My Answers to Some of the Pertinent Questions that You Have in Your Mind: Question-2 About Eating Meat!

Your Question: I hate the non-vegetarian people and those involved in killing animals and eating their flesh deliciously. I do not understand how modern humans be so cruel? I believe in ahimsa and wish to practice it as taught by the great religions of India, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. Moreover, it has been scientifically proven that meat eating is not good for health. Humans have no right to take away other lives. That is what our scriptures teach us. So both on religious and health counts, governments should take all steps to promote vegetarianism as an accepted culture and ban all kinds of non-vegetarian practices. What do you say?

My Answer: I do not know how much you have learnt or understood from your own sacred texts such as the Mahabharata or the Upanishads. Before I give my own thoughts in to the subject matter, I would like to recall a story from the great epic of the Hindus, the Mahabharata. I have simplified it by omitting much of the details and the style of text for better comprehension.  (You may go to page giving the English translation of Mahabharata that depicts this story in detail by clicking this link!)

Once the great Pandava King Yudhishthira wanted to know about human virtues and morality and asked this difficult question to the great sage of wisdom, Markandeya.

" Oh! Great Saint! I want to know about the subtle truths about morality" the king requested the saint.

In response, Markandeya told the king a story about what a simple housewife taught a wise ascetic named Kausika. This learned Brahman saint Kaushika was a scholar and a principled yogi. He had great abilities enriched with the power of asceticism and devotion to the study of the Vedas, Angas and the Upanishads. 

One day this great saint was sitting under a tree and was reciting the sacred texts in order to enhance his priestly power. A female crane sitting on the branches of the tree happened to drop her excreta just at that time which fell on the body of the saint making the Brahman feel polluted and unholy. He became very angry and looked up to see the bird. His angry stare powered by his yogic capabilities caused the poor bird to die and fell down to his feet immediately. Seeing the dead bird, the Brahman for a moment felt remorse because his anger now had violated the principle of ahimsa (non-violence). 

" I had done a bad deed out of my anger" he kept repeating this in his mind.

Anyway, he proceeded walking to the village nearby. He felt hungry and thirsty and he needed something to eat and drink. As it was the practice for the yogis to seek alms in such times of bodily needs, this saint then proceeded to a village home of a peasant. He found the housewife alone there and asked for alms from her. 

The simple village woman showed all respect to the saint and requested him to stay till she made the food to satiate his hunger. 

At that very moment her husband, the farmer entered the house after the day's hard work at his field. The obedient housewife immediately went to attend her husband momentarily forgetting the saint waiting for food and water. Seeing the poor village woman ignoring his saintly presence and needs, the Brahman felt highly angry once again. But the lady remembered about the waiting saint just the moment she had satisfactorily attended to the needs of her husband. She then proceeded to the saint and requested him to be patient for some more time for her to do the needful.

The saint now had been fuming from anger because this village woman had dared to ignore an accomplished saint like him. His hunger added oil to his anger from his hurt ego. He stared at the woman reflecting his annoyed face. Then the lady said to him humbly:

" Sire, please forgive me. I got a bit delayed because I had to attend to my tired husband. My husband is my supreme god. He came hungry and tired and it was my duty to attend him. But now I am free and I will attend to your needs."

Hearing this, the Brahmana's anger exceeded and he retorted like this:

" You ignorant village woman! How dare you ignore esteemed Brahmans like me? Do you not know the manners? Do you not know that we are like fire when we are angry? Do you not understand that our anger can even destroy the whole earth?"

" But I am not that she-crane, my lord!" the woman replied.

The egoistic Brahman was stunt. He became speechless. How come this simple village woman came to know about the incident that happened some time ago? Surely, she must be some goddess living in disguise. The Brahman thought. His anger began to fade out to awe!

" O! learned Rishi ! Remove your anger which is arising out of your ego.O you the spiritually enlightened! It had been said that the study of the Vedas, tranquility of soul, simplicity of behavior, and repression of the senses, constitute the eternal duties of the Brahmana. Those full  with virtue and morals have said that truth and honesty are the highest virtue. But, it seems to me that you with your highest learning has not comprehended what virtue really means. If you are interested in knowing what virtue really is, I advice you to go to the city of Mithila in search of the virtuous butcher. He would teach you what it really is". The lady advised the saint.

