The KING and the PRINCE.

एक समय की बात है।
पूरी सृष्टि पर एक ही राजा का राज्य हुआ करता था।
उस राजा का एक पुत्र भी था,मगर आश्चर्य की बात ये है कि पूरी सृष्टि पर उस राजा और उसके पुत्र के सिवा कोई नहीं था,ना तो कोई रानी,ना कोई दरबारी ना ही कोई प्रजा ही थी।

ये बात बहुत रहस्यमय,आश्चर्यजनक किंतु सत्य थी।

पूरे ब्रह्मांड में सिर्फ़ दो के अस्तित्व के सिवा कुछ ना होना अविश्वसनीय तो था किंतु इसी वजह से बहुत रोमांचक भी था।

राजा बहुत बुद्धिमान था।
अब जस पिता तस पुत्र,तो पुत्र भी राजा की तरह बुद्धिमान था।

उन दोनों में आपस में बहुत प्यार था।

स्वाभाविक था क्योंकि दोनों के सिवा कोई और था ही नहीं तो दोनों का सारा समय एक दूसरे के साथ हंसते-गाते,बातें करते व्यतीत होता था।

एक दिन पुत्र रोज़-रोज़ की उस दिनचर्या से ऊब गया और उसने राजा को कहा कि क्यूं ना आप मेरे खेलने के लिए इतने साधन बनाओ कि मैं सुबह से शाम तक खेलूं तो भी मेरा दिल न भरे।साथ ही कुछ साथी भी हों तो और अच्छा।

राजा ने कहा ठीक है,यहां आसमान पर इस घर में तो हमें शरीर की आवश्यकता नहीं,मगर तुम्हें अगर कहना ही है तो पृथ्वी पर रोज़ सुबह चले जाना शाम को लौट आना किन्तु ध्यान रहे,पृथ्वी पर प्रकृति के नियम कार्य करते है तो तुम्हें उन सीमित नियमों का पालन करना होगा।

पुत्र ने बेहद प्रसन्नता से कहा कि उसे मंज़ूर है।

राजकुमार के लिए राजा ने 5000 साल के एक बड़े दिन की रचना की,जिसमें2500 साल का था दिन और 2500 साल की रात।
क्यूंकी राजकुमार का वास्ता शरीर से नहीं पड़ा था तो उसे उस सांकेतिक दिन और रात के फर्क़ का पता था।

वो सब प्रजा जो बिना शरीर के उसके राज्य में निष्क्रिय पड़ी थी,उन सबको भी बारी-बारी धरती पर भेजने की योजना राजा ने रची।
राजा ने राजकुमार से कहा देखो मैंने तुम्हारे लिए ये 5000 साल का खेल तैयार किया है, तुम्हें ये कैसा लगा ?

तो राजकुमार ने उस खेल को समझने के लिए उसे बहुत बार देखा।
उसने पूछा कि खेल की शुरुआत में तो सब अच्छा -अच्छा है मगर बाद में ये दुख, तनाव और बुराइयां क्यूं हैं खेल में।

पिता ने राजकुमार को समझाया " ये खेल पृथ्वी पर खेला जाएगा और ये प्रकृति के द्वारा स्वचालित होता रहेगा,मैं बीज रूप से सब दूंगा,प्रकृति उसे बड़ा करेगी फिर उसको वक़्त पर विनाश कर फिर बीज प्राप्त करके सृष्टि सब कार्य चलाती रहेगी।

और तुम्हें मेरी ज़रूरत नहीं पड़ेगी।

तब राजकुमार ने पूछा कि ये प्रकृति कैसे खुद से कार्य करेगी।

तो राजा ने कहा कि प्रकृति तीन शक्तियों द्वारा संचालित होगी।

एक शक्ति का कार्य होगा उत्पादन,
दूसरी शक्ति का कार्य होगा संचालन,
तीसरी शक्ति का कार्य होगा विस्थापन।

जिसे ब्रह्मा, विष्णु और महेश के नाम से जाना जाएगा।

राजा ने कहा " मेरे प्रिय पुत्र, अब क्यूं कि
तुम्हारे हिसाब से ये खेल मैंने रचा है इसलिए तुम्हें ही समय-समय पर ये तीनों पार्ट निभाने होंगे।

अब क्यूंकि प्रकृति के हिसाब से सुख के पीछे दुख,पवित्रता के पीछे अपवित्रता और ज्ञान के पीछे अज्ञान आएगा तो यही खेल खेलते तुम शाम को वापिस आ जाना।

