Amar Das Bhalla was a very devoted Vaishnava Hindu. When he was 62 he met a monk on one of his long pilgrimages. The monk asked, "Who is your guru?" Amar Das had no answer, he didn't have a guru. When the monk found out about this he became very angry, "I shared food with a man who has no guru!" Amar Das knew he needed a guru, would he ever find one?
May I ask you a question? Do you know why your soul chose to be born in your human body? It is because it wanted to! It came in to your body so it can have a human experience. It wants to experience something very special. Mostly we don't remember exactly what that special something is, do we? Does everyone always remember exactly what their soul wants to experience in this life? No… and that's OK, because if we remembered what the soul wanted to experience, that might spoil the surprise of discovering it for ourselves, wouldn't it?
Once there were two students. One day they were both told that they had received the great honor of seeing the Grand-Master. They were both very excited and humbled by this honor. The two students hiked to a remote mountain top to a very beautiful temple there. Both students were excited to see the Grand-Master.
One day, a boy was sitting in his room watching T.V. when his sister came into the room, "Do you remember Auntie ji?" She said, "I love her. She understands everything. She just says a few things and people change for the rest of their lives." The brother wasn't really paying attention, "Ummm, yeahh... uh... I'm watching my T.V. show, I need to watch the final episode!" So the sister waited until his show was over and came back, "Ok, I waited, now c'mon let's go. Don't you know she can talk to the heavens?" Her brother wasn't really listening to her, he was playing video games. "Uh... yeah heavens... ooooh I'm about to level up!" Then the sister said, "I know where you keep your allowance. Bye! I'm taking it!" So he finally stopped playing his game, "No stop!.... Ok, I'll go with you. but it doesn't matter. Adults are all the same, they just like to talk."
Once there was a king who was both good and righteous. He was known far and wide for his wisdom and his kindness to the people of his kingdom. After many years, he began to feel bored with being a king, so he asked his adviser, "How old is my son now? I want him to become king so I can quit this job." The adviser said, "Your son is only 15 years old. The law says he must be 18 years old before he may be crowned as the king." The king said, "No, no no... that is no good at all. I want him to become king now." The adviser said, "You yourself are still a young king. If you were to wait for 3 years, you would still be very young to be retiring from your duties as a king." The king thought this over.
A long time ago in India there was a simple farmer named Dhanna. He lived a quiet life and loved to farm. Every day on his way to his fields, he passed by the house of a pundit who did many rituals and prayers, and Dhanna found this very interesting. One day he saw the pundit serving food to a stone statue. And he asked the pundit, "Why are you bringing food to a stone?" The pundit replied, "This is not a stone! This is a Thakur. If one pleases the Thakur all their wishes come true. You must feed the Thakur first, and only after that can you eat."
In the village of Poola lived a young man named Taru. He worked very hard every day on his farm with his family. He was also a very devoted Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh and he always loved serving people. Everyone knew he loved to serve and everyone loved Bhai Taru. Bhai Taru believed all people are children of God. He also learned from Guru Gobind Singh Ji to treat all people with equality and love. He didn't care if someone was Hindu or Muslim, he just wanted to serve the God in them.
Once upon a time, in a village in the Punjab, there was a very old man named Bhai Sud. He was 86 years old and he was well known for being truly wise. One day, as he was taking his daily walk, he saw the village chief running around in a frantic hurry. He yelled to Bhai Sud in alarm, "Bhai Sud Ji, there is a gang of bandits coming this way! They have been going from village to village, stealing everything, killing people and destroying everything in their path!"
In the cycle of life everything that has ever been born will eventually die. When human beings die our spirits go to a spiritual realm. That is very joyful for some people. Other people might think of their lives with sadness or regret. There are so many realms the spirit can visit and in one there is a being call Yam Raj. Yam Raj sends messengers to collect a person when it is time for them to leave their earthly body. Yam Raj sends the Angels of Death to help the soul of the person connect to their Higher Self.
Once a long time ago there was a thief. His father had trained him to be a thief. He was a really good thief because he listened to everything his father taught him about stealing. One thing his father told him was this: "Never listen to anything a saint says. Don't even listen to a single word out of the mouth of a saint. If you hear what saints say, you will not be able to be a thief." He was the best thief around.