GIVING

Many years ago, I was visiting a friend in Mumbai, India, in the evening we went out for stroll along the main street, where so many stall appear on footpaths, selling all kind of household and personal wear goods. My friend to buy couple of pots; next to the utensils stall, there was stall selling shoes. There was young girl of 12 or 13, trying white shoes, and looking at the shoes on her feet and imaging how smart she felt in them. Next to her was the mother with worrying look on her face, and very quietly telling the daughter, daring we can’t afford these shoes.

Realizing the situation I quietly asked the stall keeper, how much were the shoes, and offered to pay for the young lady. The stall-keeper being an honest man, wanted to ask the mother if it was okay to accept my gift for her daughter.

Mother turned to me and asked how could she accept this gift (from a stranger)? Since was approaching Christmas and it was a Christian neighborhood, I said, ma’m, the gift was for the young lady, her Christmas present. The young lady ran to me with her new shoes and gave a heartfelt hug and said, “thank you uncle for making my Christmas.” I wished here well and I knew I had to leave the scene immediately without waiting for any further thanks from the mother.

The delight I saw in young lady’s eyes on receiving the gift and warmth of her innocent hug was biggest delight of my trip to Mumbai. Thinking about it still warms my heart after years.

The delight in those innocent eyes and thinking that my little gesture may have established her faith in the generosity of life/Spirit.

Nagual John Michael once said that, we must do such gesture in the name of the spirit of the man. This is the best way to say our thanks to the generosity of life/Spirit giving us the means and opportunity for such gestures.

RECEIVING

Year ago, I was traveling in Europe and one evening I was stuck in border town between France and Spain, while traveling from Marseille to Barcelona. On the border post, I asked the French Policeman, if you direct me to nearest town, where I cold find a hotel for the night. This polite policeman, looked at me and asked me to wait few minutes, he was coming off his duty and offered me to take me in his car to nearest town/village.

I appreciated his gesture, and thanked him for it in my very limited Spanish. In this border village, where one side of the street was in France and one in Spain. He shared a coffee with me and left me there in this busy restaurant bar.

While I was asking the counter staff for a hotel in the village, a couple came to me said, that they spoke English and would be happy to help me. It was God sent offer, since did not speak any French, more than merci beaucoup.

This couple, Geoff and Sally invited me to their table and introduced themselves. Geoff was Welsh and his partner Sally was Australian, they both were teacher in Australia and had a little cottage about 3 miles of the French side of the border. They offered me a glass of wine and asked who I was.

I told them I needed a hotel for the night, they offered me a place on couch in their living room, since they had a tiny one bedroom cottage. I accept their offer gratefully. When we arrived in this dark little French village where their cottage was, I discovered this was like a little heaven in itself; with small waterfall in front of the cottage and couple of acres of cherry trees.

It was a small cottage no doubt but Geoff and Sally’s heart was big, that is what mattered. In their tiny kitchen Sally showed me a pile of Indian spices and told me that Geoff was fond of Indian cooking and he would make an India meal.

After cooking, that I also helped, we sat down on the table, I had a feeling that this all was too good to be real, I wanted to touch/hug Geoff and Sally to feel that they were real; I was not dreaming all of it. Geoff got up and said, let’s make it real dream. He picked a cassette of Hindi film songs and played on the machine. Yes now one could not tell where it was a dream or reality.

In my bed, that night I could not sleep for longtime wondering how generous the Spirit was with me. When I woke up went out of the cottage, morning was absolutely bright. I had my sketch book with me and did a quick sketch of the cottage and left it for my hosts to discover after I had gone.

After breakfast Geoff and sally took me to the bus-stop, where I could continue my journey. Only way I accept their generosity and express my gratitude was to share the warmth of heart with a hug, and extending my invitation to visit me when life gave them the chance.

SHARING

Above were the examples of giving and receiving, when the giver makes a gesture in the name of the spirit of the man, and receiver receives it with dignity and gratitude. But the giver walks away with a delight of giving and warmth of the human feelings those come with the sincere gratitude from the receiver.

Sharing takes place between two or more people, who are brought together under the auspicious of the Spirit to share as a continuous process what life has given to them. It is very different from one off giving and receiving.

