Continued From Part I .................................................................................

At that moment the man moved a little, a glow emanating from his face, a smile spreading along the breath of his cheeks, a truth glinting from his eyes and when he spoke in that spiritual voice there was only wisdom in his words. The words flowed

I am Jesus, I am Ram

I am Yeshu, I am Shyam

I am Allah, I am Brahma

I am Ganesh, I am Hanuman

I am Gurugobind, Mahaveer I am.

I am the dharma, I am the karma

I am the religion, the belief I am,

I am The karta, I am The harta,

I am the creator, the destroyer I am.

I am the Day, I am The night,

I am the wrong (Lies), I am the right (Truth),

I am The stars, I am the sky,

I am the world, the universe I am.

I am The body, I am the soul,

I am the one there is no two,

I am the allah, the Ram, The Jesus,

I am the God, The god I am.

In one of the corner of the street there was another man watching all this. His curiosity took over him and he came to the man and asked him

“If you are the creator himself, the divine spirituality why is that such evil (looking at those gang of people) keep happening around us”

The man smiled and answered :-

“You human being are my most valued creation and it can be said that you all are nothing but a part of me. Hence I Live in every human being, I am a silent part of you all.

You feel me always but do not understand me or realize me. When human beings are stressed, when they are alone, when they are in trouble, when they are in pain all human beings talk to themselves, their inner selves, their inner conscious which is nothing but me, the god. Don’t you realize that most of the times when you talk to your inner selves the answers or the solution you get are the one you are seeking for.

Yes they are the best answers and the best solutions because that’s given by your soul, yes the soul which is nothing but me the God.

One of the reason for your living is finding you inner conscious, you inner voice, its finding your soul and the way to free it from all encumbrances. For you to achieve this, I had to give you one thing and that’s “ Free Will”. This is the one thing that I had to give you without any of my controls and powers to change it.

Without Free will your existence in this world would have been meaningless and my objective of creating you would have been lost.

See I have kept the will so free that there are people who love me and there are people who hate me, there are people who believe in me and there are people who do not. The choice to love and hate me is yours and that’s free, free from all divine powers.

Therefore I had to give you the power to choose what’s right and what’s wrong. But son again to me there is nothing wrong in this world because I am the divine creator how could I err in doing something. Its only your free will which shall decide whether you are right or wrong. I see this as, that there are some people who take the right path to do the right things and there are some people who take the wrong path to do the right things.

My son I can only show you the right path, to choose the path is again you own free will. But always remember that if you learn to make a good choice on your free will you shall always achieve the objective of your life.

Even Mohammed, Ram, Jesus, Mahavir could have turned to violence to preach and protect religion but through their free will they decided to walk the path of non violence and its for their suffering and sacrifice that we remember them.

Always remember sacrifice should always be your own and for other and not of other for your own.

Son throughout life I will keep showing you the right path at every juncture of life but to choose the path will always be your own free will. “

At that point a realization dawned upon all those people as if a light directly from heaven had fallen down on the earth and illuminated them, they were stunned and in kind of a daze. They realized their mistake and fall down on their knees to apologies but the man had vanished, he had gone, he was the god.

Those people set apart their difference, embraced each other and left. The story did spread in the entire locality and from then onwards there always reside a peace and unity among people in that locality.  

Priyesh S. Jain

This is a story based in Mumbai back in 1992 when there were riots going on in the city. The city was full of horrors. Every day there were new atrocities and newer cruelties as if there was a competition of who could be more evil in the name of god.

The atmosphere in the city was one of tense. The police patrol every street and corner of the city but there were fundamentalist who were able to hide from the police and carry on their agenda. The narrow lanes of Mumbai seem very quite and silent but there was a lot happening inside. There were fundamentalist groups who used to held meetings inside these narrow lanes, bombs were made and weapons accumulated. Mumbai was a living ground zero at that time.

It was the night of 19^th December 1992, the clock showed half past 12 in the night when a man wanted to cross a Hindu lane and go to the other side of the road which was a muslim area. The situation was very grim but he knew he had to do it, he had come here to cross the lane and move to the other side. He had waited for the opportune time and he knew the time had come and he could not delay it much further.

He dared crossing the Lane, the lane appeared as silent as the night. There was a cold wind blowing in the city that day and became more chilling as the night went on, he could feel the chill of the air hitting his face. Everything was harmlessly silent, the clouds slowly trying to take the moon in their embrace as if to blindfold him from the carnage, down under making the night darker and frightening. The small buildings around those narrow lanes, the lanes itself and the habitat all seemed drowned into silence but there was something uneasy about this silence and he could feel it in his heart.

