Wednesday 14 October 2009

Distance between the truth and lie

Sloka for the day:
Gnyaana Shakti Samaaroodah
Tatwa Maalaa Vibhooshitaha
Bhukti Mukti Pradaaneyna
Tasmai sri Gurave Namaha.
The one who is an ocean of knowledge, who is always in Yoga (in unison With God) who is adorned by the knowledge of the God principle, the One Who can liberate us from this mundane existence, I salute such a Guru.
Story:
Most of the people in Akbar's court envied birbal. They envied for the increasing popularity and recognition gained by him in the kingdom of Akbar.They decided to find a way to send birbal out of the court. So, they spread false stories to defame birbal. Akbar came to know about them. In the beginning, Akbar did not believe any of those stories. But, slowly he was also lead to think whether the stories could be true.One day, there was a heated discussion on the court. The subject was Truth and lie. Brilliant ministers and poets were discussing about the significance of truth and evils of lies.Akbar was silently observing all the discussions. Suddenly he asked, "How far is the truth away from the lie?"Nobody could understand and answer the question. They preferred to keep quiet.Then, the emperor turned to Birbal and asked him, "Birbal . Do you know the answer it?""Oh king! The truth is only four fingers distance away from the lie" replied Birbal.Everyone was puzzled. They started thinking. "Truth and lie are abstracts. When they don't have physical dimensions, how one can find the distance between a truth and a lie?" They thought that Birbal has got his tongue slipped this time. They were happy that now Birbal would find himself in a wrong spot."How is that Birbal? Explain me in detail" ordered Akbar." king, what we hear through our ears is alse. whereas, what we see through our eyes is always true. now you can measure the distance between your ears that takes a lie and the eyes which confirm the truth. Is it not a distance of our four fingers? So, the distance between the ear and an eye is the distance between a truth and a lie" concluded Birbal.Akbar was overjoyed and forget what the others spoke about Birbal. From then on, he decided that one should come to the conclusion only ofter seeing with his own eyes.