Chinna Katha - 29 (Playing Marbles with the Name of God) (Short Story: As told by Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba)

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29. PLAYING MARBLES WITH THE NAME OF GOD

 

There was once a boy, who picked up a precious gem, bright and round, and used

it for playing marbles on the road, with his comrades.

 

A merchant dealing in precious stones chance to pass along that road, and his

discerning eye fell on the gem.

 

He approached the boy, took him aside and offered to pay him fifty rupees in exchange.

 

If the boy could know the value of fifty rupees he would have known the value of the gem!

 

He went to his mother and told her that a stranger had tempted him with fifty

rupees in return for the marble he played with. She was surprised that it was

so costly and she said, “Do not go at the compound with it: play in the garden

with your friend”. When the value was revealed, limits were set.

 

The merchant had no sleep that night, he was planning to secure the gem from

those simple folk, so that he could sell it at a huge profit to some

millionaire or maharaja, He discovered the house of the boy and moved up and

down that road hoping to boy. When he saw the boy play with it, as it was as

cheap as a marble, his heart was wrung in agony.

 

The boy threw it on the floor; his mother emerged just at the moment from the

inner apartments and it struck her foot and fell under the bush.

 

He spoke to the boy asking for the gem in exchange for a hundred rupees, and

again for five hundred rupees! The son ran into the house in tears,

complaining about the stranger who would not let him alone.

 

The mother came out into the garden and begged the merchant to go away.

 

The merchant grasped the chance; he told them other that he was ready to give a

thousand rupees on the spot, if the marble was placed in his hand!

 

On hearing this, she forbade the child to play with it outside the house; he

could play only within thee rooms.

 

The merchants could not be shooed off like that; he appeared the next day in

front off the house; he held out ten thousand rupees as his offer for the

marble.

 

The mother refused to part with it but kept it now in an iron safe, under lock and key!

 

When the merchant came the next day with fifty thousand rupees she took it to a

bank and deposited it in their safety vaults.

 

You are also playing marbles with the 'name of God' unaware of its value. Once

you realize its worth, you will keep it in your heart of hearts as the most

precious treasure.

 

Know that the name is the key to success in your search for consolation,

confidence, courage, illumination and liberation.

 

(from the Book: "CHINNA KATHA" (Short Story, as told by Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai BABA))

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