I often told you, helping others is helping yourself. It’s a pity that not many people in the world know this. […] Because only by being charitable and loving can one rescue oneself from misery in the later life to come. If one has not met a Master, to be liberated in one lifetime, one must be reborn again. And it is better to be reborn in a plentiful environment with not so much suffering – like lacking of comfort like: food, clothing, house, shelter, and every other necessity of life. […]
Kanjani is the old woman’s name. “It was the time when she was washing a handful of black gram, soaked in water for cooking her food. Now Bhushundi decided to snatch away a beak full of it.” […] And suddenly in one leap, he flew near the vessel and took a beak full, a mouthful of grain with lightning speed. Chomp! But the alert, old woman grabbed him with a greater speed still,” grabbed him by the neck like this. “She wrung his neck.” Ugh yuck! “And kept it twisted, so that the grain did not slip down to his stomach.” (Oh, wow.) Yuck! […] “Meanwhile, with her other hand, she parted the beak,” the beak of the bird, “and squeezed out, (Took out.) took out the grain to the last grain from the throat of the struggling crow.” (Aww.) Aww. […] Really, she deserves an award from us: “The most miserly woman in the world in history”! I don’t know if there was such a story. There must be, huh? I don’t know. Could be, huh? (Yes.) Some people are so thoughtless, arrogant and stingy, stupid, cruel, cold-blooded.
“Kakabhushundi Ananda Maharajah struggled for his life. At last, he was let free after she thought all the grain had been poked out by her. He flew to Lord Vishnu and fell at his feet, half-dead. Lord Vishnu questioned him as to what had happened after he left him. Bhushundi...” Oh, never mind, call him Bhushundi, spare his last long name. “…gasped out the whole story pantingly and said, ‘Oh Lord, oh my God! God Almighty, Jesus Christ! I was almost strangled to death. I could not succeed in my mission. I’m very sorry. But I could not get even a grain of food from that wretched old woman.’ Then Lord Vishnu said, ‘Oh, Bhushundi, do not say so. Come! Let me examine your mouth. Open your mouth. Let me have a look.’ So Bhushundi opened his beak like this. And Lord Vishnu used his wisdom magnifying glass – wisdom eye with the magnifying glass – looked into his throat, and found, ‘Ah! There is something there! What is it?’”
Let me see what it is. I don’t even know yet. Let’s see what it is. Must be something because this is a story, you know, like movies. So must be something, otherwise it could not continue. There must be something. Where is it? Where is it now? OK. “He saw a little bit of husk.” The husk, yeah? Maybe the outer, huh? The outer skin, shell of the grain of the rice, or whatever that was, “sticking to his palate.” Woo, thanks God! At least he has not wasted his time and struggled for nothing. “‘Look! Bhushundi! There’s a small bit of husk sticking to your palate. I’m satisfied,’ Lord Vishnu said.” Oh! The Lord (Vishnu) is easy to satisfy. If we knew that, we wouldn’t have to meditate so long every day. Tell him we just put our bottom on the cushion, that would be fine. Better than nothing, since he’s so satisfied with even a piece of husk.
So now, “The old lady has earned some merit.” Oh! Blessed be Lord Vishnu – so compassionate and loving and merciful! OK, “Now he said, ‘Bhushundi! When she goes back to the world after her death, let her be fed on the husks of the particular grain which was found sticking to your palate.’” So the old woman will be eating that all her life long. It must be tasty! “And then the Lord (Vishnu) so saying, disappeared. Great and marvelous are the benefits of charity and righteousness,” even involuntarily. “Infinite and overwhelming is the love and compassion of Lord Vishnu. Such is the mysterious potency, of even the least act of kindness and charity.” Probably she didn’t want to take it out, because she knew it was useless. There was not much there, you know. OK, let him have the little husk.
“That the fruit of it will cling to you and save you in your life beyond. The Lord Vishnu himself, in his great Love creates opportunities for the redemption and deification of the sinning human. Man has to grasp such opportunities as veritably Godsent. When the old woman, who didn’t know meritorious acts, was ordained to get bread made of husk, what would be the result of your hundreds of meritorious acts of feeding the poor, clothing the naked, relieving the distress of others, and comforting the sorrowful?” Understand? (Yes.) Even if she had just left a little bit of husk sticking there, all her life she would be eating bread made out of it. So at least she had a lot of things. And if we give people a lot more things, how much would we have? That is the conclusion. That’s the meaning of it. OK. Never mind. We don’t have to say further. Everybody knows already.
