with small accidents on account of his rash driving. But he never bothered about them.
One day, he was driving his bike with one of his friends sitting at the pillion. His friend knew about the man’s rash driving habits. On that day, the young man stopped his bike at one of the traffic junctions when he noticed red signal. He took out his girl friend’s photo from his pocket and looked at it lovingly while waiting for the signal to turn green.
His friend was really surprised. ! “Hey! What happened to you? I have never seen you stopping your bike at signals?”
The young man replied, “All these days, due to my excitement to meet her, I drove fast, ignoring signals. I never bothered about traffic rules or other vehicles. The only thought that occupied my mind was to meet her as fast as possible. But of late I have started thinking: ‘If, because of my rash driving, I were to meet with an accident, will it not throw her into grief?’. Now, with such a thought arising in me, I have started to drive responsibly, obeying traffic rules!”
[Amma: “Like this, if we are driven only by our selfish likes and dislikes, we feel rules and regulations are unnecessary. But when we take into consideration others’ interests and concerns, we get awareness and patience; then we understand the need to follow rules and regulations.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Amma-laughing3.jpg400600C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2021-10-18 18:02:362021-10-18 18:02:37Amma’s stories on the power of Love
Once a grandfather and his grandson went to visit a zoo. They were looking at the various wild animals kept in cages in the zoo.
At one place there were two lions, kept in two separate cages. One of them was rather sober and non-aggressive. When people came close to the cage or even risked extending a hand inside, the lion did not react. It seemed to be at peace with the people. On the other hand, the lion in the adjacent cage was very aggressive and ferocious. If anybody came closer to its cage, it will roar and swing its front legs towards them to scare them away.
The grandfather asked the grandson, “Suppose these two lions were left to fight with each other, which one do you think would win?”
The grandson said, “Maybe the second one that looks very ferocious. I am not sure, though.”
The grandfather said, “One cannot be sure. But I can definitely say that the one which is constantly fed well will win”.
[Amma: “The thoughts that rise up in our minds too are similar; the more we feed our mind with evil thoughts, the more will they gain strength. Our mind will get filled with anger, egotism, etc and they would win over good thoughts “.]
(Source: Oliyai Nokki-Tamil – Vol 3)
2. Impossible to fill
Once a king was enjoying solitude in his garden. He was roaming around leisurely, enjoying the beauties of nature. He was in a very happy mood that day. At that time, the beggar somehow managed to sneak into the garden without the notice of the guards. He came in front of the kind and saluted him. The king was surprised to see a stranger there, looking impoverished and in tattered clothes. “Who are you? What do you want from me. Tell me quickly and leave this place. Don’t disturb my peaceful mindset now”.
The beggar said, “I am a poor beggar, your excellency. I just want one thing from you. Please rescue me from my poverty by filling my begging bowl totally”. The king took pity on him. As he was in a good mood that day, he called his Minister in charge of his treasury and said, “Please fill this beggar’s begging bowl fully with gold coins, gems and precious stones”.
But very surprisingly, whatever amount of pearls, gems and gold coins that the minister put into the begging bowl did not fill it fully. Things disappeared into the bowl and it could never be filled to the brim. Soon, an awkward situation came wherein the treasury became almost empty; there was no more gems and gold coins left in the king’s stock.
The king felt shocked and ashamed. He said to the beggar, “Please excuse me. I am unable to keep up my promise to you. I have given whatever I had in the treasury. I have no more wealth to drop into your begging bowl. Your begging bowl seems to be having magical powers. May I know what is the secret behind this bowl?”
The beggar smiled and said, “Don’t feel bad, O King. Actually, this begging bowl is made of the skull of a human being. Because of it, it has the typical tendency of humans who never get satisfied with what they get and keep on wanting more and more always. It knows only one thing: “Not enough; want more”. However much you fill this begging bowl, it will never get filled up! It works exactly as the human mind”.
[Amma: “As long as desires exist, there is no peace of mind. When one desire is satiated, the mind gets some joy, but it is only short living. The next moment, the mind will want more “.]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
2. Nagging doubt
A boy and girl from neighboring houses were playing together. The boy had some money with him and the girl had some chocolates with her.
The boy said to the girl, “I will give you some coins; will you give me some chocolates in exchange?”
The girl agreed. The boy was cunning. He hid coins of higher denomination in his pocket and gave only low-valued coins to her. The girl gave him chocolates.
After a while, both of them returned to their respective homes. As the girl had no idea about the relative worth of coins, she was content to have a few coins in her possession. She went to bed and slept off peacefully.
At home, the was thinking “This girl must have kept costly chocolates hidden and given to me only cheap and low-quality chocolates. Just like I hid costly coins, she too would have hidden high-quality chocolates.” He could not sleep because of these thoughts.
[Amma: “Mutual trust is the basis on which any relationship can stand – whether it is the relationship between husband and wife, between two friends, or between business partners. Many times our own faults and limitations make us doubt others’ actions and motives; because of it, we fail to appreciate others’ love and affection and lose our mental peace and joy. “]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
3. The play of the mind
[Amma: “Children! Understand that the human mind is a big mystery, but not Atman. Actually, it is the mind that makes us think as if Atman is a mystery! The mind is full of confusion. It can confuse everything. Mind is falsehood. It is the mind that questions the truth of Atman. All your fears and doubts arise from the mind, which is the biggest liar!”]
Once there lived a great wrestler who could not be defeated by any other wrestler in his country. He lived as an undefeated champion for many years in his country. Naturally, it made him very proud, egoistic and arrogant. He believed none existed in the world who could challenge him and hope to win.
One day, a wrestler from another country visited his country. He challenged the native wrestler for a combat. It became huge news. The native wrestler immediately agreed to the challenge. A day was fixed for the competition. The whole nation virtually became curious to know who would ultimately win the combat. It was a matter of prestige for the native wrestler.
The day of the competition arrived. An uncontrollably huge crowd had gathered in the venue to watch the combat. The native wrestler looked bigger and stronger in front of the challenger from the other country. The match began. The combat was really tough. The surcharged crowd soon got split into two groups — one cheering the native wrestler and the other shouting for the win of the challenger. As round after round proceeded, the competition was becoming tougher and tougher. If one of them had an upper hand in one round, the other one emerged stronger in the next round. Finally, the visiting wrestler defeated the native in the final round conclusively.
The crowd shouted in jubilation appreciating and cheering the visiting wrestler. The crowd also mocked and jeered at the loser for his humiliating defeat. The old champion gathered himself up and got up. With a deep sense of shame, humiliation and defeat he departed the venue limping.
Even after moving farther away from the venue, the sound of people jeering him kept reverberating in his ears. Utter dejection and hatred welled up in his heart. His mind was in total turmoil. At this stage, he woke up from his sleep!
“Oh! Is it all just a dream?” — he was shocked. He rose up from his bed. Despite knowing that it was just a nightmare, his mind did not regain peace. It was full of worry and confusion. Like a caged lion, he walked to and fro in his bedroom, rewinding the happenings in the dream again and again.
He started feeling more and more that what he saw in his dream were indeed real. He wanted to take revenge on his opponent. ‘How shall I defeat my enemy?’ He kept thinking again and again. ‘Oh, God! I have lost everything; my reputation has fallen to dust. How will I ever show my face outside hereafter? None will show any respect to me hereafter; How will I live hearing the mockery of people all the time? Isn’t it better to die, rather than to live in such a miserable way? I should definitely take revenge of the rascal who defeated me in the competition…’ He kept on thinking like that. He pulled his hair in anger; he walked like a mad man here and there.
Very gradually it dawned to him that it was meaningless to succumb to such an emotional turmoil created by a dream. Slowly and steadily, he started to gather his wits; his mind became calmer and calmer. Now it was very clear to him how foolish he was to get worked up like this based on a dream. “Oh, God! What happened to me! What a fool I have become! Just based on a figment of imagination of mind through a dream, I went through so much mental agony. something that never happened at all!” with this thought he went back to bed.
[Amma: “Children! Like this champion, we all too are immersed in a dream called the waking stage. It is indeed a dream of a longer duration enacted by our past experiences and thoughts. It is our mind that creates this ‘long dream’ too. In our present state, we believe this long dream too to be real. We are yet to wake up from this dream!”]
5. The play of the mind (2)
[Amma: “Mind has two powers called ‘Avaranam’ – the power to hide and ‘Vikshepam’ – the power to create. The mind first hides the true state of things. Then it creates an image contradictory to the true state of things. That’s why Amma calls the mind a great liar”.]
Once a person was walking through a forest. It was evening and the twilight was getting dimmer. He was finding it difficult to find his path. Suddenly, he felt something biting at his toe. He lifted up his leg to touch and feel what happened. He noticed a small pieced mark on the skin and a little blood oozing out from it. As he gazed a nearby bush there, he noticed a snake there. He was thoroughly shaken by fer. He believed that it was the snake that had bitten him. He started shouting: “Oh! Is there anybody around? Help me, help me! I have been bitten by a poisonous snake; please somebody take me to the nearest doctor!”
He kept on crying like this in full throat for a while. Soon he got tired; his head started spinning; he felt he was swooning. He sat down and continued to shout for help.
In a short while, a person came by the path with a lantern in his hand. He asked what happened. The person said, “I am afraid I have been bitten by a snake; I am dying; will you please take me immediately to a doctor?”
The person said, “Don’t worry; I will help you. Now tell me when and where the snake bit you”.
The person said, “When I came near this bush, a snake bit me at my toe; see, the snake is still there at the bush!”. The person came closer, lifted up his lantern to inspect the bush closely.
He then smiled and said, “You see, this is a thorny bush. See there in the light; what you saw as a snake is just a piece of rope and not a snake. One of the thorns in the bush must have pieced your toe when you walked here. Now that things are clear, there is no need to panic. Just relax!”
The man looked at the rope. It was quite clear that it was not at all a snake! His palpitation and dizziness came to an end instantly and he felt relieved and relaxed!
[Amma: “This is how our mind cheats us. The mind first hid the rope — the truth. Then it created the snake on it. The rope (truth) — the atman, is hidden by your mind through its imagination by creating a non-existent snake, based on its past impressions. That’s how Atman is superimposed by the world of differences. Atman is obscured by our thoughts. When a satguru lights up the lamp of true knowledge, the delusion goes. You realize your atman by personal experience and attain peace.”]
6. The play of the maya
Once a poor young man was sitting at the bank of a river and idling away his time. Then, an elephant carrying a garland in its trunk came there. It was followed by a huge crowd. The elephant put the garland on the youth’s neck.
Since the king of the country died without an offspring, it was the practice of the country to select the next king by sending the royal elephant with garland and whosoever the elephant garlands would become the king.
Thus the youth became the king of the country all of a sudden. The king’s young daughter too was married off to the new king.
