When in doubt...

When life gives you lemons, its better to make lemonade, or else the sourness will keep on adding.

As someone wisely said
Life is like playing chess with God,
your moves are called choices
and God's moves are called challenges.

When in doubt
ask for help.

When you are falling apart, and damage is beyond repair, you are isolated and have no clue
you must understand that its time to shed the old and embrace the change as a blessing.

No situation, no person, nothing is ever going to remain the same
Change is the purpose, essence and meaning of life.
Choice remains yours whether you want to change
or your circumstances will compel you to change.

Time is the best healer and also the toughest teacher
If you fail to learn it will teach you the hard way
And then eventually will heal you.

Examine all sources of worry and pain
If you go deep enough, you will understand nothing outside you can cause it.

For all the problems external
there is a solution internal.

When in doubt
ask yourself
your inner wisdom
the answer will come
may be from someone unknown
someone random
some dream
some inspiration
do anything that gives you joy
soon you will bounce back
feeling blissful
just the way you should be.


The same set of circumstances can either make you blissful or miserable,
Depending on how you are choosing to deal with them.
They are two side of the same coin, you can decide what you want to experience form those circumstances.

Prisoner of will!

Sage Augastya was assigned the task to put the essence of divine knowledge as akashik records in space, which would be deciphered later as vedic knowledge by the human race.

He worked days and nights together, during the day there was enough light. At night he would go by the celestial river Brahmni, its water glowed with the reflection of moon. He filled his urn with that water, brought it home with him .It glowed and worked as a lantern for him throughout the night.

He was short pressed for time, and the moon was waning, to prepare for the dark phase of the moon he started collecting fireflies from a nearby creek.

He was occupied in the task of collecting the fireflies when he heard a playful giggle of a girl. She was made of bright silvery light that would glow and disappear on and off. Both fascinated and distracted from his task, he chased and captured her in his small urn by his special powers.

 Creek fairy begged to be released, saying she was only being playful and she meant no harm to him.
He kept her trapped for a fortnight and used her glowing light  till the bright phase of new moon appeared again.

Fairy felt resentment at being trapped for somebody's selfish reason. When the sage released her she cursed him to experience being tied down by another beings will to serve his selfish purpose.

The akashik records were completed, gods, sages and fairies and rishis dispersed and eventually took human forms to receive the records they had left to be deciphered by the humans, as themselves.

Several eons later they descended into denser reality, sage now living as ordinary mortal trying to recall his divine essence and reconcile with all beings and matter to be one again.

He as Prabuddha in kalyug felt immense pain from being withheld to accomplish his larger dream, because of another human beings will, who was doing this to fulfill his selfish purpose.He kept him tied down till a certain period of time, which would compensate for the time he kept the celestial fairy imprisoned against her will.

Realizing this, he stopped resenting the act and played along till the task was completed.
He learned that people are not evil or selfish because of their inherent nature, instead they are choosing to play certain roles to help him get rid of the karma/clutter that he has gathered through the ages by certain actions and choices that he made during his journey back home.

Vacation Home for Tired Souls.

Prince Versata was a warrior of the Aritrus race, on their planet beings did not have a form, their inner lights reflected their shapes into a formless form. He rode the Dragoequin which was half dragon and half horse.Versata had a blue, dazzling white and green light form.

They were a mighty race, his people were always on a hunt for the Redistars, they were the real trouble makers, aiming to destroy the race of Arthrus'.They had white and red bands of light and predominantly red inner light.
Two deadly redistar prisoners went missing, and Versata was trusted with the task of getting them back.
Prince took his magical sword, the only sword on their planet, that can overpower Redistar prisoners.

His chase ends in the assembly of the condemned, The White Oldman is presiding over the house, Prince requests identification of his prisoners. The prisoners were sitting in rows facing each other, Prince went ahead for a closer look, all the prisoners let out glass like shards of their light to hide themselves. He saw all colours of light but red, he knew the one in the third row to the right is one of his prisoners, sitting right opposite to him would be the other prisoner, his mirror image.

He knew one would reflect the light of the other, even though they are capable of hiding their own. Prince calmly went on to inspect the other side and stood facing the other prisoner, he reflected his partner's light though he himself was hidden, Prince Versata wielded his sword and it entrapped the prisoner back in the light-nets.

