Effort - 2

By remembering the words of the saint he decided to go further forward. This time he entered into much deeper forest. There he came across on river on his way. He hesitated first but then decided to go forward only. He made small boat with the woods fallen there and crossed the river.

 

 There he found the silver mine. He felt very happy and he took some of the mineral from there sold it and earn money. It happened for some days then again he remembered the words of the saint. He went forward from the place of silver mine. The way led to much deeper forest where plenty of snakes were there.

 

 First he felt fear but finally he overcome his fear and went forward, there he found the gold mine. He was very happy and took some mineral from there, sold it and earned good amount of money. He and his mother was very happy. After some days he again remembered the words of saint and decided to go forward. But his mother told ‘now our condition is good why you want to take risk?’. He replied ‘if  we loose enthusiasm and stop working our growth will stop’. By saying this he went much deeper in the forest there he found cruel animals roaming, even though he decided to go forward and by hiding behind trees he went forward.

There he found mine with diamonds. He was very very happy, took some diamonds and started to go home. There on his way he met the same saint, and told thanks to him. The saint blessed him and told that ‘because of your effort only you got all these my child’ and he went away. The young man reached home his mother felt very happy. Then he started living in good palace and wearing very rich clothes and he was much richer than his friends. So, effort never fails, do not leave until you get what you want.
This story is told by Sri Ramakrishna paramahamsa, suggesting that we should have sustained and progressive effort to reach God. 

Effort - 1

The common quality in all winners is putting effort. Everybody get failures but only those who continuously try will win. If we leave our effort in the middle by being frustrated with failures we can never win. The person who tries to do something will win or lose but the person who never tries will definitely lose. So, we have to try until we get what we deserved. Continuous effort is key of success. There is one good story on effort.

Once in a small village there lived one young man with his mother in a small hut. 

Daily he used to go to near by forest cut trees and earn money by selling that sticks. He was getting very little amount by doing this.

 

 His friends used to live in good houses, wear good clothes and leading happy lives. But he never got frustrated with his condition, he used to love his work and trying to work hard.

One day when he was going on his routine work, one saint came on his way and told him “go little forward”, by saying this that saint went off. The young man did not understand want and why that saint told. He went to his regular place and started doing work. In the middle of the work he thought ‘why that saint told like that?, let us go forward and see’. By thinking like this he started to go forward. It was difficult to go forward from there in the forest. Even though he went on by cutting the bushes coming on his way.

 

 Then suddenly he got some good smell. There he found some sandal trees. He felt very happy and cut some of the trees and sold that sticks, he got good money at this time. He keep on going to the place where sandal trees are there, cut them and sell them. His economic condition was improving.  One day again he remembered the words of the saint.

Is anybody scolded you? – 2

The story is once there was two brothers belonging to Bharadwaja lineage. When they get anger they used to loudly scold others and  because of this they got the name as aakrosulu(unnecessarily bothering people). The wife of younger brother was also behaving like that. But once she heard the words of Lord Buddha and since then she learned to control her anger and words. 

 

Whenever she got anger she used to remember Buddha and control herself. Her husband, the younger Bhaaradwaja did not like that and several times told to her not to remember Buddha repeatedly. But she did not listened. So, his anger tuned towards Buddha. He wanted to take revenge on Buddha by asking sarcastic questions and went to Venuvanam, the place where Lord Buddha was residing at that time. He asked Buddha” which animal we have to kill to live happily?”

 For that Lord Buddha replied that “ to live happily we have to kill the animal named hatred”. By listening this younger Bhaaradwaja  felt repentance, he changed  his mind and by taking the permission of his wife he entered into the “Bikshu union” of Buddha.

 

By listening this elder Bhaaradwaja became very angry and shouting loudly he went to Venuvanam. There he scolded Lord Buddha many bad words. After completion of his words, Lord Buddha said by looking peacefully at him “Oh Bramhin, if you give one thing to others as donation, but that person did not took that, then to whom that will belong?”

Then elder Bhaaradwaja replied that ‘it will belong to me only, why you asked this irrelevant question?”. Then Buddha said that “till now you were giving the donation of scoldings to me but your words neither hurted me nor made me angry. So, I am not taking that words. Now tell me to whom that words will belong?

 Though  bad tempered man, elder Bhaaradwaja was educated. So, by listening these words repentance started in him. He fell on the feet of Buddha and  told “Buddham saranam gacchami” then he also joined in the Biskhu union.

 

So, this story tells us that if anybody intentionally scolds us don’t take that words into the heart, just  leave them.

Is anybody scolded you? - 1

How do you react if anybody scolds or criticizes you? Well the reaction will depends on many factors like, who scolded you, why they scolded,  what  was your mental status at that time etc.
 
We frequently see some people becoming very disappointed and start crying when somebody criticizes or scolds them or they become angry and fight with that person.
 

Why should we do this?

If anybody criticizes or scolds us, there can be few reasons for that. One we have  really done wrong thing, two we did right thing but that person is thinking that to be wrong, three we did right thing and though knowing this that person is criticizing us with the intension to hurt us.

In the first situation we have done wrong, so we have to correct ourselves. If  our act did any damage to him physically or mentally we have to apologize him and if possible have to correct that mistake if not possible at least it should be avoided next time.

In the second situation we did right thing but the person is thinking it to be wrong. Here we can explain him what we did and why we did. If he understands good if not leave the topic, don’t argue. Because by arguing the opinions will not change normally , it can lead to unnecessary time wasting discussion and  quarrel further.

In the third situation we have not done anything wrong and the person knows it but still he is trying to criticize or scold us to hurt us. Here you just leave it, don’t bother about his words. Remember his nature and be careful in future.

These are things we can do. Unnecessarily bothering about the comments or scolding of others is waste of time. There is a good story related to this.