Discussions

(These are taken from the discussion between disciples at the Ashram at different times.)

Power of Absolute Belief and Unconditional Confidence

This story was told by revered Acharya Bijoy Krishna Goswami-ji---

Once, in a European Country, there was a drought for a very long time.  Everywhere people started to pray to God for rain. An advertisement was published in a local newspaper of a city – inviting its citizens to attain a prayer for rain. On the scheduled day, all residents of the city started gathering in the Church.

A small boy arrived there with an umbrella in his hand. Watching the umbrella, the persons who had gathered there asked the boy – “ hey, why did you bring the umbrella now?”  The boy confidently replied, - “Today we will pray for rain & God will definitely listen to us. Then, what would happen to us if we don’t have an umbrella? All of us will be wet if we have to return home in the rain."  Listening to the boy, everyone get astonished and started laughing. 

After the completion of the prayer, really the rain started. The boy said, “if you really had belief in God, then you would not have left your umbrellas  back in your home. Now see, you all stay here, I am going to my home.”

  After stating this story Swamiji said “ pray to God like a baby crying for mother. God is compassionate. He has shown his compassion even to a sinful person like me, then He will not dishearten anyone. If you pray to Him from your heart, He will certainly come to you. I am telling this not by listening it, even not from my imagination. I am saying this from my own experience. God will definitely come to you if you pray respectfully and with honesty. Please pray once in the way I am saying, definitely He will shower His blessing on you.”

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One day a young, new monk was walking with a senior elderly monk in a garden and, feeling a bit insecure, he was inquiring of the him about what God had for him to do. The older monk walked up to a rose bush and handed the young monk a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing off any petals. The young monk looked in disbelief at his senior and was trying to figure out what a rosebud could possibly have to do with his question.

Because of his high respect for the older monk, he proceeded to try to unfold the rose while keeping every petal intact. It wasn’t long before he realized how impossible it was to do so. Noticing the younger monk’s inability to unfold the rosebud while keeping it intact, the older monk began to recite the following poem :

It is only a tiny rosebud,

A flower of god’s design;

But I cannot unfold the petals

With these clumsy hands of mind.

The secret of unfolding flowers

Is not known to such as I.

God opens this flower so sweetly,

When in my hands they fade and die.

If I cannot unfold a rosebud,

This flower of God’s design,

Then how can I think I have wisdom

To unfold this life of mine?

So I’ll trust Her for Her leading

Each moment of every day.

I will look to Her for Her guidance

Each step of this grace filled way.

The pathway that lies before me,

Only she truly knows.

I’ll trust Her to unfold the moments,

Just as She unfolds the rose.

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This story was told by respected Swami Nigamananda Saraswati ---

It was the story of an active cat.

For myriads of lives (i.e. for several births and rebirths) he was habituated in killing mouse so much that in the present birth also whenever he would see any mouse anywhere, he could not resist the temptation of killing the same, be there any hunger and appetite or not.

A hermit, for reasons better known by him, developed mercy on the cat. He caught hold of the cat and tied it with a rope. He also caught hold of a mouse and kept it tied with a rope near the cat, keeping just a safe distance. He used to feed both of the creatures everyday. Initially, the attention of the cat did never move away from the mouse. He tried to pounce over it from several directions. But the rope would prevent him from catching the prey. The mouse would also remain awe stricken all the while. But, after some days conspicuous change was observed in the behavior and attitude of the cat. He did no longer rivet his attention fixed to the mouse and sometimes if his attention would fall on the mouse, the killer instinct did not haunt him anymore. The hermit, satisfied at the change in habit and attitude of the cat, emancipated both of them. Afterwards both the animals were free from violence and enmity to one another. Both were happy in truest sense of the term.

Now, Swamiji says – “Common people are the cat. The world is the mouse. Guruji is the hermit. Gurukarma i.e., Kriya or mantra is the rope by which Guruji ties up a cat for his sublimation.”