Dedication

On the most auspicious occasion of my brother Mantu’s 73rd birthday on 17 November 2000, I am lovingly and gratefully dedicating to him 73 stories. They will be published in several volumes.

Author's introduction

These are not my own stories. These are ancient stories. I do not claim even an iota of originality. The original authors are buried in oblivion, but the successors are following in the footsteps of their predecessors with gorgeous embellishment. I, too, have indulged lavishly in my own way of embellishment. Long live my humour-wisdom-flooded predecessors, who loved anonymity.

May these tales liberate us from the heavy dryness of the mind, and may they transform the dryness of the mind into an ever-blossoming fountain-ecstasy.

— Sri Chinmoy

The special mark

There was a very, very rich family. When a little baby was born into the family, the mother was so happy to see the child. The father was also very happy with their firstborn child. The mother and grandmother both noticed that there was a mark a little above the child’s left eye. When the grandmother saw the mark, she said, “This is a sign that he will become a very, very great king.”

The mother immediately had such faith in this old lady. She felt that old people know everything. When the mother-in-law says something nice, everybody believes it. The mother-in-law was such a wise old lady. She felt that the child would become king.

But the father said, “Who cares for my mother’s opinion? She is just an old lady. What does she know about these things? Let me go and bring the astrologer.”

The village astrologer came and cast the child’s horoscope. Then he said, “No, no, he will not be a king. He will be a very, very great scholar and philosopher.”

The wife said, “I believe what the child’s grandmother says. I know she is right. He will be a king when he grows up.”

The husband said, “I have brought the astrologer. The astrologer is saying that the child will be a great scholar, a philosopher and a learned man.”

The wife said, “Let us bring a palmist to see what he has to say.”

The palmist looked at the child’s hand and said, “Oh no, he will be a very, very famous singer.”

They all had a difference of opinion. The old grandmother said one thing and the mother believed it. Then the husband had to go and bring the astrologer, and the astrologer said something else. Now the palmist came into the picture and said that the child would be a great singer. Everybody said something different. One said he would be a king, one said he would be a great philosopher and scholar, and the third one said he would be a great singer and musician. Still the mother and father were so happy that they had got this little baby. Everybody in the family was very happy.

At that moment an old beggar came to the house for alms. The grandmother, who had predicted that the baby would become a king, was giving some rice to the beggar. All of a sudden she saw a mark over his left eye, and she fell down and fainted. Everybody said, “What happened, what happened?”

When the grandmother opened her eyes, she pointed out the mark on the left side of the beggar’s forehead. Then everybody cried and cried and cried, “Alas, alas, alas!” The beggar had the same mark that the little baby had! Just a few moments ago they were all full of joy. Now everybody in the family felt miserable. They were swimming in the sea of sorrows because the beggar had the same mark. First the son was going to be a king, then he was going to be a great scholar, and finally he was going to be a wonderful singer. All their predictions were smashed when the beggar appeared.

The mysterious box

A villager went to the zamindar and said, “I would like to buy two acres of land from you. Please allow me to buy this land. I will not be able to pay the full amount immediately, but on an installment basis I will pay you.”

The zamindar said, “No, no, no! I will not allow you to do this. Either give the full amount or I will not allow you to buy this plot of land from me.”

The villager was very sad that he did not have the full amount. The zamindar wanted only 200 rupees, but the villager could not give that much at once. This poor fellow wanted to give 10 rupees at a time until he had paid the full 200. He was a sincere man.

A few months later, the same villager came to the chief and said, “Yesterday I had a dream. In the dream I saw two acres of land at a particular place. I saw that one of your ancestors had dug a hole in the ground and buried a box there. Inside the box there were gold coins. Now I am telling you so that you can dig up this box. I will be there to watch you. If my dream does not prove to be true, then you do anything with my life. You can beat me up or do anything else.”

The zamindar was so greedy. He said, “No, no, no, I will forgive you, I will forgive you. If I see the box, then I will be so happy. But even if I do not get the box, since you have given me such a piece of good news, I shall forgive you, even if there is nothing there.”

The zamindar and a few of his people all went with this villager to the particular place he had seen in the dream. The poor fellow said, “Let me dig it up. It is your property, so you will take the box. Only let me get the joy of digging it up, because I had the dream.”

The zamindar said, “Do it, do it!”

The zamindar was thrilled that he would get the box of gold. The villager started digging in front of the zamindar, and soon he found the box. On the top of the box was written, “Please open me one year after the day you discover me if you want to get the full amount. If you open me before one year, you will be disappointed. But after one year if you open me, you will be the happiest person on earth.”

The zamindar said, “One year! That is nothing.”

