There was a Jewish man named Yankel, who had a bakery, in a town, Crown Heights, Germany. He always said, "You know why I’m alive today?" He said "I was a kid, just a teenager at the time in Germany, when the Nazis were killing Jews with no mercy. We were on the train being taken to Auschwitz by Nazis. Night came and it was deathly cold in that compartment. The Germans left us on the side of the tracks overnight, sometimes for days, without any food. There were no blankets to keep us warm. Snow was falling everywhere. Cold winds were hitting our cheeks, every second. We were hundreds of people in that terribly cold night. No food. No water. No shelter. No blankets ". "The blood in our bodies started freezing. It was becoming ice. Beside me, there was a beloved elderly Jewish man from my hometown. He was shivering from head to toe, and looked terrible. So I wrapped my arms around him to warm him up. I hugged him tightly to give him some heat. I r...

One day Jalaluddin Rumi took all his students, disciples and devotees to a field. That was his way to teach them things of the beyond, through the examples of this world. He was not a theoretician, he was a very practical man. The disciples were thinking, "What could be the message, going to that faraway field... and why can't he say it here?" But when they reached the field, they understood that they were wrong and he was right. The farmer seemed to be almost an insane man. He was digging a well in the field - and he had already dug eight incomplete wells. He would go a few feet and then he would find that there was no water. Then he would start digging another well... and the same story was continued. He had destroyed the whole field and he had not yet found water. The master, Jalaluddin Rumi, told his disciples, "Can you understand something? If this man had been total and had put his whole energy into only one well he would have reached to the ...

There is an old sufi fable. In a very ancient family there was some musical organ, but people had completely forgotten how to play it. Generations came and people even forgot that it was a musical organ. It was gathering dust. It was a very big organ and it was taking up much space. One day the family decided to throw this nonsense. They said, ‘This is just a nuisance. Why should we keep it?’ They took it out; they threw it on the road. They had just reached home when a beggar started playing upon the organ. Time stopped. They simply turned. The whole traffic stopped, people came rushing from their houses; they forgot everything. For one hour the beggar was playing on it. It was so beautiful, so enchanting — they were just hypnotised. And when the music ended the family demanded their organ back. The beggar said, ‘It is not yours, because a musical instrument belongs to one who can play with it. There is no other ownership. It may have remained in your house f...

One Ekadasi day, Tukaram was performing kirtans and Shivaji was listening to it with love. In the meantime Muslim soldiers heard about the whereabouts of Shivaji and a big troop of 2000 soldiers came to arrest him. They surrounded the house in which bhajans were performed and didn't let anyone go in or come out of the house. Shivaji's informers came and whispered about the situation to him. Hearing this Shivaji was worried and one of his bodyguards asked Tukaram if they could leave now. Tukaram said tod him “no one should leave till the kirtan is over”. Hearing this Shivaji sat down and continued to listen to the abhangs. He thought to himself that none other than Vitthal can save him now and if he doesn’t, he would be fortunate to die on an ekadasi day listening to abhangs and in the company of sadhus and saints. One of the Muslim spies came into the house to check if Shivaji was there and couldn’t find him. He went back to his commander and told him that he couldn’t re...

Once a king ordered his three ministers to take a bag and go to the forest and fill up the bag with fruits. The first minister thought that since the king has ordered for collection of fruits, he must collect the best of the fruits in the bag. The second minister thought that since the king is a very busy person, he may not look very thoroughly into the bag what has been collected and hence he collected whatever he could lay his hands. Thus his bag was filled up with a mixture of good and rotten fruits. The third minister thought that the king would see only externally how big the bag is and hence he just filled up the bag with all dried leaves and dust. All the three ministers came back to the court with their respective bags, having executed the order of collecting the fruits. The King, without even seeing what their bags contained, just ordered that now the three ministers must be sent to separate jails for three months, where they will not be provided with any food and they ...

I have heard about an old Zen monk. He was on his deathbed. The last day had come, and he declared that that evening he would be no more. So followers, disciples, friends started coming. He had many lovers. They all started coming. From far and wide people gathered. One of his old disciples, when he heard that the master was going to die, ran to the market. Somebody asked: The master is dying in his hut, why are you going to the market? The old disciple said: I know that my master loves a particular type of cake, so I am going to purchase the cake. It was difficult to find the cake, because now it had gone out of fashion, but by the evening somehow he managed. He came running with the cake. And everybody was worried – it was as if the master was waiting for someone. He would open his eyes and look, and close his eyes again. And when this disciple came, he said: Okay, so you have come. Where is the cake? The disciple produced the cake – and he was very happy that the master asked a...

Hanumanji always wanted to serve his Prabhu Lord Sri Rama. One day when Sita Matha was entering into Rama’s bedroom, Hanumanji also followed her. Then Lord Rama said that he cannot enter into the room. Hanumanji said that when Sita Matha can enter into the room, why can’t he enter the room. He is having such an innocent devotional service towards Lord Rama. Just to convince Hanumanji, Rama said that Sita is having a sindhur on her forehead, so she can enter the room. After hearing that, Hanumanji came out and thought for a while. Then Hanumanji concluded that sindhur is the qualification required to enter into Lord Rama’s bedroom. So he decided to ask more about this sindhur to Sita Matha. Next day when Sita was in the dressing table, she was trying to keep sindhur, there came Hanumanji. Sita Matha treated Hanumanji as her son because Sita and Rama did not have children for a long time. Then Hanumanji asked Sita about the purpose and value of sindhur. She understood wh...