Interpreting the law

[riih.qarojamahoamaan]

A Nasreddin Hoca story: Nasreddin was a priest and interpreter of the muslim law. Someone came in and told Nasreddin: “I have a question: your cow was grazing together with my cow; suddenly your cow went crazy and butted my cow to death with her horns. Now what does the law say about this? shall I be recompensed for the murder of my cow?”. Nasreddin answered: “the law has nothing to do with such an accident. It was only between animals; animals cannot be held responsible for their actions, there is no logic or justice among them, so animals are never judged by any human law”. “Oh!” said the other man, “did I say that your cow killed mine? sorry, I was mixed up and said it the wrong way around! In fact, my cow killed yours”. Nasreddin then said: “was it so? Oh! this is a totally different matter! please hand me that big book with the black cover! I shall find out about it!”.

[riih.qarojamahoamaan]

Another Nasreddin Hoca story: Nasreddin was waiting, together with some other people, in the mill to grind his wheat. His sack was not very full. While he was waiting for his turn, he furtively snatched handfuls of grain from another person’s sack into his own. He was not lucky in stealing: the miller caught him red-handed: “what are you doing there?” – “nothing, Sir” – “nothing? I saw you snatching grain from another’s sack and throwing it into your own!”. “Please pardon me”, said Nasreddin, “I am only a stupid man. My stupidity led me into doing such a thing. Please forgive me, seeing I am the most stupid person”. “Oh!” said the miller, your r stupid, huh? then why didn’t you take grain from YOUR sack into ANOTHER person’s sack?”. Then Nasreddin laughed and said: “excuse me, Sir. I told you I m stupid, yes I am; but nobody can b as stupid as to do something like what you say!”.

[riih.qarojamahoamaan]

I hope this is the right place to post these pedantic ideas. I suppose you remember Mahaatma Gandhi's words: "it is easy to talk about God after you have eaten a good meal and while expecting another good meal. But for a hungry person God can have no other form than bread and butter". I have repeated this, and will repeat it later. The people in this specific forum use to talk about love. Qr,sna is the personification of love, and love is the cause of the Universe. Still (sigh!) everyone has desires to fulfil, and every spiritual practice is not different than eating. When you eat something, you feel if it good for you and you feel all effects in your body and mental condition. So when you engage in a spiritual practice, you feel the effects, usually from the first day. When you see it good for you, go on. When you see it does you wrong, stop it. Even if God is supposed to have taught doing that, you must stop it when you see bad effects.