On his way back home it started to light-rain dissolving the light-nets and releasing the two formless prisoners. His father, the King was waiting with his two loyal generals for the prisoners execution at the podium, as millions of dark hooded spectators thumped their spears on the ground to call upon the Prince and his prisoners. By the time he reached there he knew the two crafty Redistar prisoners have dissolved into the two loyal generals, his sword was losing its power. Only his mother queen Emeraldia with green light or his sister Princess Shiloka with silver blue light was capable of restoring its power.

Shiloka rushed to the podium and held the sword till it glowed again, Prince had no choice but to slain the two loyal generals, but crafty Redistars leaped on to the Prince, combining their power and turning him into a powerful Redistar.

Now its Versata's turn to run for his life, it was an endless game of survivor's and slayers.
He rode his Dragoequin, and leaped out of his galaxy. Thrown off by the spinning force, he landed on some powdery cloudy grayish planet, as he stepped on it, the ground sank, and he fell.

It was a free fall for many light years.

When opened his eyes he found himself lying on a patch of grass, crickets and bees humming around, on a perfectly sunny day, honey golden  rays of sun falling on flowers of all colors and fragrance, a tiny stream of clear diamond like water flowing close by. He looked around in utter amazement, and thought to himself.

All those childhood stories about a vacation planet called Earth are really true. A place where beings go for a break from the rigour of endless fight for survival and extinction. Where the essence of a beings is about keeping himself from getting wiped out of existence by the hands of some equally might race of beings.

He smiled at the thought of learning blissfully lighter things like lessons of love, lust, greed, power, jealousy  etc. He smiled and felt grateful for being given the gift of Vacation from the endless and arduous existence of his planet Miranthos. Earth felt like a sweet nurturing gently blowing breeze on his face, he took a long filling, life giving breath and admired th beauty of physical existence.

What a place,what a vacation home, he thought and smiled again and again,till the memory of the other side faded from his physical consciousness.

Errors of Parallex!

Boris was a failed mathematician, who lived in the quiet rural neighborhood of 16^th century Connecticut region; he wanted to prove to the world that he is capable of a lot of good. One day in his half asleep half awake state he heard a message, teaching him how to restore vision to the blind.

The message said that he must find a human skull, clean it; clean out the eye sockets by gouging out the eye balls, bandage it with clean gauze and light a candle inside the skull and paste the name of the patient inside that skull.

He decided to try it out first with his friends and relatives, to his surprise the method work, all his ailing old relatives started to regain their vision. The news spread through the word of mouth.

There was however a problem in obtaining so many skulls and keeping the lights on inside those skulls .He resorted to hunting for human skulls in the graveyards near the lake regions, close to the village where he lived.

He soon became a grave hunter in the night and a healer during the day.

In this process  he restored vision of many, but he ended up with a huge collection of skulls in his house, and all of them lit up in the night from inside creating a scary place to live in.

Boris was not affected, for the first time in his life people needed him and they looked up to him.

One day a burglar broke into his villa and found rooms full of skulls with bandaged eyes lit up from inside. Terrified he ran out screaming, alarming the neighborhood.

The secret was out; people speculated he must be a grave stealer, lunatic, witch doctor or worse a mass murderer. Predictably fear ruled and Boris was publicly executed by a fearful and angry mob. They gouged out his eyes, hacked his limbs and left him to die a painful death and torched his house.

As he left his body and looked down to observe what happened to him, he understood his mistake.

Through that message he was told to clean the karma of his patients and cover their eyes with his prayers, put the light of prayer in through his mind in the name of the patients.

He interpreted it too literally, though the symbolism worked, because of the sincerity in his heart to restore the vision of the blind, yet he had to pay for his error.

Most of the times things are exactly as they appear and we should not look for any meaning in it. When earth moves it is an earthquake.  However when we are seeking inspiration from the divine source,the messages have to be decrypted through inner guidance and faith, application of mind sometimes leads to fatal errors.

 *All these images are taken from various sites and have no relation with the story.

A Game of Dice

Once Shiva told Parvati that he wants to go and play dice with his army of ghosts and demons.

All these beings like Shiva were made of greyish blue non matter so they cannot be spotted by ordinary beings.