He walked down the lane with patience trying to be calm and at ease, not revealing his emotions on to his face. As he came to the middle of the lane he could hear some hushed voices, but he still remained calm and carefully fastened his steps. He knew that running at this stage can be suicidal. So he continued his march forward trying to reach the end of the lane but soon he realized that he had some company. There were two men who had started following him. The number of people increased and he could count atleast five people following him but he continued to walk still not trying to run. He managed to glance a look at those people, it was dark enough so he could only see the outline of these people following him but he could make out that these were some young college going students brain washed and turned into fundamentalist.

He approached the end of the lane but those five people were fast closing on him, he still didn’t intend to run. However on the other side of the road he could see other bunch of people with weapons in hand guarding the entrance to another lane. When they saw him they all started moving towards him. He thought he was in a real soup now, he started walking more faster still managing not to show as if he was running. However those five people form the lane caught with him and surrounded him from all side.

One of the person asked him “ Who are You”

He politely replied “ I am a Human Being”

One of the person from the gang getting irritated asked “ Hey we mean which religion you belong to “

He again in a very low voice said “I am a Hindu”

The Gang asked him to chant the gayatri mantra.

He started chanting the gayatri mantra, and it came with such clarity and resonance that it made all those people go into a spiritual trance.

While all this was happening the group of people from the other side of the road slowly entered the lane, thinking that the person was one of them and in order to save him they shall do all things necessary. They took their position around those men from the lane and then surrounded all of them from behind with guns in hand.

These people did the same thing, they also asked the lonely man, the eye witness to all this drama that who was he? 

He politely replied “ I am a Human Being”

Another person asked “Which religion you belong to “

He again in a very low voice said “I am a Muslim”

There was a shock on the face of those five people they could not believe that the person who chanted the gayatri mantra few minutes back is not a hindu.

The muslim people did saw that these hindu people were awe struck so to confirm his identity they asked him to chant a few lines from the namaz. He again chanted the namaz with such clarity and resonance that everyone including those hindu people went into a spiritual trance.

When he finished the muslims were quite sure that he was one of them they started taking him with them to a safer place but one of the startled hindu confronted them and asked the man “ Who are you”

The Man remained silent.

The Hindu guy again asked “ When we asked you, you said you were a Hindu and chanted the gayatri mantra with clarity and purity which I have never heard, tell us really who you are”.

The Man Still remained Silent. Every eye was watching him even the muslims now eyed him with suspicion.

to be continued in Part II ................................................................

From the desk of Dick Fuld, Lehman Brothers CEO

Dear Mr. Buffett:

First off, I would like to thank you for meeting with me and my Lehman Brothers team earlier this week. The opportunity to outline our plan to you personally was the highlight of my professional career. I know that it has been a few years since you had an office in Manhattan, and we aren’t asking you to take a chair and a desk, but your steady hand at Salomon Brothers is an example of what all of us on Wall Street are so desperately seeking in these difficult times.

As I clearly outlined during our meeting, I firmly believe that an investment in Lehman Brothers by  Berkshire Hathaway is a classic opportunity for your great company to, once again, buy a fabulous global franchise at a very fair price. This isn’t at all like the situation that John Gutfreund put you in, and I recognize that you are wary given your previous experience. Wall Street has changed dramatically since 1991, it is far more of a franchise business that relies on capital than the “people” business that you were once used to. As you mentioned, the $700 million Salomon deal was the single largest commitment of your career at that point; and I take your point that such sums are now just the bonus pool for the commodity division But much has changed. Over the past year, our firm’s market capitalization has shrunk by more than $30 billion (about 75%). All of the shareholder wealth that we’ve created over the past 10 years has been completely erased in a matter of months, and yet our firm has never had brighter opportunities nor a stronger safety net. This is the investment opportunity that we see for you and the rest of the Berkshire family. You have the opportunity to invest in the brokerage industry at prices not seen for a decade.

I have spoken to both the Treasury Secretary and Chairman Bernanke, and they are prepared to assure you personally that Lehman will continue to have access to the Fed’s discount window for many years to come, if so required. As such, our firm cannot fail in the traditional sense. The federal government’s balance sheet is impregnable. This is an investment circumstance that rarely presents itself in the lifetime of any investor; even one as successful as your own.We are very reluctant to raise capital at this juncture. Our recent $6 billion equity raise was intended to help us weather even the worst storm. I understand that some intermediaries reached out to you at that time, and that you rightly advised that your modus operandi was not to invest in a club format. I regret that anyone troubled you with the idea back in May, and recognize that by passing then, as you said in our meeting, you avoided suffering the 44% drop in our shares since that deal was announced on June 10th.