The Brahmana, now humbled by this lady then proceeded in search of the butcher to learn about the reality of virtue. He began to meditate on the subtle ways of morality and virtue and decided to go in search of the virtuous butcher of Mithila about whom the village woman told. He went in search of him and finally reached him.

Seeing the saint, the butcher acknowledged that he knew why the saint traveled this much in search of such a man like him who butchered animals and sold their meat to people to eat. But the Brahmana at heart was dejected by the profession of this man and so he said:

" Why do you do such a cruel trade? Do you not realize the fact that killing is a sin? This profession does not fit you. You should look for some other noble job instead". 

Hearing this, the butcher told the saint humbly like this: 

" O spiritually exalted Brahman! This profession I am doing is the only work I know. This has been the work of my parents and my forefathers. Perhaps this is the job ordained to me by God. I am only doing my job dutifully. But I always speak the truth, never envy others; and give to the best of my power. I live upon what remains after serving the gods, guests, and those that depend on me. I never speak ill of anything, small or great."

As Kausika was too willing now to learn from this meat vendor, the latter gave him a long sermon on the various aspects of human virtues and morals.His sermon covered the real meaning of ahimsa (non-violence), the food habits of people and about meat eating that some of the Brahmans considered as unholy and sinful. The following are some of those things that this man doing an unholy profession told Kausika who had been of the thought that he was the wisest and the most virtuous one:

"Those animals that are slain by me and whose meat I sell, also acquire karma, because with their meat, gods and guests and servants are provided with tasty food. It is said authoritatively that herbs and vegetables, deer, birds and wild animals constitute the food of all creatures. And, O Brahmana! king Sivi, the son of Usinara, of great forbearance attained heaven, which is hard to reach, giving away his own flesh. And in the past, O Brahmana! two thousand animals used to be killed every day in the kitchen of king Rantideva; and in the same manner two thousand cows were killed every day and this king Rantideva acquired  reputation by distributing food with meat every day. For the performance of the four monthly rites animals ought to be sacrificed daily. 'The sacred fire is fond of animal food,' this saying has come down to us. And at sacrifices animals are invariably killed by spiritually elevated Brahmanas, and these animals being purged of sin, by chanting of hymns, go to heaven. If, O Brahmana! the sacred fire had not been so fond of animal food in ancient times, it could never have become the food of any one. And in this matter of animal food, this rule has been laid down by Munis:--Whoever partakes of animal food after having first offered it duly and respectfully to the gods  is not polluted by the act."

"And, O good Brahmana!, knowing this to be the consequence of my own actions, I obtain my livelihood from this profession. Forsaking  one's own occupation is considered to be a sin and the act of sticking to one's own profession is without doubt a meritorious act."

"Agriculture is considered to be a praiseworthy occupation, but it is well-known that even there, great harm is done to animal life; and in the operation of digging the earth with the plough, numberless creatures in the ground as also various other forms of animal life are destroyed. Don't you think so? O good Brahmana! the seeds of rice and other such cereals are all living organisms. What is your opinion on this matter? Men, O Brahmana! hunt wild animals and kill them and eat their meat; they also cut  trees and herbs; but, O Brahmana! there are innumerable living organisms in trees, in fruits, as also in water; don't you think so? This whole creation, O Brahmana! is full of animal life, sustaining itself with food derived from living organisms. Do you not notice that fish preys upon fish, and that various species of animals prey upon other species, and there are species the members of which prey upon each other? Men, O Brahmana! while walking about here and there, kill many creatures in the ground by trampling on them, and even men of wisdom and enlightenment destroy animal life in various ways, even while sleeping. What have you to say to this?--The earth and the air all swarm with living organisms, which are unconsciously destroyed by men from mere ignorance. Is  this not so?"

"The commandment that people should not do harm to any creature, was ordained of old by men, who were ignorant of the true facts of the case. For, O Brahmana! there is not a man on the face of this earth, who is free from the sin of doing injury to creatures. After full consideration, the conclusion is irresistible that there is not a single man who is free from the sin of doing injury to animal life. Even the sage, O good Brahmana! whose vow is to do harm to no creature, does inflict injury to animal life. Only, on account of greater considerations, the harm is less." 