The zamindar was so happy. What did he do? Immediately he wrote down this message, “You do not have to give me 200 rupees for the plot of land. I am giving it to you free. You take this plot of land; it is yours. I am taking away the box.”

The zamindar gave the villager the two acres. He took away the box, and the villager got the land free. He did not have to pay anything. The zamindar was so happy and so proud that he had given away the land free of charge.

The zamindar was not supposed to open the box for one year. It was written on the box, “If you open me one year after the day you discover me, you will be the happiest person.”

But the eldest son of the zamindar miscalculated. After eleven months, he thought one year had gone by. He was so greedy that he wanted to cheat and deceive his father. He thought that he would open the box, take out a small amount and give the rest to his father. The father had kept the box somewhere secretly, but the son knew where it was. So, although only eleven months had passed, the son opened the box. When he opened it, he saw that there was nothing inside.

Suddenly, the father came into the room and said, “You idiot! It was written that one year should elapse. Why did you open the box? If one year had gone by, then there would have been something so valuable inside!”

Now the zamindar was miserable because he had lost the money and he had lost the land. But the poor fellow who received the land said to the zamindar, “I have borrowed money from my friends. I am giving you 200 rupees. I will pay back the money to my friends little by little.”

The zamindar took the 200 rupees, and the man kept the land. The man had already started plowing the land, and he would soon be able to give the money back to his friends. Greed, greed, greed! How much suffering greed can create!

The king's astrologer

A king wanted to have an excellent astrologer in his court so that, before he did anything, he could ask the astrologer’s opinion and the astrologer would be able to tell him what to do. He made an announcement for all the excellent astrologers in his kingdom to come to his palace. Then he would test them and he would choose one to be his personal astrologer.

Many astrologers came because they wanted to be the king’s astrologer. The king himself knew quite a few astrologers. But one particular astrologer did not come. The king said, “Practically all the astrologers have come from all over my kingdom. How is it that this particular one has not come? Where has Ram gone? He is also an astrologer.”

Ram did not come, but the others all came. They were all ready to be examined by the king. Finally, the king sent for Ram, the great astrologer. The king asked, “Why did you not come? All the other astrologers have come. What is wrong with you?”

Ram said, “O King, forgive me, forgive me! I will say something that will annoy you, but I am telling you anyway. You have to forgive me first, before I say anything.”

The king said, “I will always forgive you. Say whatever you have to say.”

Ram said, “These astrologers are all idiots. They have come here with the hope of becoming your personal astrologer. I know that you are going to ask me to take the job. You are going to appoint me because any question you ask me, I will be able to answer. If you ask these idiots any question, let me see if they can answer it. I was absolutely sure that you would choose me, so I did not want to be with these idiot-astrologers. It is beneath my dignity to mix with them. I do not want to be examined along with them. You can examine me privately or do anything you like. What kind of astrologers are they if they do not know that I will get the job? If they do not know even this much, are you going to keep them with you permanently? O King, is it fair that you are going to keep these idiots here when they do not even know who is going to be appointed for the post? They have come to you for the highest post, and even this much they do not know!”

The king was very pleased. He threw out all the other astrologers and appointed Ram to be his astrologer. All the others felt miserable. Ram was such a rogue! The others all had to go home full of humiliation.

The drunkard and the goddess

There was a drunkard who used to drink and drink and drink and make his wife and children all absolutely miserable. Also, he used to torture people. There was a forest near his house. When people would go to the forest to enjoy themselves, he used to go there and torture them. He was heavily drunk, so he would beat them up. In every way he would torture everybody. He was very, very strong, and everybody knew that he was a horrible, horrible drunk.

One day the drunkard saw a most beautiful lady in the forest. The drunkard said he wanted to beat her up. Now, she happened to be a divine goddess. The goddess immediately showed her power, and he became frightened because the goddess had so much power. He had thought she was just a beautiful lady.

The goddess said, “Now look here, I can easily kill you, easily! But with my infinite compassion I am telling you to give up drinking. You are torturing your wife, your children, your father, your mother — everybody. You are torturing your family, and you are torturing innocent people who come to the forest. Why are you doing this? Give up drinking! Give up, give up! I am telling you, if you do not give up drinking, one day you will suffer terribly. You will have a very short life, and your family members will feel sad when you meet with an untimely death.”

The man said, “But I have been doing this for such a long time. I cannot get rid of this bad habit.”

The goddess said, “No! You should and you must! And if you do not, then you will soon be punished. You will see your fate.”

After saying this, with her spiritual power the goddess created a swimming pool right in front of them. The man was so happy, because the swimming pool was filled to the brim with wine. He said, “Every day I will be able to come here and drink!”