They started a game of dice inside their favorite cave away from light and linear time. Soon they were totally engrossed in the game. Parvati was waiting patiently for Shiva to return, many centuries and eons passed by; she watched galaxies and stars forming and destroying but there was no sign of Shiva returning.
Finally she decided to go and find her husband. She changed her form into a demoness made of same grey-blue non-light as Shiva, yet her dazzling light peaked through her form.
She entered the cave where Shiva was too engrossed in the game to notice her, the game caught her fancy soon, enchanted, she joined the Demons in the game, sidelined Shiva observed her form from a corner.

He was shaken out of his game as he realized that it is his wife Parvati disguised as a demoness.
 Amused he decided to watch her play, Parvati was soon deep into her game of dice, demons started losing , disenchanted they dissolved one after the other into ether.
When the last demon was left  he started to lose, he felt disenchanted  too. He peaked over her shoulder and saw Shiva lovingly watching her play . Shiva gestured him to continue so Devi can enjoy her game a little more.
Demon obeyed and started winning to keep himself into the game. After losing several turns, it was Parvati's turn to be disenchanted with the game, bored she turned around asking for Shiva's help.
Shiva touched her forehead to remind her, that very moment Parvati found herself sitting next to Shiva in their abode. As if she has woken up from a dream. She smiled at him and asked him what really happens through this game.

Shiva said "To be in the game one has to be enchanted with the game, when one loses enough he is disenchanted and opts out, when one wins too much the boredom makes the being opt out. As long as game is going in fair measure of winning and losing to keep one's interest, it can carry on endlessly,because inside that cave time has no meaning."

Understanding the secret of the game Parvati turned around and watched millions of people in different
galaxies and planets playing the same game since eternity, she looked at Shiva smiling mischievously.

Enchanted coins!

Ardoo and his wife karni were much in love. Ardoo was a fishermen, the entire village talked about their love and adoration for each other. This also was a cause of envy amongst many.
Maithili and Singhali were their neighbors, these two women were highly envious and wanted them to separate.
They started spreading all sorts of rumours about Ardoo going out early in pretext of fishing to cheat on his wife with another boatman's daughter. Karni would hear them but ignore them promptly.
That made these women all the more angry, so they decided to deceive Karni into believing that all those rumours were true.
They followed Karni around and talked about Ardoo cheating on his wife, how every morning they meet by the riverside to get intimate. Karni finally decided to check out whether if its really true.

It was the hour of the dawn, she followed her husband to the river, Maithili hiding close by,dressed as Ardoo pretended to get intimate with Singhali to deceive Karni into believed that rumors about her husband are true.
She was so hurt and broken hearted, she walked through out the day, clothes unkempt, teary eyed. By the hour of the dusk a wise old elephant with a bell found her sitting under a tree, he inquired the reason for her state. She narrated the story to him, elephant saw with his inner sight that her husband has been doing nothing but fishing in the river from morning to evening.He advised her not to believe in such rumours.
She felt better and came back home. But the doubt kept on gnawing at her and bothering her, she became more irritable and snapped and fought with him over everything. Ardoo felt irritated because he could not understand the reason behind her behavior.
One evening Karni was walking down the riverside where she overheard the two jealous women talking about how their conspiracy has failed to separate the two. She understood and regretted her behaviour immensly.
When she reached home she was seethign with anger, she wanted revenge, she felt really hurt.
When Ardoo was asleep she picked up an arrowhead and went out to stab those women. When she reached their homes she found that Maithilis husband was a ill tempered man who neither cared about her or her children and Singhalis husband was drunk all the time , he had no time to fish and bring some food or money home. She felt sorry for them and decided to forgive them, she understood their pain and jealousy.

Karni decided to befriend and help them. Maithili and Singhali were sharing their sorrowful stories sitting by the river bank one afternoon. Karni went with a few coins tied together in an old handkerchief, after hearing their stories she gave them both a coin and told them that these are enchanted coins giving by her grandmother as a wedding gift, they are supposed to bring love between husband and wife.
Soon Mathili and Singhali's marital life started to improve, slowly peace was restored, several years passed.When their husbands passed away and children moved out to create their own homes.
One afternoon the three friends were sitting together, Maithili and Singhali wanted to return those enchanted coins as they did not require them anymore.