Thus the young king was thoroughly enjoying his new life to the full.
One day, the new king along with his queen got on to a royal horse and drove to the top of an adjacent hill for time-pass. As they were about to reach the summit, there came a sudden storm and the wind started blowing very powerfully. The horse lost its balance and all the three fell down the slope of the hill. They rolled and rolled down hitting boulders and rocks. The king somehow managed to get hold of a tree branch while the horse and the queen rolled down further and died.
The king then carefully jumped down from the tree; when he landed and looked around, there was no hill, no horse or queen. What he saw was that he was lying on the mud floor of a hut adjacent to his cot. He could only see the mud walls and a thatched roof. He understood that he was still a poor young fellow, lying in his own hut, waking up after a daydream. His heart was still pounding on account of the dream.
[Amma: “Everything that the young man experienced in his dream was real to him as long as he was immersed in the dream. We too are in the same state as this youth, in reality. We are dreaming that this world and all our worldly possessions and worldly experiences are real and we keep running behind them. This is the play of maya. We are caught in this dream world of Maya and only when we truly wake up from it, we can understand the unreality of all”. Then, successes and failures won’t affect us.”]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
7. Resolution?
Once there was a temple where once in a week many devotees gathered in large numbers and did japa, prayer and meditation without partaking food. A monkey saw this and thought “all these people undertake fast and pray to seek lord’s grace. Why shouldn’t I too do it?”
On the next session of fasting and prayer, the monkey arrived at the temple early in the morning. He sat under a tree, closed his eyes in order to meditate. Immediately a thought came in its mind: “I have never undertaken fast in my whole life. Suppose at the end of the day when I complete my fasting and meditation, what will happen if I feel so week that I won’t be able to stand up or walk? Should I die under this tree then? Is it not better to find a tree full of fruits and undertake my austerity under it? In such case, I need not run around in search of food”.
He got up immediately, searched for a tree with fruits, located one, and then sat under it to resume its meditation. After a short while, the monkey thought, “What will happen if, at the end of fasting, I become too weak to even climb this tree? Will it not be better if I climb on it right now and sit in a branch to do my meditation?”
He immediately climbed on to the tree, sat in a branch and closed his eyes. Now another thought came into his mind, “What if I feel too weak even to pluck a fruit? Is it not better to keep a fruit in my hand and meditate?” He did so immediately and again closed his eyes.
Now he started feeling very hungry. “I have never eaten such big and ripe fruits in the recent past. Why not eat the fruit right now and do the fasting and meditation on some other day?”
The next moment he was munching the fruit and relishing it thoroughly!
[Amma: “Most of us are like this monkey. Our mind will keep on generating reasons after reasons for postponing things that we ought to do for our wellbeing. We must use our intellect and acquire a firm determination to work on our aspirations keeping our goals clear. ‘Whatever hurdles I come across, I will not lose my heart and proceed firmly and strive my best to reach my goal’ — if one has such a firm resolution, he is sure to reap success in his endeavors.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Part 2)
8. Better sleep!
Once a father took his young son to a local Shiva Temple for spending the night there on Maha Shivaratri. Lots of people had gathered there and were engaged in archana, japa and so on. But there were also many people who were dozing off due to tiredness and aging.
Noticing this, the son commented, “What is the point if they come to temple on Maha Shivaratri and sleep like this instead of keeping awake the whole night? What sort of bhakti is this?”
The father said curtly, “It is better to doze off like this than to find fault with others and criticize them.”
[Amma: “Because of our own weaknesses and lack of shraddha, we tend to find fault with others. My children should not forget this reality. It also shows how our mind is always roaming out instead of turning inward. Those who find fault with others can never see their own weaknesses nor make efforts to correct them.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Part 2)
9. Who is in control?
Once, in a fair, a horseman was offering horse rides for little children as entertainment and making a living out of it.
A small boy came there to watch it. He was very much attracted to seeing children joyfully riding at the horseback with the horseman sitting with them and holding them safely.
The poor boy had no money to pay to the horseman and hence he had no means to have his share of fun. While he was standing there and watching it, the horseman tied the horse to a post and left the place for a while to have his lunch.
The curious boy wanted to make use of this opportunity to try and have a free ride on the horse on his own. He went to the post, untied the horse and managed to climb over the horseback.
The horse did not quite like it. It started jumping around and ran here and there, trying to unsettle the boy and throw him to the ground. The boy panicked but somehow managed to grip the horse’s neck and did not fall down. The horse kept running. Watching this boy riding the horse, one of his friends shouted: “Hey! How did you manage to control the horse and make it run?”
The boy shouted back: “I simply don’t know. You better ask the horse!”
[Amma: “This is precisely our state of affairs. The horse in this story is our mind. Instead of keeping our mind in our control, we are actually in the control of our mind!”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Part 2)
10. Hasty judgment
Once a mother came back from the office. She noticed her seven-year-old daughter standing with one apple each in her hands. The mother affectionately asked her, “Will you give me one, my baby?”
The daughter looked at her mother’s face for a while; then she looked at both the apples in her hand. Then she bit the apple on her right hand; hastily she bit the other apple in her left hand.
The mother was very disappointed. She felt her daughter was too selfish and had no mindset to share her apple even with her mother. She found it difficult to control the expression of disappointment on her face.
The next moment, the girl extended her right hand and offered the apple to her mother saying, “Ma, this one is sweeter than the other; take this!”
Even for a mother, the discernment to grasp her daughter’s guileless love was missing, though for a brief time.
[Amma: “From this story, we can understand to what extent we can err in judging others. However much we have knowledge and experience, we must be very careful in not hastily judging others or finding fault with others.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Part 2)
11. Innate Nature
Once there lived a blacksmith in a village in the Himalayas. He used to make use of large stone in adjacent his shop to bend steel rods. One morning when he went near it, he noticed a snake lying curled up there. The next day too he noticed it still lying there. Since it was extremely cold, the snake was lying, almost frozen there. The blacksmith took pity on the snake and took it inside his shop. He offered milk to it for drinking. Leaving it to lie there, he started the day’s work. He ignited his furnace and started to heat a steel rod there. Gradually, his shop became warm.
While he was working on the rod, the tip of it accidentally touched on the snake. Suddenly the snake lifted up its hood and tried to bite the blacksmith.
All along, as the snake was lying outside in the cold, it was not showing any aggressiveness that made the blacksmith wrongly assume that the snake was nonviolent and would not harm anyone. But once the snake got warmth from the heat of the furnace inside the shop, its innate nature got manifested.
[Amma: “In a similar way, when we engage ourselves in intense spiritual practices, we somehow succeed in making our mind calm and composed. But when we engage ourselves back in regular activities, our inborn vasanas (like anger, greed, etc) come out again. Sadakas must be careful enough in not getting exasperated with this nature of human mind, but develop the necessary strength to fight out the vasanas and succeed.”]
(Source: Oliyai Nokki – Tamil – Vol 2)
12. Sold dead cheap?
[Amma: “Be in a family or in a society, people always seem to have a business mindset. Even our relationship with God too has turned to be so. When it comes to God or Guru, what is most essential is total surrender. But we have become calculative with them too; how to profit out of them seems to be thinking”.]
Once a very rich man was traveling on a ship. Suddenly the weather turned hostile. A powerful thunderstorm struck the ship. The Captain of the ship announced that the ship cannot be saved from sinking and asked all the people in the ship have to do whatever they could to save themselves if possible. Everyone on the ship panicked. The rich man too started praying to God frantically like everyone else on the ship. He prayed to God: “Oh my lord. please save me from this calamity. I promise you that I will sell my 5-star hotel and donate 75% of the amount if you save me”.
Very miraculously, the storm subsided quickly and the ship was saved. All the travelers reached the shore safely. However, the rich man was in mental turmoil now. “Oh, if I sell my 5-star hotel, I will easily get a crore of Rupees and it is such a huge amount! Should I really donate 75 lakhs of rupees to God? Why would He need such a large sum of money from me? What can I do now?” He thought deeply about it and finally got an idea.
He released an advertisement in the newspaper: “5-star hotel on sale. Expected price: one rupee”.
Hordes of people came running to meet him and buy the property. They could not really understand how and why anyone would sell the hotel for one rupee! He told them: “I promise that the hotel is indeed available for sale for one rupee, but to clinch the deal, you must buy my pet dog for 1 crore of rupees”.
He finally sold the star hotel as per his terms and donated seventy-five paise to God!
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
13. Habits die hard
A person served in the military for 30 years. He got retirement, returned to his native village and settled there. One day, he went to the shandy. He bought a large potful of milk. Carrying it on his head and holding the pot with both of his hands, he was returning home.
On his way, a few local boys, who knew that he was an ex-military man, shouted mischievously “Attention!”
Having heard this command umpteen times and getting so much used to obeying it as a military person for the past 30 years, the man instantly stopped walking, joined both his legs together, brought both his hands down to touch his thighs and stood straight. The milk pot held on his head safely by his hands so far toppled and fell onto the ground. The pot broke into pieces and all the milk was lost.
The boys laughed aloud and ran from the place.
[Amma: “From this story, we can understand that even seemingly insignificant acts, if done mechanically out of habituation, can bring us misery. It that is the reality, what to speak of evil habits that we acquire? If we are caught into evil habits, no need to mention the amount of misery they are sure to bring in our lives later.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
14. Overcoming Laziness
Once the owner of a Circus company was in possession of two well-trained falcons. The falcons fly in pair and do several acrobatic movements in the air to entertain the audience.
Once the Circus owner went to meet the king of his country. He took his two falcons with him to give them as his present to the king. He arranged a demonstration of the falcons’ flying skills in front of the king and the king was very impressed. He gladly accepted the pair as a present. He immediately arranged a caretaker for the falcons; the caretaker arranged an exclusive place for the falcons to stay. A wooden rod was placed at a high level from the ground for the falcons to rest. He fed them regularly and took good care of them.
Soon, one of the falcons got comfortable in the new surrounding and consequently became very lazy too. When, one day, the king wanted to witness their flying show, only one of the falcons flew in the air; the other one stayed put and continued to doze off sitting in the rod. The king thought that the falcon might be sick. He called expert veterinarian doctors to attend to it. But they could not make the falcon fly. The huge gathering of people got disappointed.
At that time, one old farmer came close to the king and said, “Your excellency, shall I make a try, to make the falcon fly?”
The king was not very hopeful, yet he allowed the farmer to try and he left the place to return to his royal bedroom to rest. But soon, he heard a huge cheering noise from the gathering. He looked out from the window and noticed that both the falcons were now flying. The second one was in fact flying higher than the first one and they were demonstrating wonderful flying patterns and acrobatics!
The king was very surprised and happy. Once the show was over, he called the old farmer to reward him for his service. He asked, “What treatment did you do to make the falcon fly?”