The goddess said, “All right, every day if you want to drink this wine, you can do so. Since you are such a rogue, since you are such a bad fellow, you will never keep your promise. You drink and drink. I am going away.”

Then the goddess went away and left the swimming pool full of wine. The drunkard said to the swimming pool, “Today I am taking an oath. I will drink wine to my heart’s content. I will be so heavily drunk that I will enjoy myself tremendously. Then I will never, never come near you again. I will totally give up drinking. Today I will drink as much as I can, because there is so much wine here. Then, after today, I will not drink any more in this lifetime.”

This was the promise that he made to the swimming pool. Then he became totally drunk. The wine was so tasty that he was overjoyed. He went home and told his wife and children that he had drunk so much that from the very next day he was giving up drinking altogether. They were so thrilled that he promised to give up drinking.

A few days later he went back to the swimming pool and saw that still there was so much wine left. In fact, it was absolutely filled to the brim. Again he started drinking. The goddess came and said, “Look, you promised to the members of your family that you would not drink any more. What happened? How is it that you are drinking again?”

The drunkard said to the goddess, “Mother, you are a goddess. Tell me, have you ever heard of a drunkard keeping his promise? I am a bad person, but you are such a fool. How can you believe a drunkard? I am a bad fellow, that everybody knows. But I will tell everybody that you are a fool. You are a stupid goddess!”

The goddess felt sad that she could not change his nature. Then the goddess said, “All right, I will do something.”

She immediately used her spiritual power, and the swimming pool disappeared. Then the man started crying and crying and crying because there was no more wine for him. The goddess said, “If you cannot keep your promise, you will see what happens. I am telling you that soon you will die if you do not keep your promise.”

The man said, “No, no, no, I will not drink any more! Please forgive me, forgive me!”

The goddess said, “No, you will never keep your promise. I gave you an opportunity.”

The man said, “But my family will suffer.”

The goddess said, “Your family will not suffer. Your family is miserable because you are such a horrible drunkard. Nobody will miss you. Now you can go and tell everybody that I am a fool and you are a bad fellow.”

The zamindar and the hermit

Two village zamindars had a quarrel and then started fighting. They brought their supporters to join the fight. They fought for a long time, and on both sides people were very, very badly injured. Finally, everybody left the place of the battle, near a forest, except one of the two village zamindars. He was so badly hurt that he was unconscious. His people all left because they did not want to be beaten by the other side. They left this zamindar alone and senseless. Nobody came to help him.

In the forest there lived a hermit. The hermit came out of the forest and started strolling and moving around. Suddenly he saw the man lying down, practically dead. He brought water for the man, fanned him and washed his face. Finally he revived the zamindar. He was so happy that the zamindar was revived, and the zamindar was also very happy.

The zamindar said to the hermit, “Please, please, take something from me. If you come to my house, I will give you something.”

The hermit said, “I am a hermit. I have everything, absolutely everything. I have the sun, I have the moon, I have fruits to eat. I do not need anything at all.”

The zamindar said, “My pride is hurt. I took an oath that in this lifetime I would never be indebted to anybody. I said that I would only give and give, and I would not owe anything to anybody. You are a hermit. You have nothing, like a beggar. I am a zamindar. I am so rich. You have to come to my place. I will give you whatever you want so that your poverty will disappear.”

The hermit said, “No, no, no, I do not need anything.”

The zamindar said, “But I am indebted to you.”

Then the hermit said, “All right. In the future, if I need any help, I will come to you.”

The zamindar begged him, “Please, please, you must come now. Otherwise, I will remain indebted to you. I do not want that. My pride will be hurt. I am so rich. My people, my children, my friends, my guards — all have left me. They betrayed me because they were being beaten by the enemy. All my dear ones deserted me because they did not want to be attacked and beaten mercilessly. Now you have come here to rescue me. I am so grateful to you.”

The hermit said, “When I am in need, I will come to you.”

The zamindar was proud, but he was a good man who really wanted to help the hermit. A few years later when the hermit became very, very old, he started suffering from this disease and that disease. Then he remembered that the zamindar had promised to help him, so he went to the zamindar’s place. The guard knew that the zamindar had once upon a time been helped by the hermit. The guard said, “He is now taking a shower. After the shower, he will come and see you.”

The hermit waited near the zamindar’s meditation room. After finishing his shower, the zamindar went to his meditation room. With folded hands he knelt down and started praying to God, “Give me more wealth, give me more name, give me more fame! Please give me more people, more strength.” For all these things he started praying.

The hermit said to himself, “I came here to beg this zamindar to give me some medicine or to find a doctor to cure me. Now I see that he is begging God to give him this and give him that. I have only one desire: for my disease to be cured. He has so many desires! He wants money, name, fame and everything else. He is such a beggar!”