Your wisdom is clear. But this time it will be different. As we discussed, approximately $145 billion of long-term debt is outstanding including current year maturities of $18.5 billion with $8 billion of commercial paper. We have a plan to deal with these debt tranches, but recognize that a partnership with you would be a tremendous asset when we return to the debt markets. My Treasury team advises that we could save in excess of 200 basis points on our medium term paper if Berkshire agreed to be our strategc investor prior to commencing our current year debt refinancing activities.

My partners and I are prepared to consider a $5 billion convertible preferred investment, paying an 8% annual cash yield, with redemption and retraction rights in, say, 20 years. Our stock rallied yesterday on the back of the positive news out of Wells Fargo. But, with a sensible discount to yesterday’s closing price of $16.65, your firm would own approximately 33% of our Company, at closing. Naturally, we would very much want you to consider joining our Board of Directors at the earliest opportunity. Other names would be welcome as well. As we both know, an announcement that Berkshire had agreed to invest capital in our firm would propel both LEH shares and the broader bank index. If yesterday’s rally is any indication, you could earn a 25% return in a single day merely on the news of your financial commitment to me and our franchise.

I appreciate that you have been displeased with the role that you believe Wall Street has directly played in the credit crisis of the past 12 months. I noted that, during our meeting, you specifically named Lehman and Bear Stearns as two of the financial institutions that were at the forefront of the growth in the CDO, CLO, ABS, subprime and credit swap markets.

We were so convinced that these vehicles were money machines that we bought them for the accounts of our own captive hedge funds. We put our money where our mouths were. I understand that you are also dubious about the long term capability of the hedge fund industry to produce returns that exceed your sense of market norms. I have two points to make on that front.

With your financial commitment to our firm, the sailing will be smooth, and the entire U.S.financial services industry will benefit from the rising tide that would surely follow a commitment from Berkshire. The positive impact that would have on the economy is clear, which would directly beenfit the rest of the Berkshire Hathaway portfolio of companies. This is the way that America can exit the recession that you believe we are experiencing right now. Thank you, in advance, for your time and consideration. As Senator McCain said himself, and I passed along to you, “the country needs you”, and we are honoured that you are considering this opportunity.

 We were traveling from Pisa to Rome which is around 380 kms by coach but the scenic beauty around, the mines of Italian marble and the sunflower gardens give you a good company.

Once you place your foot in Rome you are to be awed by its history. The mix of old Rome and the modern Rome in one place itself take your breathe away. The Old Ruin Roman architecture were archaeologist are still excavating and the modern Rome architecture are blended so beautiful that it’s just a sight for the eyes.

We started our Rome tour first by visiting the colosseum, an ancient now ruined amphitheatre built by the emperor Vespian in 80A.D (construction started in 70 A.D.). The Colosseum is a huge impressive structure which could seat around 50,000 people at a time and had 80 entrances. The colosseum was used by ancient rulers for gladiatorial contest and public spectacles but it has also being witnessed to large numbers of brutal murdering and execution of criminals. Seeing the current structure one can only imagine how stunning this structure would have looked in its early days.

We went inside the colosseum, it is as strikingly beautiful from inside as from outside. The floor is now ruined but it was once wood covered with sand. Beneath that wooden floor was a maze of passageways and temporary holding pens for animals which was later on used as prisons for criminals. The Colosseum also houses a museum on its 1^st floor which tells you a lot on the history of the colosseum. We then took pictures with the men dressed as gladiators outside the colosseum and headed towards the trevi fountain.

The Trevi fountain is the biggest and the most beautiful fountain in the entire Rome made in the year 1762. The fountain represents the sea god Neptune traveling in a chariot pulled by two horses, the horses represents the calm and the restless nature of the sea. The trevi square where the fountain is located is surrounded by various shops and gelato ice-cream parlours, we did tried one ice-cream and a slush. We did also tried the legend of coin throwing which is very famous with the trevi fountain. The tradition says that if you throw a coin in the trevi fountain then you are ensured a return to rome. However the coin shall be thrown over your shoulder with your back towards the fountain.

