THE GOLDLEN STONE POT

A wealthy landlord called upon a goldsmith in his village and requested him while giving him a lump of pure gold, “You are to make a nice pot for my milk with this gold. You should not make it in any way impure by mixing any kind of alloy in it.”The goldsmith agreed, “Yes sir,” and went away with the gold-lump.

Thus getting a lump of pure gold in his possession, the goldsmith was tempted to steal it. However, he apprehended that he would be punished by the landlord if he cheated him entirely, so he made up a plan to prepare a stone-pot and gold-plate it so that he would not be accused of stealing the gold.

When the goldsmith took the gold-plated stone pot to the landlord, the landlord asked him in great astonishment, “What is this thing you have brought?”

The goldsmith replied, “O sir! This is a golden pot. I have made it with hard labour.”

The landlord said, “Are you joking? This is a stone pot!”

The goldsmith told him, “O sir, this is a golden stone pot.”

PURPORT

Those who consider casteism among the Vaishnavas, classifying them as brahmana-Vaishnavas, ksatriya-Vaishnavas, vaisya-Vaishnavas, sudra-Vaishnavas, or as candala-Vaishnavas, simply indulge in a speculative inference as “golden” stone pot. Either one should be considered as `Vaishnava’, or as brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, or sudra. Either one should call it a `golden pot’, or a `stone pot.’ Mango-cake (amsatva) must be prepared from mango itself, and no one can call something `mango cake’ if it is made of `jackfruit’ (knathaler amsatva). Similarly, it would be wrong terminology to ascribe the quality of a sudra to a Vaishnava. Whenever one is accepted to be a `Vaishnava’, then it is confirmed that he does not belong to any mundane social classification such as brahmana, ksatriya, vaisya, sudra or low-born chandala and the like, nor even Hindu or non-Hindu. Any terminology such as `Hindu-Vaishnava’ or `Yavana-Vaishnava’ is utterly absurd and also offensive.

THE SERVICE

                                                                           

Rupa Goswami and his brother Sanatana Goswami were living separately in Vrindavana and going on with their bhajana, devotional service. Rupa was living in the forest, and there was no facility for cooking nice food or begging from the village for a chapati to eat. Rupa Goswami was the younger brother, and he thought, “If I could get some foodstuffs, then I could prepare nice dishes and offer them to Krishna and invite my elder brother.” He had that desire. The next moment, a nice girl about twelve years old came and delivered an abundance of foodstuffs—milk, flour, ghee, etc. That is the Vedic system; sometimes householders present foodstuffs to mendicants and sages in the renounced order of life. Rupa Goswami was very glad that Krishna had sent so many things and that he could now prepare a feast. He prepared a feast and then invited his elder brother.wami and his brother Sanatana Goswami were living separately in Vrindavana When Sanatana Goswami came, he was astonished. “How have you secured such things? You have prepared such a nice feast in this forest. How is it possible?”

So Rupa Goswami explained, “In the morning I desired for it, and by chance Krishna sent me all these things. A nice girl came, and she offered it to me.” He was describing the girl: “A very nice girl.”

Then Sanatana said, “This nice girl is Radharani. You have taken service from Radharani, the Lord’s eternal consort. It is a great blunder.” That is their philosophy. They would not accept service from the Lord. They simply wanted to render service. But Krishna is so clever that He also wants to serve His devotee. He looks for an opportunity to serve His devotee. This is spiritual competition. A pure devotee does not want anything from Krishna; he simply wants to serve Him. And Krishna also looks for the opportunity to serve His devotee. Krishna is always as anxious to please His devotee as the devotee is to please Him.

This is the transcendental world. On the absolute plane, there is no exploitation. Everyone wants to serve; no one wants to take service. In the transcendental world, everyone wants to give service. You want to give service to me, and I want to give service to you. This is such a nice attitude. This material world means that I want to pickpocket you, and you want to pickpocket me. That’s all. This is the material world. We should try to understand it. In the material world, everyone wants to exploit his friend, his father, his mother, everyone. But in the transcendental world, everyone wants to serve. Everyone has Krishna as the central point of serving, and all the devotees, either as friends or servants or parents or lovers of Krishna, all want to serve Him. And at the same time, Krishna also wants to serve them. This is a transcendental relationship; the main function is service, although there is no necessity of service, for everyone is full.

