Previous

Swami narrates episodes and short stories: "Two Friends" & "The Guru's Glance"

   Often Swami narrates episodes and short stories to the devotees to drive home some morals and philosophical points. His natural sense of humour and ready wit make listening easy and pleasant but at the same time create a deep impression in the listener's minds. He never advises austere measures nor does he quote verbose scholastic doctrine or philosophy from the upanishads and the vedas. He always talks about daily life incidents and episodes and uses them to make us realize our faults and advises us on how to correct them and lead a life of peace and happiness. Devotees can understand the underlying morals behind his teachings very easily and find it easier to put them into practice. In this chapter, I have included some of the parables that Swami narrated on various occasions.

   Two Friends

   Once, there were two friends. There was a temple of Lord Ganesha enroute to their office. Both used to have a darshan of Lord Ganesha from outside on their way to work. One day, the idol was adorned with sandal paste and was decorated so beautifully that it became the focus of attention to one and all who passed by that temple. It attracted people and made them step inside the temple to pray.

   On that day, both the friends stood outside as usual to have a quick darshan of Lord Ganesha. One of them had a sudden feeling that the Lord was beckoning him. The other one only felt that the Lord was decorated very well compared to other days. The first person said that he would go inside to worship the Lord, following his inner instinct. His friend said that he would wait outside. The first man stepped inside and after praying, he went around the sannadhi three times. On the third round, a sharp nail on the ground hurt his toe and blood started oozing out. He could not bear the pain and he came out limping. Meanwhile his friend who was waiting outside went on rubbing his feet on the sand impatiently and to his delight, found a two rupee coin and picked it up. He saw his friend limping with a bleeding toe coming out towards him. He mocked his friend for going inside the temple saying that the stone idol had invited him to go inside to cause an injury whereas he stood outside but got a bonus of two rupees. The first person felt highly offended by his friend's ridicule. He felt that somehow he should make his friend realize that God had really called him inside. He told his friend that he would leave that place only after knowing the reason for his getting hurt. He decided not to attend office and wait till he found the reason for being hurt. After bandaging the wound, his friend took pity on him and waited outside with him. At that time, Swami was passing by. When he saw the idol from outside, he got the divine command to go inside. The wounded person cautioned Swami to be careful while going around the temple. As Swami came out, both the friends went to him and narrated the events that took place and asked for an explanation. Swami explained that if the wounded man had been anywhere else at that time, his life would have been in peril due to a major accident. Since he was inside the temple, he was saved by God's grace and got away with just a small wound. For his friend, the time was so auspicious that had he gone inside and prayed, he would have won a big lottery. Since the latter decided to wait outside, he just got two rupees. Swami further added that Lord Ganesha ordered him to come inside the temple to convey the above divine message to both of them. The wounded person felt very happy that his friend had realized the truth. Those who believe in God will never be let down in any way. Sincere faith and true devotion to God will save a person from calamity and the intensity of suffering will be minimized. Swami revealed this great truth through this story.

   The Guru's Glance

   An incident took place between two planets chandran (moon) and guru (jupiter) who was considered as the Guru for all the planets. Once the moon approached jupiter and requested him to teach astrology to him. Heeding to the request, guru taught the complete science of astrology to the moon. He wanted to test the moon and see how much he had understood. So he asked the moon to cast the horoscope of a royal baby after giving him all necessary details like the birth time, day, year and place. The moon accordingly cast the horoscope and gave the astrological predictions very precisely. He said that the child would die due to snake bite on his fifth birthday at exactly fifteen minutes and two seconds past five in the evening. Jupiter asked the moon whether he had thoroughly checked all his calculations and only then given the final prediction. The moon replied that he had learnt the astrology only from him and had implicitly followed all that he was taught and used the instructions in the prediction. Hence, there could not be any mistake.

   Five years passed. Both jupiter and the moon went to the palace at that particular time to verify whether the astrological prediction would come out to be true. The child was sleeping in a cradle which was hung by steel chains from the ceiling. A snake started slowly crawling down through the chain towards the child. The time was fifteen minutes past five. The snake had come very close to the baby. The moon was gloating at the accuracy of his prediction. There were only two seconds left for the snake to bite the child as per the prediction. At that moment, a terrific noise was heard because the chain broke and the cradle and the baby fell down. The snake got entangled in the chain and died. But the child was not hurt and miraculously escaped from that deadly accident.

   The moon could not believe what had happened and was totally taken aback to witness the death of the snake instead of the child. Jupiter was amused, and he glanced at the moon, who, at a complete loss asked his teacher as to how such a thing had occurred in spite of his accurate calculations. Jupiter immediately replied that that the moon had forgotten the importance of his master and the power of his vision and instead relied only on his own calculations. Moon replied that he was still not able to understand what jupiter had said. Jupiter replied that as he was a Guru, the fact that his vision was on the baby at that particular moment had saved the child from death. Moon realized his fault and apologized to his master. He understood and realized the power of the divine vision of a Guru and its greatness.

   Likewise, Swami's vision can wipe out misery borne out of karma. We should ensure that it is directed towards us and our family forever. The divine vision of Swami has unique power to bless and shower grace. Never worry about the astrological and planetary positions in your life if you are under the protection of a true Guru. Swami said that there is no doubt the planets affect our lives. But who created the planets? Is there any doubt that God's divine power is superior to the power of planets?

Next