“I did nothing, Maharaj,” he said. He continued: “I simply went to the place where the falcon was resting and swiftly cut the rod in which it was sitting. The falcon started falling towards the ground; it immediately awoke from its slumber and started flying!”
[Amma: “The nature of the human mind is to look for the comfort zone and settle in it in order to avoid exertion. That’s how laziness settles in. At times, forceful disassociation from the comfort zone would be needed to overcome laziness and make the mind active again.”]
(From Amma’s Satsang on 12/12/2020)
15. The damage envy could do
Mohan and Krishnan were close friends.
Krishnan acquired a new friend and he started spending quite some good time with the new person. Mohan felt very possessive about his friendship with Krishnan and hence he was jealous of the new friend. One day, he went to meet the new friend and said to him, “I know you feel very close to Krishnan; but please be careful about him. He has a strange disease. Never sleep with him in the same room. If he wakes at midnight, he will bite the ear of the person next to him till blood starts coming.”
The new friend was scared hearing this.
After a few days, Mohan went to Krishnan and said, “I heard something very fishy about your new friend. It is better to be careful about him. It looks he has strange disease by which, if he wakes up at midnight, he will immediately bite the ear of the person next to him.”
A few months passed. Krishnan and his new friend had some business in another town and they had to stay at night in a lodge together. Both of them remembered what Mohan had warned.
They could not sleep because each of them was scared about the other person getting up at midnight and biting the ear.
At midnight, Krishnan got up to go to the bathroom. His friend noticed it and he got scared. He did not want to allow Krishnan to do any harm to him. He decided to act proactively and catch hold of the friend and bite his ear first. So, he got up and pounced over Krishnan. Krishnan thought that the friend was coming to attack him and bite his ear.
He immediately caught hold of him and attempted to bite his ear first. Thus both of them started fighting with each other and banging their heads in order to bite the other person’s ear!
(From Amma’s satsang on : 18/12/21)
16. Signals
A man and went to attend a multi religious convention. Speakers and preachers from different religions spoke from the dais. As the man was sitting and listening to the lectures, a preacher came and sat adjacent to his chair and said to him, “By God’s grace you will walk today”.
The man was surprised to hear this. He said, “Well, I don’t have any problem with my legs”.
After sometime, yet another religious preacher came and touched his shoulders. He said smilingly, ” My dear son, by God’s grace, you will walk with your own legs today”.
The man got irritated and retorted, ” What’s the problem? There is nothing wrong with my legs!”
The man felt it would be better to move away from that place. He got up and walked across several rows and found a lonely seat. Not even 2 minutes passed and there came yet another preacher. He said, ” My dear son, by divine grace, you will go back to your home by walking today”.
That was the last straw. The man flared up and shouted, ” Have you people turned mad? Don’t you all have any other work? How many times should I repeat that I don’t have any problem with my legs?”
He had no more patience to continue in the meeting. He left the place in a huff and walked towards the parking lot, where he had kept his motorbike. Upon reaching the spot, he was in for a big shock. The motorbike was no longer there; It had been stolen.
He searched for his mobile phone in his pocket and then remembered that he had left it in the box of his motorbike. So, there was no hope of calling a taxi. His house was about 9 km from that place. Even to file a complaint in the police station about his missing motorbike, he had to to travel the same distance anyway.
Having no other option, he started walking towards his house.
[Amma: “Like this, we have been thinking all along that what we see with our eyes and grasp with our intellect alone are true. For the past several years, God and mother nature have been giving us several hints But we have been ignoring them bye imagining that our logical mind is greater.”]
(From Amma’s Birthday satsang 2022)
17. Dominating tendency
[Amma narrated the following real life anecdote which she had heard from a Brahmachari who was doing a research at USA]
The purpose of the research was to study how monkeys would behave if there night-life is made like daytime by electrical lighting. They arranged an electrical lamp inside the cages where the monkeys were kept.. The switch too was fixed inside, at a place accessible to the monkeys. By operating the switch repeatedly, the researchers somehow taught the monkeys how to switch on or switch off the lamp.
By switching on the light at night, monkeys started having fun and frolic right through the night, forgetting their sleep. Soon it became a daily affair. Some Monkeys would switch on the light and some would switch it off; the swich became a play-thing for them. Very soon, one monkey which was more heavily built than others, started establishing its superiority over the others, by claiming it’s right to exclusively operate the switch. It would hold onto the switch tightly and would not allow other monkeys to operate it. Several other monkeys objected to its high-handed behavior. Soon it became a matter of contention among the monkeys.
In order to establish that the ownership of the switch belonged to him, the stout monkey urinated on the switch! By this act, it received a mild electrical shock and the switch too became non-functional!
[Amma: “If we think deeply about this, we can grasp that There is not much difference between us and the monkeys. people always tend to grab on to things to have them under their control, and would not like to share them with others.”]
(From Amma’s Birthday satsang 2022)
18. Drunkard’s progress
Once a drunkard got into a taxi and told the driver to drop him at the railway station. The driver started the ignition of the car.
After about 10 seconds, the driver said to the drunkard, ” We have arrived at the railway station; Please get down.”
The drunkard gave a 100 rupee note to the driver and said, “Thank you! it’s really wonderful that you brought me to the railway station so fast — hardly within a few seconds. I really appreciate it. here, take another hundred for it. But mind you, you should not drive car so fast next time; it is dangerous, you know”
However the reality was that the taxi driver too was in an inebriated condition and he did not drive the car at all. The drunkard had no outward awareness to grasp that the car had not moved even by an inch from the starting place!
[Amma: “We too are more or less living in this world like this. We too only have semi consciousness ; Everyone wants to move ahead in life at breakneck speed; But hardly made any real progress. if at all we are moving, our movement is only towards destruction”.]
(From Amma’s Birthday satsang 2022)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Amma-feeding-child.jpg566850C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2021-10-18 15:39:002022-11-10 12:40:23Amma’s stories on Nature of the human mind – Part 2
Long ago, there lived a very rich landlord in a village. He was a miser and lead a life of utter selfishness with no compassion for the poor and the needy.
One day, he went to the village magistrate and made a complaint against another villager saying that he had stolen money from his almirah.
The person accused was extremely poor. When the magistrate summoned him and interrogated him, he openly admitted that he had indeed stolen money from the rich man’s almirah because of unbearable hunger in his family. At the end of inquiry the magistrate gave a ruling that the stealer and the rich man should undergo imprisonment for equal period.
The rich man could not digest such a ruling. He made sure that a complaint about this reached the king of the country. The king called the magistrate for an inquiry. The magistrate spoke to the king, openly expressing his views without any fear, “Your majesty, while I punished the poor man for the act of stealing, I punished the rich man for his act of amassing money far beyond his needs and never coming forward to help the poor and the needy with his money and properties. Even if he could not help the poor directly, he could have at least come forward to donate money to charitable organizations who work for the downtrodden and the needy. He never did that too. Even though God has given eyes and ears to him, he could never see the suffering of hungry people; he could not hear the lamenting of the poor in need of help. That too is a crime according to me and that’s why I gave him punishment.”
The magistrate paused for a while and then continued: “Now I think it is wrong on my part to have given equal punishment to both the persons. I should have indeed given an additional punishment for the rich man for another crime — the crime of abetting a poor person to resort to stealing. Had he donated some money for the fellow villager whose family had been driven to extreme poverty and hunger, the poor man would no need to steal from the rich man’s house. This rich man indeed is the cause for creating a thief. That’s why he should have been punished for it too”.
[Amma: “Accumulating more and more possessions is also adharma; it is a sin. That’s why we should always negate pomp and extravaganza. By saving money being spent on such things, we should divert it to help the poor and the needy.”]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
2. Compassionate request
Once a school girl took part in a prestigious competition and won the first place. The sponsors of the competition offered her a free trip to Visit USA as the reward.
At the award function, the anchor asked a question to the girl, “How happy are you feeling in winning the competition and getting the chance to visit to USA?”
The girl said, “I am indeed very happy to have won this competition; but I would be happier if I could get the award in cash equivalent to all the expenses of sponsoring my trip to USA”.
“Why are you desiring cash? Are you not interested in visiting USA?” asked the anchor.
The girl said, “It is not so. My mother is a nurse. Last week I accompanied my mother to the hospital where she is working. There I happened to meet a girl of my age, and as I interacted with her, we became friends. I came to know that she was undergoing treatment for cancer. It was shocking for me. My mother told me that her cancer was in advanced stage and if at all she should recover, she should undergo more advanced treatment in a bigger hospital. Unfortunately, her parents are poor and they could not afford any costlier treatment. She would not survive for long in this condition. I felt very painful; such an young girl, who would have lots of dreams about her future, who is not still aware of her precarious condition, who believes she would soon recover, will be dying shortly because there was no money with the parents to save her. Suppose this reward comes to me in cash, I want to give it to the girl’s parents so that they can use it for treating her. That would truly make my winning the competition worthy”.
Hearing her speech, the organizers immediately took a decision to give the reward to her in cash and they made an announcement about it immediately.
[Amma: “On this day of New year, let us all make a resolution to do at least one act that could bring happiness or comfort to others without any selfish motive. Even if we are not capable of doing big things, it does not matter. A word of compassion, a friendly smile, a friendly heart that is ready to hear the sorrows of others — even such little things are good enough.”]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
3. Compassion is more important than worship
Once a group of pilgrims were travelling to Rameshwaram after taking holy bath in the Ganga at Kashi. They were carrying Ganga water in small pots for the purpose of doing abhishekam to Lord Shiva’s linga at Rameshwaram as per the traditional practice.
Somewhere at the middle of their travel route, they had to cross a dry landscape. It was a hot day and all the travellers were suffering from thirst. But unfortunately, they could not locate any source of water in the stretch. Since all of them were very particular to carry the Ganga water for Rameshwaram, they did not want to quench their thirst with the Ganga water in their pots. They somehow managed to bear with their thirst and moved on.
On the way, a donkey was lying on the road, breathing heavily. It was obvious that the donkey was fatigued by the hot sun and it was extremely thirsty. One of the pilgrims felt pity on the donkey which was at the verge of death. He decided to feed the donkey with his pot of Ganga water. The donkey hastily drank all the water in his pot and felt rejuvenated. The man felt extremely happy that he could save the life of a donkey with the water he carried.
However, the other pilgrims did not approve his act of charity. They said that it was totally wrong to ‘waste’ a whole pot of Ganga water which was really meant for doing Abhishekam to Lord Shiva. They said he lost all the punya of undertaking the pilgrimage.
The man said, “I don’t care if I lose all the good fortune of completing Kashi Yatra; saving the life of a poor creature by feeding it with Ganga water is far more more important to me than doing abhishekam to God at Rameshwaram; I saw God in that poor creature. Seeing its pitiable condition, it was just impossible for me to walk ahead without offering help.”
