StairWay to Heaven

It’s story time J

Once it happened in Tibet, a new temple was built in a village so they needed a Master to take charge of this temple and guide the people of this village. The people of village sent message to main Master and requested Him to send one of His disciples for the newly built temple.

The Master selected ten of his highly learned disciples and sent them off to the new temple. All the other people who were watching the proceeding got confused as to why the Master had sent ten people when only one was required. They inquisitively inquired to the Master. Master just smiled and said nothing.

All the ten disciples set off to the temple, which was around nine villages far off. After few weeks news came back to the Master that the one disciple that He had sent has reached the village and they were very grateful and happy. This news again shocked the people as ten were sent how come only one reached, what happened to the others?

All the people went back to the Master and requested Him to solve this puzzle. The Master looking at their confusion smilingly revealed the flow of events...

As the ten disciples reached the first village, they were welcomed by a business man. Business man requested the first disciple to marry his daughter; he said an astrologer had suggested him to marry his daughter off to the first person entering this village in the morning. The business man was richest in the village, had only one daughter who was very beautiful, the first disciple could not ignore the offer and accepted it; as he thought if he rejects this offer some one from the other nine disciples would definitely accept the offer. Also this gave him opportunity to enjoy all the pleasures of life. So he requested the other nine disciples to move forward with their journey and confirmed he would stay back and got married.

As the remaining nine disciples reached another village, King of the village welcomed them and asked one of the disciples to become his minister. King's 'pandit' had died recently and he was looking for someone to replace him. The second disciple immediately agreed as the offer was lucrative; the position was good and respectable. He asked the other eight disciples to continue with their journey and he stayed back in the palace.

So one by one they kept dropping off, some got caught up in money, some in position, some in small little pleasures and so on...in the end only two of them remained.

Finally when the two were close to the village they had been traveling for, they had to wait in nearby village for the night. While giving sermons in the nearby village one of the person from the crowd stood up and argued with them about the philosophy they were teaching. This led to a heated debate and one of the disciples said to the other...please you go ahead, I will not be coming; I need to wait back and make this person realize that what I am speaking is correct.

So finally one disciple reached the temple!

Hence it is said 'Jab Dus Nikalte Hain, Tab Koi Ek Paunchta Hai' (When ten start on the path only one reaches). In the book The Way of Grace [http://www.srisri.com/home.htm] somewhere Guruji has mentioned the stair way to heaven is very slippery, that sums up the above story, good luck to you and me also :)