The hermit started to go away very fast. The zamindar came out of his meditation room and asked the guard, “What did he want?”

Then the zamindar saw that it was the hermit. He started running after the hermit saying, “Why are you going away? You did me such a big favour when I was dying, when I was practically dead. Now you have come to my place, and I am so happy. Please, please, please tell me what you want!”

The hermit said, “No, I will not ask you for anything.”

The zamindar said, “You came here, and I still owe you so much. Do you want me to remain indebted to you all my life? If you take my help, I will be so happy and so grateful. Then I will know that you helped me, and now I am helping you.”

The hermit said, “You have already helped me.”

The zamindar asked, “How could I have helped you? You have not taken anything from me.”

The hermit said, “Look, I am a hermit. I pray to God every day for my illumination. Here I am seeing that you are also praying to God for what you need. You have taught me that there is only one Person who can give us what we need. You have everything: you have name, fame, money and property. But you have gone to the one Person who is infinitely richer than you and infinitely stronger than you for help. You have gone to the Highest, and you have taught me today that for everything we must go to the Highest. I came to you, but you gave me the lesson that you are nobody in comparison to God. You have taught me to go to the Highest, so I am going to the Highest.

“You do not owe me anything because you have given me the real illumination: always, for everything we have to go to God. To cure my disease I am going to God, and this lesson I got from you. Going to God for everything is the best way in our life. This lesson I have learned from you. You have everything, but you still need more things from God for your fulfilment. In my case, I have been praying for so many years, and I should have realised this. But this lesson I got from you, so you do not owe me anything.

“I helped you, true. For that you owed me something, but now you have illumined me by showing me that for everything we have to go to God. Now you do not owe me anything. Both of us are equal.”

God's Hour

There was a hermit who was sincerity incarnate and purity incarnate. He lived in a small forest. From nearby villages people used to come and get inspiration and aspiration from him. They had tremendous love and devotion for him. He used to pray for hours and hours, and they used to watch him worshipping. They used to bring him the bare necessities: bananas, milk and other simple things that a truly spiritual person eats. A very simple life he led. This went on for ten or twelve years.

A young boy from a neighbouring village observed the hermit and said, “Ah, they all worship him. Let me go and be with him. Then people will worship me also.”

The young boy had never prayed or meditated. He came to the hermit only to be worshipped. The hermit accepted him as his disciple. He was all the time wondering when people would start admiring him and worshipping him because he was now with the hermit.

A few months later, sincerity dawned on the young boy. He started praying and meditating very sincerely, and in this way he went on for two or three years. Then the hermit said, “I have to leave this place. I want to go away from here because here people are bothering me. They are disturbing my meditation and my peace. I have to realise God. If I stay here, I will not be able to realise God, so now I am going away.”

The boy, who was now about 17 or 18, had become very sincere. He said, “Please, please take me. Master, I came here to be worshipped by others, but now you know how sincerely I am praying to God and praying to you for illumination.”

The Master said, “No, no, you are too young. You pray here for a few years. Then, like me, you will also follow a higher spirituality. At that time you can go wherever God takes you.”

The boy started praying and meditating very sincerely. Villagers continued coming, but they were not worshipping him. They were watching him to see whether he was sincere or not. Finally they were quite pleased.

In his possession the boy had only two loincloths. One day he saw that a rat had eaten into one of them. Then the poor fellow had only one loincloth left. When the villagers came to know about this, they gave him a very large supply of loincloths and food.

One of the villagers said, “Rats may come again and destroy your loincloths. The best thing is for you to have a cat. A cat will kill the rats.”

So the villager brought the young hermit a cat. The hermit was very happy. But now that the hermit had a cat, the problem was that the cat needed milk. When the villagers brought milk for the hermit, he used to share it with the cat. But sometimes the villagers did not bring milk for him. When he did not have milk, he would go to the neighbouring villages and bring milk for the cat. This was what was going on, but the hermit was still praying sincerely.

Finally one of the villagers suggested, “If you have a cow, then you will not need anything. Why should you have to go anywhere for milk? If you have a cow, you can stay here and pray and meditate.”

This particular villager was kind enough to bring the young hermit a cow. Now, the cow needed grass, but there was no grass nearby. The poor fellow had to take the cow to some neighbouring fields every day. The zamindar came to learn of this situation. He felt sad, because the hermit was a nice fellow. He was acting like an idiot, but he was very sincere. The zamindar gave the hermit a very large plot of grassy land, so he did not have to bring his cow anywhere else to graze. The hermit had admirers, and they used to take the cow to his field to graze.

Then a farmer came and said, “This is such a vast field! Allow me to plow this field, and I will be able to get a bumper crop.”