One off giving is like opening your window for a little while to give and window is closed, where the sharing requires the door is open both ways.

For this process to work on a long term basis, both sides needs to:

• come together to share with an abandon what each had got, without calculating what each would receive in return;
• sharing is done for the delight of sharing, not an act of bartering;
• both parties are open and honest to the other;
• One is ready to share without asking from the other, and one feels that other will benefit from your sharing.
• One doesn’t take receives the gift from the other with respect and gratitude. The gratitude is offered from the heart.

GRAITUDE

No doubt what we share with the others is gift from life that you have received and you are sharing it with the other, still our gratitude is due to the person that Spirit chooses as a means to deliver this gift to you. Our gratitude is expressed to the Spirit and the person who acted as a conduit for the delivery of the gift. There was definite reason why Spirit chooses to deliver the gift through this person; otherwise the Spirit could have delivered the gift directly to you.

Spirit knows that those people receive the gifts directly from the Spirit become arrogant, believing that they are only chosen ones to receive these gifts or many times they forget that it was the Spirit’s generosity at the first place. As every person comes to this world empty handed, even when one is born in a family with abundance of material wealth.

When Spirit chooses to use another person to deliver a gift, it is also teaching you to be humble, and grateful.

It is gesture you do to express your thanks to the other that acted as a conduit for the gifts to flow through, not only to make the other person feel good, but more importantly to acknowledge the gift. A of energy, a material object or money becomes sanctified and more meaningful when a sincere gratitude is expressed in clear words and whole heatedly.

When we do not get the chance to say our thanks to the giver, we are hesitant to use the gift. One can even feel like if you have taken something from a supermarket without paying at the counter. Gratitude another kind of currency that can be used to pay for the gifts we receive often on way. As we are aware if we do not pay for the services of doctor/healer, we do not receive the full benefit of the treatment. Sincere gratitude also generates a positive energy that brings more gives on our way of life.

EXPRESSING A GRATITUDE

Each gift is form of energy we receive, and the gratitude is warmth from our heart, that we always have even when we have lost everything (all the material objects, money and even the close ones) else in life. Warmth of heart is also another form of energy as valuable as the gifts we receive. This warmth more we share it more is generated within us.

Mode of expressing our gratitude or sharing our warmth in return, depends upon our social/cultural traditions and on our own experiences.

As in many cold countries people express their delight rubbing their noses/hands with others that is where one needs the warmth physically and it has developed over time a means of expressing delight. But a warm hug is most common expression used in most cultures. This way you are not only sharing your warm feeling with the other, but transmit energy of a higher frequency that is generated by excelrated heartbeat, our body produces from the excitement we feel when meeting some one special.

NEXT TIME YOU WANTS TO SAY THANK YOU, GIVE A WARM HUG, IT WOULD MAKE FEEL SPECIAL.

Avtarjeet Dhanjal

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family.
The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room.
Instead the angels were given a small space in the cold basement.
As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it.
When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife.
After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest.
When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears.
Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.
The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen?
The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused.
The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die.
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall.
Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it.”
“Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead. Things aren’t always what they seem.”
Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every out come is always to your advantage. You just might not know it until some time later…

