Amma’s stories on Nature of the World / People – Part 1 (15 stories)
1. The Imperfect Dog
[Amma: “If we do 100 bad things and do just one good thing, God will shower grace on us for that one good thing ignoring all the 100 bad things we did. On the other hand, if we do 100 good things and do one wrong thing, human beings will not see the good things but only point out the wrong thing.”]
Human tendency is always to criticize the imperfection in others.
One a man, standing by the side of a vegetable shop, was surprised to see a dog coming to the shop with a bag hung on its neck. It came near to the shop keeper and barked twice. The shop keeper asked “What do you want?” The dog looked at the potatoes and barked once. “One kilo?” asked the shopkeeper. The dog barked twice. “Two kilos?” asked the shop keeper. The dog wagged its tail. The shop keeper measured two kilos of potatoes and put it in the bag that the dog carried.
The dog went on to buy a couple of more vegetables this way. Then based on a further barking signal, the shop owner took out a wallet kept in the bag, counted and took the correct money that was due for the vegetables and put the wallet back into the bag. He also hanged the bag in the dog’s neck.
The dog started walking away. The onlooker was very surprised to see such an intelligent dog. he was very curious to meet the owner. Hence, he followed the dog.
The dog walked across a couple of streets and reached a house. It lifted up its front legs and scratched the door. After a while, hearing the scratching sound, a person from the house opened the door and let the dog in.
The onlooker said “Hello there! Actually I followed your dog to see who the owner is. You are very lucky! What a smart dog you have with you!”
“Smart? Frankly he is not really that smart. You see, I have been trying to make him learn to lock the door while going and then unlocking it himself when he returns; that way I don’t have to get up and come to open the door; but his is not good enough in learning and doing it” said the dog owner.
2. A rose for the grand father
[Amma: “In Sanathana Dharma there is the practice of conducting Pirtru Karma (annual food offerings to deceased parents ) by ceremonial offering of food. While such practices are good and beneficial, it is all the more important that the parents in old age are taken due care of with love and respect when they are alive, rather than doing ceremonies after their death for fear of curse from ancestors.”]
A young boy’s father was accompanying him to the school; on their way, the boy mentioned to the father that it was the birth day of the school Principal.
Father said: “Oh! Then I will buy a nice rose for you. You take it and give it to your principal and seek his blessings; he will feel so happy with you!”
While he was buying a rose, the boy said “Father, please buy one more rose; I want to give it to Grandpa. He too will feel very happy to receive it from me”.
Father said “Oh, no. That old man need no such pampering. He is always sitting idle at home and complaining about us. Forget him. It is your principal who is instrumental for giving studies to you through your school; let us show respect to him”.
The boy said “Why do you say so? Grandpa is also full of wisdom; he tells me so many stories containing morals; I want to give a rose to him too”.
“Forget it” said the father curtly and bought just a rose.
A few weeks later the grandfather passed away. The father bought a beautiful rose garland to place on the dead body of his father. As he was about to place the garland, the young boy stopped his father.
Why are you now placing the rose garland on your father’s dead body? When I wanted to present him with a single rose when he was alive, you did not agree. Why waste a garland now?”
3. There is a limit to patience!
[Amma: “People are generally so selfish that their honesty will take a backseat so long as their selfish interests are not affected”. ]
Once a Office employee collected his monthly salary from his manager. Upon counting it, he noticed that he had been paid 500 rupees in excess. He coolly pocketed the money and left the place quietly. On the salary day on the next month, the employee found that he had been paid an excess of 700 rupees this time. Again he opted to keep the money with him without mentioning about it to anyone.
On the third month, when he counted his salary, he noticed that he had been paid 300 rupees less. He got very angry. He thumped at the table of the manager and shouted: “What is this blunder? We work so hard every day in the office shedding our sweat and at the end of the month, you are cutting our already paltry salary by three hundred rupees! How can you be so careless and cruel?”
The manager replied softly, “Look Mister. Two months back, we had paid 500 rupees in excess by mistake and you never reported about it to us. Last month again, by mistake, we had paid you 700 rupees in excess and you never bothered to return that amount. But today, when we paid 300 rupees short, you are making such a hue and cry!”
The man said, “Sir, two months back when you paid me excess, I thought it could be a human error. Everybody is bound to make a mistake at some time and I felt that I should not make an issue out of it. Hence, I kept quiet. Last month when I received excess salary again, I thought that I should be dignified enough to maintain patience so that you will have another chance to correct your mistake on your own. But when negligence happens for the third time in a row, then I thought it is not right to keep mum any longer. That’s why I brought the serious lapse on your part to your immediate attention this time!”