– Science of Self Realization

THE SCORPION & THE CAMEL

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A scorpion once requested a favor from a camel. The scorpion wanted to cross a deep river but could not find any way to do so. Seeing a camel nearby, the scorpion approached him and asked the camel to carry him across. The camel refused, saying, “You will sting me.””No, no. I am an ethical scorpion. I promise I won’t sting you.”

The camel agreed and, taking the scorpion on his hump, began crossing the river. Halfway across, the scorpion suddenly stung the camel.

“Why did you do that?” the camel asked. “Now we will both die.”

“What can I say?” the scorpion replied. “It’s my nature.”

Similarly, although the atheists try to live an ethical life, because their concept of the meaning of life is limited to dull matter any ethical behavior they adopt is selfishly motivated and quickly discarded.

Generally, all so-called principles are in the modes of passion and ignorance. Maybe there are some moral instructions, but moral instructions without God-consciousness is impossible to follow.

ATHEIST”S HOLIDAY

                                                                                

Once, an atheist became incensed over the coming festival holidays. He decided to contact his lawyer about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to the devotees with all their holidays while atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The case was brought before a wise judge. After listening to the long passionate presentation by the lawyer, the Judge banged his gavel and declared “Case dismissed!”

The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Hindus have Diwali, Janmashtami and many other, Christians have Christmas, Jews have Passover… yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!”

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, “Obviously your client is too confused to even know about, much less celebrate his own atheists’ holiday!”

The lawyer pompously said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any such holiday for atheists. Just when might that holiday be, your Honor?”

The judge said, “Well it comes every year on exactly the same date April 1st! Since our calendar sets April 1st as ‘April Fools Day,’ and consider that in the Bhagavad-gita, Lord Krishna states, ‘Fools deride Me when I descend in the human form. They do not know My transcendental nature and My supreme dominion over all that be.’ and, ‘Those miscreants who are grossly foolish, lowest among mankind, whose knowledge is stolen by illusion, and who partake of the atheistic nature of demons, do not surrender unto Me.’

Thus, in my opinion, if your client says there is no God, then by scripture he is a fool, thus April 1st is his holiday! Get it?”

A BASKET OF WATER

An old farmer lived on a farm in the mountains with his young grandson. Each morning Grandpa was up early sitting at the kitchen table reading his Bhagavad-gita. His grandson wanted to be just like him and tried to imitate him in every way he could. One day the grandson asked, “Grandpa! I try to read the Bhagavad-gita just like you but I don’t understand it, and what I do understand I forget as soon as I close the book. What good does reading the Bhagavad-gita do?” The grandfather quietly turned from putting coal in the stove and replied, “Take this coal basket down to the river and bring me back a basket of water.” The boy did as he was told, but all the water leaked out before he got back to the house. The grandfather laughed and said, “You’ll have to move a little faster next time,” and sent him back to the river with the basket to try again. This time the boy ran faster, but again the basket was empty before he returned home. Out of breath, he told his grandfather that it was impossible to carry water in a basket, and he went to get a bucket instead. The old man said, “I don’t want a bucket of water; I want a basket of water. You’re just not trying hard enough,” and he went out the door to watch the boy try again. At this point, the boy knew it was impossible, but he wanted to show his grandfather that even if he ran as fast as he could, the water would leak out before he got back to the house. The boy again dipped the basket into the river and ran hard, but when he reached his grandfather the basket was again empty. Out of breath, he said, “See Grandpa, it’s useless!” “So you think it is useless?” the old man said, “Look at the basket.” The boy looked at the basket and for the first time realized that the basket was different. It had been transformed from a dirty old coal basket and was now clean, inside and out. “Son, that’s what happens when you read the Bhagavad-gita. You might not understand or remember everything, but when you read it, you will be changed, inside and out. That is the work of Lord Krishna in our lives.”