Karma (The four wives)

There was a man with four wives. He loved his fourth wife the most and took a great care of her and gave her the best.
He also loved his third wife and always wanted to show her off to his friends. However, he was always had a fear that she might runaway with some other man.
He loved his second wife too. Whenever he faced some problems, he always turned to his second wife and she would always help him out.
He did not love his first wife
though she loved him deeply, was very loyal to him and took great care of him. One day the man fell very ill and knew that he is going to die soon.
He told himself, "I have four wives with me. I will take one of them along with me when I die to keep company in my death."
Thus, he asked the fourth wife to die along with him and keep company. "No way!" she replied and walked away without another word.
He asked his third wife. She said "Life is so good over here. I'm going to remarry when you die".
He then asked his second wife. She said "I'm Sorry. I can't help you this time around. At the most I can only accompany you till your grave."
By now his heart sank and turned cold.
Then a voice called out: "I'll leave with you. I'll follow you no matter
where you go." the man looked up and there was his first wife. She was so skinny, almost like she suffered from malnutrition. Greatly grieved, the man said, "I should have taken much better care of you while I could have!"

Actually, we all have four wives in our lives.

a. The fourth wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we
lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when w die.

b. The third wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, they
go to others.

c. the second wife is our family and friends. No matter how close they
had been there for us when we're alive, the furthest they can stay by us is
up to the grave.

d. the first wife is our soul, neglected in our pursuit of material
wealth and pleasure. It is actually the only thing that follows us wherever we go!

The Karma and life

Life is cruel because we have a flawed understanding of Karma. 

Good and bad karma do not cancel out each other. For good Karma you'll get good results and for bad Karma you have to suffer its consequences. Also, correlating Karma with time is futile primarily because nobody understands how it works. Besides, we have a limited vision and cannot realize which result is due to which particular (past) action.

Your Karma doesn't become good because you think so. A good karma is a deed which is done in accordance to your Dharma. Shri Krishna told Arjun during his pre-Mahabharata war dilemma that being Kshatriya Arjun's dharma was to protect people by fighting for righteousness. Hence all his killing were justified.

Bhishma Pitamah had the boon of dying at his own will, so he was lying on the bed of arrows till the moment the war did not end and he saw  Hastinapur in safe hands. Later when Krishna went to meet him with all Pandavas, after offering pranama,Bhishma asked him this Mrityuloka or Earth is the land of Karma and this is place where we receive the result or fruits of our past karmas. 

He said,"I know about all my past 100 births, but I never caused any pain to anyone, then why I have received so much pain through this bed of arrows?”

Listening to this question Krishna smiled and asked him,“You do remember all your past 100 births. What about the 101st?”, then Pitamah said,“I don’t remember about my 101st birth”. Krishna told him that “in your 101st birth you were a prince and committed a sin by throwing off a snake with your arrow, when you had thrown it away then it had fallen upon a place which was full of thrones, many thrones got pierced through the body of that snake, it was causing great pain to him, later all family members of that snake tried to help him to get rid of those thorns, but they failed, then before dying the snake cursed you “O King! I don’t know your identity, but the way you have caused me pain of thorns similarly one day you too will experience the same, you too will have a huge family, but no one will be able to uproot those thorns from your body and in this way you will die.”

Krishna added,“as you followed the path of devotion in all your births so it was protecting you till date from the sin you committed, but as now you have fought from the side of Adharma  so the dormant sin has ripened now.”. After listening to that Pitamah Bhishma was satisfied and he wished to die, then a divyajyoti (soul) came out of his body and found it’s place at the lotus feet of Shri Krishna. 

Karma acts for everyone. Nobody escapes from it.

Now this may sound humorous but I find a particular song Urvashi-take it easy to aid in such moments of frustration-bad people getting successful and we keep struggling. It says, for winning we need to follow "Take it easy" mantra. No matter what the result is, in spite of your continuous good effort, always take it easy.

On a serious note, Lord Krishna told Arjun 

कर्मण्येवाधिकारस्ते मा फलेषु कदाचन।
मा कर्मफलहेतुर्भूर्मा ते सङ्गोऽस्त्वकर्मणि॥

which means

You have the right to perform your actions,but you are not entitled to the fruits of the actions.
Do not let the fruit be the purpose of your actions, and therefore you won’t be attached to not doing your duty.

So stop worrying. Don't expect anything. Keep doing good Karma. We never know how it will pay off. But it sure would.

