Association

Beautiful explanation by Swami Vivekananda:

Explaining the meaning of ‘Association’. He said:

“The rain drop from the sky, if it is caught in hands is pure enough for drinking. If it falls in gutter, it’s value drops so much that it can’t be used for washing the feet. If it falls on hot surface, it perishes. If it falls on lotus leaf, it shines like a pearl and finally, if it falls on oyster, it becomes a pearl. The drop is same, but it’s existence & worth depends on with whom it associates.”

Always be associated with people who are good at heart....

GRATITUDE CAN CHANGE DESTINY

🐣

There was a small bird living in a desert.
With no sign of greenery the bird use to hop around on the hot sand through the day.

An angel while on his way to god saw the little bird and felt pity.
He went and asked
“O little bird! What are you doing in this hot desert? Can I do something for you?”

The little bird said,
“I am very pleased with my life, but this heat is unbearable. Both my feet are getting burnt. Only if there was a tree here, I’d be delighted”.

Angel said,
“Growing a tree in the middle of desert is beyond my scope. I am to going meet god, let me speak to him and ask if he could fulfill your desire”.

Angel asked God, if he could help the bird. God said,
“I could grow a tree, but her destiny doesn’t allow it. And I can’t change that. However, you can give her my message, which will help her survive the heat. Ask her to hop with one foot at a time. That ways she can rest the other one for a while and change foot often. This way only one of her foot will have to bear the heat and other one will be able to rest and recover. Also tell her to remember all the good
things that have happened in her life and be thankful to god for that.

Angel came back to where the bird was and gave her this message from God.
The bird was delighted by the idea and thanked him for the effort he made to make her comfortable.
After a few days,
Angel was crossing the same desert and thought of checking on the little bird.
He saw the bird sitting on big green tree, right in the middle of the desert.
Angel was happy to see the bird in comfort but was very disappointed with God who suggested that there was no tree in this bird’s destiny.
He went to meet God and told him the whole story.
God replied,
“I never lied to you. There was no tree in the bird’s destiny. However, after you gave her my message, which asked her to be grateful to God for the kind things, she did put those words to action. She remembered every possible thing from her life and thanked God with a pure heart. I was moved with her feeling of gratitude and that’s what made me change her destiny”.

Angel was pleased with the answer.
A small gratitude can bring so much in our lives."

Have a great day to all of you.
Stay blessed

Triple Filter Test by Socrates

In ancient Greece, Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.

​One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, "Do you know what I just heard about your friend?"

"Hold on a minute", Socrates replied. "Before telling me anything I'd like you to pass a little test. It's called the Triple Filter Test."

"Triple filter?"

"That's right", Socrates continued. "Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you're going to say.

That's why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is Truth. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?"

"No,",the man said, "Actually I just heard about it and ..."

"All right", said Socrates. "So you don't really know if it's true or not. Now let's try the second filter, the filter of Goodness. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?"

"No, on the contrary."

"So", Socrates continued, "you want to tell me something bad about him, but you're not certain it's true. You may still pass the test though, because there's one filter left: the filter of Usefulness. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?"

"No, not really."

"Well", concluded Socrates,

"If what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?"

​

In our day to day life's , we also come a cross to such incidences maximum times,

Mostly we are involved in such things through other or we our self involve others in such things.

What Difference this will make if we also start applying this Triple Filter Test??

We can At least give a Try....  

 Can We????!!!!

A must read for young parents

Please read. For all parents who push kids to study all the time..

A extract from writer Sujatha’s biography. A must read. Good one.

For all parents who force their children to study. Is life just dangling in future alone??

I recently got an E-mail. It’s from a worried father of two sons. He is a successful central government employee. Starting his career as a fresher and completed his whole career as a senior officer before retiring. He has two sons. Both of them well settled with their family. One is living in America, and the another one living in Australia. He is living along with his wife, in his native city, Trichy. His only problem is severe depression from loneliness. His wife is suffering from arthritis, and he has Asthma and they can’t settle in colder countries with their sons. Their sons rarely visit them. Even for two years, they wouldn't visit once. Even if they do, they would stay hardly for 5 days and that too, would hardly spend 5 hours with them.

My second son likes to read a lot of your books. He buys them when he visits India. If you could write an email to him, explaining our state, he might understand us. He requested. I generally don’t get into other's family problem. But when he insisted, I just forwarded his mail to his son.

After a week's delay, there was response from his son. A lengthy email that made me think a lot about present education and its psychological effects. His son's mail read as, "I lived in Trichy for 22 whole years. But I don’t have any bonding with my native town. For 22 years, I have been with my parents. But I don’t have any sweet memories of them. My father, has always planned to make me an Engineer. He even planned it right before my LKG.

Every day, he would sit along and teach lessons. After that my mother would. Studying in the school, then studying at home, it’s all the only memories of my childhood that I carry around. Even during leaves, even on summer holidays, its English Grammar and Maths Algebra. Even for festivals like Pongal, and Diwali, there's nothing for me to celebrate, just studying.

Sometimes, I would lie down and think if I have anything to remember from my childhood.  Anywhere, any happy occasion. Nothing. Atleast If I got any bad occasion, to remember. Nothing. Its just plain studying, studying, studying.

