True religion-a story.

[Guest guest]

There is a beautiful Sufi story. A great emperor used to goaround the town every day early in the morning when the sun was rising, on his horse. It was abeautiful exercise for him and also an experience of how the city was growing, how his capital

 

wasbecoming more and more beautiful.

 

He had a dream to make it the most beautiful place on the earth. But he was always puzzled...and he always stopped his horse and watched an old man, who must have been one hundred andtwenty years old. He was always working in the garden, sowing seeds, watering trees - trees whichwould take hundreds of years to come to their youth; trees that live for four thousand years.

 

He was puzzled: this man is half in the grave; for whom is he sowing these seeds? He will never

 

beable to see the fruits and the flowers. It is impossible to conceive that this man is going to

 

see theoutcome of his labor.

 

One day, he could not resist his temptation. He stepped down from the horse and asked the oldman: "I have been passing every day and the same question arises every time. Now it has becomealmost impossible not to interfere with your work, just for a moment. I want to know: for whom

 

areyou sowing these seeds? These trees will become ripe, young, when you are not here."

 

The old man looked at the emperor and laughed. He said, "If this had been the logic of myforefathers, then I would not have been able to get fruits and flowers and this beautiful garden.

 

I am a gardener for generations - my father and my forefathers planted seeds, I have eaten the

 

fruit.What about my children? What about my children's children? If they had also been of your opinion,there would have been no garden. People come from faraway places to see this place because Ihave trees that are thousands of years old. I am simply doing whatever I can in thankfulness.

 

"And as far as sowing the seeds... when the spring comes, seeing green leaves coming out is sucha joy that I have completely forgotten how old I am. I am as young as ever. I have remained youngbecause I have continued to be creative. Death takes away people who become useless; perhapsthat's why I have lived so long, and still I am young. Death is compassionate to me because I amkeeping pace with existence. Existence will miss me; existence is not able to replace anybody.Perhaps that's why I am still alive. But you are young and you are asking questions like a man

 

whois dying. The reason is, you are uncreative."

 

The only way to love life is to be creative , to make life more beautiful, more fruitful,

 

more juicy.Don't leave this earth unless you have made it a little better than you found it when you were

 

born -this is the only religion that I know of.

 

 

Regards,K.s.Vishwanathan.Tel No: 022-28738192.e-mail:kalpathyvs.