05.09.2016 ►JAINA ►Special Newsletter - Paryushan Day 7

There is no separate existence of God. Everybody can attain God-hood by making supreme efforts in the right direction.

- Bhagwan Mahavir

A farmer planted two seeds in the same soil. One seed of the sugar cane where as the other seed of the neem tree. Both the seeds are receiving water, sunshine and the same nourishments. Two tiny plants emerge from both the seeds and start growing up to become a tree. Now what happens to the neem tree? It develops bitterness in every fiber of it. On the other side the sugar cane tree is full of sweetness. The farmer goes in front of the neem tree and worships it, offers flowers, incense, candles, fruits and sweets and prays the Neem God to give a sweet mango. Poor Neem God is helpless as he is unable to produce a mango because he doesn’t have the power to do so. Now one must be thinking that why God is so partial, one tree is full of sweetness where as the other filled with bitterness. We need to understand that God just develops the seed; he has nothing to do with the characteristics of the seed.

Our difficulty, our ignorance is that we remain unheedful while planting seeds. We keep planting seeds of neem, but when the time comes for fruit we are suddenly alert and want a sweet fruit. The same fashion our deeds are the seeds that we sow and the tree is the fruit that we get. It should be understood that what we do should be good and wise in order to get good results. Good deeds not only means helping someone or giving donations etc. it includes acts like controlling of anger, forgiving others, staying in peace, following Ahimsa, living with minimum requirements and living in harmony. If our deeds are right and good, our life will become better. We will get the strength to endure our problems and our problems will become easier to solve. When we see any problem ahead, we blame others and that is where we go completely wrong. It is our past that has created the problem. The mistakes and the wrong deed that we have done in the past are responsible for that. Hence we are responsible for our own problems not others.