I often told you, helping others is helping yourself. It’s a pity that not many people in the world know this. That’s why in the last few days, New Year’s Day, we made an award ceremony to remind the people of this country and of the world of the noble action of charity. Because only by being charitable and loving can one rescue oneself from misery in the later life to come. If one has not met a Master, to be liberated in one lifetime, one must be reborn again. And it is better to be reborn in a plentiful environment with not so much suffering – like lacking of comfort like: food, clothing, house, shelter, and every other necessity of life.
Therefore, I encourage other people to practice charity, not because I need them to help me to help others, but it is for themselves because they need it. Because they never know whether next life they’ll have enough merit to live such a comfortable life again, like they do in Taiwan (Formosa) now. So it’s better they continue to sow the good deeds. That is if they don’t see any Master. When one sees the Master, whether one does good deeds or no good deeds, one still practices meditation, and the merit is enough to liberate you. We don’t have to come back again, to enjoy a good or bad life. So, no problem! Capiche? That’s it. Enough? (No.) What do you mean “no”? When you say, “no,” you mean, “maybe,” right?
OK, let’s see what’s the next one. OK. Let’s move to another higher level. This is mental worship. We talked about charity, it’s very meritorious. But how about meditation? How about prayers? How about mental worshipping the Lord instead of doing charity? Or, together with charity. Mental worship means a devotee, a follower; doesn’t use any external objects such as flowers, incense, drums, gongs, or statues, or food offerings, etc. to worship.
Now, Arjuna, you remember Arjuna? The devotee of Lord Krishna – it is recounted in the Bhagavad Gita. You know, huh? OK. “Arjuna was very fond of doing long and ostentatious external worship of God. He had a spacious worship room, lit up with countless lights. He used gold and silver vessels. He spent several hours in ceremony and worshipped Lord Shiva. He would sit for many hours and throw cartloads of flowers,” you know, like our car, busloads “of flowers at the image of Lord Shiva.” You know Lord Shiva? (Yes.) Yeah? One of the Hindu gods: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Shiva’s supposed to be the Lord of Destruction. Actually, he destroys evil. He doesn’t destroy good people, OK? Destroyer doesn’t mean destroying good creation. It destroys only evil.
OK. Now. “There was a brother of Arjuna called Bhima. He never sat to do any worship. He never went to the temple.” He always goes to Miaoli. “He used to close his eyes for a few minutes just before dinner, just a few minutes before dinner, and do mental worship of Lord Shiva.” Perhaps just like the way you do – I know every time you get the stainless steel cup, you do like this. I don’t know what you are doing. And sometimes the person behind, when you do like this, the person behind takes some food. He stole some food from you, and you don’t even know. “He closed his eyes for a few minutes just before dinner and did mental worship of Lord Shiva.” Perhaps he makes offerings or recites the Five (Holy) Names, or something like that.
“Arjuna thought that he was a great devotee of the Lord (Shiva) and that he was highly pious and devoted. He thought that his brother Bhima had no devotion. Therefore, he looked down upon him with contempt. Lord Krishna found out the attitude of Arjuna and wanted to teach him a good lesson and bring him to his senses. He proposed to Arjuna to take a trip to Mount Kailash, the abode of Lord Shiva.” You know where Mount Kailash is? I also don’t know. I heard that it is in Tibet, or somewhere in the Himalayas. One of the holiest mountains. And the Indian people, as well as the Tibetan people, the Buddhist followers, and Hindu followers, often go to Mount Kailash as one of their pilgrimage centers. And the way there is very, very dangerous, and very difficult to follow through. There are no shops and things like that. You have to take your own food. Bring your own sleeping bag and tent. If you can survive the weather, then you can come back. Otherwise, good-bye. Sayonara.
“Arjuna did not suspect anything, so he gladly consented to the proposal of Sri Krishna. They both started on the journey.” What a good Master! If want to teach a disciple, must go with him, must endure the same hardships, so that Arjuna can learn a good, practical lesson by a living example. Such a good Master is He! If it were me, I’d say, “You go alone. I’ll stay here and pray for you. I will ask the inner Master to protect you.” Because in the old days, the Masters of any degree did not have so many disciples. I don’t think they could have many disciples because of the communication and transportation problems. Also, they tested the disciples long before they accepted, and things like that. Also, it was not easy to organize everything in such a big scale like today. Besides, even today, not any Master can have many disciples, right? (Yes.) Or anytime, for example, we make a lecture, many thousands of people come. Only a few hundred stay. And then after that, fewer left behind to continue the practice, right? Anything can tempt them to go away: (animal-people) meat, women, money, family influence, friends, society, anything! Old habits drag them back to their older habits.
