- Denis Waitley

- Henry Ward Beecher

“Please keep this box. My father gave it to me. I will return from city after few days and collect it from you,” said Mohan Das to Ramasewak.

“You do not have to worry. I will keep this box safely,” said Ramasewak.

Mohan Das started off his journey happily. He knew that his valuable iron box was safe with Ramasewak. A few days later he returned. He went to his friend Ramasewak and asked for the iron box. Ramasewak pretended to look a little surprised, “Oh, the iron box! The rats ate it up. I just could not stop them,” he said.

Mohan Das realized that his friend had become greedy and dishonest. Ramasewak was trying to cheat him. Being an intelligent man, he kept quite. “I must figure out a way to get my iron box back from Ramasewak,” thought Mohan Das.

Next day, Mohan Das went to Ramasewak and said, “Friend! Can you send your son with me? I need someone to look after my property.”

Ramasewak thought for a while. He brooded. “Mohan Das seems to be a fool. May be he will reward my son for looking after his property,” thought Ramasewak. Then, immediately he agreed and sent his son with Mohan Das.

Next morning, Mohan Das came running to Ramasewak and said, “Dear friend, a terrible thing has happened. A hawk has carried your son away.”

Ramasewak was furious and demanded, “How can a hawk carry off my son?”

“In the same way as the rats can eat up the iron box,” answered Mohan Das.

“I am sorry, my friend. I realize my mistake,” Ramasewak said with a bit of concern in his voice. He felt ashamed of having tried to cheat his friend. He gave the box back to his friend. Both of them were happy and remained good friends forever.

The Abbot was greatly frightened. He said very humbly. “Your Majesty, I have never used others’ money for my use. Is it a crime to spend my own money for my needs?”

“Yes,” replied the King. Then he added, “It is a crime to live grander than the King.”

The Abbot trembled in fear.

The King continued. “But I shall give you a chance to get pardon. Answer my three questions correctly to my satisfaction.”

Then he gave out the three questions.
1. Tell me how much I am worth.
2. How long will it take for me to go around the world?
3. What I am thinking now?

The Abbot listened. His confusion and fear increased rapidly. He could not speak. Finally he begged for time to answer. Three weeks were given. The Abbot left the palace in a dejected mood.

On the way, he went into Oxford University and Cambridge University. He met great professors and learned men. He asked them for answers to these three questions. They were not able to find the suitable answers. He was returning home safely. On the way he met his shepherd boy.

The shepherd asked the Abbot, “Why are you looking so sad, my master?”

“My dear shepherd, the King has set three questions for me. I have to find answers to his satisfaction, or else die for plotting against the King. The questions are difficult. I have only three days more,” replied the Abbot.

The shepherd said, “My Lord, let me go in your place. I shall meet the King. I shall answer the three questions to his satisfaction.” Then he added, “People say I look very much like you. Therefore permit me to wear your dress. The king will not be able to find out.”

The Abbot agreed.

Immediately the shepherd put on the Abbot’s dress. He exactly looked like the Abbot. He then went to meet the King.

The King had not expected the Abbot so soon. He was not able to find the difference. He said, “I am happy, Abbot. You have kept your promises. Now are ready with the answers?”

The shepherd in the Abbot’s dress replied, “Yes, Your Majesty. I shall try to answer to the best of my ability.”

The King asked, “What am I worth? I am the King of England.”

“Your Majesty,” replied the shepherd, “according to the Bible, Jesus, the King of Heaven and Earth, was sold for thirty pence. Your worth must be one pence less. It should be twenty nine pence.”

The King had a sense of humor. He started laughing. After some time, he gave out second question. “How soon can I ride around the world?”

The shepherd said, “Your Majesty, you must rise with the Sun, ride with it the whole night. In this way, you will be able to go round the world in twenty four hours.”

Again the King had a merry laugh. Then he looks seriously at the shepherd. He said, “Tell me quickly. What am I thinking now?”

“Sire, you are thinking I am the Abbot. But I am not the Abbot. I am only his poor shepherd. I have come to ask pardon for the Abbot and for myself.” Then he quickly removed the Abbot’s dress. Now he looked like a shepherd. He knelt down before the King for pardon.

The King was not at all angry. He started laughing. And he laughed for a long time. Finally he said, “I am pleased with your intelligence. I shall make you the Abbot.”

But the shepherd said, “Your Majesty. I can not read and write. I can not become an Abbot.”