Karni laughed and told them, she made up the story about the enchanted coins, they were ordinary coins, their marriages improved because they believed in the power of those coins and had the faith and willingness to make their relationships better. Three friends laughed a resonant laughter inspired by love, trust and amusement over life's irony.

I am filled with bliss and so I pray...

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Amen.

St. Francis of Assisi - 13th century

Little girl's desire

Veerbhadra was the king of Sarvanna region, His kingdom had peace and prosperity, but he had no children. His royal priests advised him to marry an adolescent kanya as only she was capable of giving him a heir.
The ministers searched and found that the neighboring kingdom of Daivayali had an adolescent princess names Kadambari, her father was a close ally of the mighty king. He gladly agreed to Veerbhadras proposal.Soon they got married.
Kadambari was immensly upset, she understood little of why she had to leave her friends, toys, palace servants who looked after her and live at an unknown palace, with no one to talk or play with.
Veerbhadra felt extremely guilty about marrying a girl young enough to be his daughter, he maintained his distance and gave her time to get use to the surroundings, make friends, be playful again and grow up to understand her responsibilities.
Kadambari however was treated like a queen wherever she went , no one her age could be her friend, because they distanced themselves out of fear and respect for her status.She became increasingly restless and sad.

Veerbhadra got the news of her young queen being unhappy , he found a young musician to teach her how to play veena, sing and dance. Srikant was a talented young musician in his kingdom, he became her tutor.
Soon they struck a friendship, she laughed, danced and played veena with Shrikant as she grew up.
When she turned into a young woman love blossomed between the two.
Veerbhadra caught them in a loving embrace one afternoon in her palace. He was furious at her for misplacing his blind trust. He ordered his guards to see Srikant out of his kingdom and locked Kadambari in her palace under the watchful eyes of her chamber maids.
Unhappy and unable to express her pain her heart chocked she  tried to hang herself to death but was saved in time as a result  she lost her voice.

Now she observed everything and everyone around in silent seething anger. Her heart filled with anguish and venomous rage, she was unable to express.
Veerbhadra eventually died of old age, heir less. Kadambari took over the kingdom.Many years passed of wordless fury and unfulfilled and crushed desires.
One day Shiva and Parvati was passing through the kingdom, seeing dying fields, withered plants, silent children, and gloominess around, she inquired 'Lord Mahadev ! why Veerbhadras kingdom has and air of doom about it'?
Shiva explained ' Because a little girls dreams were snatched and love from her heart was wrenched out'.
Parvati felt her pain and asked Mahadev to heal her unhappy heart, Shiva said ' If you so desire devi we will leave something for her that would help her to be a woman again'.

Next morning Kadambari found the most beautiful baby boy floating in a basket on the river while she was taking a bath. She could not resist picking the baby and embracing it close to her heart.
The divine blessing in form of a baby blessed her heart as she held him close to her
bosom.Kadambari's heart blossomed again, her son filled her life with joy and love that she yearned to experience since her childhood.With her son she re-lived the innocence, simplicity and love all over again.
Baby grew up to be a mighty king he was name Veerkadambh after the parents and Kadambari renounced the worldly life and went into the forest to dwell on the inner truth.

8th Horse of the Sun!

A warrior once had a horse so powerful and unique. His name was Ashthawarga, the horse flew with the winds, leaped into the skies and dove back right into the battlefields, when he neighed thunderbolts and lightning struck from the clouds, frightening one and all.
His sweat had the fragrance of etheric flower, his presence unnerved other horses in the stable, so he had to be kept away from the other horses.


Ashtawarga had a ball of fire, like sun in his throat, Which created contact with the heavens whenever he neighed.He understood that he is not from the earth and longed to know where he came from.
One day a wise old man told him that he came from a comet that was about to strike the earth, instead it collided with the sun and created 8 mighty horses like itself, Sun god took 7 of them  with him and left the last one on the earth.

He requested the warrior to help him find his home again, the might Sun, the biggest golden ball of light from which everything  was created.The comet that created Asthawarga and his seven brothers had also descended from the Father-sun.

They took a long and arduous journey , warrior climbed and galloped out of the earth's orbit . On their journey they encountered several demons who tried to create hindrances, that they overcame together. They were also helped by various saintly souls and gods.

