CRI n°15  2013

 part 2 

HE ERASER!

Pencil: I'm sorry.

 Eraser: For what? You didn't do anything wrong.

 Pencil: I'm sorry, you get hurt because of me. Whenever I made a mistake, you're always there to erase it. But as you make my mistakes vanish, you lose a part of yourself and get smaller and smaller each time.

 Eraser: That's true, but I don't really mind. You see, I was made to do this, I was made to help you whenever you do something wrong, even though one day I know I'll be gone. I'm actually happy with my job. So please, stop worrying. I hate seeing you sad.

 "Our Parents are like the eraser, whereas we children are the pencil. They're always there for their children, cleaning up their mistakes.

 Sometimes along the way the parents get hurt and become smaller (older and eventually pass on).

 Take care of your Parents, treat them with kindness and most especially love.

They did not leave you when you were young, so did not leave them when they are old.

Do you know that simple phone call can make them happy?

Press share and don’t forget to call them.

The value of a copper coin

Mahatma Gandhi went from city to city, village to village collecting funds for the Charkha Sangh. During one of his tours he addressed a meeting in Orissa.

After his speech a poor old woman got up. She was bent with age, her hair was grey and her clothes were in tatters. The volunteers tried to stop her, but she fought her way to the place where Gandhiji was sitting. "I must see him," she insisted and going up to Gandhiji
touched his feet.

Then from the folds of her sari she brought out a copper coin and placed it at his feet. Gandhiji picked up the copper coin and put it away carefully.

The Charkha Sangh funds were under the charge of Jamnalal Bajaj. He asked Gandhiji for the coin but Gandhiji refused. "I keep cheques worth thousands of rupees for the Charkha Sangh," Jamnalal Bajaj said laughingly "yet you won't trust me with a copper coin."

"This copper coin is worth much more than those thousands," Gandhijisaid. "If a man has several lakhs and he gives away a thousand or two, it doesn't mean much.

But this coin was perhaps all that the poor woman possessed. She gave me all she had. That was very generous of her. What a great sacrifice she made.

That is why I value this copper coin more than a crore of rupees."

The man who didn’t like the sun

The man hated the bright burning thing in the sky. It hovered over him all day long, no matter where he went.  He hated the Sun's harsh light, the heat it created and the shadows it cast on the earth around him. He felt like the sun was stealing something from him, separating him from things when what he craved was unity.

"At least at night everything looks the same," he thought. That's why he liked the darkness. The Sun had become his enemy.

One day, unable to stand it any longer, he decided to dig a hole to protect himself from the intolerable rays of sunlight. His skin, which had been burned a deep brown, began to turn white again, and the shadows of day ceased to annoy him. But then, sitting in his hole, he realized that the sun continued to flood his hiding place with light from above, and that his shelter was even brighter than the land outside.

He went back to work and had soon dug himself a tunnel and a cave. And there he finally found protection from the Sun. He spent years in his hole, meditating in solitude, in the coolness of the dark where the Sun never penetrated. Up on the surface other men grew food and warmed themselves in the heat of the all-giving star. They saw the Sun as a good and protective. The Sun was their ally as they learned to tame its extremes.

They lived through the seasons, one after the other.

All were thankful for the Sun's presence, all except for the man who wanted to avoid the light and the contrasts it created. In the end the poor hermit perished in his cave, in darkness, in the calmness and unity of the shadows, but desperate and alone.

And after he died the people didn't even have to dig a grave for him. It was already there...

Moral of the Story:

Accepting people's differences, living with others and their strange habits and sometimes incomprehensible behaviour, can be difficult. We are often tempted to retreat like a hermit into the calmness of home, into the shadows. But life is composed of diversity, of exchange and of change. When you cut yourself off from your friends, your neighbours and your community, you also lose a part of yourself.

A beautiful lesson

It was a sports stadium. Eight Children were standing on the track to participate in the running event.

* Ready!

* Steady!

Bang!!! With the sound of Toy pistol, all eight girls started running. Hardly have they covered ten to fifteen steps, one of the smaller girls slipped and fell down, due to bruises and pain she started crying.

When other seven girls heard this sound, stopped running, stood for a while and turned back, they all ran back to the place where the girl fell down.

One among them bent, picked and kissed the girl gently and enquired 'Now pain must have reduced'. All seven girls lifted the fallen girl, pacified her, two of them held the girl firmly and they all seven joined hands together and walked together and reached the winning post.

Officials were shocked. Clapping of thousands of spectators filled the stadium. Many eyes were filled with tears!

YES. This happened in Hyderabad [INDIA], recently! The sport was conducted by National Institute of Mental Health. All these special girls had come to participate in this event and they are spastic children. Yes, they were mentally retarded. What did they teach this world?

What a beautiful lesson about Human Values: Compassion, Caring, Kindness, Mutual aid, Friendship …

What is the best time?

A king used to ask three questions of all the people who came to him. The first question was "Who is the best of persons?", the second was "What is the best time?" and the third, "What is the best of all actions?" The king was very anxious to know the answers to these questions. The king was never satisfied with the answers that he got from various people.

One day, he went to the forest for pleasure. He was moving about the hills and plains and felt very tired. He saw an Ashram and wanted to take some rest there. By the time the king reached the Ashram, a monk was watering some plants. This monk saw that the king came there rather tired, so he stopped watering the plants, ran up to the king and gave him some good fruit and cool water.

At that time, an individual wounded all over the body, was brought to the Ashram by another monk. As soon as the monk saw this, he went to the individual, cleaned all his wounds and gave him some herbs which would cure the wounds. He was also telling him sweet words which would console the person. The king came to the monk and wanted to express his gratitude and take leave of him. The monk blessed the king but the king was still troubled by his three questions and wanted to see if the monk could enlighten him on that matter.

The monk stated that the answers to the three questions were contained in the actions which the king had witnessed in the Ashram. The king requested the monk to elucidate the matter. The monk said that when the king came to the Ashram, he was watering the plants and that was his duty. At that time, on seeing the king, the monk had given up his duty and came to the king and gave water and fruit. This was in accordance with correct traditions, as the king was his guest. While relieving the king of his thirst and suffering, another injured individual had come to the Ashram and therefore the monk had given up the duty of serving the king and went to the other individual and began serving him.

Whoever comes seeking service from you is the best of individuals at that time. Whatever satisfaction you can give him by serving him will be your duty and this will be the best of work that you can do. The present, when you can do something, is the most sacred of all time. You do not see the future as your eyes cannot perceive it. Past has gone and you can do nothing about it. Thus, the present time in which you can fulfil your duty, the service that you can do to the person who comes to you and he who comes seeking your service are the three best things. These are the answers to the king's three questions.