An Appeal

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One night Lord Buddha was giving a discourse in front of a small audience. A person in the front row was dozing. Buddha called out to him, "Dear one, are you sleeping?" "No, no, O Lord!" the man woke up in a flurry and exclaimed. Buddha started his speech again and soon enough the man began to doze off again. Lord Buddha called out to him three to four times and each time the man would wake up, say "No, Lord!" and doze off again.

Finally, Buddha woke him up again and asked, "Dear one, are you living?", and the man as usual replied again, "No, Lord!" A wave of laughter broke out in the audience. Lord Buddha smiled too and said, "What you said in your sleepy state is quite true. One who sleeps when he should be awake is as good as dead."

Faith Is The Key

In a village lived a thief. One night he was moving around the village with an intent to steal. In a house he saw a pundit narrating to people the beautiful features of a person and all the ornaments that adorn his body. The thief overheard all this and decided to loot this rich man. He planned to threaten the pundit to find out where this rich person lived. What the thief did not know was that the person the pundit was referring to was Lord Krishna. He hid in a dark corner and waited.

After finishing ceremony the pundit walked out of the house. The thief leaped out of the corner and caught him. He drew out a large dagger and threatened the pundit to handover whatever he had earned, or tell the place where the rich man he was talking about lived. The pundit was at his wits end. To save himself he lied, "That person plays flute and comes to the banks of river Yamuna regularly to graze his cows."

The thief let the pundit go and went to the river bank in search of the rich man. He searched all over, at every place near the river bank for 5-6 days, but could not find him. He finally gave up, all tired and hungry and sat down under a tree. After a while he saw Lord Krishna coming with his friends and a herd of cows. Krishna looked exactly as the pundit had described and the thief recognized the man he was so earnestly searching for. With a big stick in his hand he leaped forward and confronted Lord Krishna. Krishna smiled and asked him, "Who are you and what do you want?" He replied, "I am a thief and I like your ornaments. Take them off and hand them over to me." Krishna showed him a way to a big treasure. The thief followed the directions. He found a treasure and happily picked up all that he could collect in his bag.

When he returned home, he went to the pundit's residence. He thanked the pundit for directing him to the rich man and gave him a big present. The pundit was amused. He asked the thief to take him along the next day saying that he wanted to meet the rich man too.

Next day the thief went back to the river bank followed by the pundit who hid behind a bush. After sometime Lord Krishna came and the thief thanked Him for his kindness. The pundit on the other hand could not see Krishna. The thief asked Krishna, "O Lord, why is it that I can see you but the pundit cannot?" Krishna replied, "I am no ordinary being, I am Krishna. The pundit cannot see me because the amount of faith you have in me, the pundit has not."

Like the thief if we can develop strong faith in the sayings and teachings of revered saints and great men, we can also attain success. Every deed carried out with complete devotion definitely bears good results.