The King said, “Then you shall receive a pound a week as long as you live. Go home and tell the Abbot. I have forgiven him.”

Oh don’t worry, you can still pick up your old emotion tomorrow, if you want to. But just for today, set it aside. You don’t have to be mean to it, or angry with the feeling. Honor and respect it. But send it on vacation. Just for 24 hours.

How are you supposed to do this? Speak to your emotion. Use whatever tone you want. “Hey, Anger, I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to give you a rest for a day. You’ve been working really hard for me, and you’re certainly tenacious about sticking around, and I think you deserve a vacation. So pack a little overnight bag for yourself, and go off to your favorite tropical island for a little rest and relaxation. I’ll collect you tomorrow, though if you decide you want to stay on your island, I will certainly be okay without you for a little while. Oh don’t worry about me; I’ll get along okay without you for a bit. Off you go then. Jolly good.”

Then I want you to imagine your emotion packing a bag and hightailing it to the airport. See your emotion getting on an airplane wearing a loud tropical shirt. Then imagine it flying to an island, getting off, and sitting on a beautiful beach with a book, an umbrella, and a tropical drink. And let it be.

Now come back to yourself. You will not feel that emotion today. You can feel it tomorrow, but you can’t feel it today because it’s off on a tropical island. Today, instead, you’re going to replace that lower vibrational emotion with something you like better. Think of it like shopping for a new emotion at the store. Try it on for size. Take it home with you for 24 hours, and wear it like your new favorite shirt.

You can do this. You probably owe it to yourself in fact. Any time you feel the old emotion welling up inside you, remind yourself that it’s on vacation so you must be feeling something else.

When tomorrow comes, ask yourself if that old emotion is ready to leave its beach or if it still wants to stay on vacation. Give it permission to stay there if it wants to. If you really want to take it back, you can. But recognize that sometimes you two need time apart. So send it on vacation sometimes. Don’t worry, it can take it, and you need a rest sometimes.

And if you have more than one emotion you’d like to send on vacation, send them all on the same flight (may as well get the group rate!). If they need you, they’ll send a postcard.

- Author Unknown : Sent by my friend Anand Sivakumaran

I was 16 years old and living with my parents at the institute my grandfather had founded 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugarplantations.

One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was going to town, my mother gave me a list of groceries she needed and, since I had all day in town, my father asked me to take care of several pending chores, such as getting the car serviced.

When I dropped my father off that morning, he said, “I will meet you here at 5:00 p.m., and we will go home together.”.

After hurriedly completing my chores, I went straight to the nearest movie theatre. I got so engrossed in a John Wayne double-feature that I forgot the time. It was 5:30 before I remembered. By the time I ran to the garage and got the car and hurried to where my father was waiting for me, it was almost 6:00.

He anxiously asked me, “Why were you late?”

I was so ashamed of telling him I was watching a John Wayne western movie that I said, “The car wasn’t ready, so I had to wait,” not realizing that he had already called the garage.

When he caught me in the lie, he said: “There’s something wrong in the way I brought you up that didn’t give you the confidence to tell me the truth. In order to figure out where I went wrong with you, I’m going to walk home 18 miles and think about it.”

So, dressed in his suit and dress shoes, he began to walk home in the dark on mostly unpaved, unlit roads.

I couldn’t leave him, so for five-and-a-half hours I drove behind him, watching my father go through this agony for a stupid lie that I uttered. I decided then and there that I was never going to lie again. I often think about that episode and wonder, if he had punished me the way we punish our children, whether I would have learned a lesson at all.

I don’t think so. I would have suffered the punishment and gone on doing the same thing. But this single non-violent action was so powerful that it is still as if it happened yesterday. That is the power of non-violence.

It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side by side, sharing machinery, and trading labour and goods as needed without a hitch.    Then the long collaboration fell apart.    It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference, and finally it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John’s door.    He opened it to find a man with a carpenter’s toolbox. “I’m looking for a few days work” he said.   “Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there. Could I help you?” “Yes,” said the older brother.   “I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That’s my neighbour, in fact, it’s my younger brother. Last week there was a meadow between us and he took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us.    Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I’ll go him one better. See that pile of lumber curing by the barn?    I want you to build me a fence — an 8-foot fence — so I won’t need to see his place anymore.   Cool him down, anyhow.   “The carpenter said, “I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I’ll be able to do a job that pleases you.”   The older brother had to go to town for supplies, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day.    The carpenter worked hard all that day measuring, sawing, nailing.
About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job. The farmer’s eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped.   There was no fence there at all.   It was a bridge — a bridge stretching from one side of the creek to the other!    A fine piece of work, handrails and all — and the neighbour, his younger brother, was coming across, his hand outstretched.    ”You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I’ve said and done.”   The two brothers met at the middle of the bridge, taking each other’s hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox on his shoulder.
“No, wait! Stay a few days.    I’ve a lot of other projects for you,” said the older brother.   “I’d love to stay on,” the carpenter said, “but I have so many more bridges to build.”

