I am fighting my body and health and trying to live a happy life.
In last update post I introduced my idea of dreams.
All my life, I have always thought about others and what I should do to benefit them, even selecting a major like psychology, was about how I can serve people to make them happy.
Few experiences-
1. I went to madir and I was sitting there upset and my health, and it was at a odd time, so the pandit was just mingling around. At this sunnyvale mandir, it's a big hall with different gods in different areas. I usually sit my Hanuman and recite Hanuman Chalisa- I was just sitting there, upset, red eyes, in pain and just looking weak. This pandit comes to talk to me, and I tell him what is going on with my health a few relationship issues, and he tells me, "This is for your own good, god has seen you neglecting yourself over others and so the only way he can teach you to forget about everyone and focus on yourself and take care of yourself if to put you in this position where you have no choice, but to take care of yourself, otherwise you will loose your life." Basically, this is a lesson for me to stop worrying about others and take care of myself.
I am learning slowly.
2. After this, one day I am reading a book by my favorite author, Paulo Cohelo, Warrior of Light and I come across a wonderful story about blessings and misfortune.
The lost horse
Many years ago in a poor Chinese village, there lived a peasant with his
son. His only material possession, apart from some land and a small
straw hut, was a horse he had inherited from his father.
One day, the horse ran off, leaving the man with no animal with which
to till the land. His neighbors - who respected him greatly for his honesty
and diligence - came to his house to say how much they regretted what
had happened. He thanked them for their visit, but asked:
- How can you know that what has happened has been a misfortune in
my life?
Someone mumbled to a friend: “he can’t accept reality; let him think
what he wants, as long as he isn’t saddened by what happened.”
And the neighbors went off, pretending to agree with what they had
heard.
A week later, the horse returned to the stable, but it was not alone; it
brought with it a fine mare for company. Upon hearing this, the villagers
- who were flustered since they now understood the answer the man had
given them - returned to the peasant’s house, in order to congratulate
him on his good fortune.
- Before you had only one horse, and now you have two. Congratulations!
- they said.
- Many thanks for your visit and for all your concern - answered the
peasant. - But how can you know that what has happened has been a
blessing in my life?
Disconcerted, and thinking he must be going mad, the neighbors went
off, and on the way commented: “does he really not understand that
God has sent him a gift?”
A month later, the peasant’s son decided to tame the mare. But the animal
unexpectedly reared up and the boy fell and broke his leg.
The neighbors returned to the peasant’s house - bringing gifts for the
wounded boy. The mayor of the village offered his condolences to the
father, saying that all were very sad at what had happened.
The man thanked them for their visit and their concern, but asked:
- How can you know that what has happened has been a misfortune in
my life?
They were all astonished to hear this, since no one could be in any
doubt that the accident of a son was a real tragedy. As they left the peasant’s
house, some said to others: “he really has gone mad; his only son
might limp forever, and he is still in doubt about whether what
happened is a misfortune.”
Some months passed, and Japan declared war on China. The Emperor’s
envoys traveled throughout the land in search for healthy young
men to be sent to the battle front. Upon arrival in the village, they recruited
all the young men except the peasant’s son, whose leg was
broken.
None of the young men returned alive. The son recovered, the two animals
bred and their offspring were sold at a good price. The peasant
began visiting his neighbors to console and help them, - since they had at
all times been so caring. Whenever one of them complained, the peasant
said: “how do you know it is a misfortune?” If anyone becomes overjoyed,
he asked: “how do you know it is a blessing?” And the men in
that village understood that beyond appearances, life has other
meanings.
Moral lesson: No matter what happens, I should always ask myself, How can you know that what has happened has been a misfortune or a blessing in my life?
3. Today, after being home all day and studying all day I decided to go to starbucks and drink something cold to make my stomach feel better, get out and just relax a little bit. I always have my favorite book on my: Chicken Soup for Unsinkable Soul. I just randomly open stories to read them when I get few minutes. I open up a page with a poem on it and I read:
You Can Beat the Odds and Be a Winner, Too
Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington.
Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln.
Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have a Disraeli.
Label him, "too stupid to learn" and you have a Thomas Edison.
Tell her she's too old to start painting at eighty, and you have a Grandma Moses.
Have him or her born black in society filled with racial discrimination, and you have Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson, George Washington Carver or Martin Luther King Jr.
Make him the first child to survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen children, and you have a Enrico Caruso.
Afflict him with period of depression so severe that he cut off his ow ear, and you have a Vincent van Gogh.
Tell her in the late 1800s and early 1900s that only men can be scientists, and you have a Madame Curie, who eventually won two Nobel Prizes- one for physics and another for chemistry.
Tell a young boy who loved to sketch and draw that he has no talent, and you have Walt Disney.
Take a cripple child whose only home he ever knew was an orphanage, and you have James E. West, who became the first chief executive of the Boy Scouts of America.
Make him a second fiddle in an obscure South American Orchestra and you have a Toscanini
- Abigail Van Buren
I was so inspired reading this poem and it's under the Courage and Determination section!
I have been rejuvenated for the week, now I can be stronger, work harder and be happy...
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