Kanha could sense there was something wrong with Arjun from afar. His usual grace and vigor were clearly lost, he seemed unsettled about something and then for him to come to Dwarka unannounced was a little out of the ordinary as well.

Kanha welcomed Arjun with a tight embrace and led him to the satin throws the chambermaid had placed by the window. It was a beautiful night, far away in the harbor the boats could be seen bobbing in their luminescent lanterns making for a magical horizon but Kanha could see that the magic was lost on Arjun.

“You must be tired from the ride, I could have the cooks make a special meal for you my dear brother?” Kanha offered Arjun with a smile.

“I stopped to eat at dusk and then I don’t feel so hungry,” Arjun tried to offer Kanha a smile in return but failed half way.

Kanha let him soak in the sea breeze for a while and then lovingly put a hand on his shoulder, “What steals the hunger of the greatest warrior of Bharata?”

Arjun sighed and Kanha could see the struggle on his face. He could see that Arjun was in a lot of pain.
“I am ashamed. I don’t know how to talk about this Kanha,” Arjun said in a pain filled voice.
“And yet you ride all the way here because you know that I am the only person you can talk to, is that right?” 

Kanha’s eyes glowed with the light of scores of oil lamps that lit the hall. Arjun nodded. Kanha allowed him the time he needed to say what he wanted.
“I am jealous, very jealous. I am finding it very hard to share,” Arjun said finally. It was clear that it took all his strength to bring that forth.
​
Kanha still maintained a soothing silence.
“I won her, she is mine and still I have to share her with my brothers,” the pain was making his voice tremble. “Draupadi is mine, I cannot bear the thought of her being with any one but me and yet I know it is wrong. Mother has ordained that we are all to be her husbands but I am envious. Save me Kanha, please! Save me from the selfishness. I love my brothers but I love her too. I have no clue what to do!”

Kanha felt Arjun’s pain; love could humble even the greatest of warriors. “Why is a man selfish Kanha, why can he not think about others before him? Why can I not do what is right?”

Kanha looked at the boats in the distance and sighed, “The problem is man is not selfish enough. Selfishness of the greatest denominator and the smallest denominator is lost to him. If he found that it would take care of all the troubles.”

Arjun looked at Kanha flummoxed, this was not the answer he had expected. “Humans were made selfish for a reason, if they were not selfish they would not be able to survive and they would not be able to progress in their soul journey. However, humans have failed on both the fronts.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about Kanha,” Arjun knew Kanha well to know that there was a celestial secret that he was going to learn, he also knew that he would have to be patient. 
“Explain to me Kanha,” he beseeched.
Kanha nodded and turned around to face Arjun.
“It’s like this, let us look from the smallest to the greatest denominator. A man first is selfish for himself, is that right?”
Arjun nodded.
“Next he is selfish for his family, then for his tribe, then perhaps for his city, in rare cases for his country but the greatest denominator is lost to him, you follow?”
“You mean the entire planet?” Arjun’s eyes widened with a realization.
Kanha smiled, “Yes, after a point when the numbers start becoming too big Man stops caring. It is too much for him to grasp but he does not understand that in the largest good is his good. If he is not selfish about the planet there is no point being selfish about the country or the tribe.”
“What is the smallest denominator then,” wondered Arjun.
“The soul Arjun, your soul. You may think that your body is the smallest denominator but there is something even more valuable and smaller, the soul that your body hides. If you are selfish for your soul then you will never think of the body.”

Arjun sat awe-struck looking at Kanha. “The creator made you selfish for the extreme ends of the spectrum where Man unfortunately never reaches. Arjun, if you are selfish for the entire planet and then selfish for the soul all your decisions will be wise and moral. You shall see yourself. Your feeling selfish about Draupadi is a bodily selfishness. Now think what your soul should want?” 
Arjun nodded and whispered, “The soul would never agree to carry the burden of such jealousy…”

​Kanha did not respond, he let Arjun live with what he had just learned. He knew that Arjun was reaching out to his soul, it would probably take him all night, but the morning would be well worth it.

Story Courtesy : thinkingbhatt.com

I was parked in front of the mall wiping off my car. I had just come from the car wash and was waiting for my wife to get out of work.

