A well-known speaker started off his public speech in a strange manner – by holding up a Rupee 1000 Note! Holding up the Note high in the air in one of his hands, he addressed the curious audience, "Who would like this Rupee 1000 Note?"
With great cheers almost all of them raised their hands with the shout, "I want it", "I want it”!! He said, "Oh! That’s nice. Well, I am going to give this Note to one of you... But, first let me do this." Then, he crumpled the Note in his hands vigorously & now showed the awkwardly wrinkled 1000 Rupee Note by holding up high in his hand. He then asked, "Who still wants it?"
The same hands went up in the air this time too.
"Well", he replied, "What if I do this?" and he dropped it on the ground and started to grind it into the floor with his shoe like a mad man. It seemed he is deriving great merriment in his unusual act. He picked it up, now all crumpled and dirty. It was so smudgy that no one could recognize it now as a 1000 Rupee Note. "Now who still wants it?" Strangely, now also, all the hands were up in the air with equal cheers & spirit.
Now he addressed his audience with great feeling. "My friends," said he, "You have all learned a very valuable lesson today. No matter what I did to this valuable Rupee Note, all of you still wanted it because it did not decrease in value. It was still worth the same - Rs.1000/-
Many times in our lives, we are dropped, crumpled, and ground into the dirt of shame & insult by the decisions we make and the circumstances that come in our way. We feel as though we are worthless. But no matter what has happened or what will happen, you will never lose your value. In the eyes of God, you are the same "most precious jewel of His".
Srila Prabhupada's Quote
The spirit soul does not evolve like the body.
The body has got six transformations, namely, the body takes its birth,
it grows, it remains for some time, it produces some by-products and it dwindles and then it vanishes. All these six changes of the body are not applicable to the soul.
The soul is permanent. It has no development, no decrease,
no destruction, nothing of the sort as compared with the body.
The only difficulty of the soul is that in the conditioned state of material body,
the soul is supposed to forget its identity; by chanting Hare Krishna
gradually the soul revives its identity or it comes out from the forgetfulness.
This is not exactly development, but it is reviving one's consciousness.
Everything will be gradually clear as you go on chanting Hare Krishna.
Please try to chant at least 16 rounds of the beads and while chanting try to hear each and every word. That will make you advance in every respect.
- Letter to Ballabhi: New York, May 5, 1967
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