BUSINESS MIND -STORY
In the Narada Purana there is a nice story of a business man who had two sons.
These two sons felt that their father has spent his whole life in Business and now he should be sent on some Pilgrimage with a Sadhu with enough money.
The sons told the Sadhu ” Do not bring the father back until his heart is converted. Let him pass his time in Pilgrimage and let him leave the body there “.
So he was taken to various holy places by the Sadhu.
The Sadhu eventually became frustrated because this business man’s heart was not changing.
He remained as hard hearted as he was and always talking about business and money – where ever he went.
Finally, the Sadhu was about to give up. He informed his sons “Your father is hardcore businessman he is too difficult to change”.
The sons said: “No! No!.. You should not give it up. You should still try.”
So as a last resort, He took him to the holy city of Varanasi.
They were passing thru’ one of the burning ghats (a crematorium).
As soon as the Business man entered the Crematorium and saw so many dead bodies burning on the logs of wood he started crying.
Tears filled up his eyes and started pouring down his cheeks.
The Sadhu was happy to see the old man’s detachment at the last.
He turned to the old man and placed his hand on his shoulders and said “What do you feel now? How do you feel about life now?”
The businessman said “I really feel bad. I feel terrible, I have wasted my life.”
The Sadhu further enquired “Really ?” why do you feel terrible? Tell me.”
The businessman replied “I was a cloth merchant throughout my life. If I knew that there is so much demand for wood, I would have done business in wood. How I wasted my whole life. I’m feeling bad about it now”.
Sadhu then gave up on this man.
Moral:
From this, we understand that simply by passage of time desires will not evaporate automatically. One must make sincere efforts. If we don’t make efforts now over a period of time our desires will become impossible to control.