[Amma: “Four things make an act of charity invaluable: 1) Sacrificing one’s own possessions and comforts for giving to charity (2) Donating selflessly without expecting anything in return or without the intent of getting name and fame (3) donating to someone more deserving than oneself and (4) Seeing God in the receiver, offering a donation with humility. We all must develop the above attitude and do good to others. If we do charity with this attitude, we will get satisfaction and prosperity in our lives”.]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
4. Indebtedness
Once a hunter shot an arrow tipped with poison on a deer. The arrow missed its target and hit the trunk of a large tree. Due to the effect of poison, the tree started withering. Soon, all the leafs in the tree dried up and the tree was dead.
There were plenty of birds, worms, insects, rats, and squirrels living in the tree all long. Once the tree dried up, almost all of the creatures left the tree in search of alternative places for their living. But one parrot that lived in the tree for long did not want to leave the tree, because of its indebtedness and emotional attachment to the tree that had supported it and nurtured it all along. Forgetting food and sleep, the parrot grieved for the death of the tree and continued to stay there. All the fellow birds advised the lone parrot that it was meaningless to keep attached to a dead and dry tree and urged it to move on along with them. But the parrot stoutly refused.
The news about the parrot spread across the three worlds and it reached Heaven too. Lord Indra was surprised to hear about it. He wanted to test the parrot.
Indra came to the tree in the form of an old brahmin and asked the parrot, “Why are you so foolishly clinging on to this tree which has dried up totally?”
The parrot said, “I know by virtue of my austerities that you are none other than Lord Indra. You see, I was born in this tree. I grew up in this tree and this is where I acquired all my skills and instincts. It was due to the protection given by this tree, I lived safely from the attack of predators. How can I discard this tree which has nurtured and protected me all along?”
Hearing this Lord Indra said, “I am extremely pleased to hear your words of compassion. I will offer you any boon you ask for”. The parrot immediately said, “Lord, I will be extremely happy if you could bring this tree back to life and restore its original status”. Lord Indra agreed and sprinkled nectar on the tree. Within moments, the tree started to grow fresh leaves and soon it attained its original condition bearing flowers and fruits. Seeing this all the birds and animals which had discarded the tree earlier returned to the tree joyfully.
[Amma: “If only all of us have the same attachment and indebtedness towards mother nature just like the parrot’s attachment to the tree in this story, preservation of Nature would become effortless. Let us develop such a mindset and pass it on to the coming generations.”]
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
5. Personal touch (1)
Once a new Managing Director joined his office. He was welcomed by all the managers. The personnel Manager said, “Sir, we have arranged your room ready at the 20th floor. We have one exclusive elevator for your use, which will take you straight to your floor without stopping at intermediate floors”.
The MD took charge. After a few days, he called up the personnel manager and said, “Please shift my office from 20th floor to the ground floor”.
The personnel manager humbly asked the MD, “May I know the reason Sir? Are you not feeling comfortable there? Have we missed giving any facilities there?”
The MD said, “No. The office and facilities are good. No complaints. All my employees are spread across the various floors down below in this building. I am not able to effectively interact with them”.
“Why Sir? If you call any of them to your room, they will always be glad to come and meet you there!”
The MD said, “No. I don’t want to sit on a high pedestal and demand their attention. I want to interact with them all in a more personal way. I want to know about them, their hardships, their family problems and so on more freely. If I sit in the ground floor, all the people will have to pass through the ground floor only when they come to the office or leave the office and that way, I will have a better access towards them through casual meetings too.”
[Amma: “In a similar way, Avatara Purushas come to the earth for the sake of the common people. They come down to the level of the common man and teach them in a way they can understand,”]
(Amma’s Onam Satsang 31/8/2020)
6. Personal touch (2)
Once in an office, a departmental examination was conducted to select staff who are to be promoted to managerial posts in the organization.
While answering the question paper, a very odd question caught everybody’s attention:
What is the name of your Manager?
What is the name of the office assistant who does errands in the office?
What is the name of the tea boy?
What is the name of the sweeper in the office?
Practically all the people who wrote the exam wrote the Managers’ name correctly. Some people did not know the name of the office assistant. More people did not know the name of the tea boy. Most people did not know the name of the sweeper.
After the exam was over, they went and met the chief of HR department, who was in charge of setting up the question paper. “We wonder what is the need for that particular question. It is in no way connected with our technical skills, communication skills or knowledge of office matters and procedures which are essential for management.” they argued.
The HR manager said, “In fact it is one of the most important questions that carries lots of weightage. You see, when you people become managers, you are not just going to manage your work and responsibilities, but manage all the people who work under you. You have to be people-oriented and how you interact with your staff at human level is of paramount importance in your success as a manager.”
Once there lived a farmer who was extremely busy most of the times. On account of it, he used to forget many things that he wanted to do in a day. He decided to have some way to remind him of things to do.
Before going to bed one night, he took a piece of paper and a set of color sketch pens. He decided to draw lines in different colors to remind him of things to do on the next day. He thought well and drew seven lines in seven colors, each line representing one thing he must do – like a rainbow.
He got up early in the morning; remembering something he missed out, he drew an eighth line in the paper. Thus he had 8 different tasks to accomplish that day.
The first line was to remind him that he should brush his teeth, take bath, have his breakfast, lunch etc at appropriate times.
The second color line was to remind him to take his dog for a walk in the morning. He did it.
The third color line was to remind him that he should apply fertilizer to his crop and also water them. He accomplished it.
The fourth line was to remind him to go to marketplace and buy things for his domestic needs. He finished it.
The fifth line was to remind him to give fodder and water to his cattle. He did it.
The sixth one was to take his car to the garage for a repair. He finished it.
The seventh one was to make the payment for the electricity bill. He finished it too.
Only the eighth one was pending. He tried to remember what task it was but he could not remember it. It was night by now. He thought deeply again and again to remember what he wanted to accomplish by that eight line, but his memory failed him completely. He knew it was a very important one and that was why he added it as the last one early in the morning. He became tensed. He could not sleep. He got up from bed and walked here and there trying to bring back his memory but he could not. He lost his sleep. At last, he remembered almost by dawn the next morning.
The eighth reminder was that he should go to bed early and sleep well, which was his doctor’s specific advice to him!
[Amma: “We too forget our goal of life like this. The very purpose of human life is to attain God. It is the only changeless purpose. But we all forget this and go behind changing things. We want to stop certain changes from happening. Because of this tendency, we are constantly under tension. On the contrary, if we set our goal on the changeless — the God, then no change ever affect us.”]
(From Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Part 2)
2. Perseverance
[Amma:“Children, many people come to Amma and complain that they could not get mental concentration in doing meditation or prayer. It is indeed true that it is not easy to get mental concentration. One requires constant effort and practice to attain it. If one does not get single pointedness despite repeated efforts, one should not simply abandon practicing meditation. If the goal is firm and enthusiasm is kept alive, one is bound to get mental concentration”.]
Once in a village there lived a boy who neither attended school nor learned any skill to earn a livelihood. His aged father, who was a coconut tree climber, took care of his son while he was alive. One day, he passed away and the boy had to suffer in poverty with no one to take care. Villagers, assuming that the boy too would be skilled in coconut tree climbing, sought his help to pluck coconuts in their gardens. When they came to know the truth, they chided him as useless.
The boy had no other wherewithal to survive as he did not possess any other skill. So, he took a decision that he would start learning coconut tree climbing on his own effort. He knew that it was a very risky job; if he happened to fall, he would end up with fractures and perhaps even permanently handicapped making any other means of survival too difficult.
Therefore, with lots of of caution he started practicing climbing. He will embrace the coconut tree trunk tightly and climb carefully step by step. After climbing a few feet, he would jump down and climb again. He gradually increased the height of climbing and he practiced whole heartedly again and again. He found his hands and legs strengthening day by day and his self confidence to climb up to larger heights too improved gradually.
This way, by repeated practice and perseverance, he became adept in coconut tree climbing and do it very fast too. His livelihood thus got ensured.
(Source: Amritam gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
3. The smart smuggler
Once a man was crossing the border of one state to enter into the next state in his motorbike, carrying a sack full of sand at the rear . He was held up at check post for a thorough check.
The officer at the check post interrogated him.
“What does this sack contain?”
“Just sand Sir, nothing else” said the man.
“Oh, come on; no drug, no gold inside?”
“Nothing of that sort, Sir. If you want, you can check it.”
The officer was not convinced. He opened the sack checked it thoroughly. He could not find anything suspicious. He allowed the man to drive through the check post.
This started happening regularly every week. The officer will check his sand bag as well as his motorbike thoroughly each time but nothing could be found.
After a couple of months the man was never seen crossing the checkpost.
The officer got retired. One day, he was eating in a restaurant. He happened to notice the man there. The officer went near him and said, “I know you were doing something fishy; I still suspect that you were smuggling something that I could not figure out. In fact I had spent several sleepless nights to figure out what you were smuggling in those sand bags. I am retired now and you can afford to tell me the truth now. I won’t reveal to anybody.”
The man smiled and said, “I never smuggled anything through the sand bag. I was smuggling stolen motorbikes”.
[Amma: “In this story, the officer put his entire focus on the sandbag and he missed out the motorbike. Likewise, we are always looking at the external world and fail to ‘study’ our own Self or know our Self.”]
(From Oliyai Nokki – Tamil – Vol 3)
4. Concentration
Once there was an excellent archer who participated in many competitions and won prizes. He participated in an international competition too and won the award as the topmost archer of the world.
When one of his friends came to know of this, he said, “I know a Guru who is a great exponent in archery. Only if you win over him, I can really consider as the best archer of the world”.
The archer took the challenge. His friend took him along to meet the Guru. Coming to know of his success at the global level competition, the guru congratulated him wholeheartedly.
The friend broached the subject of their visit to the guru. The guru said, “Let us first go for a walk for a while. You may please bring your bow and arrow along.
They walked together and climbed over a small hillock. Adjacent to it, there was another hillock and both were connected by a rope bridge. The guru proceed to walk along the bridge and the two men followed him. When they reached the middle of the bridge, the guru pointed out a tree on the opposite hillock and said to the archer, “Do you see a fruit hanging in that tree? Will you use your bow and hit that fruit with an arrow?”
The archer agreed. As he was taking aim at the fruit, strong wind started blowing and the rope bridge started swaying. The archer had to catch the side ropes to steady himself. The rope bridge continued to sway and however much he tried, it was difficult for him to balance himself and aim at the fruit. When he shot the arrow, it missed the target totally.
Now the guru borrowed his bow and arrow. While the bridge continued to sway wildly in the wind, the guru was totally unperturbed. He aimed at the fruit and shot the arrow. The arrow hit the fruit.