Once upon a time, a King (may be of small state) went hunting and following the game, his entourage went so far that couldn’t get back home by the evening. As a result the King and his entourage had to camp in another town. Camp was setup and arrangements were made for the meal and the night stay of the King and everybody else.
But there was one problem, the King’s most beautiful queen was left behind in the Palace. He was so fond of her that he had never eaten without the queen joining him.
Luckily his most trusted and wisest minister accompanied the King. While the Royal meal was being prepared, the Minister remembered that the King wouldn’t have the meal without the Queen, in spite of the fact that he was starving after all day’s hunting trip. The minister found a solution. He invited an artist to quickly draw a picture of the queen. That was placed on the chair on the dinning table right opposite the King, where normally his Queen sat.
When the King saw the picture that had captured the spirit of the Queen, he was very pleased and his meal to his heart’s content. He also thanked his wise minister for the idea he had worked out.
After the meal, the King asked the picture to be brought to his tent. Now with his full stomach, when the King looked at the picture more carefully, he noticed that the artist had not only captured the beauty of the Queen but had also gone into the detail of showing one thigh of the queen slightly un-covered, where there was a small black beauty spot. The King remembered the mark, and was surprised that how true the picture was. But next moment, he became concerned that he was the only person, who had ever seen that part of the Queen’s body, and how could the artist from another state/town could know the secret. As a result he suspected that the Artist might have had the illicit relationship with the queen. As a result he kept thinking about it all night and by the morning he was blue with jealousy.
The first thing in the morning he called his minister and ordered the artist to be killed and his eyes those saw the most intimate part of the Queen to be brought to him. The minister understood everything and ordered his soldiers to go to the forest and get the eyeballs of a deer or another animal to calm the King. He also sent a message to the artist to stay away.
Well the King was brought tow eyeballs wrapped in a paper; he was content and went on with his life. But the story didn’t end there.
Years later, the Prince of the Kingdom son from his most favorite Queen had now grown up and he was also fond of hunting. One day he also went on a hunting spree in the jungle. This time Prince’s fate took a different turn, when he found himself alone and a lion chasing him in the jungle. The day was coming to an end and was getting dark, to save his life, he remembered that Lions couldn’t climb the trees. He ran to a tall tree and started to climb, but halfway, when he looked up, there he saw a big bear perched on the biggest branch of the tree. The prince froze on the spot didn’t know which way to go. The bear read the anxiety of the Prince and spoke to the Prince, not to be afraid. The bear added that for the very same reason, he was spending his nights on the tree. The Prince was invited to come to the same branch to spend the night.
Now the lion, having missed the Prince, decided to wait on the ground to until morning.
The bear was very kind, told the Prince that since they both had to spend the night there and had to watchful that none of them fall to the ground while they slept. The bear proposed that the Prince should sleep for the first part of the night, while the bear kept watch and to swap the roles after midnight.
When the Prince went to sleep and bear kept a watch. The lion spoke to the bear that the man race is never a friend of his own race leave aside to be a friend of the animals, and suggested the bear should push the Prince over and in return the Lion will leave the bear alone.
The bear replied that he couldn’t break the trust of the Prince to whom he had offered his friendship and wouldn’t accept Lion’s proposal. The Lion waited.
At midnight the bear and the prince swapped roles, and bear went to sleep. The crafty Lion tried the same trick on the Prince. This time, the Prince forgot the promise he had given to the bear and was tempted with the idea.
He tried to push the bear off the branch. The bear didn’t fall off the branch but was very very angry with the Prince. He said, ‘O Prince, ‘You were after all a selfish Man, and haven’t only broke my trust but you have stabbed the back of friendship.’ The bear blew his big breath into the Prince’s ear and the Prince lost his mind.
By this time it was morning, the King’s men were searching for the Prince and arrived there just in time to rescue the prince.
But had lost his mind and didn’t remember who he was or what happened to him? When the Prince was brought home, the King was totally baffled by seeing his only son; especially he was the only son from his favorite Queen. The King called for every available treatment for the Prince but was of no avail.
The King was very sad and was about to give up hope of getting his son normal again. Now his wise minister came to his rescue. He told the King that he knew a woman, who was willing to treat the Prince. But the woman’s conditions had to be met. The Prince’s bed should be placed in a tent, where this woman (curer) will come in purdah and treat the Prince. Nobody else was allowed in the tent during that time. Only concession was that King could sit outside the tent.
Next morning everything was arranged for the curer woman to come and treat the Prince and the King sat outside the tent in his chair.
The curer came in through the back opening of the tent and spoke to the Prince and related the whole story of that night what happened between the Prince and bear on that tree in the jungle. On hearing the full story, the Prince opened his eyes and remembered everything. The King had also heard everything, but according to the conditions of the curer woman, he was not allowed to the come into the tent or to speak to the woman. The woman left through the back opening as she had come in.
The Prince was fully cured and the King was jubilant. There were celebrations in the palace that evening.
As the King was not a thankless person, he asked his minister that he would like to invite this curer and offer some honours.
The curer accepted the invitation came again in a purdah to meet the King in the court that was set up in her honour. The King didn’t want only to honour the curer but was more curious to know that she knew the events in the jungle when nobody else had a clue.
He asked the curer. At that moment, the curer took the purdah and it was the same artist who had painted the picture of the Queen years ago. He faced the King and replied, ‘ O King, I used my same senses with which I saw the black beauty mark on your Queen’s thigh.’ The King remembered the whole event and profoundly apologized to the artist.

