No One Can Replace You !

 

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Once a man went to Guru Nanak Sahib and asked ," What is the value of life?"

Guru Nanakji gave him a shining stone and told," Find the value of this stone . You can ask as many persons as you want but do not sell it.Come and tell me what you found out.Then I shall tell you the value of life. "

The man agreed and started walking on the street. 
He met an orange seller. He asked him," Do you know the value of this stone?"The orange seller looked at it and  said," Yes. I can exchange a dozen of oranges for this stone."The man appologised and said," I cannot sell this." and walked further.

He came acrosss a vegetable seller. He showed the stone to the vegetable seller and asked," Can you tell me the value of this stone?"
The vegetable seller said," Yes it is valuable. I can take this stone and give you a bag of potatoes."The man once again appologised for not selling the stone and proceeded on his way.

On his way he saw a jewellery shop and went inside.He showed the shining stone to the jeweller and asked him the value of this stone.
The jeweller carefully examined the stone and  offered him fiftylakh rupees for the stone.The man appologised for not selling the stone.The jeweller offered even 2 crores . At this the man was confused but he did not sell it.

He came out of the jewellery shop. A gem stone shop caught his attention. He went inside and showed the owner of the shop the shining stone and asked for its value. As soon as the shop owner saw the stone, he spread a cloth on the floor. Then with great respect , he took the stone from the man's hand and kept it on the cloth. He walked in circles around the stone and bent his forehead in front of the stone and started talking," Where did you get this Ruby from? This is so precious. Even if I sell what all I have, I cannot buy this precious stone ." Saying this he returned the Ruby to the man.

The man stunned and confused came back to the guru and told what all had happened and asked," Now tell me guruji, what is the value of life?"

Now GurunankSahib replied'" The answers you got from the orange seller, vegetable seller, the jeweller and the precious stone seller explains the value of your life.You may be a precious , priceless stone. But people will value you based on their financial status, their education, their knowledge, their belief in you, their risk taking ability etc....... But don't fear .You will surely find someone who will understand your true value.  But....Respect yourself.You are always unique.
No one can replace you!"

Yes. No one can replace you.

Is Hard Work,The Mother of Success?

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Hard work is the mother of success. Is it?

When it is crystal clear that  hard work alone helps us to reach the goal , can anyone have a doubt in this.

Even I was also of the same view . But then,there were times when hard work did not work for me.

So what is stopping me from reaching my goal even after all my perspiration. Whenever I got disappointed, I consoled myself that my hard work was not up to the mark.

But it is not so. There is some other hidden secret to success. That is what I realised after I came across a Zen story. You must also be eager to know what is the story about.

The story goes like this,

There was a Zen teacher who teaches sword fighting. An enthusiastic student bowed before the teacher and requested him to accept him as his student. The teacher readily accepted him as his student and told him that he is sure to excel in sword fighting in ten years time.

" Ten years !" the student exclaimed and said, " Master! I cannot wait that long to excel in sword fighting. I can work hard.' and thinking that  the teacher expects more hard work  from him,  added'" I can work hard twice as much as others do."

The teacher immediately replied, " oh! Then you can learn in twenty years."

The confused student said ," Sir  I am prepared to work hard as you expect , so as to reach my goal of learning the art in just five years."

The teacher said," Then it is going to take you  longer time,to learn than you think. If you have set a goal and target it with hard work alone, you are sure to miss the target."

The student looked at the teacher with still  greater confusion.

The teacher added," If you set yourself a goal, you will work under tremendous pressure. Instead of learning with conviction, your attention is disturbed by the goal in front of you. This makes you half blind. How can you work hard with one eye?"and Added,"on the other hand, if you enjoy your learning without goals, you would have excelled in the art, in no time .

Though the student got confused by his teacher's explanantion,  eventually  he realised that his teacher guided him in the right direction.

 

Not only the student , even I understood what the teacher meant..

When we look at  scientists who had come out with so many discoveries, many of them had been possible only when the scientists were relaxing.

Newton, the great scientist , gave to the world the great concept of Gravity , only when he was relaxing under an apple tree .

Archimedis principle was Known to the world, only when Archimedis was relaxing himself in a bath tub.

If we work with full concentration, we can enjoy the work we do and also succeed in that effortlessly.

Does that mean that if we work hard we wont be able to succeed.?
No. Many a times hard work does produce the desired result, but in most times we would not have felt happy doing that work. 

On the other hand, if we enjoy our learning/ work , we are sure to succeed effortlessly.

Lord Krishna had also preached us the same in Baghavad Gita .

He says, 
"Do your work.  Do not be worried about the results."

Have A Foresight To Eat Laddoos

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We all  know Pune is in Maharashtra in India. In a temple in Pune laddoo is distributed to pilgrims as the temple Prasad. The temple authorities arrange for the preparation of laddoos with a long shelf life. They have to prepare laddoos in large quantities as the number of pilgrims who come to the temple is large in number.The laddoos were kept in very big vessels.
 
Preparing  laddoos with a long shelf life was an easy job  to the authorities. But storing them was a Herculean  task. The temple authorities found it very difficult to store them safely. They have to safeguard the laddoos , not from thieves but from ants. The ants thronged in large numbers and ate the laddoos. The temple authorities tried all methods to prevent the ants from eating . But somehow the ants reached the laddoos and this caused a loss to the temple.


A staff meeting was held.Ideas were welcomed in the staff meeting to safeguard the laddoos. Each one came out with one. But all ideas were already tried ones and had ended in failure. One new young priest came out with an idea. His idea is that the laddoos should be kept in the centre of a room . And a thick circle should be drawn with sugar.


" Sugar!" Exclaimed others.
" Oh ! This new priest is trying to invite the ants "  one priest remarked sarcastically with a big hearty laugh. Others joined him in the laugh.
 But the head priest thought for a while." Let us try this method. This idea is new to us. Anyway we are not going to lose anything new, except for more sugar ."
So that day they kept the laddoos in the centre of a room and encircled it with a thick sugar circle. And left it overnight.

The next morning the laddoo room was opened.
What a surprise!
The laddoos were intact. Not a single pearl of laddoo was lost.
But what prevented  the ants from eating the laddoos? The priests looked at each other in confusion.


When they watched carefully , they found that the ants were still in the room . But they were carrying the sugar crystals . They were diverted by the appearance of the sugar crystals. In their craving for sugar, they lost sight of laddoos.
 
From then on this method was followed in the temple to prevent the ants from eating laddoos.
And of course the new priest who gave the idea was rewarded.

And now,what hammered in my mind is " oh! If only the ants had a foresight and looked further they would not have been deceived."
I also told myself," we should not be like the Pune ants . Let us have a fore sight."