The butcher further gave a lengthy discourse on many other aspects to Kaushika. 

King Yudhishthira listened to the detailed story as told by Markandeya. in response to his doubts on human virtues and morality.

My dear friend! I hope you could find the answer to your thoughts about animal slaughter, non-vegetarianism, etc from the brief narrative I reproduced from the story given in the Mahabharata, the sacred text of the prominent religion of India. 

I think it important to give another quote from my favorite book of life guidance, in this context:

"Adam and Eve and their first generation of children did not use the flesh of animals for food. They subsisted wholly upon "the fruits of the trees." After the first generation all of the descendants of Adam began to partake of dairy products, but many of them continued to follow a non-flesh diet. Many of the southern tribes with whom they later united were also non-flesh eaters. Later on, most of these vegetarian tribes migrated to the east and survived as now admixed in the peoples of India." ( The Urantia Book 76:4.4)

To conclude this discussion, I would say this. All living beings need energy for living. The higher order living beings (the immortals) have been provided with the ability to absorb energy directly from the universal energy circuits just as the plants take sunlight and convert it in to chemically stored energy such as the carbohydrates for the lower order animals to sustain. Similarly lower order animals eat the chemically stored energy and convert it into concentrated energy source such as the complex fats and proteins in the form of flesh which are used by still higher forms of animals. Some animals including humans can use both stored up energy of the plants and the animals for their own energy needs. And all these systems are divinely created for a purpose. It is not necessary that all humans have the mind capacity to understand all the secrets of divine creation.

What you eat or relish is according to your anatomy and that keeps changing or progressing according to divine plans. Thus a discussion on the superiority of any kind of eating habit is of no special use. Only stupid humans with lower mind capacities could become boastful of their superiority on account of any of their physiological or mental or spiritual qualities. Humans do differ and that difference is for serving each other and not for establishing overpowering superiority over others!

But in the due course of time, humans would advance further biologically and spiritually. In those times, the human capacity to transform energy for self sustenance would also increase many fold. Perhaps then, humans no longer need to eat concentrated energy source such as animal flesh. Their liking for such foods naturally vanish.

But till such times, it is better that we refrain from judging our fellow beings on account of their eating habits.

While non-violence is the best policy, humans are not to be foolish adherents of non-violence when the world is yet to become a perfected abode. Problematic life forms need to be tackled!

But it is of a greater problem when humans kill each other in the name of ahimsa, meat or beef eating, spiritual beliefs, etc. Do you think God would ever favor a person who resort to violence for the sake of his own erroneous ideas about his own religion? Do you think humans know more than God? Do you think God needs human protection?

I earnestly hope you understand what I wanted to say.

Two Stories that I Want to Share With Religious Bigots!

Once upon a time there was a very wealthy king who was a loving, but strict father to his five sons and five daughters. He loved his children equally and he did not favor any of his children on account of any of their special abilities or standing. He gave every one equal opportunities. But all his children had different abilities and qualities in varying degrees. None of them could be considered equal in all respects. Hence the wealthy king did not make any one his sole successor. Instead he preferred to divide his estate among his children and delegated them some rights to manage their own parts of the estates while the ultimate control remained with the king himself.

His children also grew up and they had children of their own. As independent administrators of their own parts of the estates that their father vested with them, they too worked to make their estates better and now for convenience they were now living in their own mansions strategically located within their own estates. This physical separation now prevented his grandchildren and their children to know more about their grandfather, the original king. As time passed, for the subsequent generations the grandfather king was just a story and not a reality.

Now there was competition among the children and the grand children and the great grandchildren. The healthy competition of the earlier generations now deteriorated in to unhealthy competition among the cousins of the third and fourth generations. Some of the children of the old king died and the king himself, being of a better health lived.

The cousin brothers and sisters began forgetting the fact that they are descendants of the same grandfather. They began to glorify the greatness of their own fathers at the cost of the great grand father.

Competition and the quest for projecting one's own superiority over the others now caused conflicts and fights among the cousin brothers and sisters. My father is greater and more powerful than yours. They yelled at each other while they fought to their own destruction.