Coming my way from across the parking lot was what society would consider a bum. From the looks of him, he had no car, no home, no clean clothes, and no money. There are times when you feel generous but there are other times that you just don’t want to be bothered. This was one of those “don’t want to be bothered times.”

“I hope he doesn’t ask me for any money,” I thought. He didn’t. He came and sat on the curb in front of the bus stop but he didn’t look like he could have enough money to even ride the bus. After a few minutes he spoke. “That’s a very pretty car,” he said. He was ragged but he had an air of dignity around him. His scraggly blond beard kept more than his face warm. I said, “Thanks,” and continued wiping off my car.

He sat there quietly as I worked. The expected plea for money never came. As the silence between us widened something inside said, “Ask him if he needs any help.” I was sure that he would say “Yes” but I held true to the inner voice. “Do you need any help?” I asked.

He answered in three simple but profound words that I shall never forget. We often look for wisdom in great men and women. We expect it from those of higher learning and accomplishments. I expected nothing but an outstretched grimy hand. He spoke the three words that shook me. “Don’t we all?” he said.

I was feeling high and mighty, successful and important, above a bum in the street, until those three words hit me like a twelve gauge shotgun. "Don’t we all?"

You never know it when you see someone that appears to have it all. Perhaps they are waiting on you to give them what they don’t have - a different perspective on life, a glimpse at something beautiful, a respite from daily chaos, that only you, through a torn world, can see.

Don't we all need help?

Question: What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?
Answer By Jonathan Pettit

I was about ten. My mom had just finished creating one of her amazing meals, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Delicious. Later, as I was washing the dishes, my mom came up to me. “Sorry, dinner was so awful again,” she said.

I was shocked. “What? No, it was great. I loved it.”

“Really?” she said, with mock surprise. “You always eat so quietly, never saying anything. You’ve never told me you liked my cooking, so I thought you hated it.”

“No, you’re the best cook I know.”

“Then you should tell me that,” she said. “Whenever someone does something nice for you, you should thank that person. If you don’t, then she might think she’s not appreciated and stop doing those nice things.”

Something clicked right then. From that day onward, I thanked everyone for literally everything. If anyone did something that even vaguely helped me, I thanked that person profusely. It became a habit, something I didn’t even think about, and that’s when the magic started happening.

People liked me more. They talked to me more, shared with me, were more friendly. In my first year of high school, during the final week, I came home and found a giant freezie (a kind of sweet frozen snack) waiting for me. “Thanks, mom!” I said instinctively.

“This isn’t from me, she said. “This is from your bus driver.” He had been driving that bus for years, and my siblings and I were the first people to ever thank him as we got dropped off. Those two simple words made a huge difference, so much so that he went out of his way to tell our mom and give us a present.

That’s the power of appreciation. When you have it, all is right in the world, but when it’s missing life is empty. My mom taught me many things, but taking two seconds to say ‘thank you’ every time, in any situation, was the best.

*Debriefing of this Story*
You would have met people who call themselves as good critics but have you ever met a person who says I am good at appreciating others? Isn't that a sad part of our society?

"The sweetest of all sounds is praise" ~ Xenophon (Greek Philosopher)

He had everything that a man could want, which in itself was a euphemism considering he was the King. He had a summer palace, a winter palace and many other palaces in between, the same could be said about his many wives. He had an army that could vanquish any enemy and a treasury that could buy everything that his heart desired. Yet, there was no peace. Just no peace!

“Perhaps you should go to the Acharya,” his Minister suggested. Acharya was the King’s older brother. He had abdicated the throne to find the answer to the question that had a stranglehold on the human mind since time. Was there a God? Was there a meaning to life? Was there a soul? The King had nothing but disdain for his brother and had made no effort to hide it. What kind of a man would give the throne up for the life of an ascetic? Only a coward would do that, someone who could not deal with the pressures of ruling a kingdom.

Now, after all the years that had gone by, was he supposed to go to a coward to seek a way out of his unhappiness? He hated to seek the Acharya’s help and yet he could not see another way. There was only one way to get rid of his want wit sadness and restlessness, it was to seek the help of someone who had gained control over it.

