What is Real and Whats Not?

There is a beautiful story about Chuang Tzu, a great mystic of China. 

One morning, sitting in his bed, he looked very sad. His disciples had never seen him so sad. And never after waking up had he remained in his bed, sitting. What had happened? Was he sick?

They gathered around and asked him, ”Master, what is the matter?” He said, ”The matter is really difficult, I cannot solve it; perhaps you may be of some help. I will tell you what is the matter. In the night I dreamed that I had become a butterfly, and I was moving from one flower to another flower.”

The disciples said, ”This is nothing to be sad about. In dreams we all do strange things; and this is not a bad thing, to be a butterfly – colorful, beautiful, moving from one juicy flower to another juicy flower. Why are you so worried?”

He said, ”You have not heard the whole thing. The problem is, now I am awake and I am wondering whether Chuang Tzu dreamed that he is a butterfly, or now the butterfly has gone to sleep and is dreaming she is Chuang Tzu.”

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!

Why are many Spiritual Masters like MADMEN ?

A revealing Sufi Story told by Spirtual Master Osho, explaining why many spiritual masters behave like Madmen.

A disciple came to the master and said, "I am in trouble. The trouble is that the richest man of the town is going on a pilgrimage. He has a beautiful daughter, and I have a great reputation because of all the discipline that I have gone through and the character that I have cultivated. I have such a reputation in the town that he wants me to take care of his beautiful daughter while he is on his pilgrimage. And I am afraid -- I know my temptations. And the girl is really beautiful; in fact I have always been infatuated with her. I have been avoiding...! This is too much: for six months or nine months she will be living with me. I cannot trust myself. What should I do?"

The master said, "I know a man who knows the secret. You go to him."

And he told him to go to another village where a madman lived. He said, "But what can that madman do? I know about that madman, I have heard much about that madman. He is utterly mad! How can he help me?"

The master said, "You just go, but go very watchfully. Watch everything that is happening there."

He went to the madman. A very beautiful young girl was pouring wine and the madman was drinking.

This beautiful young girl pouring wine and the madman drinking -- this man felt great hatred, condemnation. But because the master had said, "Watch and go and ask him for advice..." he forgot all about his problem. First he asked, "Please tell me what is happening. What are you doing?"

The madman laughed and he said, "This boy is my son. And come close -- my glass contains only water. What he is pouring is not wine."

The man asked, "Then why are you pretending that you are drinking wine? Nobody sips water the way you are sipping. The flask from which he is pouring water is not used for keeping water -- then why?"

The madman laughed and said, "So that nobody entrusts his beautiful daughter to me when he goes on a pilgrimage. This is a device!"

He must have read the thought, he must have been telepathic. He must have seen this man through and through. "...So that nobody entrusts his beautiful daughter to me, so nobody bothers. So that I am left alone. But please don't tell my secret to anybody; otherwise I will have to move from this town to another town. My madness is a rumor created by me. My characterlessness is a rumor created by me. And if YOU really want to work on yourself," said the madman, "you should do likewise. Go back. Start behaving foolishly, stupidly, madly, immorally -- at least pretend! -- and nobody will bother you."

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!

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!

How to Prove that God Exists!

A small story in Budha's life on how to prove God exists. Told by Mystic Osho.

I am reminded of a small story in Buddha’s life. A man was brought to Gautam Buddha who was blind, but was a very logical man. He was so logical that his village and the pundits of the village became utterly fed up with his logic. They could not prove to him that light exists. The whole village knew; everybody saw it, only the blind logician was unable to see it. But he was a very logical man.

He said, ”Anything that exists can be touched. Bring light – I would like to touch it. Anything that exists, you can hit it with something, it will make sound. Let me hear the sound of your light being hit by something. If it has any smell bring it to my nose, I can smell it. If it has any taste, I can taste it. These are the four possibilities with me.”

Now, you cannot taste light, and you cannot create a sound out of it, and you cannot smell it, and you cannot touch it. And the blind logician would laugh and he would say, ”You just want to prove me blind, hence you have created this fiction of light. There is no light. You are all blind just like me; you are befooling yourself.”

Buddha was passing by the side of the village, so the villagers thought, ”It is a good opportunity; let us take this logician to Gautam Buddha, perhaps he may be able to help.”

Buddha listened to the whole story and he said, ”The blind man is right, and you are all wrong, because what he needs is not argumentation; he needs medicine for his eyes to be cured. And you have brought him to the wrong person. Take him to a physician.”

Buddha had his own personal physician who was provided by a great king, Bimbisara, to take care of Buddha’s body. So Buddha said, ”You need not go far to find a great physician, I have one with me. You can show the blind man to him.” And he left the physician in the village and he moved on.

In three months the blind man’s eyes were opened. He was not really blind – just a small disease; a small, thin layer was covering his vision. It was removed. He came dancing. He fell at Buddha’s feet and he said, ”If they had not brought me to you, my whole life I would have argued against light. And they would not have been able to prove it.”

Godliness is not something that argument can prove or disprove. It is something that you can experience.

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!

God in Every Being !

A beautiful parable told by the great Mystic Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

"Let me tell you a story. In a forest there lived a holy man who had many disciples. One day he taught them to see God in all beings and, knowing this, to bow low before them all. 

A disciple went to the forest to gather wood for the sacrificial fire. Suddenly he heard an outcry: 'Get out of the way! A mad elephant is coming!'

All but the disciple of the holy man took to their heels. He reasoned that the elephant was also God in another form. Then why should he run away from it? 

He stood still, bowed before the animal, and began to sing its praises. 

The mahut of the elephant was shouting: 'Run away! Run away!' But the disciple didn't move. The animal seized him with its trunk, cast him to one side, and went on its way. Hurt and bruised, the disciple lay unconscious on the ground. Hearing what had happened, his teacher and his brother disciples came to him and carried him to the hermitage.

With the help of some medicine he soon regained consciousness. Someone asked him, 'You knew the elephant was coming – why didn't you leave the place?' 

'But', he said, 'our teacher has told us that God Himself has taken all these forms, of animals as well as men. Therefore, thinking it was only the elephant God that was coming, I didn't run away.' 

At this the teacher said: 'Yes, my child, it is true that

the elephant God was coming; but the mahut God forbade you to stay there. Since all are manifestations of God, why didn't you trust the mahut's words? You should have heeded the words of the mahut God.'

Enjoy other interesting Stories HERE!