Lame Advise!

An old man was walking along with his grandson and a donkey towards a neighboring village to do some shopping. A friend happened to see them on the way and suggested, “Sir, why should you make the boy walk? Why not you make him sit on the donkey’s back?” The old man promptly made the boy sit on the donkey’s back.

After traversing some distance, another person they crossed, suggested, “Sir, you are old. This boy can afford to walk. It will be difficult if something happens to you. So you better sit on the donkey and make the boy walk!” At once, the old man asked the boy to get down, and himself sat on it.

After a while, they came across some one who commented, “It is cruel on your part to make this young boy walk!” Where upon, the old man made the boy to ride on the donkey, along with him. The combined weight of two persons made the donkey’s legs tremble.

Another passerby noticed the plight of the donkey and said, ‘How do you expect the donkey to carry the weight of two persons! You are breaking its back. Redeem yourselves by doing some good to the donkey’. So both of them tied the donkey’s legs to a rope, slipped a staff into them, carried it on their shoulders, and were passing over a bridge, when the donkey got frightened, wriggled out and fell into the canal.

This is the result of following other’s advises blindly without applying your own discrimination and judgement. In the same way, a spiritual aspirant will obtain bad results in case he keeps on changing gurus or Gods everyday.

A vision of wisdom is needed to realize divinity that is present within oneself as pervading all over. Self enquiry is very important in this direction. The following are the stepping stones for self-realisation:
Self-confidence
Self-satisfaction
Self-sacrifice
Self-realisation
“Instead of searching for ten defects in others, it is better to find one fault with in yourself.”