4. The play of fate
[Amma: “One reaps what one sows. It is not easy to understand how our prarabhdha karma accumulated in previous lives work their way in the current birth. Ordinary mortals do not have the power to change the course of fate.”]
Once a Garuda was sitting in a tree near a pond. It noticed a large frog at the bank of the pond. Suddenly the garuda noticed that a Yama Doota (a Messenger of death God) was standing here next to the frog and intently looking at it.
The garuda instantly felt that the Yamadootha was there to take the life of the frog. In a sudden rush of compassion, the garuda flew from the tree, fetched the frog in his claws and flew swiftly to a distant place up on a hill and released the frog. Noticing that the frog was very scared and had nothing to eat in the nearby vicinity, the Garuda flew nearby to fetch some worms for the frog to eat. When it returned, it was shocked to find that the frog was in the firm grip in the mouth of a large snake. The snake swallowed the frog and swiftly hid itself in the gaps of a rock.
Feeling very disappointed, the garuda flew back to the tree near the pond where it was resting earlier. As he arrived there, the Yama dootha was still there. He was now intently looking at the garuda and smiling. The garuda asked him, “Why are you staring at me? You want to take my life too?”
“No” said the messenger. “Actually I am here to thank you!”
“What?” asked the garuda with surprise.
“When I was here to take the life of that frog, I was wondering like this: ‘It is alright that the frog’s time has almost come; but as per my records, its death should really take place in the mouth of a snake at the top of a hill which is quite far off from here; I was wondering as to how this frog can reach that place so quickly? Even if it goes jumping as per its nature, how can it reach the top of hill in such a short time?’ Then you came into the picture and ensured that the frog is taken to his destined place of death! That’s why I thanked you!” said the messenger.
The Garuda felt humbled. It asked “May I know why the fate of the frog was such that it should die at the mouth of that snake?”
The messenger of death said “In its previous birth, the frog was a rat. The rat bit two little snakes that were born to the snake in the hill. The rat bit the two little snakes half way and then ran away. The mother snake had to witness the long drawn and agonizing death of the small snakes. She felt so helpless and pained to see the prolonged suffering of her two kids. She cursed the rat and took a vow to kill the rat. However, the rat had died subsequently and took birth as the frog. It is in this birth as a frog that the snake’s curse had to take effect!”
(Amma Onam Satsang – Monday 4/9/17)
5. Consoling others
Once a lady came to know that the husband of a woman in the neighboring house died. She heard wailing and crying from the adjacent house. She went to the house, sat close to the woman who lost her husband and started consoling her. The widowed woman was crying uncontrollably. The lady, in a very dignified tone, started consoling the grieving woman saying, “Please gather yourself; What is born has to die one day. That is the law of nature. You know, the physical body made of five elements only perishes and the Atman that reside inside is indestructible; Atman is never born nor will die”. The widowed woman listened to these words of wisdom from Vedanta and to a little extent it helped her to gather herself.
After a couple of months, the lady’s husband fell sick and died unexpectedly. She started crying so loud that the entire people in the street gathered into her house. Now the widowed neighboring woman came and sat adjacent to the wailing lady. She said, “Madam, while I am sorry that you lost your husband, I am rather surprised to see you crying so loud; hardly a few months back when my husband died, you taught me so much Vedanta about Atman being imperishable and that only the body dies! How come you are so much immersed in grief now?”
Pat came the lady’s reply: “That day, it was YOUR husband who died. Today, it is MY husband”.
[Amma: “It is the attachment to me and mine that causes grief.”]
(Friday Satsang 09/09/2016)
6. The last wish
Once a criminal who had committed murders and dacoity was caught and sentenced to death. As he was being taken to the gallows for hanging, the authorities asked him what his last wish was.
He said he wanted to meet his mother. His mother was brought in. He said he want to convey something privately to his mother. He was allowed to speak to his mother at her ears in a hushed tone. At that point of time, the criminal bit his mother’s ear lobe. His mother cried out in pain and agony. Immediately the guards intervened and took the mother away.
When they enquired the criminal why he bit his mother’s earlobe, he said, “I wanted to punish her in some way for what she failed to do. Right from my very young age, I started stealing. At that age, I did not know right and wrong. Whenever I brought the stolen booties, she was happy to receive them and never warned me of the evil of stealing and its consequences; she did not prevent me from stealing. Had she punished me at that young age itself and corrected me, I would not have ended as a hard core criminal and end up getting hanged to death today”.
[Amma: “It is the duty of the parents to teach what is right and what is wrong to their children right from young age and lead them in the righteous path.”]
7. No enemies
Once a notorious person celebrated his 100th birthday and a news correspondent came to interview him.
