Fw: The Battle in Life (Talk by Prof Sainath)

[Guest guest]

- Ramchand Chugani

rgcjp

Monday, July 19, 2004 1:07 PM

The Battle in Life (Talk by Prof Sainath)

The Battle in life (Talk by Prof Sainath)

======================================================= I offer my most

prayerful pranaams at the lotus feet of Bhagavan. Revered elders, dear sisters

and my dear Brothers. Sai Ram to all of you. I was in my first year

undergraduate at that time and Bhagavan came frequently to the institute

auditorium and He used to bless the institutes, staff and students with

discourses. There was one story Swami mentioned in this regard, which has gone

so deep into me that I recollect even today as fresh as ever. It was a very

amusing story but there is an extremely deep truth hidden in it. Swami says

that there was one merchant who happened to get a stock of some extremely

delicious apples, and so he decided that he would put it in sale. So he had the

apples put up and outside on the road, he had a painter, to paint a sign."Fresh

Fruits Sold Here" and he put it on the foot path. Everyone who was passing by,

saw the board (Apples were very liked in that town) So when they found that the

board was advertising, "Fresh Fruits being sold" they rush in. The merchant was

doing a very brisk business. After sometime one person came and he looked into

the shop as Bhagavan Says "One who has no work will think anything to do which

is not required." So this gentleman came and he looked at the shopkeeper and

said, "Why you mad cap? Why do you need to say "Fresh Fruits sold here?

Everyone can see that they are fresh fruits. Remove word "Fresh". The

shopkeeper thought for some time and said, "Yes that is true. I have been too

hasty in having more words than necessary. We shold use minimum words as

possible to convey what we want to say". Then he summoned the painter to have

the word "FRESH" removed. So the board now said, "FRUITS sold here". This

continued for some time and business was slowly still progressing. After that

came another such person, who had nothing to do. He came and said. WHY DO YOU

NEED TO ADVERTISE Fruits sold here? We all have eyes, we can see that you are

selling fruits. "Remove the Fruits" it is not required. This gentleman thought

once again and said "Absolutely true". When every one is able to see that I am

selling fruits then what is the need to advertise it. So again the painter was

summoned and the word "FRUITS" was removed. So the board now said "SOLD here".

Now comes another man saying, "Are you trying to make a fool of us? What do you

mean by advertising, "Sold here"? What are you trying to sell? Is this house for

sale, Are you for sale or in this shop, entire items for sale? This gentleman

thought that is also correct, why do I need to have this useless board here,

let me remove it. He summoned the painter and said "Remove the entire board and

get out". And then his sales dropped because no one could enter the shop, no one

knew that apples were being sold there, and his business suffered. Bhagavan

said, "The sum and substance of the story is that in listening to each and

everyone in this world, ultimately, it is we who get ruined. The gentleman who

came and told shop keeper to remove these signs took his apples and left, but

ultimately it is the shopkeeper who suffered because he got stuck with a stock

of rotten apples. In this way, we see that Bhagavan has advised us constantly

that is our own conscience which will always speak the truth and hence we ought

to listen to no one but our conscience. Jai Sai Ram Ram ChuganiKobe, Japan

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