The Hermit and The King

There was a king who ruled a kingdom. He was a very learned man but had never understood the meaning of one thing; SACRIFICE. He once asked his ministers to fins out the true meaning of the word, sacrifice and announced that whosoever will answer him satisfactorily will be suitably rewarded. So went out all the ministers to find the answer to this question.

Not too long after this incident that they all came back and told the king their answers. The King listened to all their answers but was not amused. He was not satisfied. And he openly showed his dissatisfaction. Finally one minister garnered enough courage and told him that there lives a hermit outside his kingdom's forest cover who is learned and will be able to answer him.

Hearing this the King sent one of his minister to bring the hermit to his palace. When the minister reached the hermit the hermit refused to come to the palace. Instead he asked the minister to send the king to his cottage. So the king went to the hermit's cottage.

King: O learned man, do tell me the real meaning of sacrifice. Is it to kill animals and gift it to gods? Or is it to give up all that a man has and be a hermit like you?

Hermit: O king, I will answer your question but for that I need to go to your palace. Take me there and let me live there for some time and then I will answer your question.

So the king agreed and took the hermit to his palace. There the Hermit started to enjoy all the pleasures of the palace. Good food, good place to bath, beautiful orchards full of fruits and what not. Days went by and the hermit didn't say a word to the king. Days became weeks and weeks became months but the hermit didn't say a word to the king. On the other hand the king was becoming impatient. He started to wonder whether the hermit was really any learned person or was he making a fool of the king?

One day the king finally llost his patience and called upon the hermit. He said, "O learned hermit i have been watching you ever since you came here. You have been enjoying the food and comfort of the palace just like anyone else would do. It doesn't seem that you are a hermit,  a recluse a sannyasi. You neither told me the answer to my question nor you told me that you have had enough and also it seems that you don't want to leave this place. I am doubtful of all this."

On hearing all this the hermit smiled and spoke," O King, I have been waiting for this day when you will ask me this. Thanks for asking. It is time for me to go."

The King said," But what about the answer to my question?"
Hermit, " For that you will have to come with me to my cottage."

The King agreed and went with the Hermit to his cottage.

When they reached the cottage the hermit said. "O Dear King, for so many months I lived at your palace and enjoyed all the comforts. Now it is my turn to return the favor. So please give me the pleasure of serving you. Please stay at my cottage for the next three days."

On hearing this the king startled and said, "No it is not possible. I can't live here in this small cottage where you eat things that you get from charity of other people. I can't possibly sleep on the floor and surely can't bath in the nearby pond. I have lived in the palace and it is not possible for me to come and live here. Moreover I have an entire kingdom to look for so I can't come".

The hermit smiled and replied. " See king. I stayed all my life in this cottage and then I spent all these months in your palace. And now I am back to my cottage and I am feeling as good as I always was. I didn't get addicted to this cottage or your palace. Both are equal for me. But you couldn't possibly stay in this cottage for even one full day because you cannot give up the comforts of your palace. You are addicted to it. What I can do you can't!!!! This is sacrifice. I am not addicted to anything. My senses are well within my control. I have given up on the pair of good and bad. For me everything is same. This is the meaning of sacrifice."

The Hermit and the Boy

Lemme tell you a story.

Once a young man wanted to learn the method of concentration and control of his senses and of mind. So he went to a old hermit who lived outside the village.

He asked the hermit whether he could be his guru and teach him what he is seeking. The hermit said, "Ok i will teach you. The entire period of teaching will be divided into three parts of 6 months each and throughout you will have to live with me".
The boy agreed.
The hermit said,"Your training starts tomorrow morning. For the first six months when you are awake I will hit you, kick you and smash you with whatever I get in my hands. If you can sense in time and raise your hands I will spare you.".
The boy was left gasping. Initially the boy got a lot of beating for the hermit. The hermit kicked punched and hit him with bamboo sticks and whatevr he could get hold of. But slowly the boy started to make himself alert. He was so scared of the beatings that he started to train himself of being alert.
By the end of 6 months not a single time could the hermit hit the boy as he became very alert.
The hermit said,"Good you have passed the first test. Now the second 6 months begin tomorrow. I will hit you with a sword and you have to save yourself".
The boy's jaws dropped. From day one itself he started to be careful. yet he got hit by the sword. Got quite a few cuts and bruises but by the end of first month he had nearly perfected his awareness.
At the end of another fruitful six months the hermit said,"You have passed the second test too. Now the final one. I WILL  HIT YOU WITH A SWORD WHEN YOU WILL BE SLEEPING.". The boy couldn't believe his ears. He got so scared that he stopped sleeping. But how long could he hold. he started to frantically train his mind and senses to get alert even at a movement of wind. He finally slept but with such alertness that the moment the hermit entered the room, he raised his hands.