Are we building bridges or fences?   Unforgiveness will make you a slave….. Forgive and Forget….

“I remember one boy in my school was accused of some wrong act. The teachers felt it was sufficiently serious that they wanted me to expel him. That would have meant that for four years he could not get into any other school.

I said, ”I won’t do that to him; I cannot sponsor such an idea. He may have done wrong, but I shall reason with him and forgive him, “There was a big commotion of disagreement. So I said to the teachers: “Remember all the things that you have done during and since your childhood. Can you tell me you have never done anything reprehensibly wrong?” They all hung their heads. “If that boy were your son, would you send him out?”

No one spoke. I said,” He is my son, and I will hear him.”

So I called this boy to me; he came in very defiant: “Go ahead, I know you are going to throw me out.”

“What makes you think so?” I replied. Again he challenged me rebelliously: “Go ahead.” I replied, “How Childish of you. You have done wrong, and you are proud of it. What is the matter with you? Suppose you did do wrong, that doesn’t mean you have to do wrong again.”

He hung his head. “Don’t do it again,” I said. He looked at me like the little child that he was. “You mean you won’t send me away?”

“You know that what you did was wrong, don’t you?”

He said, “Yes”

“Isn’t that enough?” I said.

“Don’t repeat it.”

Tears came in his eyes and he told me, “You know, I had made up my mind that if you sent me away, I would use my life to do all the evil things that I could.” Then he went on, “I am sorry for what I have done, and promise you that I will never do it again.”

Years later when I went to India, I learned that he had gone to England to further his education and opportunities. He now had a successful career, was very spiritual, and had a wonderful family. He came to me in tears and said, “Do you remember me?” I greeted him lovingly. He said, “That day that you forgave me made me what I am today. It is all due to your faith in me.” He embraced me and cried like a child.

If I had sent that young boy away from my school, he would not have become the remarkable man his is. He would have been nothing today. So remember, love changes people; their part is to repent of their wrongdoing and cultivate discrimination and won’t power to guide their future behavior

Because of his kind nature he often accepted disciples who were spiritually immature. This resulted in silly misunderstandings and quarrels among some of his disciples breaking the peace and tranquility of the hermitage.

One day the Guru was very disturbed to see their immature behavior even after his repeated advice. It saddened his good heart to see his disciples turning into slaves of jealousy and anger. His compassion did not let him throw anyone out of his hermitage. Instead, he sincerely prayed to God to give him a solution. He fasted for many days, and spent the days by himself in meditation and prayer.

After some days of fasting and intense prayers, he had a vision of the Lord. In the vision, God asked him why he was sad. He explained everything and requested Him to come to the ashram and free their minds of jealousy, anger, and desire for power. To his surprise, the Lord immediately agreed and told him that He would come to the ashram on one condition: He would come in disguise as one of the disciples, and nobody would know who was God in disguise. The Guru announced to his disciples about his vision and Bhagavan’s kind decision to come as one of his disciples.

The disciples were very happy when they heard about Bhagavan’s plan to come and live with them in disguise. But they did not know who was Bhagavan and everybody was very gentle and considerate to each other thinking that the other disciple might be Bhagavan Himself in disguise. When they lived like that for a few months, peace and tranquility filled their hearts as well as the hermitage.

In their pure minds, they felt the Lord’s blissful presence and they started treating each other, and thinking of each other, as none other than Bhagavan Himself in disguise! The whole ashram was reverberating with blissful positive vibrations emanating from everyone! This great sage and his disciples told their experience to others and inspired them also to respect each other and to pranam to the divinity in every one.

Since then, everybody started greeting each other saying “namaste” with folded hands : namah + te, meaning “I bow to That (Divinity) inherent in you.”

May the Lord help us also to see His divinity in everybody! Namaste!