इन 5000 वर्षों में तुम्हें 84 वस्त्र मिलेंगे जिन्हें तुम शरीर के रूप में धारण करोगे।

खेल प्रारंभ हुआ और राजकुमार धरती पर आ गया, जो पहला शरीर उसने धारण किया,उसका नाम श्रीकृष्ण पड़ा।
वहां उसे संगी साथी के रूप में अनेक लोग मिले।

राजकुमार का 5000 साल का दिन भी चार हिस्सों में था।
सुबह बनी 1250 वर्ष का सतयुग
दोपहर बनी 1250 बर्ष का त्रेतायुग
शाम बनी 1250 वर्ष का द्वापरयुग
और
रात बनी 1250 वर्ष का कलयुग।

धीरे-धीरे खेल खेलते समय बीतने लगा।

रात का समय भी ख़त्म होने को आ गया।

राजकुमार ने आख़री शरीर रूपी वस्त्र भी इस्तेमाल कर लिया था।
वो बहुत थक गया था ,काली घनघोर रात थी उसे कुछ सुझाई नहीं दे रहा था।

उसने उड़ कर वापिस जाने की सोची मगर अपवित्रता ने उसके पंख काट दिए थे जिस वजह से न सिर्फ़ उसका आख़री वस्त्र बल्कि आत्मा भी मैली हो गयी थी।

वो घबरा कर अपने पिता को पुकारने लगा।

आसमान से उसका पिता राजा सब देख रहा था, वो समझ गया कि मुझे ही उसे लेने धरती पर जाना पड़ेगा।

वो धरती पर आया मगर राजकुमार अज्ञानता से ऐसा बेसुध था कि अपने पिता को भी पहचान नहीं पाया।

पिता ने अपने पुत्र को अपना परिचय देकर उसकी आत्मा को पवित्रता से धोना शुरू किया।

धीरे-धीरे राजकुमार की सारी स्मृति लौट आयी,राजा ने मुस्कुरा कर कहा कि पुत्र तुम्हारी ही सहमति से खेल रचा था कहो तो खेल आसान कर दें।

राजकुमार ने पिता की गोद में लेटे-लेटे कहा कि रहने दीजिए खेल में चुनोतियाँ और संघर्ष ना हो तो क्या मज़ा।
राजकुमार ने कहा कि चलिए घर चलते हैं,
तो राजा ने कहा तुम्हारी शक्ति वापिस लौट आयी मगर उनका क्या जो तुम्हारे साथ खेले हैं उन्हें भी तो पवित्र कर उनकी आत्मा को धोकर स्वच्छ बनाना है।

अब तुम ये सीख गए हो ये काम अब तुम्हारे ज़िम्मे है और ये कहकर कि मैं तुम्हारी सहायता के लिए आता रहूंगा,
राजा अपने वतन आकाश को चला गया।

अब राजकुमार की ज़िम्मेदारी बदल गई थी इसलिए उसके उस आख़िरी वस्त्र का नाम भी बदल गया।

कहानी यहां फिर शुरू होती है,

वो राजकुमार रोज़ सुबह इस धरती पर खेलने आता है, शाम को जब थक जाता है तो राजा रोज़ की तरह आकर उसे नहला-धुलाकर वापिस ले जाता है।

ये खेल अनवरत चलता रहता है।

उस राजा का नाम है *शिव*
और वो राजकुमार है *श्रीकृष्ण*।

EDUCATION DOES NOT MEAN GOOD JUDGEMENT - Story Time

There is a story about a man who sold hot dogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers . He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hot dogs. His sales and profit went up.

He ordered more meat and got himself a bigger and a better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from college, joined his father. Then something strange happened. The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?"

The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad time." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, and listened to the radio, he ought to know  and his advice should not be taken lightly.

So the next day, the father cut down his order for the meat and buns, took down the sign and was no longer enthusiastic. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hot dog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right. We are in the middle of a recession. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

What is the moral of the story? 

1. Many times we confuse intelligence with good judgment.

2. A person may have high intelligence but poor judgment.

3. Choose your advisers carefully and use your judgment.

4. A person can and will be successful with or without formal education if they have the 5 Cs: ♦ ♦

• character
• commitment
• conviction
• courtesy
• courage 

5. The tragedy is that there are many walking encyclopedias who are living failures.

Gratitude - Story Time

A medical doctor who was invited as a guest speaker to address a group of alcoholics. He wanted to make a demonstration that would be powerful enough to make people realize that alcohol was injurious to their health. He had two containers, one with pure distilled water and one with pure alcohol. He put an earthworm into the distilled water and it swam beautifully and came up to the top. He put another earthworm into the alcohol and it disintegrated in front of everyone's eyes. He wanted to prove that this was what alcohol did to the insides of our body.

