A collection of best short stories with varied interests will be published on this blog from classic stories to modern. Stories would be Inspirational, spiritual, full with wisdom, famous, fiction, funny or humorous to stories for children, adult, fiction, non fiction, bible stories,social stories, follkore . So feel free to find a story to read online be your mood happy or sad. Navigate through the list of labels like Zen and Sufi.
"A man beginning a long journey sees ahead a vast body of water. There is neither boat nor bridge. To escape the dangers of his present location, he constructs a raft of grass and branches. When he reaches the other side he realizes how useful the raft was and wonders if he should hoist it on his back and carry it with him forever. Now if he did this, would he be wise? Or, having crossed to safety, should he place the raft in a high dry location for someone else to use? This is the way I have taught the Dharma, the doctrine - for crossing, not for keeping. Cast aside every proper state of mind, oh monks - much less wrong ones - and remember well to leave the raft behind."
This parable told by Gautam Buddha was and is a caution for the truth aspiring seekers. Buddha indicates that the teachings of Dharma (religion), the doctrine should be used for transcending the mind and self. They are much useful for that purpose, once that is done, the work of doctrine the guidelines is over and should be left for other seekers. It would be unwise to carry it once the objective is achieved.
This reminds of Shirdi Sai Baba who used to suggest the reading of spiritual books to many and to some He used to say, "They people try to find Bhrahma (reality or God) in these books, but it is only Brahm (illusion) that they find.
Many of the followers use to meditate with Gautam Buddha. After each meditation Gautam Buddha used to tell his disciples, to emit the love and grace gathered through the meditations, to whole of humanity and all the living beings. To which one of the disciple once told the Buddha upon meeting him, that he could emit the love and compassion to all except one, who had harassed him much and given him much pain. To that the Buddha replied that know well that your meditation can only be called to be flowered when the love and compassion flows for this one individual also.
You might like to enjoy a wonderful video made on Buddha's Wisdom from youtube.
More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog
The following story reveals something of the nature of this love, this real love that Meher Baba was talking
about. It concerns a king and a queen who lived and ruled some centuries ago. They loved each
other and were happy together. The king was a wise and just ruler, and under his reign his kingdom
flourished and peace and prosperity prevailed over the land. The King's subjects were happy and
content. In short, it was almost an idyllic existence, but there was one flaw, one minor thing which
prevented the queen from being completely happy. And this was that the king seemed to have no
interest in God. It was not that he was against God. He had no objection to his subjects or his wife
worshipping God as they saw fit, it was just that he never seemed to join in.
Because the king was such a good man, whose life seemed naturally full of virtue, it was not
immediately apparent that he was not a believer. But, as time passed, the queen noticed that the king
always seemed to make some excuse so as not to attend religious festivals. And while she
understood that the nature of his duties prevented him from worshipping as regularly as she did, she
realized after a while that not only had she never seen him perform worship, she had never even
heard him utter a short prayer. In fact, she had never heard him mention the Lord's name.
Now, the queen was very religious, and when she began to suspect that her husband, the king, was
not a lover of God, she became quite upset. She did her best to persuade him to join her in her
devotions, but no matter how hard she tried, he always found some excuse for not joining her. This
was the only thing that marred her happiness, but as time passed, it became a bigger and bigger
thing. She would think to herself, "My husband is such a good man, his kingdom is peaceful and
prosperous, his subjects are happy. Just think how perfect life would be if only he loved God." Or
sometimes she would fear that because her husband did not love God, the peace and prosperity
might be taken away, and the more she thought about it, the more upset she got.
She began to lose interest in her duties as queen. Uppermost in her mind was the thought that her
husband was not loving God as he should. Next to that, nothing else seemed important. She began
to spend more and more time by herself in the palace temple. Her eyes, which previously had always
twinkled with delight, now seemed pensive and brooding. Her constant cheerful smile was replace
with a frown. The king observed this and was sad, but whenever he asked the queen what was
wrong, she would say, "Nothing." For she had already told the king she would like it if he
worshipped regularly, and he had said, "Ask me for anything but that."
And so life went on, with the king attending to his duties, and the queen becoming more and more
despondent and withdrawn. Now it so happened that one day, after this had been going on for some
time, the king awoke and went to the ramparts of his palace. This was his usual custom. He would
rise early and climb up to the ramparts and look out over his kingdom. He used to feel that he could
ascertain the pulse of his kingdom from there. He had learned to tell, just from standing there in the
early morning hours, whether there was any unhappiness or sorrow in the kingdom that needed
attending to.
Well, this morning, as he looked out, he was surprised to see that many people were already awake
and were busy putting up decorations. Others were cleaning the streets or their homes, and it was
clear that some sort of major celebration was about to take place. This puzzled the king. He couldn't
think of any festival or celebration which took place at that time of year. He called his prime minister
and asked him what was happening.