The correspondent asked “In this long 100 years of your life what is that one thing you are most proud of?”
The old man replied; ‘In all these 100 years of my life, I have no enemy on earth”
“Ah how, great your life is! It should become an example for others to follow. How did you achieve it?”
“Not easy, but I did accomplish. I simply did not allow any of my enemies to remain alive on earth! That’s all”.
[Amma: “Without eradicating such destructive mentality, we can never bring wars and incursions to an end,”]
Matruvani – Avani 2008
8. The Handicapped King
Once there ruled a king who had lost one eye and one leg in a war. He had a strong desire that a beutiful portrait of him be drawn. His desire was made known to the famous artists in his country.Hoping for a great royal reward, many of them came forward to see the king.
They were told by the ministers that the king was expecting a great artistic work that should show him truly but without the ugliness of his physical handicaps.
How to really draw the portrait of a king beautifully when the truth was that he did not have one eye and one leg? Most of the artists backed out.
However, one artist came forward and accepted the challenge. He painted the picture of the king very meticulously and once he finished, everyone marveled at his skill and brilliance.
In the picture he had drawn showing the king holding a rifle in his hands and aiming to shoot some distant animal; in focusing the target, he was shown with one eye closed as that was what snipers do when they focus through their rifle. The king was also shown sitting in a kneeling posture with one leg shown folded.
Thus the artist had the brilliance to show the king as he was, but judiciously camouflaging physical faults of the king!
[Amma: “One should always try to focus on the goodness of the others, ignoring their negative aspects”].
9. Learning a lesson
Once a lion went for hunting along with a hyena and a jackal. The lion attacked a deer and killed it while the other two animals were only spectators. The lion said to the hyena to split it into three parts so that all the three can eat it. The hyena split the body of the deer into three equal parts. On seeing it, the lion became very angry. It attacked the hyena and killed it on the spot.
The lion then directed the jackal to spit the carcass of the deer into two parts so that both of them now can eat. The jackal then split the carcass with three fourths of the portion reserved for the lion and one-fourth for himself. Seeing this, the lion nodded appreciatively and asked, “How did you become intelligent?”
The jackal said, “I learned it from hyena”
[Amma: “If you have enough alertness, you can learn even from idiots.”]
10. The Alteration work
Once a young boy got a new jeans pant. When he wore it for the first time, he noticed that the legs of the pant were rather extra long; he wished that they were shorter by at least 2 inches.
He went and asked his mother, “Mom, will you cut and re-stitch the bottom of my pant by 2 inches; the leg is too long”. The mother said, “I am very busy cooking right now. Go and tell your father”.
The boy approached his father and explained to him his problem. The father replied patiently: “I am studying an important office file now as I have to make a presentation immediately as I reach my office. Will you please aske your sister to do it?”
He went to his sister; she said, “I am preparing for my class test in the college today. Ask the servant maid…”
The servant maid too said she was busy with her chores and would do it later if she found time. The boy felt very frustrated. He threw the jeans over the sofa and left for the school.
The mother, after finishing the cooking came to the hall and saw the jeans lying on the sofa. She remembered her son’s request. Immediately, she did the alteration by cutting off 2 inch of length at the bottom and then stitching it. When the servant maid finished off her duties, she noticed the jeans lying at the sofa. She too remembered the boy’s request and she too took the scissors, cut off two inches from the bottom and re-stitched it.
In the evening, the boy’s sister returned from her college. Seeing the jeans, she too altered it by reducing the length by two inches, not knowing the fact that it had already been shortened twice by others.
The boy returned from the playground late in the evening. Noticing the jeans lying at the sofa, he was curious to know whether anyone had done the alteration desired by him. When he lifted it up, what he saw looked like an half pant!
[Amma: “We have a tendency to criticize and discard the values of the past as outdated. If we keep on discarding the past again and again, nothing of value will remain for us to save us from the present day ills. It is like bathing a baby and throwing balance water along with the baby”.]
Tuesday satsang 15.9.2016
11. The envious businessman
Once there lived two businessmen who knew each other; both of them were doing well in business, but one of them was highly envious of the other; he would always try to imitate the lifestyle of what the other person was doing, in order to prove that he was in no way less rich or inferior to the other person.
Once the first businessman bought the latest model of a very costly luxury car. On seeing it, the second businessman too bought the same model car, spending lots of money.
Unfortunately, the first businessman’s car met with an accident and got damaged heavily. Seeing it, the second businessman felt happy. But, soon, his car too met with an accident and got damaged beyond repair.
