Situation Vacant

One day when GOD was in a very light mood he asked his secretary to draft an ad of Situation Vacant.The secretary was surprised and with a little apprehension asked GOD if she was being retired.GOD had a hearty laugh and told her not to worry and her job with HIM was safe.

"No..dear, I just want to hire someone from earth to look after my interests there.It has become very tiring for me to keep answering prayers and attending to them every day.I sometimes find myself in dilemma.Believe me I have not slept for ages after I created Earth, Adam and Eve."

So the secretary drafted a situation vacant ad and showed it to GOD. It read " Vacancy exists for an assistant to GOD.Basic qualification required are none and the selection will depend entirely on the interview.There is no place and date being mentioned. GOD will himself call on the persons selected to be interviewed " The ad was published on the sky for everyone living on earth to see.

The next morning all people living on earth were surprised to see the ad on the sky.But everyone was in a dilemma to understand how will they be selected by the GOD No one could know where to find him since no address was given.Over a period of few days they tried very hard but failed to locate GOD After about a month finally GOD selected five people randomly and decided to interview them.That night HE visited each one of them in their dreams.After discussing their credentials he asked only one final question.The question was " Tell me what have you done to please me ?"

The first candidate said " I went to the temple ,washed you,adorened you with new clothes ,offered you fruits & sweets and worshipped you with all my sincerity" GOD just smiled and visited the second,the third and the fourth candidates also in their dreams and asked them the same question. Their replies were almost similar to the first. This time GOD laughed to his heart content but said nothing.Finally HE visited the fifth candidate .The fifth candidate replied " Dear Father, I am really sorry I have done nothing to please you.You know my family did not have food to eat for the last two days and the children were crying with hunger.My old parents live with me. I do not have any work but seeing the plight of my family I went out and cleaned the temple .The pujari there gave me some leftover food. When I reached home my parents,wife and children were very happy and we sat down to eat.The moment we did so, there was a beggar who came knocking for food.I felt unhappy seeing his hunger and offered him some of the food from our own ,whatever, we had." Hearing his answer GOD woke him up and blessed him for clearing the interview and said to him " My dear son, when you feel the pain and suffering of the other soul and serve them with pure heart as your own then by default you please me.This is more than enough for me.I bless you and will wait for you with open arms once you serve your time here. I want you to keep serving others as you serve your own.You will never have dearth of anything from this day"

There is always a "Situation Vacant" in this world which GOD has created.Filling that vacancy depends entirely on us.The only qualifications required for this job is selflessness,compassion and gratitude.The timings are flexible and the work which you want to do is to be selected by you.And you know one thing which is the greatest.There is no recession here so there is no fear to loose your job.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Writing your own obituary

Have you ever tried to sit down and write your own obituary..!! Try doing that if you have not made an attempt at it till date.Frankly speaking, you will be at loss to word the same.What will you write...each word which you try to pen down will haunt you at your face.Hundreds of thoughts are going to do many rounds within your consciouness.What are people you know going to say..good things or bad things about you. What is it that is going to become of you in the other world...who all will fight for your belongings...will your family be happy after you pass away...will they offer you the shraadh every year....who is going to cry for you when you are gone...What is the date you are going to write...you do not know?How can you know when you are not even aware what is going to happen with you the next second.Believe me all this will haunt you immensely.Writing your own obituary is an eye opening experience.It brings you back from a plane of an illusionary world to the present.We get a chance to correct our ways of living in this world.It brings forth an insight to the purpose of life other than the material one. The insight to our spiritual existence.

The path to spirituality is very easy to follow and practice.However,it is the first step which is difficult.The beginning is just like a child when he tries to walk and falls down many times.The parents then give support and offer him the courage to walk.Spirituality is inherent in all of us who have been born on this earth even animals. I have come across many incidents where a monkey is seen making friends with a dog, a lion with a deer, a cat with a puppy.So what is this..?? It is a miracle and ways of GOD to give a subtle message.So writing one`s own obituary makes it even more simpler to understand these messages.When once you are convinced that inner peace and understanding yourself is through inclination to GOD`s wisdom, everything else becomes an illusion.

You have a family because you were supposed to have them.You are just an instrument of GOD to support them till such time they have been willed to you.Once that time period elapses you will have to leave them.So when you start writing your own obituary the worldly attachments will start getting seemingly less emotional as a burden on your soul.You will start looking at illusions in the right perspective.Your behavioral pattern will see a small change everyday.This is not a one time activity.Everday you should try and practice this and you will observe that each day will bring you new meaning.Your desires will start deminishing.You will start looking at only what is required and not what is desired.There is a great difference between what is required and what is desired.Your control on your desires will make you more relaxed with yourself and you will start viewing all happenings in your life with a different meaning.Plus the bonus is that you will smile more often.There will be new energy within your eyes and a warmth you have never felt before.

