His Story

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Nice Little Story - The Buddha and the Gift

Nobody could make Buddha angry very easily. Once when He was passing by, one man wanted to incite anger in Buddha’s heart. He went to Buddha and shouted at Him scorching, painful words of insult. Buddha still appeared to be smiling. It’s said there is aura around Buddha. Even if tiger and deer come into that circle, they would forget the enmity. He is so powerful. When the person is giving all these harsh words, He (Buddha) didn’t take it seriously. After sometime, this man felt great pain in this heart. He was surprised “I am giving such words to Buddha, instead of He feeling pain, why I am feeling pain?”

Buddha asked him “Do you ever get guests in home?. He said “yes”. “So when they come, do you offer some gifts to them?”. He said “yes”. “What will you do if they don’t accept?”. That Person said “who cares? I will keep with me only.” Buddha said “That’s what I did with you also; you offered me something(harsh words) which I didn’t accept”.

So Life is like a mirror. The words which you give will come back to you. We should be careful about what we give to others. Now somebody may say “I gave so much love to some person, still that person is rude with me”. No! If you give love to someone, don’t expect love from same person, it may come from somebody else. For example- Dhruva Maharaj is gentle to his step mother. But He is mistreated by her. He didn’t get love from his step mother, but he got love from Krishna later. His mother told him “Supreme Lord can give you so much love that millions of mothers like me cannot give”. Similarly in our life also, if we become vehicles of love n give love, we will get that love back.

Excerpts from IYF Lectures

Credit to Venkatesh Y

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Differential Values of Life

What is the value of a Hindu Life? Rajeev Srinivasan investigates -

This is eerily reminiscent of the Saudi Arabian system of blood money, See the Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_money (or The Wall Street Journal, April 9, 2002): In Saudi Arabia when a person has been killed or caused to die by another, the perpetrator has to pay blood money, or compensation, as follows:

  • 100,000 riyals if the victim is a Muslim man
  • 50,000 riyals if a Muslim woman
  • 50,000 riyals if a Christian man
  • 25,000 riyals if a Christian woman
  • 6,666 riyals if a Hindu man
  • 3,333 riyals if a Hindu woman

  • Because of the lure of petro-dollars, everyone accepts this with a shrug, 'That's the way the Saudis are'", although it violates our notions about human rights and egalitarianism.
    Source-http://www.rediff.com/news/2005/dec/16rajeev.htm

    A sad State of Affairs when entire Indian political class goes extra miles for proving their secular credentials.