After a few days, the first businessman was up on the road with another brand new car! Unfortunately, the second businessman who lost heavily due to the damage of the car, could not afford to buy the same model car.
He felt very disturbed. He went to meet a saint for gaining mental peace. He told the saint about his mental status and asked, “How come he managed to buy another costly car, while I could not?”
“He must have insured the car; did you insure your car?”
The man said, “No”.
“Then, that’s why” said the saint.
[Amma: “The good acts we did in our previous lives and do in the present give us punya which comes to our protection at the time of need like an insurance cover”.]
(Amma birthday message 2016)
12. Eating with 2 hands
Once a man was extremely hungry. He sent his servant to buy food from a restaurant. The moment the food arrived, he started eating it hurriedly using both his hands.
People around him were surprised to see him eating like this! They asked him, “Sir, What are you doing? why are you eating in such a hurry using both your hands?”
The man replied, “Because I don’t have a third hand!”
[Amma: “Most of us have no honesty to speak the truth or accept a defect. Whatever happens, we only try to justify our actions always”.]
13. The piglet’s love
Once a man went to see his friend at his house. The friend warmly received the guest and offered him soup to drink in a bowl.
At that time a little piglet came there. It was the pet of the friend. It came close to the guest, ran around him, licked his feet and tried to climb on him and so on. The guest was very surprised to see that a piglet can be so cute and lovable and he was very impressed how it became so friendly to him. “I have seen pet dogs and cats showing affection to the owner; I am really surprised how this piglet could express so much affection to me despite my being a stranger! Does the mother pig have a few more piglets? Can I take one of them as my pet?”
The friend said coolly, “You don’t know the secret behind this love. You see, the bowl in which I have served soup to you is the one in which I regularly feed this piglet; it is his affection to the bowl that made him try and climb over you and reach to it, so that he can have his share of fill from it!”
[Amma: “Most of the love we get from the world are only selfishly motivated.”]
14. Fine? Fine!
[Amma: “Education, when sown in a moist soil which is humility, will only produce good yield. In the present day culture where people believe that human effort alone will be sufficient, an important aspect known as divine grace has been totally forgotten. This only grows vanity in man. The dearth of good values is obviously seen in the present day educational institutions.”]
In a college there was a total ban on smoking.
The principal of the college one day noticed a student smoking in the corridor.
The principal went near the student and told him, “You are breaking the college rules by smoking here. You must pay a fine of 100 rupees for your indiscipline”.
The student inserted his hand into his pocket and fished out a 500 Rupee note.
He gave it to the principal and said, “Sir, May I smoke four more cigarettes, please?”
(Source: Oliyai Nokki-3 Tamil)
15. Checklist!
Once a man was returning home by walk after work. On his way, a dog bit him. The man did not take it seriously and did not go to a doctor. As days passed, he became sick and he went to a dispensary to see the doctor. After examining him, the doctor said, “It appears you have been bitten by a mad dog. Since you have ignored it over these days, your condition is very precarious. It is impossible to cure it. I am sorry”.
The moment the man heard it, he took a piece of paper from the doctor’s table and started scribbling something seriously. Seeing this, the doctor said, with compassion, “Oh! You have started writing your will so urgently? No need for such a hurry. There are indeed some new medicines for dog bit. If you take them, you may be able to live a little longer”. The doctor was attempting to console him with care.
The patient said, “Who said I am writing my will? Since I am going to live only for a few days, every minute of my life is precious now. That’s why I am preparing the list of all my enemies. Before I die, I want to go and bite as many of them as possible; that’s how I am going to take revenge on them”.
[Amma: “Children, None should have an attitude like this person. God has given a limited slife span to all of us. We should utilize it best by expressing mutual love, giving a helping hand and supporting each other by sharing. We must understand that only when we pardon others’ mistakes, God will pardon ours.”]
(Source: Tamil Oliyai Nokki- VOl 3)
After a couple of days, the friend visited again and this time too he spoke very highly of the movie and urged him to go and see it.
Another disciple said, “If you can identify whether a tree at a distance is a mango tree or a neem tree, it indicates it has dawned”. For this answer too, the guru did not give his approval.
The wife said, “I have nothing to ask from you. But I am curious to know about a matter. You had instructed me to keep a needle and a cup of water next to you whenever you sat to eat and I have been ceremoniously doing it all these years. May I know the purpose for which you asked them to be kept?”
“My son was missing for quite some time; he had gone to play with other boys. I was disturbed and started wondering whether he had fallen into the adjacent pond; my mind disturbed in such a though I rushed in search of him and that’s how I missed you sitting here in meditation; I am sorry about it”. But the Sanyasi was unrelenting.
“I am using it as my bed spread, Master”.
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.