Sacrifice is the real heaven

Hunter and the Pair of Doves
Once upon a time there lived a merciless hunter in the heart of a forest, terrorizing birds and animals. Because of his cruel nature he had no friends or relatives. The hunter went out into the forest every morning with a stick and net. One day, he threw his net and trapped a female dove in it. Soon, thick and black clouds appeared in the sky and it began raining cats and dogs. Scared and shivering, the hunter looked for shelter and found it under a huge banyan tree. The rain and wind stopped suddenly. The skies became clear with stars shining. The hunter said loudly,

"If there is anyone on the tree, I seek shelter and food from him. I am hungry and may faint any moment. Please save me."

At the same time, a dove that had his nest on the same tree was worried that his wife who had gone out had not come back. He prayed to Gods that his wife should not come to any harm in this wind and rain. The wife trapped in the hunter’s net heard her husband’s sorrowful words and, happy that her husband loved her so much. Later, addressing her husband, the female dove said, "Listen to me, my dear. Even at the cost of your life, you must come to the rescue of someone seeking shelter. This hunter is suffering from cold and hunger and has sought shelter under our tree. You must serve him with devotion. Don’t hate him because he has trapped your beloved wife. In reality, the strings of destiny have bound me. Give up all thoughts of revenge and serve the hunter with care."

In accordance with his wife’s desire, the dove suppressed grief and told the hunter, "Sir, you are welcome to our modest home. Please let me know what I can do for you. Treat this as own home and feel free to command me."

The hunter told the dove that he was suffering from cold and needed relief. The dove flew out, brought fire from somewhere and a lit a small fire with dry twigs and asked the hunter to warm himself.

The dove told the hunter, "Because of my past deeds, I am born poor and unfortunate and do not have enough to feed myself. What is the point in a host living if he cannot entertain a guest? It is better he renounce this world."

Yet he thought that it was better to die than say no to a host. Determined to die, the dove told the hunter to wait for a while and that soon he will have food. Then circling over the fire, the dove jumped into the fire he lit for the benefit of the hunter.

Moved by this sacrifice, the hunter told himself, "I am responsible for this tragedy. I will no doubt go to hell. This dove is a great soul, he has shown me the right path. Hereafter, I will give up all wants and desires and slowly destroy this body. Nothing, neither cold nor sun nor wind, matters to me. I will fast and see my slow end."

The hunter then threw his net and stick and released the female dove from the net.

The wife then saw how her husband had jumped into the fire to provide food for the hunter. She thought that life without her husband was worse than death and at once jumped into the same fire that consumed her husband. After her death, she saw her husband in the heaven wearing royal regalia.

On seeing her, the husband said, "O my darling, you have done well to follow me into the fire. Women like you live happily with their husbands for 35 million years."

The dove couple lived happily ever after. The hunter, shunning worldly pleasures, went to a forest for realising God. As penance had cleansed him of all desires, the hunter burnt himself in a forest fire and attained nirvana.

Some Inspiring Quotes on Failure

Some Inspiring Quotes on Failure

• Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.- Roger Von Oech


• There are two kinds of failures: those who thought and never did, and those who did and never thought. - Laurence J. Peter


• Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill


• Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. – Winston Churchill


• I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. - Thomas Alva


• We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. We often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery. - Samuel Smiles


• It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done. – Samuel Smiles


• Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. – Robert F. Kennedy


• Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat. – Ralph Ellison


• But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for. – Paulo Coelho


• Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to er – Mohandas K. Gandhi


• Life’s real failure is when you do not realize how close you were to success when you gave up.


• Success builds character, failure reveals it - Dave Checkett


• Try and fail, but don’t fail to try. – Stephen Kaggwa


• The greatest barrier to success is the fear of failure. - Sven Goran Eriksson


• I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed. – Michael Jordan


• Failure is not falling down but refusing to get up. – Chinese Proverbs


• A man may fall many times, but he won’t be a failure until he says that someone pushed him. – Elmer G. Letterman


• To be wrong is nothing unless you continue to remember it – Confucius


• A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw


• If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative. - Woody Allen


• A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable but more useful than a life spent in doing nothing. – George Bernard Shaw


• Last but not least – If You‘ve Never Failed, You‘ve Never Lived


• Failure is really a part of a game. If you haven’t failed yet, you are missing something seriously.

Swami Vivekananda

On the occasion of Swami Vivekananda (January 12, 1863–July 4, 1902) birthday, we want to remind you some of his famous quotes.

• Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced.



• we are responsible for what we are, and whatever we wish ourselves to be, we have the power to make ourselves. If what we are now has been the result of our own past actions, it certainly follows that whatever we wish to be in future can be produced by our present actions; so we have to know how to act.




• Never think there is anything impossible for the soul. It is the greatest heresy to think so. If there is sin, this is the only sin ? to say that you are weak, or others are weak.




• We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.




• You cannot believe in God until you believe in yourself.




• The more we come out and do good to others, the more our hearts will be purified, and God will be in them.




• All the powers in the universe are already ours. It is we who have put our hands before our eyes and cry that it is dark.




• YOU know, I may have to be born again, you see, I have fallen in love with mankind.




• BY the study of different RELIGIONS we find that in essence they are one.
  Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live up to his own highest idea, and strive at the same time to make the ideal as near as possible to the Truth.




• Truth can be stated in a thousand different ways, yet each one can be true.




• The will is not free – it is a phenomenon bound by cause and effect – but there is something behind the will which is free.




• When an idea exclusively occupies the mind, it is transformed into an actual physical or mental state.




• TO worship God even for the sake of salvation or any other reward is equally degenerate. Love knows no reward. Give your love unto to God, but do not ask anything in return even from Him through pray.




• That man has reached immortality who is disturbed by nothing material.




• Do not stand on a high pedestal and take 5 cents in your hand and say, “here, my poor man”, but be grateful that the poor man is there, so by making a gift to him you are able to help yourself.It is not the reciever that is blessed, but it is the giver.Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benevolence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and perfect.




• If money help a man to do good to others, it is of some value; but if not, it is simply a mass of evil, and the sooner it is got rid of, the better.




• Condemn none: if you can stretch out a helping hand, do so. If you cannot, fold your hands, bless your brothers, and let them go their own way.




• It is our own mental attitude which makes the world what it is for us. Our thought make things beautiful, our thoughts make things ugly. The whole world is in our own minds. Learn to see things in the proper light. First, believe in this world, that



• The moment I have realized God sitting in the temple of every human body, the moment I stand in reverence before every human being and see God in him – that moment I am free from bondage, everything that binds vanishes, and I am free.