The Acharya could see the dust storm of the King’s cavalcade. He was surprised to see his younger Brother coming his way. He never did. He had no idea what he could want from him.
He sat on his perch under the Banyan tree and watched his Brother alight from the palanquin and head towards him. Horsemen and foot soldiers stood a distance behind. So much fanfare just to travel to a mere ascetic in the forest, the thought made the Acharya smile inwardly.

“What brings the great King to me?” the Acharya asked with a smile.

“I need something that you have,” the King had not learned to ask; he only knew how to demand. “Me? I have something that you want? I would really like to hear what that is,” the Acharya wouldn’t let his peace be destroyed by lowly insolence.

“I have everything and yet I am sad, restless, I am not at peace and you own nothing and yet you have peace, you are not sad, teach me to get rid of this gloom and misery.”

The Acharya smiled, finally understanding why his Brother was there to see him. “Why don’t you send your men away and stay in my little thatched home for a few days and perhaps I could teach you what you desire?”

The King looked at the pathetic little straw hut. It was an excuse for a home but he had little choice in the matter. He nodded his assent.

From the depths of old internet comments comes another incredible gem of a story. One user wrote the following heartfelt plea online: “My friend just died. I don’t know what to do.”
The rest of the post has been deleted, only the title remains. However, the helpful responses live on, and one of them was absolutely incredible. The reply by this self-titled “old guy” might just change the way you approach life and death.

“I’m old. What that means is that I’ve survived (so far) and a lot of people I’ve known and loved did not.
I’ve lost friends, best friends, acquaintances, co-workers, grandparents, mom, relatives, teachers, mentors, students, neighbors, and a host of other folks. I have no children, and I can’t imagine the pain it must be to lose a child. But here’s my two cents…

I wish I could say you get used to people dying. But I never did. I don’t want to. It tears a hole through me whenever somebody I love dies, no matter the circumstances. But I don’t want it to “not matter”. I don’t want it to be something that just passes. My scars are a testament to the love and the relationship that I had for and with that person. And if the scar is deep, so was the love. So be it.
Scars are a testament to life. Scars are a testament that I can love deeply and live deeply and be cut, or even gouged, and that I can heal and continue to live and continue to love. And the scar tissue is stronger than the original flesh ever was. Scars are a testament to life. Scars are only ugly to people who can’t see.

As for grief, you’ll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you’re drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it’s some physical thing. Maybe it’s a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it’s a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.
In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don’t even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you’ll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what’s going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything…and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life.

Somewhere down the line, and it’s different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O’Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you’ll come out.

Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don’t really want them to. But you learn that you’ll survive them. And other waves will come. And you’ll survive them too.

​If you’re lucky, you’ll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.”

source: http://www.tickld.com/x/old-man-explains-death-and-life-to-grieving-young-man

A young guy from North Dakota moves to Florida and goes to a big "everything under one roof" department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?"

The kid says "Yeah. I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota."

The boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot. So he gave him the job. "You start tomorrow. I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it. After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor. "So, how many customers bought something from you today?"

The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One".

The boss says "Just one?!!? Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day. That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here. We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida . One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota , but you're not on the farm anymore, son."

The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day. He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"

The kid looks up at his boss and says "$101,237.65".

The boss, astonished, says $101,237.65?!? What in the world did you sell?"

The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks. Then I sold him a new fishing rod to go with his new hooks. Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat, so we went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft. Then he said he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive department and sold him that 4x4 Expedition."

The boss said "A guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK!?"

The kid said "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot, you should go fishing.’ "

The ONLY things standing between you and success is that story you keep telling yourself as to why you can't achieve it!

You have died.
You were on your way home when you died.

It was a car accident, nothing particularly remarkable, but fatal nonetheless. You left behind a wife and two children. It was a painless death. The EMTs tried their best to save you but to no avail. Your body was so utterly shattered you were better off, trust me.

And that’s when you met me.

“What.. What happened?” You asked. “Where am I?”

“You died” I said, matter-of-factly. No point in mincing words.

“There was a.. a truck and it was skidding…”

“Yup.” I said.

“I.. I died?”

“Yup, but don’t feel bad about it. Everyone dies.” I said.

You looked around. There was nothingness. Just you and me. “What is this place?” You asked. “Is this the afterlife?”

“More or less.” I said.

“Are you God?” You asked.

“Yup.” I replied. “I am God.”

“My kids.. my wife,” You said.