He asked the group what the moral of the story was and one person from behind said, "If you drink alcohol you won't have worms in your stomach." Was that the message? Of course not. That was selective listening--we hear what we want to hear and not what is being said.

Many of our blessings are hidden treasures--count your blessings and not your troubles.

SOME PEOPLE ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE NEGATIVE - Story Time

There was a hunter who bought a bird dog, the only one of its kind in the world. That could walk on water . He couldn't  believe his eyes when he saw this miracle. At the same time, he was very pleased that he could show off his new acquisition to his friends.

He invited a friend to go duck hunting. After some time, they shot a few ducks and the man ordered his dog to run and fetch the birds. All day-long, the dog ran on water and kept fetching the birds. The owner was expecting a comment or a compliment about his amazing dog, but never got one.

As they were returning home, he asked his friend if he had noticed anything unusual about his dog. The friend replied, "Yes, in fact, I did notice something unusual. Your dog can't swim." 

Looking for the Gold - Story Time

As a young Scots boy, Andrew Carnegie came to America and started doing odd jobs. He ended up as one of the largest steel manufacturers in the United States.

At one time he had 43 millionaires working for him. Several decades ago, a million dollars used to be a lot of money; even today it is a lot of money. Someone asked Mr. Carnegie how he dealt with people?

Andrew Carnegie replied, "Dealing with people is like digging gold: When you go digging for an ounce of gold, you have to move tons of dirt to get an ounce of gold. But when you go digging, you don't go looking for the dirt, you go looking for the gold." 

DAVID AND GOLIATH - Story Time

There was a giant who was bullying and harassing the children in the village.

One day, a 17-year-old shepherd boy came to visit his brothers and asked, "Why don't you stand up and fight the giant?" The brothers were terrified and they replied, "Don't you see he is too big to hit?" But David said, "No, he is not too big to hit, he is too big to miss." The rest is history.

We all know what happened. David killed the giant with a sling. Same giant, different perception.

Our attitude determines how we look at a setback. To a positive thinker, it can be a stepping stone to success. To a negative thinker, it can be a stumbling block.

Great organizations are not measured by wages and working conditions, they are measured by feelings, attitudes and relationships.

When employees say, "I can't do it," there are two possible meanings. Are they saying they don't know how to or they don't want to? If they don't know how to, that is a training issue. If they are saying they don't want to,

it may be an attitude issue (they don't care) or a values issue (they believe they should not do it). 

Acres of Diamond - Story Time

There was a farmer in Africa who was happy and content. He was happy because he was content. He was content because he was happy. One day a wise man came to him and told him about the glory of diamonds and the power that goes along with them. The wise man said, "If you had a diamond the size of your thumb, you could have your own city. If you had a diamond the size of your fist, you could probably own your own country." And then he went away. That night the farmer couldn't sleep. He was unhappy and he was discontent. He was unhappy because he was discontent and discontent because he was unhappy.

The next morning he made arrangements to sell off his farm, took care of his family and went in search of diamonds. He looked all over Africa and couldn't find any. He looked all through Europe and couldn't find any. When he got to Spain, he was emotionally, physically and financially broke. He got so disheartened that he threw himself into the Barcelona River and committed suicide.

Back home, the person who had bought his farm was watering the camels at a stream that ran through the farm. Across the stream, the rays of the morning sun hit a stone and made it sparkle like a rainbow. He thought it would look good on the mantle piece. He picked up the stone and put it in the living room. That afternoon the wise man came and saw the stone sparkling. He asked, "Is Hafiz back?" The new owner said, "No, why do you ask?" The wise man said, "Because that is a diamond. I recognize one when I see one." The man said, no, that's just a stone I picked up from the stream. Come, I'll show you. There are many more." They went and picked some samples and sent them for analysis. Sure enough, the stones were diamonds. They found that the farm was indeed covered with acres and acres of diamonds.*

What is the moral of this story?

There are five morals:

1. When our attitude is right, we realize that we are all walking on acres and acres of diamonds. • Attributed to Dr Russel Conwell . • Opportunity is always under our feet. We don't have to go anywhere. All we need to do is recognize it.

2. The grass on the other side always looks greener.

3. While we are dyeing the grass on the other side, there are others who are dyeing the grass on our side. They would be happy to trade places with us.

4. When people don't know how to recognize opportunity, they complain of noise when it knocks.

5. The same opportunity never knocks twice. The next one may be better or worse, but it is never the same one.