Sri Swami Vishwananda tells us a beautiful Story today.....

Often people say “Swamiji I am on the spiritual path but I am working on this and that, I am so busy. I can’t be there!”

Well, God has put you there so you have to do your duty there and if He chooses to come to you in that way, He will come to you. He will awaken the cosmic Love inside of you wherever you are the moment you start to accept. Have acceptance of yourself and then control this pride because this pride will always stop somebody. I will tell you a story. You know Ganesha? No? Yes? How many of you know? Ganesha is the elephant God, the God of wisdom and remover of obstacles on one’s way. As He has an elephant head, of course you know there is always judgement around Him. So one day Kuber, the Lord of wealth; you know in Hinduism there are three hundred million deities, each deity is responsible for one thing. They are not outside though; each deity is present within oneself. Even science says there are around three hundred billion cells in the body, so the deities are present inside. One day Kuber, who is the accountant of Goddess Lakshmi, came to visit Shiva and pay his respects to Him. Despite having all the wealth with him, He only brought 2 bananas for Shiva. Seeing that, Ganesha said “Well you are the Lord of wealth but you are very stingy. You only brought two bananas!” Of course this offended Kuber very much. He said to Shiva “I came to invite you. Tomorrow I am making a great feast. Could you please come?” Of course Shiva knew what was in his mind. Because he felt offended inside, He wanted to prove Himself to be the best by making a big feast so that everybody would be talking about it. So the next day Shiva with the whole family came to Kuber. Kuber of course didn’t do it out of real Love, but instead he did it out of pride. What did Ganesha do? Ganesha stepped into the mud and walked with his feet on the beautiful carpet. Of course Kuber was not happy; he looked at Ganesha in a very weird way pushing him aside. What was the next thing Ganesha did? He went to the kitchen and saw all the beautiful dishes that had been cooked, a massive amount that had been prepared, and He said “I am a guest here and I am hungry right now. Please, before the great feast starts, let me eat something.” Everybody brought the food that they had cooked and He started eating one after the other. After some time, after all the cooked food was finished, He said “Well I am still hungry!” So they got Him all the fruits and uncooked vegetables, gave them to Him and He ate everything that was there to be eaten. Looking for more things to eat, Ganesha asked the cooks to bring all the dishes and utensils from the kitchen and He ate them all. After all that, the cook ran to Kuber and said “Your invited guest has eaten everything and there is nothing left to offer!” Then Ganesha said “Well you invite us but all what you had here fills only half of my stomach! What about the other half?” Kuber said “Bring more things!” but there was nothing to bring as everything what was there had been eaten. In that moment the pride of Kuber was shattered and He realised His mistake. He had invited Shiva not out of Love or joy, but out of pride. Whenever there is pride, the Great Teacher knows how to break it. Then he realised his mistake and asked for forgiveness, and he changed deep inside of himself. Seeing that, Ganesha said “Kuber, it’s not the greatest feast that will fill my stomach. Just one banana itself, given with Love, will fill me up.” But Love has to be from the heart. You see when we are first in love, when you meet somebody you are very much in love and this is a trace of the real Love. You forget about yourself and you are always thinking about that love in whatever you do, wherever you are. Constantly in the mind, that person is wondering what the other person is doing and where that person is. You will do everything to have that connection with the person. That is the trace of pure Love inside man. However when it becomes routine, you forget about that Love. That’s why it’s important to open the windows of the mind and let some fresh air in. In a house with all the windows closed, you get stuffy, no? The thing is, when there are too many old thoughts in the mind, particularly narrow minded ones, after some time, it starts to get stuffy. This is why sometimes you say you can’t breathe anymore and so what you must do is open up. Open your mind, let it have fresh air inside and you will see that the Love that you felt has never gone away. This Love is always there inside you, inside your heart. It’s just that the mind, with all the business of the world, forgets about it. It is very easy to love.