HOW TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD:

 HOW TO LIVE IN THIS WORLD:

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PARABLE: THE POT OF HONEY AND THE THREE FLIES

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From the Thoughts of HH Shri Bhola Nathji great spiritual Luminary who gave peace and beatitude to countless folk, relieving them of their ills and sorrows, and who still guides and helps us from His Celestial Plane in the Heavens.

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Behold, there is a pot full of honey! A fly sits at its edge. Look how slowly it partakes of the honey, nibbling away at its edges. The honey is sweet, indeed, but the fly cannot eat more, for it has taken as much as it could take. Its hunger is appeased.

But alas! Its desire is yet unfulfilled, it would have more. It would possess the whole pot and keep it for its own! It plunges into the pot with the heat of its desire and is surrounded by honey.

Ah! The honey belongs to the fly now! But it is a thing of great sorrow that the fly, too, belongs to the honey, for it cannot fly away now. The honey clings to its wings and binds them strongly.

The little fly is trapped for life. It would depart but the honey sticks. How can it think of eating now?

And clinging thus to its desire, the fly dies in it.

Take joy from the things of the world, O Man, but give up not thy joy and thy existence to them else thou be trapped like the fly!

It is not right that we give up our joy to those things from which we expect joy.

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There came another fly to the same pot of honey. It sought to partake of the honey but it saw within the pot a dead companion, and being afraid, it did fly away with haste without tasting of the honey.

“Oh! But what a price! What a price!” thought this, the second fly. Its life was too precious a price to pay for the momentary pleasure of the honey.

A flower must bloom but look at the numerous thorns that are ready to pierce it!

How many tempests seek to drown thee, O drop of water, before thou canst reach the ocean!

The stars must combat the formidable darkness if they are to maintain their sparking light! The moon must wax and wane before it can shower its coolness!

“Nay! The price is too terrible!” And it flew far, far away to unknown regions. Desire impelled it to partake of the honey, but fear was the stronger and did not allow it to partake of the honey.

These are the pleasures of the world! When thou seest in them the slightest amount of fear and pain thou leavest behind the petty joys of the world. The little joy fades in the light of a greater fear.

O, thou wanderer in the garden!

Thou didst leave behind the flower

Upon beholding the thorns!

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The pot and the honey lie where they are.

Are they placed there so that no one may partake of the honey?

Nay, leave it not aside thus, even if thou wouldst not eat or drink of it like the fly that plunged into it. It is not meant to be thrown away.

Sacrifice it not. Thy heart is afraid of the pain and death that accompany the pleasure but at the same time the sacrifice will weigh heavily upon thy conscience.

These, therefore, are the two phases. In one, the fly does not exist! In the other, the honey does not exist!

What, therefore, must thou do? The honey is meant to appease thy desire, and not to be thrown away.

There comes another fly! Ah! It alights but gently upon the brim of the pot. It sees a fly run away from the pot and it sees, too, the fly entangled in the honey.

But it seeks the middle path! Look, it runs not from the honey, neither does it plunge into it, to die.

It sits calmly at the edge and it partakes of the honey to its heart’s content. Strange but wise!

It flies off now for a while and then returns again to the brim and the edge, master of its own will and desire.

This is the path.

O, Man! Live thou in this world and do all thy works living in joy, but be not so entrapped in its beauty that thy desire separate thee from thy God and thou do plunge to thy death.

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COPYRIGHT

PRIYA NATH MEHTA

SON OF HH SHRI BHOLA NATHJI

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