Each one of us is free to look at this with our own viewpoints.There is no disagreement.The question does not arise.Why should it arise at all.But yes one thing is clear.Practicing this will release you of many hidden feelings which fail to come out for fear of bearing sarcasm from people.But is that important.People will be like that and they are like that.Why should you worry.Let them be what they are.No one is going to travel with you.They will travel with you only as far as the cremation ground.After that the journey for you is entirely on your own.So why should there be a dilema.There should be none.We must try and focus on the other journey which we have to undergo so we must write our own obituary to understand how we need to live life, whatever is left for us and try and cleanse the path through which we have to travel all alone.Maybe if we are lucky we may come across some like minded souls to make our journey pleasant or even those whom we had helped in our lives.

Writing your own obituary is like opening a new bank account for the first time and then being happy looking at and counting how many hard earned pennies it reflects with each passing month of your life.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Greatness

Two plants with different flowers were growing side by side.One plant had bigger flowers than the other.The plant which had bigger flowers used to look down upon the other plant for its small flowers.When the breeze blew it swung from one side to other with pride and used to always say " Look at you there is nothing in your flowers.They are too small and miserable. And just look at me.My flowers are so beautiful and big that they are fit to be placed at the feets of the deity." The other plant just used to bend as if to agree but never said anything and enjoyed the breeze without any ill will.

One day few villagers living nearby passed with a dead body.One of them seeing the large flowers plucked them up and laid them over the dead.The large flowers went away with the dead and the small flowers remained attached to the plant..Next morning some little girls were sent by their parents to pick up some good flowers.There was a religious function in the village and garlands were to be made for offering to the deity.The chirpy little girls plucked the smaller flowers and went away singing.That evening the deity wore the garland made of these small flowers.

This time the plant with smaller flower swung from one side to other with joy.It still did not say anything to the other plant with big flowers.But the other plant understood the message, The greatness is not in being big or small.It is in being humble.

GOD says " When I created you,it was without any feeling of pride.I wanted a world which had perfection of existence.But my creations have no reason to look down upon others.My ways are very different to make you understand.Experience & spread the goodness which I have offered you.You are not there permanently. I will call you back once your time is over.Do not give me any reasons to be sad for creating you"

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Shadow

You know what..?? Your shadow always walks with you.Even at night.Of course during the day you can see it but it is there with you permanently.Have you ever asked yourself why it travels with you continuously.There are great learnings through watching one`s shadow.We have very learned masters who can tell you your fate by just watching your shadow falling at various angles.However,that is different subject all together.But if you are observant and have an inclination to the divine,you can get various messages from your own shadow by yourself.

A shadow will tell you never to leave your goodness,love,affection,respect,generosity.All these qualities should travel with you permanently,no matter what comes and what you are going through.A shadow falling on mother earth will give you a direct message that ultimately this is where you will merge when you will leave this world.Your body,your clothes,your belongings everything are like ME.They are only shadows. You have to leave behind every possession of yours once you die.Sometimes you will see that your shadow is either towards the right side,left side- front or back.This also gives you great enlightment.These tilted shadows will inform you to walk straight and never divert from the true purpose of being born on this earth.If you divert then you will burden yourself with a lot of unworthy loads which will at the end years make you to repent and bend you with regret.Think and bring yourself back to being virtuous.

A shadow will tell you to look forward to better opportunities and not lookdown upon yourself as unworthy.Otherwise you will be like me.Just blackness will be inside you.Try and look at the brighter side of life,exhale and inhale goodness.A shadow will tell you to just let it go and not to hold on to memories of the past since they will only make you more sad.Look at me everytime,it says, whenever you are depressed and down.I travel with you only to draw you back from remorseness and remind you that living in the present helps to brighten up your future.

A shadow will make you understand that as the earth revolves you experience day and you experience night.So if you are going through a bad phase in life, it will pass and a new dawn awaits you.Nothing is stagnant.Everything moves but as per the time set by the GOD.So why worry!! Forget and merge your soul with the supreme.Let him do all the thinking for you.If you have been born in this world then the arrangements to exist with a purpose must also have been made for you by HIM.All of us are a part of HIS shadow.As our shadow travels with us so we as HIS shadow travel with HIM.Some of us get enlightened and start believing in GOD.Others just travel with HIM without the knowledge of HIS presence besides us.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Patience

There was this old man sitting under a mango tree looking with temptation at the green mangoes.A wizard passed by and saw the man looking at the mangoes with expectation.