 Its said that approximately around 3000 euros are thrown into the fountain everyday and the money is used for subsiding a supermarkets for rome’s poor people.

From the beautiful trevi fountain we headed towards yet another historical place the Spanish steps. Built in the year 1725 these 138 stairs monument is regarded as the biggest stairway in Europe. The Spanish steps is a stairway between Piazza di Spagna at the base and Piazza Trinita dei Monti.

At The Trevi Fountain.

Piazza di Spagna is a square with a marvelous fountain depicting ancient roman architecture said to be built by the father of Bernini. The fountain is called the “fountain of the old boat”. From the square you can see a long pillar on the other side of the square rising toward the sky with the idol of Virgin Mary on top of it.

By the time we finished visiting Spanish steps it was already six in the evening we were tired and hungry too so we headed to a Indian restaurant, sitar in the heart of Rome city. After having a delicious Veg Punjabi food we walked down the streets of Rome which are quite architectural and peaceful at this time of the day, usually all shops are closed by 6:00 p.m. We could only find coffee shops and Pubs open now with people gathering around them as the day moved on. We would have loved to see the night life of Rome but we were too tired so we went to our hotel and retired to the bed.

Priyesh Jain

Hi Friends,

A Great Story I recieved today by mail would like to share this wonderful story with you all.

An Old Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or  shelter so he dies out in the cold.


 Indian Version:


The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter.

The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that  Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for  not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter.

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation ' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services.


The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.


 Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice'.

 Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '.

 CPM calls it the ' Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden '

 Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.




 Many years later...

The Ant Has Since Migrated to The US and set up a multi billion dollar company.

100s of grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India.,

And

As A result of losing lot of Hard working Ants and feeding the grasshoppers

India Is Still A Developing Country.

In this world everything is based on duality, let’s say it started from the creator and the created and continues till now. Everything that is there has a dual concept. You cannot understand the right meaning of life without understanding the concept of duality.

Duality means the existence of two concepts in opposition for control of the destiny of Man. For Example Good V/s Evil and Right V/s Wrong.

A simple Question that arises is that would we have known what’s wrong if we never knew what’s right? Would we be able to address something as evil if we never learned what’s good?

Does this essentially mean that we could never end the wrong doing or the evils of this world? No that’s not true we can end it, but we need to think and understand the reason behind this to end it.

Actually there is nothing like bad or evil. Bad is nothing but the absence of good in that person. Same way evil is nothing but the absence of godliness in the person. Everything in this world is made by god and I believe god could not flaw in his creation. Hence everything be it human or natural is gods creation and hence very godly.

The people we so call bad or evil are not bad but just that they have the absence of good qualities in them. If somehow we can teach all these people some good qualities, give them a better reason to live, give them some joy and happiness, a reason to be, a way to life which would help them become a better person and may be end this evil and wrong doings on this earth.

Thus lets us all come together to make this world a better place to live in. A place more happier, more peaceful and more united.

Say No to War & terrorism and Unite for peace.

Priyesh Jain

The New Indian Hero ?

 Yes Abhinav Bindra the man who brought us the much illusive gold medal after a daunting gap of 28 years and yes the first in 112 years in an individual competition. But can this cricket loving and cricket crazy nation give such sports icon the right place and the right glory or is this sporting glory only to be bestowed upon cricketers in this country.

Its ironic but true that cricketers have not given much to India but India has given everything to their cricketers even at times on the verge of sacrificing other sportsperson and sporting events. Has this kind of attitude of the Indian people towards other sports kept India away from such medals and success? In a sense yes the lack of enthusiasm and fan following, the kind of infrastructure, the financial support, all would follow only if our attitude towards other sports changes.

There is one point that intrigues me every time and that is “Whether the Media is trying to do the right thing by making a hero out of every sporting victory Indians have achieved”. The media just makes them look more glamorous and heroic as if they are the only national pride. Doesn’t this glory make the sportspersons more complacent towards their future goals and targets?

Take Sania Mirza for example weren’t we too early to give her that strata and hype that she became complacent towards her future goal and ambition. Wasn’t she so highly glamorized that she could make her living from endorsement rather then the sports? Didn’t we make her more conscious about her public image that she started giving the sports a secondary treatment?

Has the Indian Media ever recognized its power, the power to make and destroy people? If yes then why isn’t this power used wisely so as to create people and encourage them to achieve greater heights and greater wisdom. This excess publicity is destroying many of our real talents.