A woman asks the man, who are you?
Man replied I am pickpocket.
Woman surprised by this naked admission – do you mean that you pick other people’s pockets?
Man said, yes, but not any more. He further added, there was a time when people used to wear cloths, and these cloths had pockets, and I used to pick them.

Woman – what do you do now?
Man – I go around and collect these old clothes, as there are museums who are collecting to show to the next generations that there was time when people used to wear cloths.
Woman – is this a well paid job.
Man replied, yes it is. I can afford to have a one good meal a week and a woman for the night.
Woman – then it must be well paid job. Do they need more people to work for them?

Man – Yes they need people all the time.
Woman – listen, I am well educated, have an M.A. in Literature and philosophy. I understand the world around me and beyond.

Man whispered, please say no more. It is not only that they wouldn’t give you any job, they may not you to be around. If you understand things, you will be considered a dangerous person to the national security. They may even kill you.

They only want robots, which they feed instructions, to go around following those instructions and once a week they will feed the robot with some coins.
Asking question is not the norm of day. I say no more. The man disappeared.”

This was a short Panjabi story, I read nearly forty years ago. It is so true today.

One day a man saw a old lady, stranded on the side of the road, but even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her.
Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe; he looked poor and hungry.
He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you.
He said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan Anderson.”
Well, all she had was a flat tyre, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tyre. But he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.
Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. The lady asked how much she owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped. Bryan never thought twice about being paid. This was not a job to him. This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty, who had given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed, and Bryan added, “And think of me.”
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant. Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her. The waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude. The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan .
After the lady finished her meal, she paid with a hundred dollar bill. The waitress quickly went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, but the old lady had slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the lady could be. Then she noticed something written on the napkin.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote: “You don’t owe me anything. I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”
Under the napkin were four more $100 bills.
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard….
She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan Anderson.”
There is an old saying “What goes around comes around.”

There was Chinese peasant, who had an old horse, which he used to plough his field. One day his horse ran away to the jungle.

His friends felt sorry for him, that the poor man did not have the money to another horse and came to express their sympathy.

But the peasant replied, well, the God know what he is doing. Please don’t feel sorry for me. His friends thought what a strange man he was.

Couple of days later his old horse came back and brought 2 young horses with him. He kept the 3 horses in his stable and his surprised friends said, well lucky man; he has got 2 young horses free. He again replied, God knows what is what.

A week later, his son was training one of the young horses, fell down and broke his leg. His friends again commented that free horses brought bad luck his house. Hi answer was the same; God only knows what is what.

His friends thought there no point of saying anything to this peasant.
It was a time in China when there was war going on and army couldn’t find enough recruits. Army would come to the villages and would take all the young men to fight in the war.
Couple of weeks later, sure the army came to this village too, took all the young men, except farmer’s son who had broken leg.

Since I heard this story I realize that when we say why God did this to me. We are impatient. He know what he is doing.

A jobless man applied for the position of office boy at Microsoft. The HR manager interviewed him, then a test: clean the floor.
“You are engaged” he said, give me your e-mail address, and I’ll send you the application to fill, as well as when you will start.
The man replied “I don’t have a computer, neither an email”
I’m sorry, said the HR manager, if you don’t have an email that means you do not exist. And who doesn’t exist, cannot have the job.
The man left with no hope at all.
He didn’t know what to do, with only 10$ in his pocket. He then decided to go to the supermarket and buy a 10 Kg tomato crate. He sold these tomatoes in a door to door round. In less than two hours. He succeeded to double his capital.
He repeated the operation three times, and returned home with 60$. The man realized that he can survive by this way, and started to go everyday earlier, and return late. Thus, his money doubled or tripled every day. Shortly later, he bought a cart, then a truck. Then he had his own fleet of delivery vehicles.
5 years later, the man was one of the biggest food retailers in the US.
He started to plan his family’s future, and decided to have life insurance. He called an insurance broker, and chooses a protection plan. When the conversation was concluded, the broker asked him his email.
The man replied: ‘I don’t have an email address.’
The broker replied curiously, you don’t have an email, and yet have succeeded to build an empire. Can you imagine what you could have been if you had an email?

