October 23, 2019

Notes by Ambika Mishra

Once there was a king named Uttanapada. King Uttanapada had two wives named Suniti and Suruchi. Suniti had a son — Dhruva and Suruchi had a son — Uttama. King Uttanapada liked Suruchi even though Suniti was the one more loving and hard working. One day, King Uttanapada was sitting on his throne and Uttama was sitting on his lap, playing with him. Dhruva came in the room and he wanted to sit on his father’s lap on the throne as well but his father wasn’t paying much attention to him. Suruchi told him in a mean way that he doesn’t deserve to sit on the throne. Dhruva felt really bad and went crying to his mother. Suniti said that she couldn’t help Dhruva and he had to find someone who could help him and could make him even greater than a king.

Dhruva went to the jungle and thought about himself. He thought- What is happiness? How am I alive? He concentrated on thinking so much that he ate only fruits and vegetables every three days. He focused even more on who he was and what his power was and started eating grass every 6 days. He thought more about his potential and started drinking water every 12 days. He wanted to concentrate even more on being the best, being someone who does not care if people liked him or did not like him. He gave up water and just lived on breathing ONCE every twelve days. As he concentrated more and more, he realized that he could be anyone and be anything. When he went back to the court and saw his father and step brother, it did not bother him at all. He had found peace and power within.

Message of the story

1. The value for the week is “Para Guna” or being encouraging.
2. Why do people not encourage other — There are people who do not want others to be better and happy because they are jealous. Jealousy is like a matchstick. If I hold on to it, it will burn me first and then hurt other. Jealous people are not encouraging. They say mean things about people everyone is talking about. Then they feel worse. Opposite of being jealous is being someone who is encouraging.
3. How can I encourage myself? — One can encourage themselves by remembering all the things one has done- help parents, help other, sharing clothes and toys. Once one can remember everything that they have done, they know they can do anything and feel encouraged.
4. How can I encourage others? — by listening to them, by learning from them. When we do not listen to someone they feel bad. When we listen to others, we can learn from them and grow too.
5. With concentration we learn about who we are and what we can be.
6. Peace and power is within. One has to just focus and find it!

Practice

Go to the kitchen and fill a glass of water to the top. Now go to every room in your house, put one step in each room and come back without making any ripples and making sure that the water was absolutely calm.

When one is totally focused on their responsibility, they do not need to be complimented. When one is not focused on their responsibilities, their mind is like water- not calm, with a lot of ripples and thoughts of whether people like me or not etc.

Notes by Keshav Ganesh

There once was a king who had two wives named Suniti and Suruchi. Suniti had a son named Dhruva, and Suruchi had a son named Uthama. The King liked Suruchi more, even though Suniti was more loving and hard-working. One day the king was sitting on the throne, playing with Uthama. Dhruva comes and wants to play with the king on his lap. Suruchi tells him he doesn’t deserve to sit on the throne. Dhruva finds his mother, who knew what happened. Suniti asks Dhruva to find someone who can help him.

So Dhruva goes to the jungle. He thinks about himself, and starts meditating. In the first month, he ate just fruits and vegetables, every three days. In the second month, he focused even more. He started to eat only grass, every six days. In the third month, he only drank water every nine day. Then he gave up even water, and started taking breath every 12 days. He realized he can be everything.

After that, when he went back to the court again, he knew what to do.

Message of the story

Value for the week is — Being encouraging (Para Guna).

Usually people do not encourage others because they are jealous. How we can encourage ourselves is by remembering everything we have done in our lives. We can encourage others by listening to them.

You have to go to kitchen fill a glass of water and bring it to every room without making any ripples.