[Amma: “In this story, the guru had the ‘remote control” of his mind in his hand. He had no fear of failure nor any disturbance in concentration due to external factors. Is it possible for everyone to dance peacefully on a shaking stage? Leading a life without mental peace is also similar. The one which is ever steady and firm is God. If we hold God as our base, then it would be like dancing on a firm dais. “]
(From Oliyai Nokki – Tamil – Vol 3)
5. The source of the problem
Once in a famous hospital, they encountered a very peculiar problem of great concern to the hospital authorities.
In the ICU of the hospital, patients laid in a particular bed died because of mysterious reasons regularly every Sunday at around 11 AM. Doctors were very surprised, confused and also felt alarmed at this happening. Some of them even started wondering whether there was some mystical reason which was beyond the reach of medical science.
A committee consisting of scientists, doctors, nurses and admin staff was formed to investigate. On the next Sunday, well before 11 AM, this group assembled at the corridor of the ICU. The tension amid the members was visible. Some of them were holding japamala and repeating mantras. Some were praying. They kept a watchful eye on everything happening in and around the ICU.
Sharp at 11 AM, one Cleaning Staff who worked only on Sundays promptly came to the ICU. He went near the specific bed. There was a switch board and plug point on the wall adjacent to the patient. The ‘Life Support Machine’ of the patient was indeed connected to the plug point. The cleaning staff removed the plug, inserted the plug of the Vacuum Cleaner he had brought and started vacuum- cleaning the floor.
Now all those who were watching it knew the mysterious cause of the Sunday deaths!
[Amma: “Any work done with ashradda (lack of awareness) is adharma (unrighteous). It brings sorrow to us as well as to others.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
6. Is God at fault (1) ?
Once a man went to a Watch shop in his bicycle to buy a new watch. As he was about to enter the shop, he saw an old friend there. They were too happy to meet each other after a long time. They chitchatted for a while. The friend came with him into the shop and they chose a suitable watch for him.
They came out joyfully and took a long walk together. They had a cup of tea and then parted ways. The man walked back to his home.
Only after reaching home, he remembered that he had parked his bicycle outside the watch shop. He immediately rushed to the shop. Fortunately, his bicycle was very much standing there. With a great relief, he rode in his bicycle and on his way, he saw a temple. He felt he should thank God for getting back his bicycle. He parked his bicycle outside the temple and went in to do his prayers.
As he came out of the temple, his cycle was missing.
He frantically searched here and there but no use. It was obvious that someone had stolen it.
He felt very dejected and angry. He got angry on God, who had not protected his bicycle particularly when his very purpose of visiting the temple was for thanking God for having saved his bicycle earlier!
Hearing his loud lamenting, an old man who was passing by, asked him what happened. The man narrated his woeful story and said, “I am not going to believe in God anymore. He has no concern for a devotee like me when I came to him in fact for thanksgiving”.
The old man asked, “Did you lock your bicycle before going into the temple?”
The man thought for a while and said, “I am afraid I did not”.
“Did you lock your cycle when you had parked outside the watch shop?”
“Yes; I did”.
“Then why blame God for your lack of attentiveness?” said the old man and moved away.
[Amma: “This the problem with us. We do not exercise shraddha in our actions, and then put the blame on God for the happenings.”]
(From Amma’s New Year Satsang 2021)
7. Just one tick at a time!
A person was in possession of an extremely costly watch. One day it stopped working. The man took the watch to a watch mechanic and requested him to set it right.
The mechanic tried all his best to repair the watch, but the watch just did not run.
Exasperated, he said loudly, “Oh! My dear watch! What is your problem? Why are you not running?”
Surprisingly, the watch started speaking!
It said, “Actually, I tick 60 times in a minute; then in every hour, I tick 60 times 60. Then, in a day, I tick 24x60x60 times. If I keep running day after day like this without any rest, what will happen to me? I really got worried. I thought it is too much of a labor for nothing and I will burn myself out soon if I work so hard like this. So, I stopped working”.
The watch mechanic was a very smart person.
He said, “Please don’t worry too much about your future. Be in the present; you just tick once. Take the first step. Then just repeat it; then repeat it; then repeat once again. It is so simple; There is nothing complicated or worrisome about it. Just try once!”
The watch believed his words. It ticked once; then repeated; then kept doing it; it was freed from its worries.
[Amma: “Children, the past is like a canceled cheque. The future is unknown. What we have in our control is the present moment. Make the best use of it. Live in the present. The future will take care of itself.“]
8. The difference
Once a lion cub was watching from a distance the mother deer of a fawn teaching how to run, how to be watchful of danger and how to quickly change direction while running an so on.
The lion cub asked his mother lion, “Why don’t you teach me how to run like the deer mother deer teaching her fawn?”
The lioness said, “Not necessary. It will come to you naturally. You belong to the royal class”.
Over a period of time, the lion cub grew up, big enough to try hunting on his own effort. On a hungry noon, the lion son noticed the same deer, now grown bigger and independent, grazing at a distance..
In order to hunt her down for his food, the lion started chasing the deer. The lion chased fast and the deer too ran extremely fast. After running and chasing like this for a while, the distance between the lion and the deer got wider and wider; the deer escaped to safety and lion had to return dejected.
The lion asked asked a wise bird sitting on a tree, “How come, despite my powerful build, I could not catch the deer?”
The wise bird said, “You have the royal blood in you and you have taken your power for granted. You have not practiced adequately to run and catch the prey. You have to practice more and more to succeed. Secondly, while you were running to catch the prey for your meal, the deer was running to save her life! There is a big difference between the two. The desperation with which one runs to save one’s life will give the extra energy to run and survive”.
10. The right awareness
Once a group of ways were frolicking at the sea. The younger waves were chasing the elder waves as they ran joyfully towards the shore. As the wind blow, one wave raised his head up and saw what was happening right in front of her and she was in for a big shock. Her elder sister wave who was running ahead of her was now crashing against the shore and got shattered to pieces.
“O my God! Is this going to be my fate too? Will I too get broken into pieces and die upon crashing on the land?” she lamented loudly.
A younger wave following her laughed and said, “Why do you lament like this, instead of enjoying our joyful play?”
“Don’t you understand, we waves are all going to get destroyed into pieces any moment from now!”
“Sorry, my sister, your understanding is wrong. You are not a wave, nor me. We are indeed the sea. We have just taken the form of a wave for the fun of frolicking around! We never get destroyed when we crash as waves on the shore. We go there to kiss the shore, and merge back into the sea; we are never dead! With the help of the wind, we will again take the shape of waves and run towards the shore again to enjoy the experience, again and again!’
[Amma: “Most of us are like this little wave that failed to understand the all-pervasiveness of the water and recognize that she herself was the vast and infinite ocean. Each of us are part and parcel of the infinite consciousness, which is beyond birth and death. What is the point of life, if we don’t realize this truth?”]
(Amma’s Vishu message 15/4/2022)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Amma-with-children.jpg375546C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2021-01-08 15:14:242022-11-09 14:51:15Amma’s stories on shraddha — Alertness and Awareness
There is no dearth of fun and frolic in the company of a Mahatma like Amma. Amma narrates several humorous and funny stories that carry spiritual wisdom. Here are more such little stories:
Once a newly married couple came to live in a housing complex. The wife woke up in the morning was looking through the glass window of her apartment at the lawn in the opposite apartment. Several washed clothes were hanging there for drying. She said to her husband, “Oh! The washed clothes are still dirty. It looks like the woman there does not know how to wash clothes clean!”
The husband did not make any comment.
Then it became almost regular for the wife to make the same comment every morning. “I wish someone teaches her how to wash clothes properly” she would add. Her husband did not open his mouth.
A few weeks went by. One day the wife spoke to her husband with a voice full of surprise. “Hey! It looks our neighbor has, at last, learned how to wash clothes clean! Today, all the dresses hanging there are clean and bright! I wonder who taught her the right way!’
The husband said in a cool voice: “This morning I got up early and washed all the glass panes of our windows clean!”
[Amma: “This is what is happening in our lives too. If we have to see goodness in others, our hearts must become pure first. Our ego, pride, envy, crookedness, hatred, etc. cause our vision to be tainted. Because of it, we are not able to accept and digest others’ actions and behavior and behave friendly with them.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
2. Escape from death?
Once there lived a sculptor who was very much afraid of death. How to escape death? This question was always nagging his mind. He used to think of so many ways and finally felt there was one good idea which he could try.
He made 12 statues looking exactly like him in all respects. They were so lifelike. His idea was that when the messenger of death comes in search of him, he could pose like one among the statues and the messenger would get confused and perhaps leave empty-handed!
The time of his death indeed arrived. The sculptor saw the arrival of the messenger of death. He immediately joined the group of 12 statues and stood there holding his breath, avoiding all movements. The messenger of death too got confused to see 13 statues looking exactly alike!
After thinking for a while, he said aloud, “All these statues are really well crafted and look alike. The sculptor is indeed extremely talented. But unfortunately he has made one fault in all of them”.
The ego of the sculptor got offended on hearing this. He forgot his precarious state and asked loudly, “What fault? what fault? How dare you find fault in my work? Tell me where is the fault”.
“Here it is!” so saying the messenger caught hold of the sculptor and dragged him along to the nether world!
[Amma: “When the ego rises saying “I am the doer”, then all woes come. The idea that ‘I am the doer’ is the one that causes bondage.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
3. Greedy Cheater?
There was a bakery in a village. The bakery owner used buy butter regularly from a farmer who owned cows. The farmer was a guileless, good person.
The baker was getting disturbed about a thing. He was suspecting that the farmer was not really giving the right weight of butter that he regularly ordered on a daily basis. Is the farmer cheating him by giving less?
He started measuring the weight of the butter with the weighing stone that he possessed. It was amply clear that the butter was short in weight. He got convinced that he had been getting cheated; he made a complaint to the village headman about it.
The village chief called the farmer for an inquiry. He explained the complaint and said to the farmer, “You go and bring your weighing stone immediately. We would like to check it for correctness”.
The farmer fumbled for a while and then said, “Sorry sir, I really don’t have any weighing stone, but I assure you I am not a cheat”.
“How do you say so? How do you weigh and supply the butter without a weighing stone?”
The farmer said, “Sir, I regularly buy bread from the same bakery. I use that bread as the measuring weight to measure the weight of the butter I supply. So, I am not faulty; if the butter is underweight, then it means the bread I have been buying is underweight! ”
[Amma: “Don’t wait for others to reform themselves before we change. We should reform ourselves first.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
4. Lucky day?
Once a man got up early in the morning. He felt very refreshed after a good night’s sleep and his mood was upbeat. He had positive thoughts brimming inside him that morning.
