Marmik Kathayen (Stories that touch our hearts):

                                               Virtuous Sacrifice

This is an old story, of the time when Huen Tsang had come to India. After his long stay  when he was returning back to China, some students of Nalanda University joined him in a boat across Indus river to see him off. They discussed various topics and heard Huen's reminiscences as the boat sped towards the other bank of river.

Suddenly the weather turned bad. A storm appeared and strong winds began to rock the boat. The boatmen tried their best to take control of the boat but the winds were just too strong for them.

The boat was quite heavy too. Huen had roamed all over the country and collected more than 150 beautiful statues of Lord Buddha and 657 big and small rare scriptures. Many of these scriptures were copies that he himself had handwritten over several days.

The winds grew stronger and stronger. The boatmen began to get worried and began to fear that the boat would capsize. The only way to keep the boat afloat was to reduce the weight of the boat. They looked at the statues and books, and said, "We need to offload these to keep the boat from capsizing and to save our lives." 

As they picked up the first bundle to throw off the boat, Huen Tsang began to pray to Lord Buddha, "Oh God, I have no fear of death but I am very, very worried about all this priceless treasure I have collected so painstakingly over so many years. Oh God, do not let this treasure get lost in this manner."

He then rose and calmly asked boatmen to put the bundle down. He said, "You want to reduce the weight of the boat? Let me jump out of the boat. I do not value my life as much as I value this priceless treasure."

This conversation opened the eyes of the students of Nalanda. They realized that all the tremendous effort of the aged Chinese gentleman is getting wasted. If such a learned guest of India would have to sacrifice his life, it would be a blot on Indian culture and Indian hospitality that describes 'a guest as a deity'. They looked at each other and quickly came to a decision. A bright young boy stood up and said, "Dear Sir, we cannot bear to see the loss of this heritage of our country which you have collected so painstakingly. We won't let all this drown just because their is excess weight on the boat." Saying so he jumped off the boat. One by one each student jumped off the boat and got lost in the unfathomable depths of Indus river.

The boatmen were dumbfounded. Tears of gratitude and pain rolled down the cheeks of Huen Tsang seeing this virtuous sacrifice of young lives. This is the hallmark of our divine culture, which had prevailed over the entire world once.

Upakhyan (Anecdote):

Alexander got afflicted with an apparently incurable disease. As all the renowned physicians of Alexander were aware of his approaching death they did not take the risk of treating him, for they were afraid of ill-fame.

During this state of confusion a sincere and devoted servant of Alexander named Philip prepared a medicine and assured him of healing. The jealous people complained, in a letter to Alexander, that the king of Faras had plotted a conspiracy to poison Alexander through Philip, promising him a huge sum as reward.

Alexander kept the letter under his pillow and continued taking Philip's treatment. In the course of time he got totally cured of the malady. When this concocted story about the so-called plot to poison him to death was conveyed to him he said that man could not live by losing faith in basic goodness of the human soul.

SADVICHAR (Thought of the week):

Do not do good with a business like motive. It gives satisfaction only if done as a duty. Good done with the hope of getting good in return can give disappointment and vexation.

SAMPARK (Contacts):
Yug Shakti Gayatri Kendra

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