The hermit allowed the farmer to plow the land and grow all kinds of grains. Then one of the villagers said, “You have everything, but who will take care of you?”

The hermit said, “True, now I am responsible for so many things.”

The villager continued, “Who is going to take care of you when you have to manage your land and your cow and everything else? You should get married.”

The zamindar had a beautiful daughter. Since the hermit was a very sincere man, the zamindar proposed that he marry his daughter. The zamindar said, “Do not worry, your spirituality will not descend.”

So the hermit married the zamindar’s daughter. In the course of time they had three or four children, and the children were all nice. Very, very happily the hermit was living.

Finally the hermit’s Guru came back. He could not recognise his disciple’s cottage. By this time it was no longer a cottage. It had become almost like a palace, and the grounds around it had beautiful gardens.

The Guru asked his disciple, “What has happened? What has happened? How could you fall like this?”

The hermit said, “You left me, so I did not know that all these things were temptations. One by one I accepted them, and people were advising me and saying that I would not fall. Now what has happened? What am I going to do?”

The Guru looked into the young man’s eyes and saw that still he had sincerity in him. He said, “All right, are you ready to give up your wife, your children and all your property?”

The disciple said, “Immediately! I do not need them.”

The Guru said, “Then come with me. Follow me.”

The disciple followed his Master, even though his wife and children all became miserable that he had left them.

First the boy was curious. Then he became sincere. Then stupidity entered into him. Temptation came from all around him, and he did not realise it. Then again he was awakened. Again he accepted the spiritual life, and he no longer cared for his family. He left everything behind when God’s Hour struck for him.

The unlucky baby

A young couple were on their way to the temple early in the morning when they saw a very little baby crying in the street. Nobody knew who had left the baby there. They were very kindhearted people. The wife lifted up this baby and started showing it all her compassion and affection. The husband also liked the baby.

There was a note on the child saying, “Take this unlucky baby. One day you will become very lucky.” The couple understood this to mean that they should take this helpless baby. They were full of compassion and affection, so they took the child home.

In a couple of hours the couple discovered that the baby was blind, and they felt miserable that the child could not see anything. They did not have any children of their own, so they said, “This is our fate.” The baby was very cute, and they were showering their affection, sweetness and fondness on her.

For several years the husband and wife lavished their affection on the child. Then the couple had their own children. The wife gave birth to one son and one daughter. They were very, very beautiful and very affectionate children. Now the parents were so miserable. In a rush they had taken the little blind baby from the street, and now they could not do anything about it. It was too late.

The wife was so fond of her own children that she started neglecting the child they had adopted. Every day she became more miserable and she stopped paying any attention to the adopted girl. The husband also finally took his wife’s side. He saw that his own children were so beautiful and so smart. Finally the husband and wife both wanted to get rid of the adopted child.

One day the husband became very, very brave. By that time the adopted child was five years old. He said, “Today I will take her to a desolate place. I will spend the night with the child, and then I will leave her there.”

The wife was so nice to the adopted child in the beginning, but now she was only for her own children. She was so happy that they would be able to get rid of the adopted one.

The husband took the child, and they slept at a particular place where there were no people anywhere nearby. They had a good night’s sleep. Early in the morning, he started to leave the child. Then his heart was making him feel miserable. He said, “This is a helpless child. What am I doing?”

Again he thought of his own children: “They are so sweet and beautiful. Who needs this one?”

When the day dawned, the child woke up and started crying, because she was not hearing her father’s affectionate voice. When he was halfway back to his house, the father was feeling miserable: “Such an innocent child! So helpless! What have I done? What have I done? What have I done?”

His heart was killing him, so he went back. In the meantime, the child had started playing with some pebbles all by herself. When the father came back, he saw that in the child’s palms there were five small diamonds. He was so thrilled! He grabbed the child and took her back home with the diamonds.

The note had said, “Take this unlucky baby. One day you will become very lucky.” Now the father was so happy. When he brought back the child with the diamonds, his wife was also so happy. They had become rich overnight. Then both of the parents started treating this blind girl very, very nicely and affectionately because she had made them very rich.

So, this is what happens. Compassion comes, and then it disappears. Then affection rules. Finally compassion again comes forward. When compassion comes back, God’s Grace descends.

Fear of the great occultist

There was a villager who declared that he had tremendous occult power, and many people believed him. If you say you are an occultist, some will believe it and some will not believe it. If you say you are a doctor, some will believe it and some will not believe it. Then, if your powers do not work or if your medicine does not work, you are in trouble.

Some villagers had tremendous admiration for the so-called occultist, while others did not believe him. Many people hated him. When he went to the market, everybody used to give him anything that he wanted for free. Some people gave him things out of fear that something would happen, because they believed he was a great occultist, while others used to give him everything free out of admiration.

