Peace within

 Murugan, the proprietor of a coffee shop had been busy all day. Being Saturday, his shop was very crowded and the customers seemed unending. 

He had been on his toes since morning. Towards the evening he felt a splitting headache surfacing. 

As the clock ticked away, his headache worsened. 

Unable to bear it, he stepped out of the shop leaving his staff to look after the sales. 

He walked across the street to the Pharmacy to buy himself a painkiller to relieve his headache. 

He swallowed the pill and felt relieved. He knew that in a few minutes he would feel better. 

As he strolled out of the shop, he casually asked the salesgirl, "Where is Mr. Gopalan, the Chemist? He's not at the cash counter today!" 

The girl replied, "Sir, Mr. Gopalan had a splitting headache and said he was going across to your coffee shop. He said a cup of hot coffee would relieve him of his headache." 

The man's mouth went dry and he mumbled, "Oh! I see."

This is a typical case of looking outside ourselves for something that we have within us. 

How strange, but true! 

The Chemist relieves his headache by drinking coffee and the coffee shop owner finds relief in a pain relieving pill! 

Similarly, many of us travel across the lengths and breadths of the universe and also visit several shrines and ashrams to find peace. 

Eventually, we come to realize that real peace is within our own hearts. 

Peace is really a state of mind.????????

Detachment is the opposite of attachment, not the opposite of enjoyment

 Once upon a time there was a great fakir [an ascetic] who lived a simple life. He ate whatever he found, drank water from the nearby river and meditated under the tree in the forest on the outskirts of a town. Word spread and the king of the province came to know about the fakir.

He decided to meet the fakir. The king was so impressed with the fakir’s unpretentious demeanor that he invited the fakir to live with him in the palace.

The fakir agreed readily, which surprised the king, who was expecting that the fakir will have to be persuaded a lot to accept the invitation. Nevertheless, the king took the fakir along with him and made lavish arrangements for his stay.

The ascetic settled down quickly and started enjoying all the luxuries of the palace—imperial clothes, royal food and a life of absolute comfort. Soon, the king started suspecting that perhaps he was being hoodwinked by the fakir.

But he kept his thoughts to himself and continued to observe the fakir. Six months on, the fakir was still enjoying his stay and didn’t seem to mind this majestic life one bit.

By now the king had become convinced that the fakir had only been pretending in the forest. He decided to confront him. On meeting the fakir, the king said, “When I first met you, I was impressed by your austere lifestyle and minimum needs. Your life was an example of renunciation. But what I now see is totally the opposite. You seem to be enjoying every material pleasure there is. So what is the difference between you and me?”

The fakir smiled and said, “I was waiting for you to ask me this question but I will answer you tomorrow morning.” The next morning the fakir appeared before the king wearing his old tattered clothes.

The fakir said, “I am leaving for an unknown destination. If you really want the answer, you will have to leave your palace, your family, your kingdom and accompany me.” The king was stunned. He said, “You know, I can’t do that!”

The fakir smiled and replied, “Yes, I know. And that is the difference between you and me. I can leave all pleasures and comforts whenever I want because I am not attached to them. You are. I hope you have your answer now.”

It dawned on the king that the fakir was indeed great. He pleaded him to stay on but the fakir had made up his mind. As he was leaving, he said to the king, “Remember, what you hold on to, holds you. And since I hold on to nothing, I have nothing to renounce. I am forever free.”

Beautiful story to depict how sacred teachings are misinterpreted

 A young monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to helping the other monks in copying the old canons and laws by hand.

He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up! In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk, says. "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

He goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscripts are held as archives in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

So, the young monk gets worried and goes down to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall and wailing. "We missed the 'R' ! We missed the 'R'."

His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the old abbot. "What's wrong, father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies. "The word was... CELEBRATE!”"

Most unfortunately this is the story of every religion. Now the real, may not sound interesting but what will you do about it?

What we pickup we pass onto next generation. If I pickup wrong, and I tell my child Celibate and there is protection from life force. This is the reason Buddha and Jiddu Krishnamurti stressed upon being a light to yourself..??