जीने की कला

एक शाम माँ ने दिनभर की लम्बी थकान एवं काम के बाद जब डीनर बनाया तो उन्होंने पापा के सामने एक प्लेट सब्जी और एक जली हुई रोटी परोसी।

मुझे लग रहा था कि इस जली हुई रोटी पर कोई कुछ कहेगा। परन्तु पापा ने उस रोटी को आराम से खा लिया ।

मैंने माँ को पापा से उस जली रोटी के लिए "साॅरी" बोलते हुए जरूर सुना था। और मैं ये कभी नहीं भूल सकता जो पापा ने कहा "प्रिये, मूझे जली हुई कड़क रोटी बेहद पसंद है।"

देर रात को मैंने पापा से पूछा, क्या उन्हें सचमुच जली रोटी पसंद है? उन्होंने मुझे अपनी बाहों में लेते हुए कहा - तुम्हारी माँ ने आज दिनभर ढ़ेर सारा काम किया, और वो सचमुच बहुत थकी हुई थी और...वेसे भी...एक जली रोटी किसी को ठेस नहीं पहुंचाती, परन्तु कठोर-कटू शब्द जरूर पहुंचाते हैं।

तुम्हें पता है बेटा -

जिंदगी भरी पड़ी है अपूर्ण चीजों से...अपूर्ण लोगों से... कमियों से...दोषों से...मैं स्वयं सर्वश्रेष्ठ नहीं, साधारण हूँ और शायद ही किसी काम में ठीक हूँ।

मैंने इतने सालों में सीखा है कि-

एक दूसरे की गलतियों को स्वीकार करो...अनदेखी करो... और चुनो... पसंद करो...आपसी संबंधों को सेलिब्रेट करना।

मित्रों, जिदंगी बहुत छोटी है...उसे हर सुबह दु:ख...पछतावे...खेद के साथ  जताते हुए बर्बाद न करें।

जो लोग तुमसे अच्छा व्यवहार करते हैं, उन्हें प्यार करो ओर जो नहीं करते उनके लिए दया  सहानुभूति रखो।

Enjoy the Coffee

A group of friends visited their old university professor. 

Conversation soon turned to complaints about 'stress' & 'tension' in life.

Professor offered them coffee and returned from kitchen with coffee in different kinds of cups!!

(Glass Cups, Crystal Cups, Shining Ones, Some Plain Looking, Some Ordinary and Some Expensive Ones......)

When all of them had a cup in hand, the professor said:-

"If you noticed all the nice looking and expensive cups are taken up, leaving behind the ordinary ones!!

Everyone of you wanted the best cups, and that is the source of your stress and tension!!

What you really wanted was "coffee", not the "cup". But you still went for the best cup.

If life is coffee; then jobs, money, status and love, etc. are the cups!!

They are just tools to hold and contain life.

Please don't let the cups drive you !!

Enjoy the coffee...!!

What is life?

They say its from B to D...from Birthday to Death. But what's between B and D?

Its a "C" - Choice...

Our life is a matter of choices... Live well and it will never go wrong...

The Abundance Principle

Once a man got lost in a desert. The water in his flask had run out two days ago, and he was on his last legs. He knew that if he didn't get some water soon, he would surely die. The man saw a small hut ahead of him. 

He thought it would be a mirage or maybe a hallucination, but having no other option, he moved toward it. As he got closer he realized it was quite real. So he dragged his tired body to the door with the last of his strength.

The hut was not occupied and seemed like it had been abandoned for quite some time. The man entered into it, hoping against hope that he might find water inside.

His heart skipped a beat when he saw what was in the hut: a water hand pump.. It had a pipe going down through the floor, perhaps tapping a source of water deep under-ground.

He began working the hand pump, but no water came out. He kept at it and still nothing happened. Finally he gave up from exhaustion and frustration. He threw up his hands in despair. It looked as if he was going to die after all.

Then the man noticed a bottle in one corner of the hut. It was filled with water and corked up to prevent evaporation.

He uncorked the bottle and was about to gulp down the sweet life-giving water when he noticed a piece of paper attached to it. Handwriting on the paper read: "Use this water to start the pump. Don't forget to fill the bottle when you're done."

He had a dilemma. He could follow the instruction and pour the water into the pump, or he could ignore it and just drink the water.

What to do? If he let the water go into the pump, what assurance did he have that it would work? What if the pump malfunctioned? What if the pipe had a leak? What if the underground reservoir had long dried up?

But then... maybe the instruction was correct. Should he risk it? If it turned out to be false, he would be throwing away the last water he would ever see.

Hands trembling, he poured the water into the pump. Then he closed his eyes, said a prayer, and started working the pump.

He heard a gurgling sound, and then water came gushing out, more than he could possibly use. He luxuriated in the cool and refreshing stream. He was going to live!

After drinking his fill and feeling much better, he looked around the hut. He found a pencil and a map of the region. The map showed that he was still far away from civilization, but at least now he knew where he was and which direction to go.

He filled his flask for the journey ahead. He also filled the bottle and put the cork back in. Before leaving the hut, he added his own writing below the instruction: "Believe me, it works!"

This story is all about life. 

It teaches us that we must give before we can receive abundantly. More importantly, it also teaches that faith plays an important role in giving. The man did not know if his action would be rewarded, but he proceeded regardless. Without knowing what to expect, he made a leap of faith.

Water in this story represents the good things in life. Something that brings a smile to your face. It can be  intangible knowledge or it can represent money, love, family, friendship, happiness, respect, or any number of other things you value. Whatever it is that you would like to get out of life, that's water.

The water pump represents the workings of the karmic mechanism. Give it some water to work with, and it will return far more than you put in.