Shaft of joy

The joy that you experienced ten years ago, the joy that you experienced nine years ago, the joy that you experienced three years ago, and the joy that you experienced one year ago are all independent, individual, unconnected thoughts or incidents. But now, you connect all of those thoughts and create a big shaft of joy.

You may identify your joy with an object, a person, or a space like a particular vacation resort. Now you will try again and again to bring that back in your life, to bring that person, that object, that space, or that same incident back in your life. But try as you might, you will not be able experience the same joy again. This puts you in further pain!

Real Love?

There were three grownups having their morning tea together. Their children were playing on the floor. They were discussing what they would do if danger threatened, and all of them declared that the first thing they would do was pick up their children and escape.

Suddenly, the safety valve of the pressure cooker burst, creating a steam explosion in the room. Within seconds, everyone was out of the kitchen – except for the children playing on the floor!

When Night ends and Day begins?

One day a master asked his disciples how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun.

One of them said, ‘When you can look in the distance and tell whether the animal is a cow or a horse.’ The master said, ‘No.’

Another disciple said, ‘When you can look at a tree in the distance and tell if it is a pine tree or a mango tree.’ The master again said ‘No.’

They asked the master, ‘Then what is it master?’
The master replied, ‘When you can look into the face of any man and recognize your brother in him. When you can look into the face of any woman and recognize your sister in her. If you cannot do this, then no matter what time of the day it is, it is still only night time.’

The Escape plan!

Ten philosophers were imprisoned in a country. They were kept together in one cell. They decided that somehow they should escape from the prison. They sat and made a big plan. They got the mold of the prison door key and made a duplicate key.

Finally, they chose the date of escape. The whole plan was clearly laid out. They decided that on the particular night, two of them will open the prison door with the duplicate key and signal to the others. The others would escape and these two would follow after locking the door behind them.

The day of escape dawned and two of them went to open the door. The rest of them waited for the signal. They waited and waited but never got any signal. Three hours passed. Suddenly the two who had gone to open the door came back and said, ‘We have to drop our plan to escape. It can’t happen today. We will have to do it some other day. We will have to reschedule our escape.’

The others asked, ‘Why, what happened?’

They replied, ‘What to do? The foolish guards forgot to lock the prison door!’

Appreciation never comes spontaneously for many of us.

One man went to the market to buy vegetables for his wife. He bought ladies’ fingers, came home and showed it to his wife. The wife saw the ladies’ fingers and said, “Oh! These are so over grown. I will not be able to cook them.”

The man went the next day and bought some more ladies’ fingers, choosing carefully this time, and came home and showed them to this wife. The wife said, “What have you bought? They are too tender to make the dish I had in mind.”

The next day, the man went to the market, prayed to the shopkeeper and said, “Please give me some good ladies’ fingers that are neither too ripe nor too tender.” The shopkeeper picked the best ladies’ fingers himself and the man took them home and showed them to his wife. The wife saw them and said, “What? You’ve bought ladies’ finger today also!”

God's compassion

One man dreamt that he and God were walking on the beach through the journey of life.
He told God, “Oh Lord! I dreamt that you and I were walking on the sands of the beach. When I looked back at the trails on the sand, I saw that at times when life was most testing, at times when I had the deepest troubles, there was only one line of footsteps, the other was missing. How could you move away from me during those times?”
God replied, “Son! It was during those times that I carried you!”

7 Wonders of the world

A small story:

One day, the Geography teacher in a school asked her students to write down the Seven Wonders of the World.
All the kids listed the great wonders like the Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the Eiffel Tower and so on.
One girl was writing and she kept writing, shaking her head and continuing to write.
The teacher came to her and asked, “What happened, you forgot what you learnt?”
The little girl said, “No. I am a bit confused. There are many more than seven.”
The teacher was surprised and took her sheet and read it. She then read it aloud for the class to hear, “The seven wonders of the world are: I can see; I can touch; I can smell; I can hear; I can taste; I can laugh; I can love…”
The class was suddenly filled with penetrating silence.

These small things are forgotten because we think that they are small. Everything becomes small to us when it is easily available. There are so many millions of people in this world who can’t see, who can’t hear, who can’t talk, who can’t taste. We never think of all these things. We are always thinking of what more, what better, what next, all the time, that’s all.