About a century ago, a tourist from the United States visited
the Polish Rabbi Hafez Hayyim.
He was astonished to see that the Rabbi's home was just one simple room filled with books.
The only furniture in the room was a small table and a bench, that served as a bed also.
"Rabbi, where is your furniture?" asked the visitor.
"Where is yours?" Hafez Asked.
"Mine? But I'm only a visitor here."
"So am I," said the Rabbi.
He was astonished to see that the Rabbi's home was just one simple room filled with books.
The only furniture in the room was a small table and a bench, that served as a bed also.
"Rabbi, where is your furniture?" asked the visitor.
"Where is yours?" Hafez Asked.
"Mine? But I'm only a visitor here."
"So am I," said the Rabbi.
Now, in the 21st century, we live in a modern society. We have so many luxurious things in our homes and yet we are not satisfied.
Our wardrobes are overfilled with clothes and yet, if we need to go to someone's home, a function or a party, or even for a special Satsang, we complain "I have nothing to wear for this occasion". And we go for more shopping.
Our pantries and refrigerators are over flowing with food, and yet the children complaint "There is nothing for me to eat here in this house"
The more we have, less satisfied we are. The more we get, the more we complaint.
What is happening to us?
‘Rajan
Sachdeva’ May 4, 2013
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Yes, we must think about what’s happening to us. Today, in an
age where materialism is on an all-time high, and when people take pride in the
fact that they can buy anything from a toy to a watch to a property on the moon
at the snap of a finger, why is happiness visible in such scarce measures?
Shouldn't that be readily available too....like any other assembly line
product?
But like a wise man said while comparing old times to
today......
“Pehle abhaavon mein bhi khushiyan thi,
Aaj khushiyon ka abhaav hai.....”
'Gitika’ (India) May 5, 2013
Rajan Ji,
When I was a high school student there was a
short story in our course ‘The Enchanted shirt’. The story goes like this…,
There was a king and he was very sad at all
the time. He tried his best to find the answer to his problem. And finally some
fortune teller told his advisers that if the king should wear the shirt of a
person for one night who is very happy, all his worries would be turned into happiness.
So he sends his servants in all directions to find a happy man and borrow his
shirt for one night, so the king can wear it to solve his problems. But his
people could not find any one who said that he was the person with no worry or
problem.
Finally they found one man who was singing and
dancing in the fields and seems to be the happiest man in the world. The king’s
people begged him for his shirt for the king. The man laughed and said “do you see any shirt
on my body?”
And he walked away.
So Rajan ji: happiest are the people who have nothing to lose.
‘Terry
Kahlon’, (Toronto) May 5, 2013
Thank you - yes we are all visitors, but do not know what time the train arrives and for what destination? DHJ Prem
ReplyDeleteThank You ! Wonderful ! In Gurbani i have heard a beautiful Shabad, it says, what should i ask of you oh lord ? There is nothing stable here in this world ? This Shabad made me think when I heard it. It made me think of what all the Saints and Sages have said. Baba Hardev Singh Ji once said (Gurudev Hardev) that what we think is happiness is a momentary pleasure from desire to desire, once the desire is fulfilled we go on. A Saint once explained to me that Desire is a lose lose situation, in that if it gets fulfilled we want something else, if it doesnt we are unhappy, both cases we are losing. In the end Self Realisation that we are not this body but a Soul and uniting with the Soul through Dhyan and Sumiran can take us above all of this. But the caveat is that are we willing to do Bhakti and sacrifice to get there ? To really unite with Nirankar ?
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. I think the Shabad you are mentioning is this:..
ReplyDeleteTu Prabhu data daan mat poora Hum thaare bhekhaari jio
mai kyaa maangoo kichhu thir na rahaaye, hari deeje naam pyaari jio
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