As looked at the clock, he noticed that it was showing the time as 9. The clock had stopped working the previous night. The man came to the balcony. It was refreshingly chill. He checked the temperature and it showed 9 degrees Centigrade.
After brushing, he picked up the newspaper. It showed the date was 9.
“Curious!” he thought to himself.
After reading his newspaper, he went to the kitchen to fix his breakfast. Opening the breadbin, he found exactly nine slices left. After breakfast, the local temple committee members came to meet him, to seek donation from him. Interestingly, there were exactly nine men in the group.
His mind started working at a furious pace. “Something is imminent! I am soon going to be very lucky in something!” He was so excited that he could neither sit nor stand. He picked up the newspaper again, and his eyes fell on the horse-racing page. “What a wonder!” he exclaimed. “The name of the 9th horse in the 9th race today is ‘Niner’. This is precisely the pointer. My success is guaranteed.”
The man didn’t hesitate. He rushed to the bank, withdrew all the savings he had there, and went to the racecourse with that money. He betted the entire amount on horse ‘Niner’. The race began. The man sat daydreaming, counting his winnings. At last, the results were announced. The horse “Niner,” the ninth horse, in the 9th race, had cleared the finishing line—in ninth place!
[ Amma: “The decisions of the Supreme come to us as hints from Nature. We should have proper awareness of dharma and justice to see them and understand them properly. Otherwise, our fate may be similar to that of the man in the story.”]
(From Amma’s New year satsang 2021)
5. Outside or inside – Be careful!
This is a story related to the Lockdown period during the Corona Virus threat.
The husband was confined to the house; his wife was serving him food.
The husband said, “Is this how you used to cook in the past? Earlier, your preparations would taste nice and contain nice flavor; my tongue used to water as the smell of your cooking comes through the air from the kitchen; nowadays, your cooking is tasteless and flavorless. Why is it getting worse day by day?”
The wife did not utter a word. She continued to serve food. Day after day, this complaint from the husband became a routine.
Suddenly on one such day, an Ambulance came to his house. A couple of policemen too arrived at the gate. They called the man out. As the husband came out of the house, few persons wearing full protective gear caught hold of him and dragged him into the Ambulance. Within no time they drove the Ambulance to a Corona Special ward in the local hospital.
“What happened? Why are you doing this to me?” shouted the husband.
The Ambulance staff said, “We received a phone call from your wife saying that she suspects symptoms of Corona infection in you as you complained to her that you have no sense of smell or taste of late. That’s why we have brought you here for treatment.”
[ Amma: “Nowadays such things happen in a husband and wife relationship! If people confine themselves to their houses fearing external threats, they end up facing internal threats like this!”]
6. The artistic tailor!
A man went to a leading tailor who was very famous for creating new trends in the market. He gave the cloth piece to the tailor; the tailor took all the measurements and informed the man to come after a week for collecting the shirt.
A week passed and the man went to the tailor. The shirt was ready. After wearing the shirt, the man found that the left arm was longer and the right arm was much shorter. When the man complained about it, the tailor responded saying “This is the new fashion. You are unfortunately unaware of the new trends, my dear man. All you have to do is lift up your right shoulder and match the length; that’s all ”. The man agreed and wore the shirt.
Then he found one strange thing! There was a huge ball of cloth on the back of the shirt below the neck. He thought that the tailor by mistake has stitched it along with the shirt. He again enquired tailor about it. The tailor replied impatiently, “ I already told you that I am a creative artist and this is my new creation. It’s a masterpiece. You just have to bend a little and walk, my dear!”
The man was elated. He thought that it was indeed his fortune that he was able to wear such a fine dress created by an artist. He put on the shirt and walked in style with a hunched back and a raised hand. He looked around to see if anyone was noticing him and his new style. Yes, in fact, a passer-by did notice it immediately and remarked “I know who has stitched this shirt for you. Only an expert like him could have done such a perfect work!”
The man was even more happy when he heard the compliments. Wow, he did not know that the tailor was so famous. He asked, “Sir, how do you know that this was done by that expert?”
The passerby said, “It is so obvious, we have only one tailor in this town who is a specialist in stitching clothes for physically handicapped people!”
[ Amma: “In this story,the man got carried away by the fame and the claims of the artistically inclined tailor, and gave more importance to the outfit than his own body. Because of it, he became a loser. In the same way, we give too much importance to the whims of our mind and forget our real Self. That’s how our downfall happens. We tend to obey what the mind says. Mind is like an expert salesman. Salesmen tend to lure us with their loud sales pitches, and we buckle. The mind will say, “yes, yes, let’s buy”. This is the nature of the mind. That’s how we become slaves to our minds. The mind should be turned inward. The guru is one who shows us the substratum of the mind, which is Atman.”]
(From Amma’s Gurupurnima Satsang dt 23/7/2021)
7. Blackmail!
Once a father and his young boy were returning to Calcutta after visiting Kerala for a death ceremony. The father had to join his office and the son had to attend school. The duration of train journey was almost two days.
When the train stopped at a station, a vendor came into their compartment, selling chocolates. “Dad, I want chocolates” said the boy. The father said, “This morning, you stuffed yourself with so many things during the breakfast and you vomited subsequently. Your stomach is upset. It is not good to eat chocolates now. I will get you after we reach home”.
But the boy was adamant. He rolled his eyes and said to his father sternly, “I want chocolates right now. If you don’t get me, I will tell the truth to everybody here”. Without any further word, the father bought the chocolates and gave it to his son.
When the train stopped at the next station, a vendor of Coca-Cola entered the compartment and started selling it. “Dad, I want the cola!” said the boy. The father said, “You see, after eating the chocolate, you have a mild fever now. You are not alright since this morning. I won’t buy you a cola”. The boy got agitated and started demanding it again and again. As the father refused to yield, the boy said, “Ok! Then I will tell the truth to everybody”. The father immediately bought the Coca-Cola for his son.
When the next stop came, an Ice cream vendor came in. The boy wanted it too and as usual, the father refused, saying, “You have got fever and you have started getting loose motion too. I will not buy Ice cream for you”. The boy again threatened his father that he would reveal the truth to everybody.
A person sitting in the next seat was all along watching all the drama. With much curiosity, he asked the boy’s father, “Why are you permitting your boy’s tantrum so much? Why is he threatening you that he will reveal the truth? What is the matter?”
The boy’s father said, “Well; there is no point in hiding the truth further. If I keep on yielding to his blackmail, my boy will get totally sick and how can I find a doctor or medicines during the journey, if he becomes too sick? Let me reveal the truth myself. I have not bought any ticket for him for the journey. I had told him not to reveal it to anybody”.
[Amma: “This will the problem if elders don’t have values. How can they set an example to their children and also discipline them if they themselves have no principles and values? How will the children respect and obey the parents?“]
(Amma’s Vishu Satsang 15/4/2022)
8. No use, Dad!
[Amma: “All parents want their children to grow up to become good humanbeings. But most often, children do not live up to their parents’ expectations. What is important is that the parents themselves have to become role models.“]
Once a father said to his son, “Dear boy, go to the neighbouring ashram every evening, and listen to the satsaṅg lectures given by the sanyasis there. They will prove to be very valuable to you in your life”.
The son asked, “Father, did you listen to such satsaṅgs when you were my age?”
“Yes, of course!” replied the father.
“Then it is of no use, Dad,” said the boy. “It is obvious that it certainly didn’t help you, Nor will it help me!”
9. Blessed life!
Once a cat died and reached heaven. God asked him, “What do you need in heaven?”
The cat said, “I lead a comfortable and contented life in a farmer’s barn and died a natural death. I have no desires.” The God felt happy. He gave him a soft mattress to relax and allowed him to lie in a corner of the heaven.
Next a large batch of rats came to the heaven. Hundreds of such rats had been crushed under a boulder in a landslide and that was how they came to heaven after death. God asked them, “What do you need in heaven?”
The rats said, “We rats are always used to run and roam around. We were always chased by cats; Snakes chased and ate us; so were owls. Humans hated us as we ate their farm produce, and they killed us using various means. We were always on the run to save our lives and naturally we are so tired of running. So, what we pray to you is to provide us with roller skates to wear, so that we can run around as we please without straining our legs”.
God conceded to their prayer and all the rats got roller skates. The rats felt extremely happy. They could now roam around the heaven at breakneck speeds without physically straining themselves and they thoroughly enjoyed it.
After a few months, the God came to see them all. He was surprised to see that the number of rats have diminished. He asked them, “Why are many of you rats missing? Where are they?”
The rats said, “Lord, we really don’t know. We all keep frolicking with our roller skates and we find that some of our brethren somehow disappear now and then and they never return”.
The God walked further and met the cat too. “How are you? Are you comfortable? You seem to have put on weight?”
The cat said, “I am perfectly fine God! You are so generous and considerate towards me; Thank you for regularly sending some rats that come around me in roller skates; whenever I feel hungry, I just catch one of them and eat. I don’t even need to move out for my food; Thanks a lot!”
[Amma: “All the people are always on the look out for external happiness, but this so-called “happiness” bring only misery and even carry us to the mouth of death. With our actions today, we are running to catch Death even before Death comes to catch us. Such is our rat race these days“.]
(From Amma’s Vishu Satsang 2022)
10. Why hurry?
Once the passenger, having some urgent business, went to a ferry station. he noticed your ferry carrying passengers was moving close to the dock. She rushed towards it, and made jump into it but unfortunately he fell into the water. the boat man somehow rescued the man and pulled him into the boat. why were you in such hurry to get into this boat?”
the passenger replied, ” I have a very urgent business and I didn’t have the time to wait for the next boat”.
Oh! is that so? Actually this boat is just coming into the dock; not leaving from it! “
[Amma: “Like the passenger in this story most of us are in a hurry to catch up to death even before death actually is coming looking for us!”]
(From Amma’s Vishu Satsang 2022)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Amma-laughing4.jpg348617C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2020-10-31 10:53:032022-10-20 10:15:51Humorous stories from Amma – Part 8 ( 10 more stories)
Once a very rich man was travelling in a ship. Suddenly the weather turned hostile. A powerful thunderstorm struck the ship. The Captain of the ship announced that the ship cannot be saved from sinking and asked all the people in the ship have to do whatever they could to save themselves if possible. Everyone in the ship panicked. The rich man too started praying God frantically like everyone else in the ship. He prayed to God: “Oh my lord. please save me from this calamity. I promise you that I will sell my 5-star hotel and donate 75% of the amount if you save me”.
Very miraculously, the storm subsided quickly and the ship was saved. All the travellers reached the shore safely. However, the rich man was in a mental turmoil now. “Oh, if I sell my 5-star hotel, I will easily get a crore of Rupees and it is such a huge amount! Should I really donate 75 lakhs of rupees to God? Why would He need such a large sum of money from me? What can I do now?” He thought deeply about it and finally got an idea.
