Once upon a time, there was a drought in a certain part of a country. The farmers began to cut long channels to bring water to their fields. One farmer took a vow that he would not stop digging until the channel connected his field to the river. He was stubbornly determined. He set to work.

It was time for his bath and his wife sent his daughter with oil.

‘Father’ said the girl, ‘it is already late. Please use this oil and have your bath.’ ‘Go away’ he thundered, ‘I have a lot of work to do now.’

It was mid-day and the farmer was still at work. He did not even think of bath. His wife came up and said ‘Why have you not taken your bath? The food is getting cold. You always overdo everything. You can finish your work after lunch or even tomorrow.’

The farmer scolded her and ran at her with a spade in his hand crying ‘what? Have you no sense? There is no rain. The crops are dying. What will our children eat? Without this water all of us will have to starve to death. I have taken a vow that I will not think of food or rest today before bringing the water to my field’. Such was the strong determination of the farmer.

The wife saw his state of mind and ran away in fear. After a whole day’s back-breaking labour, the farmer managed to connect the fields to the river late in the evening. Then he sat down and watched the water flowing into the field with a murmuring sound. His mind was filled with peace and joy. He was sure that he would now have a good crop.

He went home and called his wife and said to her, ‘Now, give me some oil.’ With a peaceful mind he finished his bath and meal. He retired to rest and slept peacefully. The determination he showed is an example of hard work done to achieve success.

Now there was another farmer who was also digging a channel to bring water to his field. His wife came to the field and said to him ‘It is very late. Come home. It is not necessary to overdo things.’ This farmer did not protest but put aside his spade and said to his wife, ‘Well, I will go home since you ask me to.’ That man never succeeded in irrigating his field. Consequently his crop failed.

A wealthy businessman in Hong Kong had spent the best years of his life building up his mammoth textile business. One day, he was told that he was dying from an incurable disease. His immediate thought was of his business. Who would carry it on? And which of his three sons could he trust it to?

He called his three sons and gave them a 10 cent coin each. To each he said, go into the market place and buy something that will fill this empty room. You must not spend anything more than 10 cents and you must be back before sunset.”

When evening came, the first boy dragged a bale of hay into the room. When he undid it, it hid two walls of the room. The old man gave a grunt of satisfaction. The second boy brought in two bags of cotton and when he undid them it covered the three walls.

“Excellent!” exclaimed the old man. Then he turned to the third boy, “what have you bought?”

“Father,” he replied uncertainly. “Part of it went to feed a hungry child, and part I gave it the church. After I had done that I found that I had only one cent left. With that I bought this candle.”

Saying that, he lit the tiny candle – the light from it filled the whole room!

Once there was a rich man. But not even once in his life had he done any charity. One day, he felt a sudden urge to do some “dana”. He decided to give gold small pieces to poor people everyday. Unfortunately, he told his wife about his intention. She said, “My beloved one, instead of giving small pieces, you can give a larger quantity of gold, by gathering all the pieces.

The rich man accepted her words as divine mantras. Hence from that day onwards, he started to gather the golden pieces. He decided to make them into a big golden ball and then give it away before his death. Years rolled on and he collected a good many small pieces, which he made into a golden ball and kept it inside his pillow.

All of a sudden, one day, he fell ill and his condition became quite serious. He could not even move his hands. His tongue lost its power and he could not speak. He hi-cupped and the sputum blocked his throat. He understood that death was near and resented very much for not performing the cherished ‘dana’ already.

He said to himself “Atleast now I should do the thing”. But he couldn’t even speak out what he was thinking. He could not move his hands and take the gold ball out of the pillow. He tried to remind his wife of their resolve.

Collecting all his energy, he showed by signs to his wife, “As we had discussed earlier, I have made a gold ball with the pieces of gold intended for giving in charity daily. The ball is now inside the pillow. Now, my end has come. But I have no strength to take it out and give it to the needy people. Without making any further delay, you please take it out and give it in charity”.