One day the occultist went to a shop to get something. This particular shop owner hated the occultist. He was not afraid of him, and at the same time he did not believe in his occult power. The occultist grabbed something, and the shop owner said, “You have to pay.”

The occultist said, “No, I do not pay anybody. Do you not know who I am? I am the greatest occultist.”

The man said, “I do not believe you.”

“You do not believe me? All right, tonight you will see what happens inside your stomach. Tonight, I am telling you! Give me what I want!”

The shop owner said, “Nothing will happen. I will not give you anything!” Then the occultist went away.

When the shopkeeper went home, he told his wife and children what had happened. He was laughing. He said, “I tell you, I will be able to prove that he is a rogue. He does not have any occult power.”

Unfortunately, the wife and children got frightened. They said, “Something will happen, something will happen!” The shopkeeper himself did not believe it, but the fear of his wife, his children and also some neighbours entered into him. Then the poor fellow started getting a severe pain in his stomach. Look what imaginary fear can do! He started vomiting, and he was suffering and suffering. The pain was only increasing hour by hour, even minute by minute.

His dear ones, friends and neighbours came to his side, and they were so furious. They said, “How could the occultist punish him like this?”

Then they all went to the great occultist. They said, “You are so bad! Just because he did not believe you, why did you punish him?”

The occultist said, “I told him that if he did not give me what I wanted, something bad would happen. Why did he not listen?”

The relatives, friends and neighbours got so furious that they were about to strike the so-called occultist and beat him up. Then the occultist cried out, “I do not have occult power, I do not have occult power!”

They asked, “Then how did it happen? If you do not have occult power, why is he suffering?”

The man said, “Believe me, believe me, I do not have occult power! I was telling lies all along. Some people believed me and some hated me, but I am telling you that I do not have occult power.”

They said, “Then why is our friend suffering?”

The man said, “I am praying to God to cure him. I am praying to God!”

They said, “You do not have to pray to God. We are doing it.” Then they thrashed him and threw him out of the village. Once he was out of the village, all the pain of the poor fellow who was suffering disappeared.

Look what fear can do! The man had no occult power. His claims were all false, but fear is like that. There is an Indian story in which the father tells his son, “Tigers kill people.” A few hours later the older brother hangs a picture of a tiger on the wall. The little child asks, “What is it?” When the older brother tells him it is a tiger, the child gets frightened and faints just because he has heard that tigers kill people.

If an occultist tells you something and you do not believe it, then you are in trouble. Again, if you do believe it, you are also in trouble. The man did not believe in the occultist, but his wife and children got frightened. They said, “Something will happen!” All their fear entered into his stomach, and then he suffered like anything. The best thing is only to pray to God, and never to deal with occultists. Never go near occultists! Either out of fear or out of something else, you will be in serious trouble.

The absent-minded professor

There was a history professor who was very good and very kind. The students all liked him. One very hot day he came to the class and taught the students. The students were very pleased. When the class was over, one by one the students left. Only one boy was still collecting his books. He was a little bit late in going out. He saw the professor desperately searching, searching and searching for something.

While going out, the boy asked, “Please tell me if anything is missing.”

The professor said, “Yes, yes, I am missing something! Today it is so hot. You saw that I took off my jacket, I took off my tie and I even took off my wristwatch. Now I have got my jacket and I have got my tie, but my wristwatch is missing.”

“Your wristwatch is missing?” the student asked.

“Yes,” said the professor.

The boy said, “Sir, look at your right wrist.”

“Oh,” cried the professor, “It is there! How could it be? Every day I put the watch on my left wrist, but I forgot that today I put it on my right wrist. I was looking at my left hand, so I did not see it.”

The boy started to go away, but the professor wanted to give the boy a ride home in his car. He said, “Today you have saved me from embarrassment.”

“What kind of embarrassment?” asked the student.

The professor explained, “I would have gone home, and even at home I would have continued searching for my wristwatch, because I was not aware that it was on my right wrist. What an embarrassment!”

The boy said, “My house is very near, Professor.”

The professor thanked the boy profusely, because at home also he would have searched for the wristwatch, in front of his family. He would have still missed his wristwatch at home, and he would have continued looking for it. Absent-minded people are like that!

The return ticket

There were two friends. One of the friends was rich, and one was poor. The rich one said to the poor one, “I have only one daughter and no son. You know I have so much money and property. Please find a very handsome and wise young man for my daughter.”

The friend said, “You are so miserly! Even if I find someone, you will not give your money to your son-in-law. You will not even give money to your daughter.”

The rich one said, “What shall I do with my money if I do not give it to my own daughter?”