Now how does the great grandfather react to this situation? What should he do with these warring great grand children? He is still very powerful. He can use his power to imprison or evict or punish his errant grandchildren. But he is not able to do so because his grandfatherly love to his descendants restrain him from doing so. So he prefers to wait patiently hoping that good sense would come to these misguided grand children some time later.

And in your opinion, what should the grand father do in this situation to end the conflict among his hundreds of grand children? The irony is that all these warring groups take his name while fighting each other!

The other story is perhaps known to many of you.

It is the story of the five blind persons who proceeded to 'see' an elephant in the zoo. 

The zoo keeper was compassionate to their blindness. So he allowed them to feel the elephant for themselves. So one blind man felt the elephant's tusk, another its trunk, another its legs, another its tail and yet another its body.

They returned back to their homes and told their children about the elephant. The first blind man taught his son that the elephant is like a hard bent thing with a pointed end like a dagger.

The second one taught his child that the elephant is like a fat python that some time ago came to their hut to swallow their goat.

The third one told his daughter that the elephant is like big pillars of the temple in the village.

The fourth  one told his daughter that the elephant is like a flexible broom that her mother used to sweep.

The fifth one told his son that the elephant is like a big rock that they have in their field.

Now the children of these blind men met and began to discuss about the elephant. Each one believed their own father and began to describe the elephant the way they are taught and they could not agree to each other.

But they wanted to show their superiority with their own knowledge. They were not willing to accept the truth in the other ones' descriptions.

So they quarreled over the matter. 

My dear friend! When I learn about our religious bigots and spiritually blind fellow beings who fight each other about their own superiority of beliefs these stories come to my mind.

Some Selected Free Online Story Links For Reading Good Stories!

While it is not a big problem for internet users interested in reading short stories online by searching through Google or other such search engines, such searches are bound to return many useless links where one might get lost. It is also not a good thing for youngsters and children to try search engine on the internet unless they are under the guidance of some responsible elders with sufficient knowledge about the world wide web.

Internet is good as well as bad, just as all human activities are.

Yesterday my daughter called me from her home a-thousand-mile-away for asking some guidance to get some good stories for our grand daughter. She is not a novice on computers. Yet, for many like her, googling does not always yield what they really look for. It is also not very easy for many to remember the website address and use it on the address bar.

So, blog sites like this keep helping people. I write this page today for those who are in the look out for websites with lot of good stories for the young and the old, both.

I have carefully gone through these sites and the stories. I feel they are good and so I give the links of those sites for the benefit of my readers. Please click the links below to reach the story site or page:

1. Inspirational Childrens' Stories

2. Inspirational Animal Stories

3. Inspirational Teacher Stories

4. Inspirational Love Stories

5. Inspirational Life and Death Stories

6. Inspirational Family Stories

7. Inspirational Friendship Stories

8. Inspirational Mix of Stories

9. Humorous Stories and Narrations

10. Children's Online Story Books

11. International Children's Online Story Book Library 

12. Children's Online Hindi Story Books

13. Online  Stories for small kids

14. Children's Online Comics Books

The Railway Co-passenger Who Removed the Melancholy from the Mind of the Young Indian Engineer !(Story)

Mr Vinod Bhaskar is not a very successful Indian if success is to be measured in the yardsticks of the present day wisdom of the so-called Indian elitists. At the same time, he is also not a ruined failure by any means. In the eyes of millions of his so-called poor country cousins, he is definitely a very successful young man.

He works in a good Indian banking company as an officer and earns nearly Rs.45,000 in a month. He had never imagined that he would be doing a job in a bank doing and dealing with the money of others like him. He was interested in science subjects in the school and his mathematics was calculus, algebra, trigonometry and the like and he never considered simple arithmetic as any important part of his mathematics. His parents had to shell out considerable money, about five lakh rupees for him to complete his four year engineering degree course in mechanical engineering from a new era private engineering college established by erstwhile landlords of his state in the 1990's. 

He had learnt about theory of machines, machine design, thermodynamics, heat engines, strength of materials and many such things which he earnestly studied scoring high marks in his semester examinations. He was serious in his studies unlike many of his classmates and college mates who got in to the engineering college for spending the moneys of their neo rich parents in style and show. He was hopeful to get in to some job where he could put his engineering knowledge to advanced creativity.