Swami Vivekananda's Childhood

As a kid, Narendra( his real name),   was always daring, never willing to accept things at face value. There  was believed to be a tree, haunted by a spirit, and no one would go near  it. Once when Naren was playing with his friends, he began to climb  that "haunted tree", his friends warned him not to do so,saying there  was a spirit in it. And Naren replied "If there was really a spirit on  the tree, it would have killed me long time back". His fearless  attitude, tendency not to take anything on face value, was ingrained  from his childhood.


The influence of Sree Ramakrishna Paramahansa in moulding and guiding the character  of Swami Vivekananda, is well  known. Though Vivekananda, revered  Ramakrishna, he never accepted his  teachings at face value, he always questioned him, debated with him, and  it was for this reason that he was the latter's favorite disciple. Once  Ramakrishna claimed that he was so allergic to money, he could never  really bear even it's touch. In order to test him, Swami Vivekananda  placed a coin under his mattress. When Ramakrishna sat on it, he began  to experience a stinging pain, grew restless and started to cry out. He  raised the mattress and saw the coin, demanded to know who put it there.  Vivekanands claimed he did it just to test Ramakrishna's claim, the  latter was pleased "You are right Naren, never believe anything blindly,  test it".

Swami Vivekananda's Spontaneous spiritual Citation

Swami Vivekanand was never known to be a spontaneous poet and one rare instance was in that late 1890s when he was installing a idol of Sri Paramahans in a devotee's house he apparently broke out into the famous lines : 

Sthapakaya cha dharmasya sarvadharmaswaroopine
Avatara varishtayaa ramakrishnaya te namah!!

Translated

You who came to establish spirituality, you who are a representation of all faiths, You who are an avatar of the Divine, to you Ramakrishna I bow to/ I offer my salutations.

Stories of Vivekananda's life -legend who lived a spiritual life.

1. Swamiji(Swami Vivekananda) lived the ideal of fearlessness even as a small child. When he was barely 8 years old.He used to visit a friend of his,whose family had a Champaka tree in their compound. The Champaka flowers are said to be liked by Shiva and were incidentally a favorite of Swamiji’s too. This was Swamiji favorite tree and he loved to dangle head down from it! One day as he was swinging from the tree, the old and nearly blind grandfather of the house recognized his voice and approached him. The old man was afraid that the boy might fall and hurt himself or worse that he might lose some of his precious Champaka flowers! He called Naren (which was Swamiji’s pre-monastic name) down and told him not to climb the tree again.Why? asked Naren. Because the old man answered a Brahmadaitya (a ghost of a Brahmin) lives in that tree and at night he goes about dressed all in white, and he is terrible to look at!  This was news to Naren, who wanted to know what else this Ghost could do besides wander about. The old man replied And he breaks the necks of those who climb the tree!

Naren simply nodded and said nothing and the old man went away smiling to himself in triumph. As soon as he had gone some distance, Naren climbed the tree again and was dangling back in his former position. His friend who was there all along cried out Naren. The Brahmadaitya is sure to catch you and break your neck! Naren laughed heartily and said. What a silly fellow you are! Don't believe everything just because someone tells you! If the old grandfathers story were true then my neck would have been broken long ago!

And this was Swamiji as a young boy.Bold AND fearless with an exceptionally strong common sense!

2. Swami Vivekananda was having a long trek in the Himalayas when he  found an old man extremely exhausted standing hopelessly at the foot of  an upward slope. The man said to Swamiji in frustration, ‘Oh, Sir, how  to cross it; I cannot walk any more; my chest will break.’
Swamiji listened to the old man patiently and then said, ‘Look down  at your feet. The road that is under your feet is the road that you have  passed over and is the same road that you see before you; it will soon  be under your feet.’ These words emboldened the old man to resume his  onward trek.
Bring light to the ignorant and bring more light to the intelligent..

3. In America, Swamiji was watching some boys. They were standing on the  bridge trying to shoot at egg-shells that were floating on the river,  but they always missed the target. Swamiji took the gun and aimed at  the shells. He fired twelve times and every time he hit an egg-shell.  The boys asked Swamiji: ‘Well Mister, how did you do it?’ Swamiji said ‘  Whatever you are doing, put your whole mind on it. If you are shooting,  your mind should be only on the target. Then you will never miss. If  you are learning your lessons, think only of the lesson. In my country  boys are taught to do this.’
Power of concentration