“What about them?”

“Will they be alright?”

“That’s what I like to see,” I said. “..you just died and your main concern is your family. That’s good stuff right there.”

You looked at me with fascination.
To you I didn’t look like God. I just looked like some man or possibly a woman. Some vague authority figure, maybe. More of a grammar school teacher than the almighty.

“Don’t worry.” I said. “They’ll be fine. Your kids will remember you as perfect in every way. They didn’t have time to grow contempt for you. Your wife will cry on the outside, but be secretly relieved. To be fair, your marriage was falling apart. If it’s any consolation, she’ll feel very guilty for feeling relieved.”

“Oh,” You said. “.. so what happens now? Do I go to heaven or hell or something?”

“Neither.” I said. “You’ll be reincarnated.”

“Ah,” You said. “.. So the Hindus were right.”

“All religions are right in their own way,” I said. “.. walk with me.”

You followed along as we strode through the void.

“Where are we going?”

“Nowhere in particular,” I said. “.. It’s just nice to walk while we talk.”

“So what’s the point, then?” You asked. “When I get reborn, I’ll just be a blank slate, right? A baby. So all my experiences and everything I did in this life won’t matter.”

“Not so!” I said. “You have within you all the knowledge and experiences of all past lives. You just don’t remember them right now.”

I stopped walking and took you by the shoulders.

“Your soul is more magnificent, beautiful, and gigantic than you can possibly imagine. A human mind can only contain a tiny fraction of what you are. It’s like sticking your finger in a glass of water to see if it’s hot or cold. You put a tiny part of yourself into the vessel, and when you bring it back out, you’ve gained all the experiences it had.”

“You’ve been in a human for the last 48 years, so you haven’t stretched out yet and felt the rest of your immense consciousness. If we hung out here for a long enough, you’d start remembering everything. But there’s no point to doing that between each life.”

“How many times have I been reincarnated, then?”

“Oh lots. Lots and lots. An in to lots of different lives.” I said. “This time around, you’ll be a Chinese peasant girl in 540 AD.”

“Wait, what?” You stammered. “You’re sending me back in time?”

“Well, I guess technically. Time, as you know it, only exists in your Universe. Things are different where I come from.”

“Where you come from?” You asked.

“Oh sure,” I explained. “.. I come from somewhere. Somewhere else. And there are others like me. I know you’ll want to know what it’s like there, but honestly you wouldn’t understand.”

“Oh,” you said, a little let down. “.. but wait. If I get reincarnated to other places in time, I could have interacted with myself at some point.”

“Sure. Happens all the time. And with both lives only aware of their own lifespan you don’t even know it’s happening.”

“So what’s the point of it all?”

“Seriously?” I asked. “Seriously? You are asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?”

“Well it’s a reasonable question,” You persisted.

I looked you in the eye.
“The meaning of life, the reason I made this Whole Universe, is for YOU to mature.”

“You mean mankind? You want us to mature?”

“No, just YOU. I made this Whole Universe for YOU. With each new life YOU grow and mature and become a larger and greater intellect.”

“Just me? What about everyone else?”

“There is no one else,” I said. “.. in This Universe, there’s just YOU and ME.”

You stared blankly at me. “But all the people on Earth…”

“All you. Different incarnations of YOU.”

“Wait. I’m everyone!?”

“Now you’re getting it,” I said, with a congratulatory slap on the back.

“I’m every human being who ever lived?”

“Or who will ever live, yes.”

“I’m Abraham Lincoln?”

“I’m Hitler?” You said, appalled.

“And you are the millions he killed.”

“I’m Jesus?”

“And you’re everyone who followed him.”

You fell silent.

“Every time you victimized someone,” I said, “.. You were victimizing yourself. Every act of kindness you’ve done, you’ve done to yourself. Every happy and sad moment ever experienced by any human was, or will be, experienced by YOU.”

You thought for a long time.“Why?” You asked me. “Why do all this?”

“Because someday, YOU will become like me. Because that’s what you are. You’re one of my kind. You’re my child.”

“Whoa,” you said, incredulous. “You mean I’m a god?”

“No. Not yet. You’re a fetus. You’re still growing. Once you’ve lived every human life throughout all time, you will have grown enough to be born.”