My school was worse than that. It’s a private school. It is ranked best for squeezing my childhood into marks. People would stand in queues even to get admission. There were teachers to assist us the moment we enter the school and would stay with us till we leave the campus. There's no way, they would let me laugh or play. It’s just study, study, study.

Even in that, study, I have nothing to amuse myself. I didn’t learn anything out of the box from that education. None introduced me to novels or art. Only thing they taught me is to xerox the whole text with just my memory and write on the exam papers.

After finishing my graduation in the same way, and getting employed in America, I just figured out on my own, how happy life can be. Travelling, meeting friends, reading novels, hearing music, were all making me very happy. Our mind, just remembers the place, where it is very happy. It assumes that, that place is our native. That’s, how I love the cities in America more than Trichy. Now Trichy is like a strange city to me. I can’t stay for more than a day in it.

I have respect for my parents. I am grateful to them. But I can’t talk for more than half an hour with them. For 22 years, they hid this world from me and made me study. They stole 22 prime years of my childhood.  Nothing more I can think about them. If I have to love them, I should have understood them. I just see them as strangers.

For the 22 years, I have been with them, we never had any general discussions. They only frightened me with their fears of studies, and my future. Even If I force myself to speak with them, I have nothing to talk. Even now, they frighten me with questions like, how much I earn and what are my savings plan. They ask me not to travel, and not to buy books. They are asking me to live their life.

Now tell me, How do you expect me to talk with them,  when we don’t even have common interests to discuss even for 1/2 an hour. Even if I try artificially, I can’t. How do you expect me to stay in a city that has long become strange for me. I can force myself for 5 days, for the gratitude and respect. What can I do after that."

I forwarded that mail as such to his father. His father just read that mail and didn’t understand a bit. Out of his own frustration, he replied, that his son is disrespectful and irresponsible. After a month, he just mailed me saying, If I could call his son for Diwali.

Diwali is a celebration for children. Children like it a lot. When we grow up, we celebrate less and just carry the happy memories of the childhood celebrations. Your son says, he doesn’t have any such memories. You have taken away all his enjoyment and colorfulness from his life. I replied.

He never wrote back any mail. Life is not a struggle for securing the future.  is to make every minute memorable with colors. It is for that same reason, we have festivals and celebrations. It is what our ancestors framed for us.

Tomorrow is important. But today is more important.

Believe in your Children.

One Day Thomas Edison Came home and gave a paper to his mother. He told her, “My teacher gave this paper to me, and told me to only give it to my mother”.
His mother’s eyes were tearful as she read out the letter aloud to her son : Your child is a genius. This school is too small for him and doesn’t have enough good teachers for training him. Please teach him yourself.
Many years after Edison’s mother died and he was one of the greatest inventors of the century, one day he was looking through the old family things. Suddenly he saw the folded paper in the corner of the drawer in a desk. He took it and opened it up. On the paper it was written: Your son is addled (mentally ill). We won’t let him come to school any more.

Edison cried for hours and then wrote in his diary: “Thomas Alva Adison was an addled child that, by the hero mother, became the genius of the century”

Just think how important it is for parents to believe in their children.

Who is poor?

����  who is poor?

A wealthy woman goes to a saree store and tells the boy at the counter "Bhaiya show some cheap sarees. It is my son's marriage and I have to give to my maid."

After sometime, the maid comes to the saree shop and tells the boy at the counter "Bhaiya show some expensive sarees. I want to gift my Madam on her son's marriage"

Poverty is in the mind or in the purse?

Amazon can do it??...

I had spent an hour in the bank with Uncle, as he had to transfer some money. In a small SBI branch in a sleepy area of a small town. I couldn't resist the urge.

''Uncle, why don't we activate your internet banking?''
''Why would I do that?'' He asked
''Well, then you wont have to spend an hour here for things like transfer. You can even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!'' I was so excited about initiating him into the world of Net banking.
He asked ''If I do that, I wont have to step out of the house? I wont have to come to the bank?''
''Yes, yes''! I said. I told him how even grocery can be delivered at door now and how amazon delivers everything!

His answer left me tongue-tied. Our parents, have somewhere found the perfect balance. They enjoy seeing the photos we send them on Whats App but they have not broken their human ties. They have adopted technology on our insistence but not forgotten where it all began.

He said ''Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends, I have chatted a while with the staff who know me very well by now. My kids are out of town and visit me now and then but this is the company that I need. I like to get ready and come to the bank. I have enough time, it is the physical touch that I crave. Two years back I got sick, very sick. The butcher from whom I buy meat, came to see me and sat by my bedside and cried. The man who comes every month to collect my bills and goes and physically pays them for a nominal charge from me, has only that mean of earning and the only thing that keeps him busy in his retired life. My wife fell down few days back while on her morning walk. My local grocer saw her and immediately got his car to rush her home as he knows where I live. Would I have that 'human' touch if everything became online?
Why would I want everything delivered to me and force me to interact with just my computer? 

I like to know the person that I'm dealing with and not just the 'seller' . It creates bonds. Relationships. Does Amazon deliver all this as well?'''