Finally the hermit said," You have done me proud. You have now mastered your senses and mind. So i have given you what you wanted. Now go in peace."

Saying this the hermit kept the sword near the boy and went and sat down near the banyan tree to meditate.

The boy started to think, "This old man has tortured me for the last 18 months on the pretest of teaching me. Does he even know anything or was he just bluffing?? He must be bluffing because I don't find him extraordinary at all. So let me teach him a lesson. I will cut him into two with this very sword."

But hardly had the boy stopped thinking this that the hermit raised his hand and said, "Dear, don't even think of it."

Beauty and Danger

As I stated in my last post that beauty and danger go hand in hand, here is why I think so.
Think about the most beautiful things in the universe (and I am not talking about girls at all !!!! - they are by default dangerous).
Let me help you a bit.

The above are some of the most beautiful things in the universe, and there can hardly be anything more dangerous than the above.
Similarly the following

 So very beautiful, isn't it? But what about the dangers lurking around them?
You miss a turn and end up right at the bottom of a ravine; probably dead.
Similarly one star explodes into a nebula, and everything around it is destroyed.
Similarly seemingly beautiful things always have danger lurking around them.

Isn;t it? May be i couldn;t convince you thins time. Next time I will come up with a more convincing reason. Till then, bye.

Our Manali Trip

Well, as I am sitting in front of this lappy I am still exhilarated about our recently concluded trip to Manali. It was a really great trip, specially owing to some adventures that happened and were a real torture then, but now I can smile over them.
So let me begin.
The bus we booked was a AC Volvo which started from Ramakrishna Ashram marg at New delhi and we soon reached the foothills of Lower Himalayas (as they are known technically). I must admit that I am really scared of heights and as the bus started to climb, I went numb. The treacherous roads on which it was difficult to drive even one bus properly, two were driving past (in opposite directions) and that too at nearly 60-70 kmph at the dead of night !!!! The entire night I just held on to my dear life as everyone else was sleeping. I just wanted to be sure that when the bus falls into the gorge I should be awake to make an attempt to save myself. What a thought!!!!
We halted at Sunder nagar at 5 in the morning and had our breakfast.

You can easily see Swagata and her face tells about the journey. In the backdrop is the beautiful valley. Well at that time I didn't know what lay ahead.
As the bus rolled on the most dangerous part came. The road width barely 20 feet. On one side mountain is jotting out and on the other side thousands of feet of direct drop into the ravines. Nearly 1 hour of that journey nearly drove me crazy. Finally we reached Kullu and an hour later, Manali.
We stayed at Hotel Hidimba Way, which is a hundred feet or less that the famous Hidimba temple. The hotel was decent and the room was good enough.

   We started to unpack and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then we went out for local sight seeing.

Hidimba Temple

The above is the pic of Hidimba temple. We then went on to see some cool places like the Van Vihar. Following are some pics that we took there.

Ghatotkacha Puja Place

Same as above

Beas River

In Van Vihar

Local Dress

Down the road to Beas river

Went on a ride

Then we reached the Beas river and for the first time in life I was able to gather enoough courage to do something that I wouldn't normally do at all.

Hanging by the wire and literally for my life as I was swinging up and down to touch the river beneath me.

Well then we went back to our hotel, but not before having eaten and bought quite a few things for us.

The next day we started for Rohtang pass and we reached by around 1:30 though we started before 6 in the morning. The jam we got caught into was big.

Dressed in a heavy outfit we reached Rohtang and had the best time of our life, atleast mine. Saw, touched and played with snow for the first time. It was a great feeling. Below are some pics of Rohtang Pass.

As we were returning from Rohtang we were caught in a really massive jam which spanned several kilometers.

So guess what happened???
The driver of our car along with the one in front of us devised an idea and see what happened next.

So finally we went down the slope and avoided remaining trapped in further jam.
The day we were coming back we had a even more precarious situation.
At 9:00 pm our Volvo bus stopped at Sundernagar for Dinner. After that we started on our way. At 10:25 pm, the bust came to a screeching halt with all of us running out of it for our life as the engine of the bus caught fire. We were stranded at a place called BAIRI, 20 km from Sundernagar and 15 km from Bilaspur. All the 45 passengers were stranded with no one coming to our rescue.

We remained stranded there till 3 in the morning when two tempo travellers and a xyllo came to our rescue. Finally we reached Delhi at 3:00 PM almost 24 hours after we started.
But none the less it was a great experience.
Thanks to Swagata for this trip.
I wish to go back there again.
And yes guys if you have not gone there yet, Manali is the place to visit. Really guys it is a great place.
And one thing that I learnt from this trip is that Beauty and Danger go hand in hand. How???? Tune in to know about this in another blog.