Heaven or Hell

Monday 20/ February /2012

Heaven or Hell An old man who had spent a life time of sins by cheating and thriving was on his death bed. The prospect of death and his punishment that would be meted out after life time frighten even the hardest of hearts. This old man too became frightened and started praying to God for forgiving his sins and promising to be have better in his next life. The cries of this old man drew the attention of an angel who was passing by and attracted her towards him. Coming near the dying man, the angel asked him “Why do you cry like this?” The saying man told the angel faithfully about his sinful apst and his fears about the future. The angel asked; “Can you think of some good acts you might have performed which may help you?” Cried the dying man; “Not one that I can think of , for, whatever I did, was found. How I wish I had done a few noble acts at least!” Angel, “Now, think of your childhood, when possibly you must have done some good thing!” The old man thought hard and said; “ I am ashamed to say that it was a good act. When I was a child. I went without food for some days. At last I found a piece of bread which I wanted to keep for two days. At that time a poor man who was no better than my self looked at my bread and pleaded with me to share it with him. I agreed and parted with half of it to that friend. Ca I call this a good deed?’ Angel ; “Do not fear, it is an excellent act. Hold on to it and you will cross the other life with freedom from punishment.” This assurance soothed the old man and he died peacefully. The soul of the old man was carried to heaven, on the life provided by the bread piece. Now, even as the old man’s soul started ascending to heaven on the bread piece. Other souls of equal character which were departing from the world at about the same time started clanging to the bread piece which was carrying the old man to heaven! When a number of them jumped on it, the old man got furthered lest the bread piece should fall down and endanger his chances. Annoyed at that, he shouted to the other souls which had started crowding on his bread piece. “Be gone all of you, the bread piece is mine! Hardly had he uttered these words when the bread piece crumbled and the old man along with other who had crowded on to his , fell down crashing into the suffering of hell. One small deed of real charity had been able to overcome a life time of evil deeds, but an act of selfishness spoiled even that slender foothold. People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges. How to get Sense of Fulfilment From work. In one from or the other, we have to perform action/work during our lifetime. In this industrialised society, our man motive for work is to earn money. This motive becomes the driving force for all that we do and in course of time our inner life becomes unrefined, with this total dependency on returns for our work. There are some people who love work for tis own sake. They get pleasure just doing the work. They get a sense of fulfilment from work. To them, returns from work become secondary. A pat on the back, a work of acknowledgement or appreciation may be all they looking for. A mother doing incessant work for her family, for her children, has this kind of attitude to work. A mother/father with an inborn sense of duty performs their actions without an eye on returns. A student who is studying is not paid for his work. There may be at the back of his mind, plans for future prospects, for a future career. But for the time being , he has to be absorbed and devoted to his studies. He has to study. with a sense of duty . with this attitude, he can over come his likes and dislikes and pore deeply into his studies with total devotion. But what then will be the motive to transform all our actions into kamayoga, the yoga of selfless action, or work done with a sense of duty. Work done with this attitude comes out better . We feel we have mo energy for work. Work gives satisfaction, we learn a lot from it. Gradually, this attitude helps us to see the large process of life. Life becomes richer. We see much more behind ordinary, normal things of life, which we had taken from granted. We develop self esteem. Our self worth does not come from what return we get from the work, but from the feeling that we have done the work to the best of our ability. This enrichment of our inner life through work/action is called Karmayaoga. Courtesy ‘PARTHA’ Quote from true charm and power of Vedanta I am not misery, nor ever had I misery; I am not enemy, or had I enemies; I am Existence, Absolute, Knowledge Absolute, Bliss Absolute; I am he , I am He. (Shivo Hum, Shivo Hum) I drive joyThere was adoctor in Benaras whospent 7 minutes in themorning and evening for mediation on God. Knowing this, his colleagues and friendslaughed at him. One day they argued that he was wasting ten precious minutes on something, which he had been misled into believing. The doctor replied, “Well, if God does not exist, I agree that I am wasting ten minutes a day. But, if He exists? I am afraid you are wasting your entire lifetime. I prefer to waste ten minutes ratherthan a lifetime. Why should you grudge me the 10 minutes joythat I derive 4m. Illustrated live Reviews. 7thHEAVEN MOMENT Of d week is India no 7 man of the match on 5th odi. In she filed shield sa 277/7, in bpl bb won by 9 wk, India won by 7 goal against Italy ,