The poor one said, “No, you are so bad that you will ask people to put your money in your coffin when you die. You know that if you want to go to Heaven, you have to buy a ticket.”

In a few months’ time, the poor friend brought two young men to his rich friend and said, “Now you choose a husband for your daughter. I have brought these two young men. It is up to you to make the choice.”

The two young men had come together by train from a distant village. One of them had bought only a one-way ticket and the other one had bought a round-trip ticket. The man asked them several questions, and then he decided whom to choose. He said to the fellow who had bought only a one-way ticket, “You go home. I do not need you.”

This fellow said to his friend, “I have to go now. He has chosen you. Since you are not going back, can you not give me your ticket? Mine was only a one-way ticket, whereas yours is round-trip. Can you give me the other part of your ticket so that I can go home happily?”

Then the rich man said, “No, no, I have changed my mind!” He said to the second young man, “You go home with your round-trip ticket.”

Then he asked the first young man, “Why did you buy a one-way ticket?”

The clever young man said, “I knew that if you chose my friend and I had to go back, I would be able to ask my friend to give me his return ticket. Again, if you chose me, I would not need to buy another ticket.”

The rich man immediately said, “You are the right person to marry my daughter!”

God wants everybody to be happy

There were two friends. As always, their friendship was founded on rivalry. One of the friends was rich and one was poor. Their friendship was good on the outer level, but inwardly the poor one was jealous of the rich one. The rich one was also jealous of the poor one because the poor one had many, many good qualities which the rich one did not have. Both of them were jealous of each other.

One day the rich friend wanted to go to the market to buy a horse. The poor one said, “You do not have intelligence! You will not be able to buy a horse. I tell you, when you go there, you will be puzzled, and you will not be able to buy a horse. You do not have a brain! They will give you a useless horse, and you will only waste your money.”

The rich one said, “All right, let me see my fate.”

He went to the market and bought a very, very nice-looking, smart horse. While he was bringing the horse back home, the zamindar saw the horse. The zamindar said, “This is such a beautiful and strong horse. How much did you buy it for?”

The man said, “I bought it for 600 rupees.”

The zamindar exclaimed, “For only 600 rupees you bought this horse? I like him so much! You have to give the horse to me for 1,000 rupees.”

“But I like the horse,” the man said.

“No, I am the zamindar. You have to sell him to me.”

So the man sold the horse to the zamindar for 1,000 rupees and went back home. Then the friend came to his house and said, “You see, I was right! Where is your horse?”

The rich man said, “I could not buy one.”

The friend, “I told you, you idiot, that you should have taken me along when you went to buy the horse!”

The poor friend was so happy because his prediction was right. He thought that the rich friend could not buy a horse because he had no brain. The rich friend remained absolutely silent. Finally, the rich one said, “You are right, you are right.” But he knew that he had made 400 rupees profit. In this way God made both friends happy. The poor one thought that the rich one was an idiot, and therefore he could not buy a horse. The rich one was actually so smart that he got 400 rupees’ profit. The poor one, who was jealous, was so happy that his friend had not succeeded in buying a horse, and the rich one was happy because he had made so much profit. In this way both of them became happy. God wants everybody to be happy.

The house alarm

A young man got a job as an assistant to a thief. The young man wanted to learn how to commit theft.

The old thief said, “If you do well, I will give you lots of money and you will become very, very rich. Then you can give up this profession.”

The young man said, “That is what I want. I do not want to commit theft all my life. I want to make some money and then give up stealing.”

The older man said, “That is fine. You can do that.”

The first day the boss said, “Go to this particular house and break in. That family is very, very rich, but be careful! If you find that they are awake, then you have to be extremely careful. Very, very carefully you will go.”

The young thief went to the house. As soon as he entered into the house, the alarm went off, and he was caught and badly thrashed. Then he went back to his boss absolutely miserable. The boss asked, “How did this happen? Did you not hear the alarm?”

The young man said, “Yes, I heard the alarm.”

The boss asked, “Then why did you not run away?”

The young man said, “I thought the alarm was meant to wake them up, and not to catch me! I thought it was an alarm clock. You told me to steal, so I went there to steal. I was sure that the alarm was meant for them, not for me. So I entered into the house and I was caught.”

The storm

A husband and wife had a small child only three or four years old. The parents were very, very happy with this beautiful little child.

One day the father was engrossed in reading a novel. He was getting so much joy from the story. All of a sudden the child started crying. The mother was ironing clothes, cooking and doing all kinds of work in the house, so she was unable to pay attention to the child.

The wife said to the husband, “Please, please take care of our child. He is bored. You are just reading, but I am working. I am unable to pay any attention to him. At least take him out for a few minutes. Perhaps the fresh air and the sun will do him good.”

