This episode: Bamboo Tree

A man got frustrated with life. Despite all the hard work and effort, failure was all that he learns. Feeling defeated with life, he left everything and exiled himself in the woods. There he met a Hermit. The disappointed man shared is failure with the hermit. “Give me one good reason not to quit?”- He pleaded the Hermit

“Look”, the hermit said, pointing towards two plants. “Do you see that fern and bamboo there?

“Yes”, the man nodded.

“When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them water, light and fertilizer. Within a short period of time the fern quickly grew from the earth”, the hermit continued.

“But despite the Bamboo seed being watered and nurtured for years, it did not outwardly grow as much as an inch. In fact, nothing at all happened in the first year. There was no sign of growth. But, I did not give up on the Bamboo seed and continued to water and nurture it. By the fifth year, a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. And within six months, the tree grew a hundred feet tall.”

“So, did the bamboo tree lie dormant for four years only to grow exponentially in the fifth?” the hermit asked. Baffled by the question the man kept quiet. “The answer is quite obvious. The little tree was growing underground, developing a root system strong enough to support its potential for outward growth in the fifth year and beyond. Had the tree not developed a strong foundation, it would not have sustained its life as it grew.”

“Did you know that all the time you had been struggling, you were growing strong roots”, remarked the hermit

The man learned his lesson that day. He learn the value of persistence and hard work. The fern and the bamboo stood right in front of him as he walked towards his life to continue to work on his dreams.

See you next time!

This episode: what is in your water?

Once upon a time a daughter complained to her father that her life was miserable and that she didn’t know how she was going to make it.

She was tired of fighting and struggling all the time. It seemed just as one problem was solved, another one soon followed.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Once the three pots began to boil, he placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in the second pot, and ground coffee beans in the third pot.

He then let them sit and boil, without saying a word to his daughter. The daughter, moaned and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing.

After twenty minutes he turned off the burners. He took the potatoes out of the pot and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the boiled eggs out and placed them in a bowl.

He then ladled the coffee out and placed it in a cup. Turning to her he asked. “Daughter, what do you see?”

“Potatoes, eggs, and coffee,” she hastily replied.

“Look closer,” he said, “and touch the potatoes.” She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. Its rich aroma brought a smile to her face.

“Father, what does this mean?” she asked.

He then explained that the potatoes, the eggs and coffee beans had each faced the same adversity– the boiling water.

However, each one reacted differently.

The potato went in strong, hard, and unrelenting, but in boiling water, it became soft and weak.

The egg was fragile, with the thin outer shell protecting its liquid interior until it was put in the boiling water. Then the inside of the egg became hard.

However, the ground coffee beans were unique. After they were exposed to the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

Moral: In life, things happen around us, things happen to us, but the only thing that truly matters is what happens within us.

Which one are you?

See you next time.

This episode: Looking for the unknown

Kingdom stories sometimes are better ‘happily lived ever after’ romantic stories

There was a King in a country who was always restless and stressed out. He has to keep his ministers asking for results and actions. One day, he was walking on the top corridor and saw a happy man sitting outside his hut nearby. He seems to be very contented and was just relaxing on the platform outside his own house. The man was looking at the sky as if he is day-dreaming. The king while he was happy that one of his citizen is relaxing, wondering why he could not do that - and being a King.

One of his senior level minister was passing by. The King stopped him and showed the view of the man relaxing happily in his house. He wanted an answer why one person is so happy and the other is not that happy on a daily basis.

The senior minister was not only smart but knew how to handle the answer. He wanted the King to give him 99 gold coins and the assurance that this will not be returned back. King gave those coins

The minister got the very next day very early in the morning before the resident wakes up. He threw all the 99 coins around the front of the house as if someone left loose the bag containing the coins.

The resident got up as usual and found the coins on the front of his house. He was so happy to get so much of wealth that he thanked the God for answering his prayers. He took the bag and the leftover coins on the street to his house. He started counting them. When he got only 99 coins, he started re-counting again. And again, he has to count because it has to be only 100 coins in a bag. He could not ask anyone to help since the bounty need to be shared to that person as well. His mind became restless. He went back to the outside of house and started searching for the one missing coin. He was not convinced that one will have a bag of only 99 coins. The one coin must have been missed while he was handling the bag. He started walking back and forth thinking of other possible causes and solutions.

The resident could never take rest and this one coin took away all his pleasures.

The minister called the King to witness this situation. The King realized one is never get contented with what one already has in life. The missing one gold coin is enough the spoil the wealth of 99 gold coins

See you next time!

This episode: Where is your salt?

Once an unhappy young man came to an old master and told he had a very sad life and asked for a solution.

The old Master instructed the unhappy young man to put a handful of salt in a glass of water and then to drink it.

“How does it taste?” – The Master asked.

“Terrible.” – spat the apprentice.

The Master chuckled and then asked the young man to take another handful of salt and put it in the lake. The two walked in silence to the nearby lake and when the apprentice swirled his handful of salt into the lake.

The old man said, “Now drink from the lake.”

As the water dripped down the young man’s chin, the Master asked, “How does it taste?”

“Good!” – remarked the apprentice.

“Do you taste the salt?” – asked the Master.

“No.” – said the young man.

The Master sat beside this troubled young man, took his hands, and said, “The pain of life is pure salt; no more, no less. The amount of pain in life remains the same, exactly the same. But the amount we taste the ‘pain’ depends on the container we put it into. So when you are in pain, the only thing you can do is to enlarge your sense of things. Stop being a glass. Become a lake.”

The happiest people don’t have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything.

To finish this episode with a quote. See your next time!

‘When you think everything is someone else's fault, you will suffer a lot’ - Dalai lama

MAKE MY DAY

Life is a journey. In this travel, we help others in some way in certain days. Many days, we need help from others. Like ‘guardian angels’, people show up in our life to uplift our spirits. It could be a simple hello from someone, stranger helping the grocery line, a driver yielding for your turn on a busy traffic, etc. We may consciously feel their effort and appreciate back. We may simply ignore the gesture if our mind is preoccupied with something else.

‘Make My day’ is a series of blogs and pod-casts that gives you a break from routine day. Take a break from your hectic mundane day and smell the roses! The roses here are distributed like twice or thrice a week. After reading or listening to these, drink fresh water and bring a great smile in your face! You deserve this!

Today’s episode: Elephant’s story

Limitations only exist in our mind. Except breaking the laws of physics everything else is achievable.

Story time: "As my friend was passing the elephants, he suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from the ropes they were tied to but for some reason, they did not. My friend saw a trainer nearby and asked why these beautiful, magnificent animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.

“Well,” he said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size of rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” My friend was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were."

Like the elephants, how many of us go through life hanging onto a belief that we cannot do something. The limitations are only in our mind.

Interestingly, have you ever wondered where your mind is? It is not the brain and not in part of the body. It is not certainly the heart, because heart says something from your mind! Simple answer could be, mind is a bundle of thoughts and emotions embedded in your aura around the body. Something to deeply think about it today!