Why the Indian media need to go gaga about the Abhinav Bindra Victory when the person himself can remain so composed and clam in that moment of glory. The winning ceremony in which bindra was awarded the gold medal was also one of pride. Even after such great victory he showed the world that Indians can handle such victory and joy and can control their emotions and can show calm and composure when required. The Chinese athlete who won the silver medal could not control his emotions and tears flowed from his eyes but for bindra his smile said it all.

Lets hope we do not loose another talent in this media hype and may this victory help Indians encourage to new sports and bring new glory to this great country of more then 100 crore people.

May be the media also play their role in a more responsible manner. Hope this heroic win is not forgotten by the media once the event is over but used by them to encourage other people and create more abhinav bindra for India rather then killing the one we have.

Regards

Priyesh Jain

Once upon a time there was an island where all the feelings lived:   happiness, sadness, knowledge, and all the others, including love.

One day it was announced to all of the feelings that the island was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean.

So all the feelings prepared their boats to leave. Love was the only one that stayed. She wanted to preserve the island paradise until the last possible moment.

When the island was almost totally under, love decided it was time to leave. 

She began looking for someone to ask for help.

Richness: - 
  Just then Richness was passing by in a grand boat. Love asked, "Richness, Can I come with you on your boat?" Richness answered, I'm sorry, but there is a lot of silver and gold on my boat and there would be no room for you anywhere."

Vanity :-
  Then Love decided to ask Vanity for help who was passing in a beautiful vessel. Love cried out, "Vanity, help me please." "I cn't help you", Vanity said, "You are all wet and will damage my
beautiful boat." 

Sadness:- 
   Next, Love saw Sadness passing by. Love said, "Sadness, please let me go with you." Sadness answered, "Love, I'm sorry, but, I just need to be alone now."

Hapiness :-

Then, Love saw Happiness. Love cried out, " Happiness, please take me with you." But Happiness was so overjoyed that he didn't hear Love calling to him.

The Real Hero ::-

Love began to cry. Then, she heard a voice say, "Come Love, I will take you with me." It was an elder.Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that she forgot to ask the elder his name. When they arrived on land, the elder went on his way. Love realized how much she owed the elder.

Love then found Knowledge and asked, "Who was it that helped me?" it was Time", Knowledge answered. "But why did Time help me when no one else would?", Love asked. Knowledge smiled and with deep wisdom and sincerity, answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding
how great Love is.

Regards

Priyesh Jain

A Beautiful Quote which I wanna Share with all of You :-

"Everything you do in the present impacts your future in form of consequences and your past in the form of redemption.

(Read in a book called Like the flowing River by Paulo Cohelo)

What a better way then to start your blogging with the universal topic which knows no Language, no religion , no boundaries, no barrier which runs from peoples blood to their heart. It’s so spiritual so natural that a person in it can feel it in the air, in the nature, in his thoughts, in his smile (so meaningless yet so powerful), in the winds hitting his face, in that serene river hitting the shore and yes in almost everything they do. However how many of us really know the exact meaning of this so called love. Not many because we do consider a flintiest of feeling as love, which is not exactly, love. True Love is too strong and too powerful to be such a flintiest feeling.

Here in these few lines I have tried to put down my own meaning of true love, and what I believe it to be :-

Love is not about being possessive

             Its about freedom

Love is not about being together

             Its about being one

Love is not about holding hands

              Its about knowing souls

Love is not about walking together

              Its about being there for each other (when required)

Love is not about talking every night

               Its about understanding (even without talking)

Love is not about changing each other

                Its about evolving (finding your ownself)

There are various myths about Love like You talking every day , holding hands etc, yes this might be signs of liking each other but not necessarily true love.

You cannot say you are in true love when you find yourself tied up, true love is about freedom, its something which sets you free from all things in life, it’s a heavenly experience. It’s about the freedom to do things in a way you like, its about freedom to know yourself, its about freedom to achieve things. True love is about achieving newer heights, newer skies and newer freedom in life.

True Love doesn’t change you as a person but it helps you evolve as a person, if you are in true love you will be able to discover your ownself which makes you happy, the very own self you always wanted to be.

To me true love is when two people reach to newer heights both in love and life which they individually could have never dreamt of.

True Love  would never restrain you it always helps you grow, it will give you more freedom , the support you always desired, the ideas, the imagination and over all the way to life, a life which is meaningful, satisfied and happy.

Regards

Priyesh Jain

Friends you can also comment on your experience of true love and would love to have any other of true love from all of you.

Thanks.