Alexander The Great And Alexander The Lazy

Alexander the Great had a soldier in his army who was unthinkably lazy. Everybody hated him because he was so dull, and he was always wasting time with his laziness. Unfortunately, he had the same name as Alexander the Great. Many people complained about him to the king.

One day the soldiers brought the lazy Alexander before their king. They said, "This man has the name Alexander. You are our beloved king; you are our supreme emperor. When we say your name, Alexander, we are filled with tremendous love, joy, respect and inspiration. But when we call him Alexander, all our joy and inspiration go away. Can you not get rid of him?"

Alexander the Great said, "Let me give him one more chance."

The king said to the man, "Either be active and dynamic, or I am taking away your name. You will have to find another name."

The man said, "Oh no, no! I cannot let this happen."

"I cannot allow you to have my name. In every way, you are such a lazy and useless fellow. From now on, you must immediately become active and dynamic," so said Alexander the Great.

To others' greatest surprise, the man immediately became full of life energy. His dynamism even surpassed that of all the other soldiers. They could not believe how enthusiastic and dynamic he became. This was all because Alexander the Great was about to take away his name.

In the spiritual life, we want to be God's divinely chosen children. We must be very, very careful of the way in which we use God's Name. If we are not totally sincere, earnest and disciplined, then we are not worthy of repeating God's Name.

God will not tell us that He will take away our names, or even that He will not give us a human incarnation. God will only say, "I gave you a human incarnation to be My representative on earth. But you are only wasting your time."

Alexander the Great, being human, did not have the patience to see the perfection of the man. He used his impatience and his authority successfully. In God's case, He has infinite Patience. But just because God uses infinite Patience, we must not misuse His Compassion. We also should try to be worthy of God's Name, the way that particular soldier became so eager to be worthy of Alexander's name.

To be worthy of God's Love, Affection, Fondness, Compassion and Blessings, we must pray and meditate. We must love and serve God most intensely. Then we shall not lose our precious God-heritage.