The man thought for a while, and replied: ‘an office boy at Microsoft!’

The moral of this story: 1- Internet is not the solution to life;
2- If you don’t have internet, and work hard, you can be a millionaire.
3- If you received this message by email, you are closer to be an office boy, rather than a millionaire.

Have a great day.
P.S.: Do not reply on this email, I am going to sell Tomatoes.

Little old lady went into the Bank of Canada one day carrying a bag of money. She insisted that she must speak with the president of the bank to open a savings account because she has a lot of money to deposit!”

After much hemming and hawing, the bank staff finally ushered her into the president’s office (the customer is always right!)

The bank president then asked her how much she would like to deposit She replied, “$250,000!” and dumped the cash out of her bag onto his desk. The president was of course curious as to how she came by all this cash, so he asked her, “Ma’am, I’m surprised you’re carrying so much cash around “Where did you get this money?”
The old lady replied, “I make bets.”

The president then asked, “Bets? What kind of bets?” The old woman said, “Well, for example, I’ll bet you $25,000 that your balls are square.”

“Ha ha ha!” laughed the president, “That’s a stupid bet, you can never win that kind of bet!”
The old lady challenged, “So, would you like to take my bet?” “Sure,” said the president, I’ll bet $25,000 that my balls are not square!”

The little old lady then said, “Okay, but since there is a lot of money involved, may I bring my lawyer with me tomorrow at 10:00 AM as a witness?”

“Sure!” replied the confident president.
That night, the president got very nervous about the bet and spent a long time in front of a mirror checking his balls, turning from side to side, again and again He thoroughly checked them out until he was sure there was absolutely no way his balls were square and that he would win the bet.

The next morning, at precisely 10:00 am, the little old lady appeared with her lawyer at the president’s office. She introduced the lawyer to the president and repeated the bet: “$25,000 says the president’s balls are square!”

The president agreed with the bet again and the old lady asked him to drop his pants so they could all see. The president did. The little old lady peered closely at his balls and then asked if she could feel them.

“Well, Okay,” said the president, “$25,000 is a lot of money, so I guess you should be absolutely sure.”

Just then, he noticed that the lawyer was quietly banging his head against the wall.
The President asked the old lady, “What the hell’s the matter with your lawyer?”
She replied, “Nothing, except I bet him $100,000 that at 10:00 AM today, I’d have The Bank of Canada’s president’s balls in my hand.”

A beggar was sitting at the train station with a bowl full of pencils A young executive passed by and dropped a dollar in the bowl.
He then boarded the train. Before the doors closed, something came to his mind and he went back to the beggar, grabbed a bunch of pencils, and said, “They are priced right. After all you are a business person and so am I,” and he left.

Six months later, the executive attended a party. The beggar was also there in a suit and tie.
The beggar recognized the executive, went up to him and said,”You probably don’t recognize me but I remember you.”
He then narrated the incident that happened six months before. The executive said, “Now that you have reminded me, I do recall that you were begging.”
“What are you doing here in your suit and tie?”
The beggar replied, “You probably don’t know what you did for me that day. You were the first person in my life who gave me back my dignity. You grabbed the bunch of pencils and said ‘They are priced right. After all, you are a business person and so am I.’
After you left, I thought to myself, what am I doing here? Why am I begging?
I decided to do something constructive with my life. I packed my bag, started working and here I am.
I just want to thank you for giving me back my dignity.
“That incident changed my life.”
This is the magic of self-esteem in beggar’s life went up and so did his performance.

if solitude
ever leads u
to wild ocean’s
echoing shores
and u linger on there
until
moon hides behind the clouds,
halt not!
the fading hues of evening
will flow away deceitfully,
the treacherous sea
will sweep away time and eternity…
come back
to yr silent home
by the side of yr hearth
and see
how dreams form and fade
in the strange webs of dying embers…
yearn not
for things u luv
as
they may perish
from gay and gladsome earth…
remember!
all the faithless smiles go…
yr soul true to u
only hangs….

love
M Singh