He asked him," Old man what are you thinking".

" I am thinking when will the mangoes become ripe".

"When do you think they will become ripe ?"

" I don`t know, do you ?"

" No, I do not know, but I can make them ripe with my magic" and he flashed his magic wand and some ripe mangoes fell into the lap of the old man.The old man was very happy but no sooner he had one mango, his craving for them vanished.

" Old man, what happened? You seem not to like them",the wizard asked him.

The old man looked at him and said,"They do not taste so good".

"Rightly so",replied the wizard " since they have not taken their time to develop their taste naturally.Do you still want me to make all the mangoes ripe ?"

"No", replied the old man. "I will wait for them to get ripe on their own."

Moral of the Story

Be patient and keep doing good work.Let the process of growth happen on its own.It will some day.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Emptiness

The pair of sparrows had come and settled down on the tree right in front of our house.The male used to fly and get a twig,pieces of paper, dry leaves,cotton and whatever he could to make their home while the female pecked him time to time encouraging him to do a good job.

They had made themselves a comfortable nest and one could hear their sweet chirping.Time passed by and the pair of sparrows were blessed with the parenthood.Again the male used to fly and bring home food for its little one and the female.Both of them used to feed their young.The young grew up till it had small wings which it would flutter happily.One day some young boys while playing near the tree accidentally hit the nest with their cricket ball.The ball came heavily on the young and crushed him to death.As if the life of the sparrows was shattered.One could hear them loudly in great pain.The chirp had been replaced by sorrow.They flew endlessly around their nest and then sat near their dead baby.They pecked him as if trying to bring him back to life.But the young was not to flutter its wings again.When the sparrows could not do anything they just sat perched up on the corner of their nest simply looking at their great loss.One could feel the sadness in their eyes and the way their bodies had sagged.Next morning they were not to be seen.Every morning for the next few days me and my wife used to look at the deserted nest & feel the emptiness.

We could not do anything for the poor birds since giving life was not in our hands.But we could feel their pain and their loss.It is the same for everyone whether you are a human being,animal or a bird.But to feel the pain which the other creatures are going through, your soul needs to be awake.Sometimes cocooned in our own comforts we fail to realize the pain and suffering of others.Everyday GOD tries to open our eyes through various direct and indirect messages.It is for us to be consciously active to receive these signals from the eternal tower of infinity.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold

Under the Banyan Tree

Temple is your place to get those sacred inspirations to connect with the Supreme.The other day I went to the temple and after doing the puja I thought of sitting under the Banyan Tree and meditate for sometime.No sooner I had closed my eyes to the world, the cry of a child took me by surprise.Opening my eyes I focussed on a burly gentleman in a dhoti and kurta carrying a large bag of fruits.Probably he had come to offer it to the deity.With him there was this 4 odd years chubby child who seemed to be his grandson.As a curiosity which a child when he feels hungry, this sweet looking darling had managed to hang on to a banana which was clinging out of that bag.He wanted to have it and was not willing to let go. Hunger makes old people do things and he was just a child, a budding rose.The old man with grey hairs and large Mussolini moustaches scolded him and wanted him to let go.But you know how children are...!!! the child would not budge.And this man kept scolding him and trying to wriggled out the fruit from the child's hands.I thought to myself..."if children are the face of GOD then why the offering was being kept away." Is it that the stone statue inside where these fruits are going to be offered at the feet of the deity, will be effective to wash this man`s sins or would feeding that child one banana for which he was crying , would satisfy and make the deity happy and bless this spiritual illiterate.These thoughts always keep troubling me.Maybe self provoking thoughts are the ways of GOD to make us understand that the soul resides incidence we feed that every day and in turn feed the Supreme who is everywhere and in everything.I got up with folded hands,thanked the Banyan Tree for this revelation and blessings. Walking out of the temple I bought some fruits and offered them to a group of small children playing outside the temple.The cheers and the smile on their cute little unwashed faces made my day.

GOD sends a message to all through this.HE communicates that if you want to please ME please the children since they are my representatives.You know why they are my face?? Since they are simple and plain hearted without any malice towards anyone.I want each one of you to be like them.GOD says that each day I am trying to educate you through these children but it is only you who fail me.Most of you of course.

Sanjiv Gupta

Creator Merrigold