Finally they reached the Sun, Asthawarga was ecstatic to meet his brothers. He played with them for some time. After taking blessings from the Sun , they moved forward,  After a while Asthawarga felt extremely thirsty, the sun in his throat had started to weaken.

They landed in a broken planet it had waterfalls gushing out, but the beings of that planet did not allow him and the warrior to have water from that waterfall, They told Asthawarga that he was a part of the comet that struck them eons ago, breaking it into pieces, they asked if he can assemble their planet together again, they will let them have water.

The rider and Ashthawarga took off, he neighed loudly to create a vortex that pulled in all the pieces of the broken planet , floating in the space and brought it together, and finally had a drink of ethereal water.
Rejuvenated, they galloped and a few layers later they saw the mighty sun, the home of Asthawarga.

He leaped and dissolved into the brightest golden light the essence of his being, along with him the warrior escaped from the mundane existence and found the ultimate source of joy.

Sometimes when we choose to help others,unknowingly we end up helping ourselves.

Fruits of Wisdom!

There was a trader and his wife who lived in Chaurashi Town by the bank of river Tamli.
 The trader and his wife had a daughter who was a toddler when a bhikshu visited him on a rainy evening.
Hungry he asked for food, the trader gave him a mango as offering. Bhikshu had mango with great relish, after satiating his hunger he advised the trader to plant the mango kernel in his garden.
Trader ignored his advise and threw the kernel aside , nevertheless kernel sprouted and soon a young sapling sprung out of the earth, right outside his courtyard.
The mango tree and little girl grew up together, the tree bore its first fruit when she turned into a beautiful young woman.

Shaivali looked at those mango fruits with amazement, they reflected extraordinary golden light when she touched them. When she ate those fruits she felt more aware of everything.
 Every morning she woke up and rushed to the tree and asked for more, mango tree happily provided her with more fruits. She became more aware and wiser everyday, after-all, those mangoes were the fruits of wisdom.
The parents now started looking for a suitable match for their daughter, Shaivali would ask those young suitors questions that they failed to answer, she would tell her parents that these men are not wise enough to answer her questions, if she married them they would always feel lesser than her and would not love her.
When she turned 30 , parents gave up their search for a groom, Shaivali turned wiser, radiant and silent, she went into a deep state of meditation.
One Amavasya she sat under the mango tree in silence/Mauna, and radiated with celestial light.
Prince Dashmesh of the neighbouring kingdom had lost his way into the forest. He walked past the traders courtyard and he caught a vision of her sitting under the tree on a dark moonless night , radiant silvery blue light emanating from her body, he mistook her to be a stone idol of a goddess and that light is reflecting off her jewels. As he came closer he was mesmerized by her presence, he sat spellbound and watched her throughout the night. Morning, when she woke up, she found the prince admiring her.Conscious, she felt instant recognition and attraction. They have been lovers and mates in many lives before.Even though the prince was much younger than her, they decided to get married. He took her to her palace, soon they had two sons.
Shaivalika felt immense pain and separation being away from her wisdom giving tree. She yearned to eat one more fruit, radiate some more light, be more aware. Soon she lost her radiance and silence.
Prince felt her sadness but did not understand it, their sons were growing up, but because of  their mother sadness, they were lacking the vigour and brilliance that their parents had.
Shaivalika's pain was causing immense sadness to the prince, he finally asked her what is making her so depressed. She told him the story of her mango tree and how those fruits had turned her into a wise human being.
He suggested bringing the seed into the palace, to which she said it was only that one seed of that mango which satiated the hunger of an enlightened bhikshu can bear fruits of wisdom.He asked if he can tell his guards to bring the fruits to her, she said its only the fruit that is willingly given by the tree to me and the one that is accepted by me with utmost gratitude would bring that wisdom to me.
Prince understood and next day he went to see the tree, he found that the tree has withered and its leaves were drying and falling off the branches, as if tree was feeling the pain of separation equally.

Prince kneeled before the tree and requested the tree to help his wife. Hearing the story, the tree shed all its leaves and went back into the earth. That very moment a tulsi plant emerged from the palace grounds, Shaivalika felt the same joy seeping into her being , she rushed out, crying happy tears, she radiated with same celestial light.
She got the essence of the wisdom tree back in her life, making her aware of all duality and the bliss hidden in everything.