Monday, March 9, 2015

How we do Business with God ?


A famous Sufi story told by Mystic Osho, describing how we do business with God.

A ship is coming back to its home country. Suddenly the ocean goes mad... great winds, and the ship is almost on the verge of sinking. Everybody starts praying. At such a moment who will not pray? – even the atheist will pray, the agnostic will pray, and pray, ”Forgive what I have been saying, it was all nonsense. Forgive me, but let me reach the shore.”

But the Sufi was simply sitting there, not praying. The people became angry; they said, ”You are a religious man, wearing the robe, the green robe of a Sufi. What kind of a Sufi are you? You should have been the first to pray. And we are not religious people, we are just business people, and to us this prayer is, too, nothing but business. We are offering God, that ’We will give you this, we will give you that, just save us.’ Why are you sitting silently? Why are you not praying?”

He said, ”You have already said it: because I am not a businessman. If he wants to finish us all, good. If he wants to save us, good. I am in total agreement with him. Why should I pray? For what? Prayer means some disagreement, something is happening which you don’t want to happen. You want God to intercede, to interfere, to stop it, to change it.”

The Sufi said, ”I have no business of my own. It is his business to bother whether to save or to drown us. If he wants this Sufi to be saved, it is his business, not my business. And if he wants me to die, that is his business. I had not asked for birth; suddenly I was here. I cannot ask about death.

If birth is not in my control, how can death be in my control?”

Those people thought, ”This man is mad.” They said, ”We will take care of you later on. Let us get to the shore somehow and then we will take care of you. You are not a Sufi, you are not religious; you are a very dangerous man. But this is not the time to bother and quarrel with you.”

On board was the most wealthy, most famous man of the country, and he was coming with millions of diamonds and precious stones. He had earned much. He had a beautiful palace in the town – the most beautiful marble palace. Even the king was jealous. Even the king had asked him many times, ”You give this palace to me – any price, and I will pay for it.”

But the madman, the rich man, said, ”That is not possible. That palace is my pride.” When the ship was almost sinking, the man shouted to God, ”Listen, I give that palace to you – just save me!” And as it happened, the winds disappeared, the ocean became calm, the ship was saved. They reached the bank.

Now, the rich man was in a very difficult position because of what he had said. And he had been angry with the Sufi – now he was not angry. He said, ”Perhaps you were right just to keep quiet. If had followed you I would not have lost my palace. But I am a businessman, and I will find a way.”


And he found a way.

Next day he put the palace up for auction. He informed all the nearby kingdoms, whoever was interested. Many kings, queens and rich people came; everybody was interested. They were all puzzled to see that, just in front of the palace, there was a cat chained to a marble pillar of the palace. The rich man came out and he said, ”This palace and the cat, both are up for auction together. The price of the cat is one million dinars” – their dollars, one million dollars – ”the price of the cat one million dollars, and the price of the palace, one dollar: one million and one dollars.”

The people said, ”For this cat one million dollars, and for this palace just one dollar?”

The businessman said, ”You don’t bother about it. If you are interested, both are going to be sold together. Less, I will not accept. If anybody is interested, this is my minimum price.”

The king of the country said, ”Yes, I will give you the price, but please tell me, what is the secret of this cat and the palace?”

And he said, ”No secret – I just got into trouble because of a prayer. I have told God that ’I will give you the palace.’ And I am a businessman; if he is a businessman, I am also a businessman. The cat, one million dollars – that I will keep. And the palace: one dollar – that will go to God’s fund.”


Prayer is just your effort to persuade God to do things according to you. And it is absolutely your imagination. In the first place you don’t know God. You don’t know his likes and dislikes. You don’t know whether he exists or not, and you are praying. This is a poor state of affairs, and this is happening all over the world.

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!

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