He released an advertisement in the newspaper: “5-star hotel on sale. Expected price: one rupee”.
Hordes of people came running to meet him and buy the property. They could not really understand how and why anyone would sell the hotel for one rupee! He told them: “I promise that the hotel is indeed available for sale for one rupee, but to clinch the deal, you must buy my pet dog for 1 crore of rupees”.
He finally sold the star hotel as per his terms and donated seventy five paise to God!
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
2. Falling pride
There was a heap of small stones at a place. A boy who came that side, picked up a stone and threw it at the sky. As the stone was rising high, it suddenly felt very proud. “Ah! how great I am now! While all the other stones are lying in ground, I am soaring higher and higher. Soon I will be reaching a level in par with the sun and the moon!” Looking at the other stones, it shouted, “Why are you all lying there? Come up and high!”.
The other stones said, “What to do? Just a few seconds ago, you too were one among us and lying here. Suddenly luck favored you and now you are flying! Everyone needs a right time; we are not so far fortunate”
But the stone that went up could not remain proud for long. It gradually slowed down, stopped and then started falling back to the earth. Within seconds it fell with a thud on the ground, amid the other stones. Now the stone said, “Okay guys! You see, the fact is I missed you so much that I could not spend much time up there. So I am glad to be back!’
[Amma: “This is precisely the nature of human mind. Whatever one does, the mind tends to justify it as right; if there is a failure, the mind justifies that failure too. It won’t accept a fault. “]
(Source: Oliyai Nokki – Tamil – Vol.2)
3. “Who will take care of me?”
Once a very old lady was walking across a paddy field. A little girl, who was her great- granddaughter (her daughter’s daughter’s daughter), was holding her hand and carefully taking her along the narrow embankments in the paddy field.
As they walked, the old lady would stop in between; she would place her hands on her waist, look up at the skies and sigh. As this happened several times, the little girl asked, “What is troubling you grandma? Why are you looking at the sky and sighing so frequently?”
The old lady said, “Fortunately you are here today to take my hands and safely walk me across the field. I was worrying about what will happen in the future when you are dead and gone. Who will take care of me after your lifetime? It is that thought troubling me.”
[Amma: “Think of it! This old lady thinks that she will keep living even after her great granddaughter dies! This indeed is the nature of most of us in this world. We think that death is some distant phenomenon for us, while all the others would die!” ]
(Source: Amrita Ganga)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Amma-with-school-girl.png445770C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2020-10-14 14:19:402022-03-31 15:18:08Amma’s stories on Nature of the human mind – Part 3
Once a husband and wife had some bitter quarrel and they stopped talking to each other. None of them wanted to take the first step to bring back normalcy in relationship.
One week passed this way and not even a single word was exchanged between them. Finally, the husband was no longer able to bear with this stress. He thought of an idea.
He started searching for something in the house here and there, pretending as if it was too important a thing that he frantically needed. He looked and searched at every nook and corner of the house, expressing his tension seriously on his face. He bent down and searched under the cot; he opened every drawer in his table and searched. He opened every cupboard and searched. He climbed over the table and searched in the lofts.
Watching all these, the wife could no longer control herself. “What are you searching for?” she asked him.
That was precisely what the husband was eager to hear from his wife! He said, “Your sweet voice!”
When the wife heard such a sweet reply from her husband, she instantly forgot all her anger and complaints against her husband; her face brightened up and she smiled.
[Amma: “If only we could mutually excuse other’s mistakes and bear with them, we are sure to get peace and happiness in our lives.”]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
2. Mental block
Once a young woman felt that she could not lift up her right hand. She became extremely concerned. She went to consult a doctor. The doctor gave medicines and tried different treatment methods and yet she could not use her right hand. Finally she decided to consult a psychiatrist.
The psychiatrist engaged her in a long conversation. She inquired whether she had some bitter experiences in the past that disturbed her mind very strongly. The woman said:
“Yes. My mother died when I was a small child. My father married a second time. The stepmother started hating me once she had children of her own. She would find fault with me always and shout at me. A few weeks ago, her anger and censures became extremely unbearable to me. Anger rose in me so strongly that I even felt like hitting her. With lots of effort, I controlled myself; only after that my right hand stopped functioning; I have not spoken a word to her afterwards”.
Listening to it, the psychiatrist said, “Even though you controlled your anger externally. it has gone into your subconscious mind; such a deep mental disturbance can result in physical ailments. In your case, the same thing has happened and it is that suppressed anger that has caused failure of your right hand.”
Once the cause was identified. the woman understood that she should somehow get rid of her anger and hatred towards her step mother. She tried hard to set right her mindset and gradually she could succeed. Simultaneously, the mobility of her right hand too started returning.
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
3. Need one hour time
Once a father, who was normally very busy in his job, came back from his office. His little daughter was waiting for him at the entrance. She asked him, “Daddy, how much money do you get for one hour of work in your office?” . The father said, “About 300 rupees per hour”.
The girl asked, “Daddy, will you give me two hundred rupees, please?”
The father thought that she wanted to buy a costly doll. He got angry. “Don’t trouble me like this. I don’t want to hear any more word from you”. He rushed into the house. His daughter was shocked at her father’s sudden outrage. With tear filled eyes, she went into her bed room and shut the doors.
After some time, the father felt bad about his behavior. He thought he should have been more patient; he should have spoken at least a few kind words to her. He went to his daughters room and asked “Have you slept, my daughter?”.
“No papa; I am still awake.” she said.
He went and sat in her bed and said, “Did you feel hurt when I shouted at you earlier? I am sorry about it. Here, take this two hundred rupees. May I know what you intend to buy with this money?”
His daughter’s face brightened up instantly. She lifted her pillow and from there, picked up a hundred rupee note. Putting this money too together she extended it to her father and said, “Daddy, now you have three hundred rupees. Will you please spend one hour with me?”
[Amma: “Amid all the business and running around, do look at the world around you. Share a little time, friendliness, a patient listening and joy with your family members, friends and colleagues. Live in the present. Enjoy your living. “]
(Source: Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 1)
4. Untrustworthy sons
Once a father had four sons. As the father god old, the sons wanted the family properties to be partitioned and given to them. Each one of them had a desire to construct a house of his own and hence they pressurized their father to yield to partition.
“We are here to take care of you during your old age; Don’t worry; We will take turns and take excellent care of you; you can stay with each of our families three months in a year; we will provide all the comforts you need” they promised.
When all the sons talked so in unison, the father felt very happy. He partitioned his properties equally amid his four children. One son got his house and garden. Other sons got equal share of his lands. The sons constructed their own houses in the lands they got.
At first the father stayed with his eldest son. He was taken care of very well initially. But, as days passed, he could feel negligence gradually. As days progressed further, the father could palpably see his son and daughter-in-law showing faces to him. With lots of patience he managed to pull along for about a month there. Before they would tell him to move to the next son’s house, he decided to move on his own.
He was welcomed pleasantly at the second son’s house. But he could hardly pull along for 15 days there. Unable to tolerate the negligence, he shifted to the third son’s house.
He could manage to stay only for 10 days there. Then he shifted hastily to his youngest son’s house. Hardly within 5 days of his stay there, he felt it obvious that unless he moved out, he was most likely to be chucked out of the house. He left their house totally dejected.
Thus the hopes of the father who distributed all his properties to his son believing that his sons would take care of him well got totally belied. It was simply a false hope. Within a span of just two months the planned arrangement of staying with the sons lifelong came to an end.
[Amma: “Children, this is the nature of people that we must all comprehend. People rear cows only for its milk. When the cows no longer give milk, we won’t hesitate to sell them to the butcher. If we do our karma expecting that someone would take care of us, we will only end up in suffering. It is indeed the duty of parents to take care of their children during their young age. That duty must be done happily without any expectations in return. Once the right time comes, our mind must be turned towards spirituality. Not expecting anything from the children, we must proceed firmly in the path of spiritual fulfilment. We should never get struck in attachments like “my son”, “my grandchildren” and so on.”]
(Source: Oliyai Nokki-Tamil – Vol 1)
5. Oh for the old purse
Once an old man was getting down from a train and he fell down in the platform. Many youngsters came running to help him to get up and steady himself. The old man checked his pocket and said, “Oh, my purse, my purse! Where is it?”
The youngsters looked around for it. Once the train moved, the located the little purse on the track, picked it up and gave it to the old man. The old man hurriedly searched the purse as others watched him. He put it back with content into his pocked. An youngster, watching this asked him, “Grandpa, you don’t seem to have any money in that purse; then why were you so excited about losing it?”
The old man said, “There is a long story behind it. I will tell you. This purse was gifted to me by my father when I passed my 10th class. It contained a nice picture of our God inside. Let me show it to you…” The old man showed the a small picture of Lord which was faded and wrinkled. He continued:
“At that age, I loved my parents the dearest. I removed the picture of God and kept my parents’ photo in the purse. When I went to college, I fell in love with the girl. I removed my parents photo and kept this girls photo there. She got married to someone and a few years later, I too got married. I kept my wife’s photo in the purse. Later, we had a boy child whom I adored more than anyone else. I removed my wife’s photo and kept my child’s photo there.
“My wife passed away, and my son became the centre of my life. As he grew up, I kept his youthful photo in my purse. He got married. Over a period of time, he and his wife wanted to build a palatial house for them and nudged me to bequeath my properties to him. He promised to take care of me throughout my life. He sold my properties and built his dream house. I too shifted there. Over a period of time, my son and daughter-in-law started neglecting me and I could understand that I was no longer needed in their life. I had no option but to shift to an old-age home. At that time, I understood that whomsoever I love can never be relied on; I understood only God is our permanent solace and companion. I removed my son’s photo and put back our lord’s photo back in the purse. I keep looking at it whenever I feel lonely and depressed. Only He gives me succor and solace. That’s how this old little purse and the picture of God in it became so indispensable to me now!”
[Amma: “No worldly relationship is permanent; it is our relationship with God that is everlasting”.]
6. Just one more year extra
[Amma: “In olden days, men entered the household only after receiving gurukula education. As women also were well rooted in virtues, they became excellent companions to their husbands in leading a dharmic life. Times have changed. There is no patience, humility, love, sacrifice and giving. Today’s trend is that people think marriage is not necessary. Amma remembers a story… “]
An 85-year-old husband and wife visited the temple. The couple were married for 60 years. They stood in front of the deity prayerfully. The husband prayed, “May both of us live to be 100 years old. This is my wish. Please grant me this, Lord.”
The wife prayed, “Lord, grant me to live to be 101 years old!”. Hearing this, the husband burst into anger, “Usually women wish to die as a ‘sumangali’ — before the husband dies. But you are also praying like this. Now I understand your motive. I had a suspicion earlier that you love someone else. Today it is confirmed.”