"It is the queen's order, sire," the prime minister replied.
"The queen's order?"
"Yes, sire. Early this morning she got up and ordered that today was to be a day of rejoicing. She
instructed that orders were to be given to all your subjects that today was a day of celebration."
"Why did she do that?"
"I don't know, sire. She didn't say."
The king was puzzled at this. Of course it was in the queen's power to pass such an order, but as she
had taken no interest in the affairs of the kingdom for some time, this was a complete mystery to the
king. Why had she suddenly given such an order? He went to see the queen, who greeted him in her
best clothes and with a dazzling smile on her face.
"Did you order this celebration?" the king asked.
"Yes," the queen admitted.
"Why? What is it? What has happened that has made you so happy all of a sudden?"
"Oh my king," the queen exclaimed, "I am so happy. At last what I have been praying for all these
years has come true. Last night, while you were sleeping, you turned over and I heard you utter the
name of God. That is why I have ordered this celebration."
"What!" exclaimed the king, "has my Beloved escaped from my heart and passed through my lips!"
And with that the king sighed and dropped dead.
The above story always brings tears to my eyes whenever i read it.
You might also like to watch a wonderful video made from 'How to love God' by Meher Baba on youtube.
More inspirational short stories to read online on this blog
Master ( Sri Ramakrishna) : “A man living in society should make a show of tamas to protect himself from evil minded people. But he should not harm anybody in anticipation of harm likely to be done to him.”
“ Listen to a story. Some cowherd boys used to tend their cows in a meadow where a terrible poisonous snake lived. Every one was on alert for fear of it. One day a brahmachari was going along the meadow. The boys went to him and said, ‘Revered Sir, please don’t go that way. A venomous snake lives over there.’ ‘What of it, my good children?’ said the brahmachari. ‘I am not afraid of the snake. I know some mantras.’ So saying he continued his way along the meadow. But the cowherd boys, being afraid, did not accompany him. In the meantime the snake swiftly towards him with the upraised hood. As soon as it came near, he recited a mantra, and the snake lay at his feet like an earthworm. The brahmachari said : ‘Look here. Why do go about doing harm? Come, I will give you a holy word. By repeating it you will learn to love God. Ultimately you will realize him and so get rid of your violent nature.’ Saying this he taught the snake a holy word and initiated him into spiritual life. The snake bowed down to the teacher and said, ‘Revered sir, how shall I practice spiritual discipline?’ ‘Repeat the sacred word.’ Said the teacher, ‘and do no harm to anybody.’ And he was about to depart, the brahmachari said, ‘I shall see you again.’
“Some days passed and the cowherd boys noticed that the snake did not bite. They threw stones at it. Still it showed no anger; it behaved as if it were an earthworm. One day one of the boys came close to it, caught it by tail, whirling it round and round, dashed it again and again on the ground and threw it away. The snake vomited blood and became unconscious. It was stunned. It could not move. So, thinking it dead, the boys went their way.
“ Late night the snake regained consciousness. Slowly and with great difficulty it dragged itself into it’s hole; it’s bones were broken and it could scarcely move. Many days passed. The snake became a mere skeleton covered with skin. Now and then at night, it would come out in search of food. For fear of boys it would not leave it’s hole during the daytime. Since receiving the sacred the sacred word from the teacher, it had given up doing harm to others. It maintain its life on dirt, leaves, or on the fruits dropped from the trees.
“About a year later the brahmachari came that way again and asked after the snake. The cowherd boys told him that it was dead. But he could not believe them. He knew that the snake would not die before attaining the fruit of the holy word with which it had been initiated. He found it to the place and, searching here and there, called it by the name he had given it. Hearing the teacher’s voice, it came out of it’s hole and bowed before him with great reverence. ‘How are you?’ asked brahmachari. ‘I am well, sir.’ Replied the snake. ‘But’ the teacher asked, ‘Why are you so thin?’ The snake replied: ‘Revered Sir, you ordered me not to harm anybody. So I have been living only on leaves and fruits. Perhaps that has made me thinner.’
“The snake had developed the quality of sattva; it could not be angry with anyone. It had totally forgotten that the cowherd boys had almost killed it.
“The brahmachari said: ‘It can’t be mere want of food that has reduced you to this state. There must be some other reason. Think a little.’ Then the snake remembered that the boys had dashed it against the ground. It said: Yes, revered sir, now I remember. The boys one-day dashed me violently against the ground. They are ignorant after all. They didn’t realize what a great change has come over my mind. How could they know I wouldn’t bite or harm anyone?’ The brahmachari exclaimed: ‘What a shame! You are such a fool! You don’t know how to protect yourself. I asked you not to bite, but I didn’t forbid you to hiss. Why didn’t you scare them by hissing?’
“So you must hiss at wicked people. You must frighten them lest they should do you harm. But never inject your venom into them. One must not injure others.