The wife understood what her husband meant. But she thought, “My husband is going to die soon. There is no surety that my children will take care of me, after they grow. So now is the time for me to act intelligently. I will not give the golden ball in charity now. Rather I can keep it with me until my lifetime. That is the only safety for my life”.

Her two sons standing nearby could not understand what their father wanted to convey by his signs. The younger one asked his mother, “Mother, Father shows signs of a ball, what he wants to say?”

The mother did not want to tell him the truth. She said, “Son, before you were born, we regularly took wood-apple fruit, and we both liked it. He used to bring the fruit and I would mix it with sugar and give it to him. Now also he wants that fruit”.

The elder son said, “Mother, it is our duty to fulfill the last wish of our father. So, we shall bring the fruit”. He started with his younger brother. It was not the season for that fruit. However after a great deal of searching the boys found out a wood-apple tree. But a new problem cropped up. None of them knew how to climbing a tree. They stood below worrying how to pluck the fruits. They were sad.

A few monkeys were living in that tree. Imitating the two boys they also mocked at them by putting up a sad appearance. On seeing that, the younger brother got an idea, “Brother, the monkeys show sad faces like us. Let us throw a stone at them. In return, the monkeys will hit us with those fruits”.

Immediately they picked up a stone each and threw them at the monkeys. The monkeys like very much to imitate the actions of human-beings. Immediately they plucked the fruits from the tree and threw them at the boys. The sons picked up the fruits and ran to their mother.

She took the pulp from the fruits, mixed it with sugar and gave it to her husband. The husband was already suffering with sputum blocking his throat and he couldn’t speak. But just to save the gold, the wife compelled her husband to eat that fruit. Due to her compulsion, he also had to eat it.

It is a well known fact that anyone who takes that fruit too much, while suffering with cold and sputum has to die. This is a common truth. It became true in the matter of that rich man also. He died.

This is a Jain story. What do we understand from this?

Good things are to be done immediately, because we don’t know whether tomorrow belongs to us or to the God of Death.

The thing that we want to do on a future day should be done tomorrow itself. That, which we intend to do tomorrow should be done today itself. Finally what we intend to do today should be carried out now itself. In Sanskrit they say - Subhasya Seegram.

There was a scholar who use to go to various places to give expositions on various topics of Vedanta and other allied subjects. In front of his house there was another Brahmin by name Ram Bhatta. These two were not going on well and there is use to be quarrel between them day in and day out.

Once when he was giving an exposition on Vedanta, the circumstances came to such a pause that he had to quote the great Vedantic dictum "Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma - All that exists is verily Brahman". When he was about to quote this dictum the thought came that when he utters this words that his sworn-in enemy Ram Bhatta also to be considered as Brahman. This he could not do, nor could he avoid quoting the dictum. So he quietly modified the dictum saying "Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma na tu samukhe gruhe stitaha Ram Bhattaha - All that exists is verily Brahman except the Ram Bhatta of the opposite house".

So is the man of dry intellect in contrast to the man of realization.

There is a saying that childhood shows the man as morning shows the day. Fearless children are bound to become great when they grow up. Swami Vivekananda is one such. Government of India has declared the date of his birth, i.e. 12th Jan, as national youth day. The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s wish was that the children should imbibe the great qualities of Swami Vivekananda.

Even as a boy, Swami Vivekananda was strong-minded and fearless. His earlier name was Narendranath Datta - Naren for short. He was a member of the local gymnasium club.

One day, he and his friends were trying to set up a very heavy trapeze. A crowd gathered to watch it. Amongst them was an English sailor. At one point, the boys needed help. Naren asked the English sailor to help. The sailor readily agreed and started helping them. But in the process, the trapeze fell on him and knocked him unconscious.

Nearly everyone, except Naren and one or two of his friends, disappeared from the scene thinking that the sailor was dead. Naren immediately tore a piece of cloth from his shirt and bandaged the wound. He sprinkled some water on the sailor’s face and fanned him gently. The sailor slowly regained his consciousness. Naren, with the help of his friends, lifted him up and took him to a doctor. After a week’s nursing the sailor recovered. Naren collected some funds from his friends and presented it to the sailor.