By the will of Rama

In a village there lived a man, a weaver, who used to sell his goods at a nearby market. He was a very pious and honest man and everyone loved him. He was a great devotee of Lord Rama. When a customer asks him the price of a piece of cloth he would say, "By the will of Rama the price of yarn is one rupee and the labour four annas: by the will of Rama the profit is two annas. So the price of the cloth is one rupee six annas, by the will of Rama". People trusted him so much that they would at once pay the price and take the cloth.

Every evening he used to spend long hours in the worship hall meditating on God. One evening he was sitting in the worship hall when a band of robbers happened to pass that way. They wanted a man to carry their stolen goods. They caught the weaver and led him off by the hand. After committing a robbery they put a load of things on the weaver's head asking him to carry it. Suddenly the police came and the thieves ran away and the weaver was arrested. He was kept in the lock up and the next day brought before the magistrate for trial. His neighbours came to know about this and came to the magistrate to inform him that the weaver could never do a robbery. The magistrate asked the weaver to make his statement.

The weaver said, " Your Honour, by the will of Rama I finished my meal and was worshipping the God. Then, by the will of Rama a band of robbers passed by that way. By the will of Rama they dragged me with them. By the will of Rama they robbed a house and by the will of Rama they asked me to carry the load. Just then by the will of Rama the police arrived and by the will of Rama I was arrested. By the will of Rama I was kept in the lock up for the night and by the will of Rama I am brought before Your Honour". The magistrate realized that the weaver was a pious man and released him. While going home the weaver told his friends, "By the will of Rama I have been released".

In The Grip

A man complained to his Guru, "Sir, I am always worried. These bad thoughts always haunt me. I am in the grip of them. I cannot keep them apart. Please help me".
Guru replied, "My dear son, you are not in the grip of them, they are in the grip of you. release them and concentrate in your duties.It is you who have to decide upon your way. Only you can change the situation, since you are the cause of your grief".
The man said, "I can't believe that I am the cause of my grief. I cannot understand what you say"
With a restless mind he went home. The next day when he came to his Guru the man heard his guru's voice crying "help me! help me!"He astonished to see the guru climbed upon a tree full of thorns and hugging it firmly and crying with pain.
The man asked, "Oh! why can't you climb down the tree and release yourself of the pain?".
The guru answered, "Yesterday you told me, you can't believe you are the cause of your grief. I think now you got the point".
Now the man got satisfied with the guru.

The perspective

One early morning a man was walking beside a forest. He saw another man lying down on the pathway, unconscious. He thought, "This man must have done theft the whole night and is exhausted and fallen down unconscious". He himself was a thief.

Another man came the same way and saw the man lying down. He thought, "This man is over drunken and became unconscious". He was a drunkard.

Then came the third man and saw the man on the pathway. He thought, "Oh! this man was meditating on God and finally got realisation of God and attained such a state". The third man was a saint.

The attitude of a person is strongly influenced by his personality.