The king and ministers with three bags of karma!!!!!

Krishna story - every day

Funny story: The king and ministers with three bags of karma!!!!!

Once a king ordered his three ministers to take a bag and go to the forest and fill up the bag with fruits.

The first minister thought that since the king has ordered for collection of fruits, he must collect the best of the fruits in the bag.

The second minister thought that since the king is a very busy person, he may not look very thoroughly into the bag what has been collected and hence he collected whatever he could lay his hands. Thus his bag was filled up with a mixture of good and rotten fruits.

The third minister thought that the king would see only externally how big the bag is and hence he just filled up the bag with all dried leaves and dust.

All the three ministers came back to the court with their respective bags, having executed the order of collecting the fruits.

The King, without even seeing what their bags contained, just ordered that now the three ministers must be sent to separate jails for three months, where they will not be provided with any food and they were only allowed to carry the respective bags wherein they had collected the fruits.

The first minister could spend the three months in the jail by eating the very nice fruits he had collected.

The second one could survive for some time with the good fruits in the bag and later he developed diseases by eating the rotten fruits he had collected.

The Third minister had nothing to eat and hence could not survive.

Moral of the story:

From the above story we understand that we have to undergo the consequences of our own activities.

"You will be suffering your own reactions after your karmas, any single karma you perform, you have to suffer for it. Good and bad, everything, you have to have this reaction. No doubt about it.

In Mahabharata, Anushasana Parva, it is said

yathaa dhenu sahasreshu / vatso gachhati maataram
yat ca krtam karma / kartaaram api gachhati

"Amongst thousands of cows, the calf finds its own mother cow. Similarly the results of our past karma (deeds) when fully ripened, will find us without fail."

This is Vedic instruction.

If you go to the cow protection center, we see in India, there may be hundreds and thousands of cows there. They bring the calf there and the calf will find out its mother out of the crowd. It has the potency.

So, yac ca krtam karma, whatever karma you do, sinful particularly, it will definitely catch you wherever you are.

You may be born in this planet or you may be a dog in another planet, but it will come to you definitely.

Karmas can never be leaving you alone till you suffer for it or enjoy for it.

So in between, while suffering, we should always devote your time to serve Krishna.

And then if we do that, jiveta, if you lead your life like this, we are waiting for mercy from the Lord, you are suffering in between, but we are completely devoted to Krishna's service, then we are the heir-apparent (daaya-bhaak) to go back home without much endeavour. The whole life is dedicated to Krishna.

This is how we should do. And as soon as we follow these formulas, we can never go wrong."

Mahatma Vidura explains how one should perform activities in this world in the following sloka in Mahabharata Udyoga Parva.

divasenaiva tat kuryaad yena raatrau sukham vaset
ashta maasena tat kuryaad yena varshaah sukham vaset
purve vayasi tat kuryaad yena vriddhasukham vaset
yaavat jivena tat kuryaad yena pretya sukham vaset

Do those activities during the day, which will make you to pass the night in happiness;

Do those activities during eight months of the year, which will enable you to pass the rainy season happily.

Do those activities during youth which will ensure a happy old age;

Do those activities during your life in this world, which will enable you to achieve eternal life after death."

Let us purify our existence by taking up the Krishna conscious way of life and ultimately go back home, back to Godhead.

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare.