B.G 3.36-37 : Three robbers

Once, long ago, there lived a group of three robbers in a big town.

All the three were experts in one field or another.

One was good at breaking locks open, one was good at forgery and one was good with his knife.

Once, they robbed a house and escaped with a huge booty. In the booty there were many precious stones, diamonds and jewels.

Due to heavy vigilance in the city, they were not able to encash the precious stones, diamonds and jewels.

So they took the booty to a dense shrub and buried it under a jasmine plant.

While returning from the shrub, they all felt hungry.

They decided that one of them would go to the town and get something to eat.

One of the robbers left for the town.

The other two robbers started having a heavy discussion.

They decided that, if they were ready with a heavy stick, when the third man returned from town, they could beat him up and kill him.

Then, it would be enough to divide the booty into two parts.

Meanwhile, the man in the town thought, “I am feeling very hungry. Let me eat first and take the remaining for the two.”

After eating, he thought, “Those two fellows are actually not my friends. They are just pretending to be friendly towards me. Why should I care about them?

If I mix some poison in the food, the two will eat the poisoned food and die. Then all the booty will be for my enjoyment.

So thinking, he added poison to the food and took it to the other. When the man returned from town, he was in for a surprise.

The two others took their heavy sticks and thrashed him. They beat him to death.

One of the thieves said, “Now that fellow has died. Both of us are hungry. So let’s have the food and then divide the booty.”

The other thief agreed and they ate the poisoned food. And alas, they also died. 

References:

http://www.bhagavatam-katha.com/story-group-of-three-robbers/

B.G 3.36 : Arjuna said: O descendant of Vṛṣṇi, by what is one impelled to sinful acts, even unwillingly, as if engaged by force?

B.G 3.37 : The Supreme Personality of Godhead said: It is lust only, Arjuna, which is born of contact with the material mode of passion and later transformed into wrath, and which is the all-devouring sinful enemy of this world.

References:

http://www.bhagavatam-katha.com/story-group-of-three-robbers/

B.G. 3.33 : Scorpion and turtle

A Scorpion, being a very poor swimmer, asked a Turtle to carry Him on his back across a river.

"Are you crazy?" exclaimed the Turtle.

"You'll sting me while I'm swimming and I'll drown."

"My dear Turtle," laughed the Scorpion, "if I were to sting you, you would drown and I would go down with you. Now where is the logic in that?"

"You're right!" cried the Turtle. "Hop on!"

The Scorpion climbed aboard and halfway across the river gave the Turtle a mighty sting. As they both sank to the bottom, the Turtle resignedly said:

"Do you mind if I ask you something? You said there'd be no logic in your stinging me. Then why did you do it?"

"It has nothing to do with logic," the drowning Scorpion sadly replied. "It's just my character."

B.G 3.33 : Even a man of knowledge acts according to his own nature, for everyone follows the nature he has acquired from the three modes. What can repression accomplish?

References:

http://www.fewlineson.in/scorpion-and-turtle-story/

B.G 5.17 : Cruel hunter Mrigari transformed

Once Narada Muni was passing through a forest near Prayag and saw that many animals were lying half-dead. Feeling compassion for the suffering creatures, he cried out, “Who is the culprit who is killing these animals, leaving them to die in this way?”

The barbaric hunter Mrigari answered, “Dear sage, please let me do my business. If you have come here to beg for a deerskin, I shall give it to you.”

But Narada said, “I haven’t come to beg anything from you, but to ask why you are only half-killing these animals. It is a great sin. It is better that you kill them outright.”

Mrigari replied, “My father taught me to kill them like this. I did not know it is sinful.”

Narada said, “Yes, it is very sinful. You will have to suffer very much for it.”

The hunter became thoughtful and asked, “What should I do?”

Narada Muni advised him, “Give up this nonsense business.”

Mrigari protested, “Then how shall I eat?”

But Narada Muni said, “I shall provide you with food.”

The hunter agreed, “All right, if you give me food, I can give up this business.”

Narada Muni then requested Mrigari to sit down on the bank of the Ganges and practise devotional service before a sacred tulasi plant. Narada Muni went to the nearby village and announced that a pure sage was now meditating nearby on the bank of the Ganges.They began coming regularly to the bank of the Ganges to visit Mrigari. Someone brought rice, someone brought dal, and someone else brought fruit. The food began to pile up.
The hunter Mrigari wondered, “Why is Narada Muni sending me so much food? I have only myself and my wife to maintain.” Thus he began distributing the food. Slowly he became pure soul. 

After some time, Narada Muni called upon his friend Parvata Muni and said, “I have a very nice disciple who was a hunter. Let us go and see how he is doing.” Parvata Muni agreed. When the two sages approached Mrigari’s house, they saw that he was jumping this way and that. Upon seeing Narada Muni, he prepared to offer obeisances at his feet, but before he did so he took the edge of his dhoti and gently brushed away the ants crawling on the ground so as not to crush them. He had been jumping because he was trying to avoid stepping on the ants. This was the very man who a short time before had been tormenting all kinds of animals, yet now he was not prepared to kill even an ant. That is the nature of a pure soul.

B.G 5.17 : When one’s intelligence, mind, faith and refuge are all fixed in the Supreme, then one becomes fully cleansed of misgivings through complete knowledge and thus proceeds straight on the path of liberation.

B.G. 3.6 Words and action should be same

There once was a boy who loved eating sweets. He always asked for sweets from his father. His father was a poor man. He could not always afford sweets for his son. But the little boy did not understand this, and demanded sweets all the time.  

The boy's father thought hard about how to stop the child asking for so many sweets. There was a very holy man living nearby at that time. The boy's father had an idea. He decided to take the boy to the great man who might be able to persuade the child to stop asking for sweets all the time.

The boy and his father went along to the great man. The father said to him, "O great saint, could you ask my son to stop asking for sweets which I cannot afford?" The great man was in difficulty, because he liked sweets himself. How could he ask the boy to give up asking for sweets? The holy man told the father to bring his son back after one month.

During that month, the holy man gave up eating sweets, and when the boy and his father returned after a month, the holy man said to the boy "My dear child, will you stop asking for sweets which your father cannot afford to give you?"

From then on, the boy stopped asking for sweets.

The boy's father asked the saint, "Why did you not ask my son to give up asking for sweets when we came to you a month ago?" The saint replied, "How could I ask a boy to give up sweets when I loved sweets myself. In the last month I gave up eating sweets."

A person's example is much more powerful than just his words. When we ask someone to do something, we must do it ourselves also. We should not ask others to do what we do not do ourselves.

B.G 3.6 : One who restrains the senses of action but whose mind dwells on sense objects certainly deludes himself and is called a pretender.

References:

http://www.ezsoftech.com/stories/mis26.asp

B.G. 5.3: The annapurna vessel and King Vikramaditya

One day King Vikramaditya was sleeping in his bed room and he heard crying of a woman in his kingdom. King came out of his room and rode on his horse and went in direction of a the voice. He saw that there was a woman sitting underneath a tree with her head kept on her knees and she was weeping. King asked reason for her pain. The lady told that her husband is stuck on the tree above and she want to give him food. King helped her to climb the tree .She was actually a witch who was pretending this show and as soon as she climbed the tree she ate the man stuck on the tree and came down.The lady then said that I am happy with you and what do you wish to ask you may ask. King said that if you really wish to give me something then give me Annapurna patra which can fetch unlimited food and from which he can feed his subjects. The lady gave him that Annapurna patra. King happily started returning to his kingdom with that Annapurna patra and on the way he met a sanyasi who was hungry and requested king to give him food and King used the annapurna patra to satisfy the sanyasi with delicious food items. Sanyasi gave lot of blessings to King and King said that it is my duty to give you some dakshina after your eat the food. Sanyasi told the king that if you really want to give me dakshina then give me this patra so that I never have to depend on anyone to ask for food. King unhesitatingly gave away the patra to the sanyasi and happily returned to his kingdom.



B.G. 5.3 . One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, free from all dualities, easily overcomes all material bondage and is completely liberated, O mighty-armed Arjuna.