The husband was not listening. He was still reading, reading and reading. Then the child started crying very loudly. The wife said, “Please take him out! I am doing all this work. You are doing nothing! You are just reading.”

The husband said, “What? How can you ask me to take him outside? It is thundering and raining heavily. A storm is raging, and you are asking me to take our child outside? He is our only child. He will fall sick and die. Do you want our child to be killed in this storm? Can you not see? The trees are all trembling. Are you a fool? At a time like this I have to take our only child outside?”

The wife said, “All right.” Then she took the child outside. The sun was shining brightly. The mother stayed outside with the child for a few minutes until he became very calm and quiet. Then she brought the child back inside.

The father said, “How could you take our child outside when it is raining so heavily? Such a storm is raging!”

The mother said, “You idiot! Where is the storm?”

The father said, “I can prove that it is raining heavily outside.”

Then he showed her the book. He said, “It is written here.” In the novel it said that it was raining very heavily. He showed it to his wife to prove that the weather outside was so bad. That was why he did not take the child outside.

The zamindar's temple

There was an honest, simple man. Everybody liked him because of his honesty. One day his house was robbed. He was very, very sad. But because he was very honest, his friends gave him money, clothes and everything else that he could possibly need. His friends were so kind to him that he soon had much more than he had originally lost.

One of the honest man’s friends, who was quite rich, became very, very jealous. He said, “Let me also tell people that my house has been robbed.”

That night he took his belongings outside his house, dug a hole and buried all his valuables, money and expensive things under the ground. Then he started crying that his house had been robbed. But because he was so rich, people were not showing any interest. He was not a good man, whereas the first one was a really good man. Nobody gave him any money, but he kept on crying and crying as if he had lost everything.

Then he did not know what to do. People were all watching him. He was miserable. He was only waiting for the day when he could dig up his valuables. He said, “Since my friends are not giving me anything, I will bring everything back into the house.”

Now it happened that the zamindar wanted to build a temple. The zamindar said, “I have done many, many bad things in my life. Now I have to build a temple so people can come and worship. I will also go there to worship.”

Since the zamindar could do anything he wanted to do, he gave some money to the rich man and said, “I am buying this plot of land.” The rich man was totally lost. What could he do?

The zamindar wanted to build the temple immediately, so he started digging. All of a sudden he found so much money! The money that he had given to the rich man was nothing in comparison.

The zamindar said, “Look at this! Already God is so kind to me. God knows that this temple is for Him. I am building a temple, so God is giving me this gift because I am doing such a good thing.”

The zamindar took away all the valuables. He felt that God was so pleased with him because he was building a temple for people to worship. The zamindar got the money and the rich fellow who wanted to fool people lost everything. So if you want to fool people, you also can be fooled.

The adopted son

There were two brothers who lived in two different villages. The two brothers were very close to each other. One day the younger brother came to visit the older brother. He saw that the older brother had adopted a little boy. He said, “What have you done? Have you not heard that adopted children always turn out to be very bad? People say that they destroy the whole family.”

Because the older brother did not have any children of his own, he had adopted this child. The older brother said, “No, I think my case will be an exception.”

The younger brother said, “There is no exception.”

A few days later the younger brother went home. The older brother was lavishing and lavishing affection and compassion on his adopted son, treating him absolutely like a prince. And every day the son was becoming more and more notorious in every way.

One day the elder brother decided he would visit his younger brother. When he was almost at his place, the older brother saw that the younger brother was now living in a very small house. The older brother said to the younger brother, “What are you doing here? You had such a big house. What happened?”

The younger brother said, “My son is so greedy! He took all my money and everything that I had. Then he kicked me out, so I am staying in this small house. You see, even my own son has misbehaved so badly. I cannot imagine how much you will suffer since you adopted a son. My own son has thrown me out of the house, and he has taken all my property. He is enjoying his own life with his wife and children. So I can scarcely imagine how much you will suffer!”

The older brother said, “No, no, I am not suffering at all.”

The younger brother said, “How is it that you are not suffering?”

The elder brother said, “I was sick for quite a few days. Then my adopted son did something so good.”

“What did he do?”

“He gave me poison, and I died. Now I am so happy in Heaven. My adopted son was torturing me like anything. Then, when I fell sick, he wanted to get all my money and all my property, so he put poison in my food and I died. Now I am so happy!”

How could this happen? The subtle body of the elder brother had come to visit the younger brother, taking exactly the same form as the physical body. Every day the adopted son had been torturing his father. Finally, the adopted son had given him poison and killed him. The father was so happy in Heaven, whereas on earth he had been absolutely miserable.