Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us today.....

Once there was a farmer who was living in a small town and in this town there was a big drought; there was no rain. The farmer decided to make a canal from the river to his field, so that he could water his field, and the cows could have water to drink. He said to himself “I will make this canal and I will not take any rest or eat any food or drink anything until I have finished it” During the day his daughter came with food saying “Father, come and eat; it´s already lunchtime”, but he said to the daughter “No, go away. I have to finish this canal first; then I will eat.” The daughter went back home and told this to the mother. So the mother went to see him and told him “My dear Lord, you have been working the whole day, surely you can take 5 minutes rest and have your lunch.” Again, the man said “No!”, but the wife kept insisting. Finally he left the digging of the canal and started to run after his wife, shouting to her “Leave me alone! I told you: until I have finished the canal, I will not leave this place. Go away!” The wife saw that the husband was, really, very angry and that there was no point in changing his mind. So she stayed quiet and went home. The man carried on digging. Late in the evening he finished the canal and, as he finished it, the water from the river started to flow towards his field. Then he sat down with appreciation, hearing the beautiful sound of the water, looking at the water flowing to his field and he felt great satisfaction. Then he went home and called his wife “Come here and give me tobacco. I will smoke now.” Very happily, he smoked his tobacco then he took a shower, had his lunch and slept very peacefully. His neighbour also tried to build a canal from the river, but when his wife came and called him “My Lord, come and have your lunch.” He, also, said first “No”, but when the wife insisted, saying “Come, my dearest Lord, five minutes will not cost you anything”, he left his work, saying “As you have said it so sweetly, I’ll come!” So he went and sat and had his lunch and after the lunch, he would of course, have a small siesta. He had his siesta, but at the end of the evening he hadn’t done anything else than eating and sleeping. So he never succeeded in making the canal to his field. What lies behind this story is that one has to completely surrender to one´s path and, whatever obstructions or obstacles come on the way, one has to always say “No” to them. Your aim is to have God- Realisation, Self-Realisation. Until you have reached your aim, until you have come to the point of complete trust and faith in yourself and in God, keep trying! Don’t let anything come in the way!

"We say we have only one God, but we adore Him in His many forms until we reach a point to see this Oneness everywhere."