“Why do you accuse me like this?. I prayed like that because I wanted to live in heaven.” said the wife.
The husband asked, “Don’t husband and wife go to heaven if they die together?”
“Oh! In my whole life, you have always quarreled with me. See, you are quarreling now even inside the temple. My life has been nothing short of hell. I wanted to live in peace for at least one year after your death. That is indeed the heaven for me.”
(Source: Amma’s Ramayana message 2023)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Amma-with-children2.jpg335574C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2020-10-12 11:25:072023-09-26 07:13:53Amma’s stories on Family and relationships – Part 1
[Amma: ” Somewhere, we have lost the discrimination to differentiate essential need from extravaganza. If we take anything more than what is absolutely essential for our needs from Nature, it is adharma. It is a sin.”]
Once, early morning, a social worker was brushing his teeth near a river. He had brought a vessel with him in which he gathered some water from the river for the purpose of washing his mouth after brushing. He was accompanied by a group of fellow social workers, with whom he was discussing some important matters seriously. When he was about to wash and rinse his mouth and face finally, he noticed that he had already exhausted the water in the vessel. He said, “Oh God! How careless I have been! Even before I completed my washing, I have already exhausted all the water”.
Listening this, others could not understand why he was regretting like this. One of them said, “Why are you lamenting like this? Here is the river running full with water and you can always fetch some more water to complete your washing!”
The man said, “The river may be full; but I don’t have the moral authority to take more than what I truly need”.
[Amma: ” If only we all develop such a social awareness and moral stand as this social worker, we can definitely drive away poverty and deaths due to starving from the face of this earth”.]
(From Amritam Gamaya – Malayalam – Vol 2)
2. Very Old Technology!
Once a boy was going on a walk with his grandfather. The boy said “Grandpa, soon our scientists will find a technology to convert Carbon dioxide to Oxygen.”
The grandfather laughed and said, “It is a very old technology, existing almost ever since creation, my boy! It is called ‘Tree’!”
(From Amma’s 67th birthday message 27/9/2020)
3. Back to Nature
[Amma: “In the present times, it looks the whole humanity is the grip of absent mindedness. Man appears to forget all good things on things that beautify the mankind. While saying this Amma remembers story….”]
Once, in a public Park, a young man was crying like a little child. Getting pity on him, a passerby approached him and asked, “What happened? Why are you crying?”
Sobbing, the young man said, ” My mother is at home; she is extremely affectionate to me; she will always make foodstuff that I relish; If I behave adamantly, She would pacify me and at times even feed me with her own hands; Sometimes I throw tantrums like a little child, and yet my mother won’t mind it. She will do whatever I want and even sing and dance for me; my mother is indeed my lifeline…”. Saying so, he started crying aloud again.
Hearing this, the passerby said, “You are indeed so lucky to have such a mother; In fact, you should be happy for getting a mother like her. Why cry? Has anything wrong happened to her? Is she alright?”
“My mother is alright; only I have a problem. I have forgotten where my house is” said the young man.
[ Amma: “We are like the young man in the story. Mother Nature is like the home or mother in the story. We have to get back to nature. Unfortunately the forgotten how to return to the nature.”]
(From Amma’s birthday satsang 2022)
https://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Amma-embracing-plant.jpg374560C.V.Rajanhttps://hinduismwayoflife.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Logo6-Hinduism-Sanatana-dharma-Way-of-life-340-×-140-px-300x124.pngC.V.Rajan2020-09-21 16:06:022022-11-09 15:50:30Amma’s stories on respecting and preserving Nature
This website has been conceived and being developed by C.V.Rajan. He is a retired Engineer and an ex-design consultant, now living with his wife in Ashram at Amritapuri, Kerala, spending his retired life in quest of spirituality under the holy feet of Amma, Satguru Mata Amritanandamayi.
He is an avid reader and a writer. Writing as a hobby started in him at the age of 20. As his interest turned to spirituality in his late thirties, he became an avid reader on the lives and teachings of great Mahatmas like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, Bhagwan Ramana Maharshi and his satguru Mata Amritanandamayi (Amma).
In his early fifties, he wrote at various blog sites on variety of subjects like Hinduism, spirituality, life & living, healthy living, Indian culture and so on. Now through this website (Hinduism Way Of Life), C.V.Rajan is consolidating and sharing all his writings on Hinduism under a single umbrella.
When the king was informed of the arrival of the sadhu, the king agreed to see the visitor through the small window opening.
The father said, “If you promise me not to reveal anything to your mother, I will tell you the secret”. The little girl promised so.
During one of Amma’s US tour, there was Amma’s darshan program at Boston. One of Amma’d devotees, who came by his car to attend the program, met with an accident on the way. Though he was not wounded, he had to spend the whole night in the Police station. He could reach the program venue only the next day.
The waiter became extremely angry and started shouting at the drunkard. Hearing the abusive words, the drunkard started crying. 
A few months passed. Krishnan and his new friend had some business in another town and they had to stay at night in a lodge together. Both of them remembered what Mohan had warned. 
That was the last straw. The man flared up and shouted, ” Have you people turned mad? Don’t you all have any other work? How many times should I repeat that I don’t have any problem with my legs?”
By switching on the light at night, monkeys started having fun and frolic right through the night, forgetting their sleep. Soon it became a daily affair. Some Monkeys would switch on the light and some would switch it off; the swich became a play-thing for them. Very soon, one monkey which was more heavily built than others, started establishing its superiority over the others, by claiming it’s right to exclusively operate the switch. It would hold onto the switch tightly and would not allow other monkeys to operate it. Several other monkeys objected to its high-handed behavior. Soon it became a matter of contention among the monkeys. 
After about 10 seconds, the driver said to the drunkard, ” We have arrived at the railway station; Please get down.”
He got up early in the morning; remembering something he missed out, he drew an eighth line in the paper. Thus he had 8 different tasks to accomplish that day.
The boy had no other wherewithal to survive as he did not possess any other skill. So, he took a decision that he would start learning coconut tree climbing on his own effort. He knew that it was a very risky job; if he happened to fall, he would end up with fractures and perhaps even permanently handicapped making any other means of survival too difficult.
“Just sand Sir, nothing else” said the man.
They walked together and climbed over a small hillock. Adjacent to it, there was another hillock and both were connected by a rope bridge. The guru proceed to walk along the bridge and the two men followed him. When they reached the middle of the bridge, the guru pointed out a tree on the opposite hillock and said to the archer, “Do you see a fruit hanging in that tree? Will you use your bow and hit that fruit with an arrow?”
He went near the specific bed. There was a switch board and plug point on the wall adjacent to the patient. The ‘Life Support Machine’ of the patient was indeed connected to the plug point. The cleaning staff removed the plug, inserted the plug of the Vacuum Cleaner he had brought and started vacuum- cleaning the floor.
Only after reaching home, he remembered that he had parked his bicycle outside the watch shop. He immediately rushed to the shop. Fortunately, his bicycle was very much standing there. With a great relief, he rode in his bicycle and on his way, he saw a temple. He felt he should thank God for getting back his bicycle. He parked his bicycle outside the temple and went in to do his prayers.
It said, “Actually, I tick 60 times in a minute; then in every hour, I tick 60 times 60. Then, in a day, I tick 24x60x60 times. If I keep running day after day like this without any rest, what will happen to me? I really got worried. I thought it is too much of a labor for nothing and I will burn myself out soon if I work so hard like this. So, I stopped working”.
In order to hunt her down for his food, the lion started chasing the deer. The lion chased fast and the deer too ran extremely fast. After running and chasing like this for a while, the distance between the lion and the deer got wider and wider; the deer escaped to safety and lion had to return dejected.
“O my God! Is this going to be my fate too? Will I too get broken into pieces and die upon crashing on the land?” she lamented loudly.
The husband did not make any comment.
The time of his death indeed arrived. The sculptor saw the arrival of the messenger of death. He immediately joined the group of 12 statues and stood there holding his breath, avoiding all movements. The messenger of death too got confused to see 13 statues looking exactly alike!
The farmer fumbled for a while and then said, “Sorry sir, I really don’t have any weighing stone, but I assure you I am not a cheat”.
The man was elated. He thought that it was indeed his fortune that he was able to wear such a fine dress created by an artist. He put on the shirt and walked in style with a hunched back and a raised hand. He looked around to see if anyone was noticing him and his new style. Yes, in fact, a passer-by did notice it immediately and remarked “I know who has stitched this shirt for you. Only an expert like him could have done such a perfect work!”
When the train stopped at the next station, a vendor of Coca-Cola entered the compartment and started selling it. “Dad, I want the cola!” said the boy. The father said, “You see, after eating the chocolate, you have a mild fever now. You are not alright since this morning. I won’t buy you a cola”. The boy got agitated and started demanding it again and again. As the father refused to yield, the boy said, “Ok! Then I will tell the truth to everybody”. The father immediately bought the Coca-Cola for his son.
Once a father said to his son, “Dear boy, go to the neighbouring 
The rats said, “We rats are always used to run and roam around. We were always chased by cats; Snakes chased and ate us; so were owls. Humans hated us as we ate their farm produce, and they killed us using various means. We were always on the run to save our lives and naturally we are so tired of running. So, what we pray to you is to provide us with roller skates to wear, so that we can run around as we please without straining our legs”.
Once the passenger, having some urgent business, went to a ferry station. he noticed your ferry carrying passengers was moving close to the dock. She rushed towards it, and made jump into it but unfortunately he fell into the water. the boat man somehow rescued the man and pulled him into the boat. why were you in such hurry to get into this boat?”
Once a very old lady was walking across a paddy field. A little girl, who was her great- granddaughter (her daughter’s daughter’s daughter), was holding her hand and carefully taking her along the narrow embankments in the paddy field.
The wife prayed, “Lord, grant me to live to be 101 years old!”. Hearing this, the husband burst into anger, “Usually women wish to die as a ‘sumangali’ — before the husband dies. But you are also praying like this. Now I understand your motive. I had a suspicion earlier that you love someone else. Today it is confirmed.”
Sobbing, the young man said, ” My mother is at home; she is extremely affectionate to me; she will always make foodstuff that I relish; If I behave adamantly, She would pacify me and at times even feed me with her own hands; Sometimes I throw tantrums like a little child, and yet my mother won’t mind it. She will do whatever I want and even sing and dance for me; my mother is indeed my lifeline…”. Saying so, he started crying aloud again.
This website has been conceived and being developed by C.V.Rajan. He is a retired Engineer and an ex-design consultant, now living with his wife in Ashram at Amritapuri, Kerala, spending his retired life in quest of spirituality under the holy feet of Amma, Satguru Mata Amritanandamayi.