“So the Whole Universe,” You said, “.. it’s just…”

“An egg.” I answered. “Now it’s time for you to move on to your next life.”
And I sent you on your way.

Story By: Andy Weir
[Adapted from http://www.lifecoachcode.com/2014/11/29/the-egg-this-story-will-blow-your-mind/]

Conclusion:
The feeling you feel right now...that’s your mind being blown. Elevated. You’ve Ascended to a whole new level.
Start questioning yourself “Can my mother, or my brother, my kid, my wife, my best friend, all be me?” Think of this when you talk with them.
You’ll start questioning things even more, “Can this sexy waitress, or Leonardo DiCaprio, or Gandhi, all those terrorists, politicians, soldiers who died in wars, my boss.. could all of them be really ME?”
And that’s ok!
Question. Question everything and everyone.
Start seeing the Universe through this prism. Start seeing the World and everyone in it with this eye.
Imagine if we all saw each other like this. As one.

So what if this is just a story?
It’s the story we believe in that matters. And maybe it’s time to change the old story and accept a new one. 
It’s not about which story is true. ALL OF THEM ARE.
It’s about which story makes YOU a more conscious person. A GOD.

P.S. When I think about it, YOU wrote this text for yourself.

A young boy enters a barbershop and the barber whispers to his customer, “This is the dumbest kid in the world. Watch and I’ll prove it to you.”

The barber holds a 10 Rupee note in one hand and a 5 Rupee coin in the other, then calls the boy over and asks, “Which do you want, son?”

The boy takes the 5 rupee coin and leaves.

“What did I tell you?” says the barber. “That kid never learns!”

Later, when the customer leaves, he sees the same boy coming out of the ice cream store. “Hey, son! Why did you take the 5 Rupee coin instead of the 10 Rupee note?”

The boy licks his cone and replies, “Because the day I take the note, the game is over!”

Look around... How many 'dumb' people do you see in your life?

Once, a Junior School teacher asked her students to bring some tomatoes in a plastic bag to school. Each tomato will be given a name of the person whom that child hates. Like this, the number of tomatoes will be equal to the number of persons they hate.

On a decided day, the children brought their tomatoes well addressed. Some had two, some had three and some had even five tomatoes .

The teacher said that they would have to carry the tomatoes with them everywhere they go for a week.

As the days passed, the children started to complain about the spoiled smell of tomatoes. The students who had many tomatoes complained that it was very heavy to carry.

The teacher asked them, "How did you feel this past one week?"

The children complained of the smell & the heavy weight of the tomatoes .

The teacher then said, "This is very similar to what you carry in your heart when you don't like some people. Hatred makes your heart unhealthy and you carry that hatred everywhere. If you can't bear the smell of spoiled tomatoes for a week, imagine what your heart must be going through?"

Your heart is a beautiful garden that needs regular cleaning of unwanted weeds.
Let go... Allow... Forgive... Accept... Make Peace... do what it takes!

The Master was walking through the market place with his disciples. They saw a man dragging a cow by a rope.The master told the man to wait and asked his disciples to surround them.

“I am going to teach you all something” and continued...“Tell me who is bound to whom? Is the cow bound to this man or the man is bound to the cow?"

The disciples said without hesitation, “Of course the cow is bound to the man! The man is the master. He is holding the rope. The cow has to follow him wherever he goes. The man is the master and the cow is the slave.”

“Now watch this”, said the master and took a pair of scissors from his bag and cut the rope.

The cow ran away from the master, and the man ran after his cow.

“Look, what is happening”, said the master. 
“Do you see who the Master is? The cow is not at all interested in this man. The cow in fact, is trying to escape from this man.”

So is the case with our MIND. All the non-sense that we carry inside is not really interested in us.
WE ARE INTERESTED IN IT! Like the owner of the cow, we believe we have to hold onto it somehow or the other in order to survive.  

All the drama, trauma, pain, vengeance, depressions, rejections, dejections, judgements, opinions, expectations, anger, sadness, guilt, regret, resentment, hurt, wounds, misery, suffering, tears, helplessness and what not! We are going crazy trying to keep it all together under our control. The moment we lose interest in all the garbage filled in our head, and the moment we understand the futility of it, it will all start to disappear. Like the cow, it will escape and disappear.