B.G. 5.12 Cow with golden dung

Once there lived an old woman. She had one regulative principle that every Sunday, she used to take bath in the morning, smear and purify her house with cow dung, prepare food and offer it to Lord and then take the remnants. By doing so she was filled with complete peace and happiness. She used to get cow dung from the cow kept outside the house of her neighbor. Her neighbor seeing the prosperity and happiness of old woman started feeling jealous and then she started keeping her cow inside her house. Due to not getting cow dung, old woman couldn't purify her house with cow dung and hence  she didn't cook also and she slept without eating any food. That night God appeared in her dream and blessed her with a cow and its calf. The old woman became rejoiced to get the gift and kept them outside her house and gave them fodder to eat. When her neighbor saw the cow outside the house of old woman she became very jealous and to her surprise she saw that cow produced cow dung made of gold. She took that cow dung made of gold and replaced it with cow dung of her own cow and she kept doing it for many days and old woman could never know it. One day a great storm came and to protect her cow, the old woman started keeping the cow in her home. When the old lady saw for the first time that cow has given a cow dung made of gold she was very surprised and elated and she kept living her life. The neighbor felt now much more envious and she thought of a trick to trap this old lady and she went to the king and informed king of this mystic cow and how the gold from this mystic cow could be used for the benefit of entire kingdom. King immediately ordered his soldiers to get this cow and the old lady kept crying but the cow was taken away by force from her. Seeing this her neighbor became very happy. But strangely the king saw that there was sudden increase of pollution in his kingdom. One night God appeared in dream of king and told him the entire story and asked him to return the cow to old lady and honor her for her goodness and punish the crooked neighbor. Next day morning king offered great gifts to old lady as well as returned her cow and severely punished the neighbor for her crooked acts.   

B.G. 5.12 : The steadily devoted soul attains unadulterated peace because he offers the results of all activities to Me; whereas a person who is not in union with the Divine, who is greedy for the fruits of his labor becomes entangled.     

B.G 03.27 : Priest and Prostitute

Once, in a peaceful village, there lived a scholarly brahmana (priest).

Opposite his home, there lived a prostitute.

As a daily observance, the brahmana would sit in his doorway and recite the Gita.

Meanwhile, across the street, the prostitute would tend to her business.

As the years passed, the brahmana grew ever more disturbed by the prostitute. “Just see how lowly she is.” he would think to himself and continue with his recitation.

It so happened that both the brahmana and the prostitute died at the same time.

To the brahmana’s surprise, the Vishnuduttas (the Lord of Heaven’s messengers) came to deliver the prostitute while the Yamadutas (the Lord of Death’s messengers) came for him.

“What is this?” he protested. “There must be some mistake!”

Both the Yamaduttas and the Visnuduttas replied, “My dear brahmana, there is no mistake.

While you were busy meditating on the lowly activities of the prostitute, she listened to you recite the Gita and prayed that she could one day elevate herself to your position.

In this way the prostitute achieved liberation while you only degraded yourself.”

B.G 3.27: The spirit soul degraded by influence of false ego thinks himself to be the doer of all activities that are in actuality carried out by the three modes of material nature

B.G. 04.40 Mountain climber and doubt in word of God

Once there was an expert mountain climber who wanted to climb the highest mountain and to glorify himself he decided to do it all alone.
He started to climb the mountain all alone and in the eagerness to cover as much as possible in one day, he forgot that it was getting late.
Soon it got very dark and as the man could not see anything he slipped and started falling down at great speed.
In those moments of great fear, all the good and bad episodes in his life came to his mind and he was constantly thinking of how close to death he was.
But all of a sudden he felt the rope tied to his waist pull him away very hard. His body was hanging in the air and only the rope was holding him.
Clouds began to cover the sky and it was getting very cold.
In that moment of stillness he had no choice but to scream "Help me God".
All of a sudden a deep voice coming from the sky answered:
God: What do you want me to do?
Mountaineer: Save me God.
God: Do you really think that I can save you?
Mountaineer: Of course I believe you can.
God: Then cut the rope that is tied to you waist
There was a moment of silence, and the mountaineer decided to hold on to the rope with all his strength.
The next day the rescue teams found the mountaineer dead and frozen, his body hanging from the rope and his hand holding it tightly.. only ten feet away from the ground.

For us, the verses of Bhagavad-Gita/revealed scriptures are the words of God, and the rope which bind us is our material life.

Bg 4.40 — But ignorant and faithless persons who doubt the revealed scriptures do not attain God consciousness; they fall down. For the doubting soul there is happiness neither in this world nor in the next.