Way of God

There lived an old woman in a village, who was a great devotee of the lord. She used worship the Lord with great devotion and sincerity. 

Nearby the village there was a dam, which was used for irrigation purpose. During the monsoon season, due to heavy rains there was a flood in the village and authorities started evacuating the people of the village to place of safety. 

The old woman was terror stricken and started praying to the Lord saying "Unless, you come and rescue me I wont leave the village". 

As the old women continued to pray, a man who was moving in a cart called her and asked her to join him, so that they can reach the safety. The woman said "No, the lord is going to come to save me", the man went away. 

She again started doing the prayer, the level of water in the house kept on increasing, then again, a man with a boat passed by her house and called out for her and asked her to join him so that they can reach the safety, yet again she refused to go. 

The water filled up the whole house, and now the old lady moved up to her trace and started praying saying that "Even though, I am your great devotee, you do not come to rescue me" . As she prayed, a helicopter came to the rescue and asked the old woman to come with them. She refused once again and did not go with them, saying the lord will rescue her. 

She started praying and as the fury of the floods increased , the old woman drowned and died in the flood. Then came the dootha's (agents) of the Lord to take her to heaven, as they came, The old woman demanded that she wants to meet the Lord and want to know why did not he come even after she worshipped him so much. Without much choice they took her to the Lord. 

As the lady reached before the Lord, she asked the Lord why did not he come to her rescue. 

The Lord smiled and said " Dear Lady, I came to your rescue three times and every time because of your ignorance you sent me away. Tell me how can I help you when you yourself don't want to be helped" 

Moral: 

Whenever one is in trouble or in need of guidance, the Lord helps in many ways, one needs to see his way of help and try to move in to a place of safety. 

Opportunities are provided for one's own uplift-ment in many ways, one needs to utilize and work with  every opportunity provided and enlighten oneself, instead of waiting for the Lord to appear and enlighten.  

Greed

There lived a potter in a small town selling pot with his family. He had happy family, a house to live, enough money and amenities to satisfy his and his family's needs. 

 

As the days passed by he grew greedier for money and started searching of ways to make more money, in the process he met a knowledgeable man and asked "Who could give him whatever one wants?"

The man answered that the "Lord" is the giver of all things and suggested that one needs to do tapas to obtain the grace of the "Lord" and left from their. 

The potter in his greed for money thought of doing penance to please the Lord and to take a boon from him. He left his family in search of a suitable place to do penance and after years of search he found a place and started the tapas. 

 Hundreds of years passed by, and he kept doing the tapas, impressed by the tapas of the potter, the Lord appeared before him and asked him to wish for a boon. The potter thought for sometime and asked the Lord "Let all the land that I see become mine and I be the ruler of these lands" . 

The Lord said "Granted" and disappeared. Potter thus obtained the boon, started running to cover as much as possible and to see each and every place that he can. In the process of covering as much as land he can, he never rested or ate and kept on running. He was never satisfied with whatever amount of land that he had covered, as he was driven by his inner greed. He continued running and running and running, at last his body gave up and he died running. 

He was happy with his family, in his greed to obtain more, he lost even whatever he had and had to leave without enjoying anything. 

Greed is the inordinate desire to possess wealth, goods, or objects of abstract value with the intention to keep it for one's self, far beyond the dictates of basic survival and comfort. It is applied to a markedly high desire for and pursuit of wealth, status, and power.