4. Narendra (Swami Vivekananda) was a master story-teller whose words  were as magnetic as his personality. When he spoke everyone listened in  rapt attention forgetting their work. One day while in school, Narendra  was talking animatedly to his friends during a class recess. Meanwhile,  the teacher had entered the classroom and had begun to teach his  subject. But the students were too absorbed in Narendra’s story to pay  any attention to the lesson. After some time had passed, the teacher  heard the wishpering and understood what was going on! Visibly annoyed,  he now asked each student what he had been lecturing on. None could  answer. But Narendra was remarkably talented; his mind could work  simultaneously on two planes. While he had engaged one part of his mind  in talking, he had kept the other half on the lesson. So when the  teacher asked him that question, he answered correctly. Quite  nonplussed, the teacher inquired who had been talking so long. Everybody  pointed at Narendranath, but the teacher refused to believe them. He  then asked all the students except Narendra to stand up on the bench.  Narendra also joined his friends and stood up. The teacher asked him to  sit down. But Narendra replied: ‘No sir, I must also stand up because it  was I who was talking to them.’
Honesty and Truth are the best policy

5. While Swamiji was travelling by train, in Rajasthan an interesting  incident took place. He was resting in a second class compartment. Two  Englishmen were profusely hurling abuses at him. They were under the  impression that the Swami did not know English. When the train reached  the station. Swamiji asked an official, in English, for a glass of  water. The Englishmen were surprised; they asked Swamiji why he was  silent though he could understand them. Swamiji snapped back, "This is  not the first time I have met fools." The Englishmen were enraged, but  Swamiji's formidable physique silenced them.

During his travel, Swamiji could travel by train only if somebody bought  him his ticket. Otherwise, he had to travel on foot. He had to starve  most of the time for he had no money. Once it happened that a merchant  travelling with him was helping himself to varieties of eatables.  Swamiji was hungry and tired. But he did not beg for food. The merchant  spoke to him tauntingly and said, "You are an idler. You wear the  saffron clothes only because you do not want to work. Who will ever feed  you? Who cares if you die?" Just then, a sweetmeat seller offered  Swamiji some eatables and said, "I saw you in my dream this morning. The  Lord Sri Rama himself introduced you to me." The haughty merchant was  put to shame when he saw all this.

6. This incident I am not sure about of its details, I read in moral science book in school.
 Swami Vivekananda went to Japan. He couldn't find a fruit( not sure which fruit) after searching, and he said to himself, may be we dont get this fruit here. A boy standing near to him heard it, he ran and got a bucket full of that fruit, and said, never say to anyone that you don't get The fruit in Japan.

Moral : Patriotism

7. Swamiji reached Alwar in February 1891, met the Maharaja of the place,  and discussed    with him the various problems of India. This Maharaja  was not a    believer in image worship. One day the Swami asked some of  his subordinates    in the presence of the Maharaja, to spit upon the  ruler's photograph, saying    that it was, after all, only paper. This  horrified the subordinates, and it    brought home to the Maharaja the  rationale of image worship.

Spirituality is for loosers

It is for people who want to lose-

Ego
False pride
Rat race
Anger
Hatred
Insecurity
Temptations
Desire
Wrong priorities
Emptiness
Empty relationships
Reactive living
Mental clutter
Negativity

and the list goes on...

Spirituality redefined in simple words

In a mother’s womb were two babies. One asked the other: “Do you believe in life after delivery?”The other replied, “Why, of course. There has to be something after delivery. Maybe we are here to prepare ourselves for what we will be later.”

“Nonsense” said the first. “There is no life after delivery. What kind of life would that be?”

The second said, “I don’t know, but there will be more light than here. Maybe we will walk with our legs and eat from our mouths. Maybe we will have other senses that we can’t understand now.”

The first replied, “That is absurd. Walking is impossible. And eating with our mouths? Ridiculous! The umbilical cord supplies nutrition and everything we need. But the umbilical cord is so short. Life after delivery is to be logically excluded.”

The second insisted, “Well I think there is something and maybe it’s different than it is here. Maybe we won’t need this physical cord anymore.”

The first replied, “Nonsense. And moreover if there is life, then why has no one has ever come back from there? Delivery is the end of life, and in the after-delivery there is nothing but darkness and silence and oblivion. It takes us nowhere.”

“Well, I don’t know,” said the second, “but certainly we will meet Mother and she will take care of us.”

The first replied “Mother? You actually believe in Mother? That’s laughable. If Mother exists then where is She now?”

The second said, “She is all around us. We are surrounded by her. We are of Her. It is in Her that we live. Without Her this world would not and could not exist.”

Said the first: “Well I don’t see Her, so it is only logical that She doesn’t exist.”

To which the second replied, “Sometimes, when you’re in silence and you focus and you really listen, you can perceive Her presence, and you can hear Her loving voice, calling down from above.”

Skeptics will understand someday there is a spiritual world beyond this material world where we live in.