Thoppukarnam

 

Once upon a time the little playful Shri Ganesha was charmed by the Sudarshan Chakra (the beautiful spinning disc-the most powerful and favorite weapon Shri Vishnu is armed with on His right Vishuddhi finger) of Shri Vishnu.

At one moment of time playfully Shri Ganesha grabbed the Sudarshan Chakra from Shri Vishnu’s finger and hid it in his mouth. In spite of repeated requests and appeals of Shri Vishnu to return the same to him Shri Ganesha never relented to his pleas. The more He requested to return the disc, Shri Ganesha would become more playful with His eternal childhood qualities and run away from Him. Embarrassed Shri Vishnu tried all tricks to please Shri Ganesha but all were in vain.

At last an idea struck Shri Vishnu

Shri Ganesha-an image to color 4

 You can download the image in a bigger size by clicking on it.

A Story from Gandhiji’s Life-3

 

Gandhi and his wife Kasturba, 1902

Soon after Gandhiji’s return from South Africa, a meeting of the Congress was held in Bombay. Kaka Saheb Kalelkar went there to help.

One day Kaka Saheb found Gandhiji anxiously searching around his desk. “What’s the matter? What are you looking for?” Kaka Saheb asked. “I’ve lost my pencil,” Gandhiji answered. “It was only so big.”

Kaka Saheb was upset to see Gandhiji wasting time and worrying about a little pencil. He took out his pencil and offered it to him. “No, no, I want my own little pencil,” Gandhiji insisted like a stubborn child.

“Well, use it for the time being,” said Kaka Saheb. “I’ll find your pencil later. Don’t waste time looking for it now.”

“You don’t understand. That little pencil is very precious to me,” Gandhiji insisted. “Natesan’s little son gave it to me in Madras. He gave it with so much love and affection. I cannot bear to lose it.”

Kaka Saheb didn’t argue any more. He joined Gandhiji in the search.

Mercury and the Woodman

A poor woodman was working in the forest on the bank of a river and quite by chance dropped his axe into the river. The man was very sorry to lose his axe and he sat on the bank and lamented his loss.

Mercury*, the god, heard his voice and appeared before him.

“Why do you lament, my good man?” asked the god/

“I am a poor man”, said the woodman, “and now I cannot work, as I have lost my axe”.

Mercury dived into the water and then appeared with a golden axe in his hand.

“Is it your axe?” he asked.

“No, it is not”, said the man.

Mercury dived a second time and appeared again with a silver axe.

“Take this axe,” said the god.

“It is not my axe,” said the poor man again.

The Mercury dived a third time and appeared with the axe which belonged to the woodman.

The poor man was very glad to get his axe back and thanked Mercury heartily.

Mercury was so pleased with the man’s honesty that he gave him the golden axe as a reward for it.

The woodman went to the village and told his neighbours about Mercury and the axes.

One of them was a very greedy and selfish man and he went to the bank of the river and dropped his axe into the water. Then he sat down upon the bank and lamented his loss.

A Story from Gandiji’s Life-2

This incident occurred when Gandhiji was practising law in the city of Johannesburg in South Africa. His office was three miles from his house. One day a colleague of his, Mr Polak, asked Gandhiji’s thirteen-year old son, Manilal to fetch a book from the office. But Manilal completely forgot till Mr Polak reminded him that evening.

Gandhiji heard about it and sent for Manilal. He said, “Son, I know the night is dark and the way is long and lonely. You will have to walk nearly six miles but you gave your word to Mr Polak. You promised to fetch his book. Go and fetch it now.”

Ba and the family were upset when they heard of Gandhiji’s decision. The punishment seemed far too severe. Manilal was only a child, the night was dark and the way lonely.

The Vain Crow

A crow who thought that she was very beautiful – though really she looked just like any other crow – sat on a branch of a tree. She had a piece of cheese in her beak which she had stolen from a farmer’s house.

At the foot of the tree there sat a fox who saw the piece of cheese in the crow’s beak and he wanted to get it.

The fox stood up and cried to the crow:

“I am very glad to see you, my friend. You look very beautiful today”.

The crow sat quietly and did not say anything, though she was very pleased.

“You are so beautiful that I think you must be our queen. Can you talk? I am sure that your voice is very beautiful, too”.

Shri Ganesha-3. An Image to color

 You can download this image by clicking on it.

Obstacles

In ancient times, a king had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it.

Many loudly blamed the king for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the big stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. On approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. As the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the king indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many others never understand.

Moral: Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve one’s condition.

Children’s Vision of the World

OPINIONS

On the first day of school, a first-grader handed his teacher a note from his mother. The note read, “The opinions expressed by this child are not necessarily those of his parents.

KETCHUP

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup out of the jar. During her struggle the phone rang so she asked her 4-year-old daughter to answer the phone. “Mommy can’t come to the phone to talk to you right now. She’s hitting the bottle.”

POLICE # 1

While taking a routine vandalism report at an elementary school, I was interrupted by a little girl about 6 years old. Looking up and down at my uniform, she asked, “Are you a cop?” “Yes,” I answered and continued writing the report. “My mother said if I ever needed help I should ask the police.
Is that right?” “Yes, that’s right,” I told her. “Well, then,” she said as she extended her foot toward me, “would you please tie my shoe?”

POLICE # 2

It was the end of the day when I parked my police van in front of the station. As I gathered my equipment, my K-9 partner, Jake, was barking, and I saw a little boy staring in at me.

Butterfly

 

photo by Anastasia

A man found a cocoon of a butterfly. One day a small opening appeared. He sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could, and it could go no further.

So the man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time.

Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man, in his kindness and haste, did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our lives. If God allowed us to go through our lives without any obstacles, it would cripple us.

We would not be as strong as what we could have been. We could never fly!