But things did not go the way he thought. When he passed out in flying colors in the first decade of the 21st century, he realized with regret he was not any uniquely trained young man who would be welcomed by the Indian industry. There were millions of young men and women like him who are with engineering degrees and a good majority of them had acquired their degrees in flying colors! 

Indian industry and the Indian government did not know how to use these young engineers who come out with many fundamental knowledge and waiting eagerly to put their knowledge to actual professional use. Manufacturing and production of goods have become a non profitable activity in India while selling of items made in China was much more profitable. Companies who had factories working in the Indian soil have closed their units and began outsourcing products that the Chinese made much cheaper. The Indian government and the Indian industry could not find out the magic of the dragon even while they kept thinking over it for years!

So for Vinod there was no engineering job offer. And his parents were not of the kind of the parents of any of his contemporaries either. Those fortunate Indians have either unaccounted moneys in millions that could be easily diverted for sending their wards to the American and Australian universities for higher education and securing lucrative jobs in MNCs. Vinod was also not the son of any fortunate landlord who owned acres of land near to any Indian cities which could have fetched them millions of rupees from the builders and colonizers or their land mafia agents. Again his parents did not belong to any community or castes listed in the Indian constitution for any preferential government jobs.

But it is totally unfair to say that Vinod was going to be unemployed in modern India. He fortunately had a visionary prime minister ruling the country for nearly a decade and his visions had changed India. Youngsters like him passing out in the millions as young electrical, civil, mechanical engineers are finding fantastic opportunities to get transformed as modern software engineers. They were to cut and paste code lines using the computers and the internet for making additional codes for the same and earn money distributed from the USA. It was a fantastic magical business where money transactions occurred in billions without any visible changes any where. It is the modern business. Too abstract to understand even by the most learned wise men!

Vinod too got such a job in Bengaluru. He was getting Rs 15000 per month in 2008 when he joined the company. He did not like the job. It was not about the heat engines or about the strength of materials. Or for that matter nothing to do with the mechanical engineering that he thought about.  He was making some code modifications for computer games that would eventually to be sold to hook up young boys and girls to computers. Some of those codes could perhaps be promoting gambling in some part of the world. He was not sure. Neither was he sure about the code cut-pastes and re-writing his seniors asked him to do. He and millions like him were however toiling hard to make the digital ocean of the world wide web frothy and chaotic and to dig out the nectar of money from that big chaos. His common sense was not able to give his any satisfactory answers to the question that he was asking to himself. Is this digital technology works taking the youngsters like him away from the real world? Does it bring about progress and solve the human problems? Or is it going to be the modern era opium that would sedate the youngsters and keep them in perpetual illusion? 

Vinod Bhaskar could not come to any conclusion. What he realized with pain was that only these software companies are going to support him and millions of young Indians like him with some monthly income to survive. He did not understand how the money kept flowing to the coffers of these software companies of India from the foreign lands. Neither he understood the economics behind it. But he knew only one thing. It was too boring and tiring a job. He and his colleagues were being used as some kind of slaves. They are called software engineers or techies. But he knew, he had no such background to be called a software engineer. He was never ever trained in the field of computers. He was trained as a mechanical engineer! Yet they paid him some money regularly for his computer work that he performed without understanding anything about it.

So, he wanted to get out of it to the real world. But soon he realized that it was not going to be that easy. He now is branded as a software fellow and no one was willing to consider him as a mechanical engineer any more. More over, all the placement companies thrived only because of the software companies.

But in another two years time Vinod was fortunate to get out from his software company. He was picked up by a private bank as a front line officer. They hard bargained for his monthly salary and finally agreed to make a monthly payment which was ten percent more than what he was getting in his previous software company. The new job in the private banking company was also not any thing concerned with his engineering. But at least it gave an opportunity to change, a change that he soon realized as more painful than the earlier one. 

Bhaskar has now totally settled to his fate. He soon realized that he was a fortunate engineer of India. At least he had some job which fetched him some regular income to survive. He is called an officer of a new wave bank. This bank selected people like him to be posted as the front line officers who manned their branches to deal with the individual customers with their small savings and small transactions. For handling these small people small time officers like him are deployed with small time salaries. The small moneys of the individual Indians in millions accumulated as billions of rupees for the bank. And the bank made big deals with big corporate entities using these accumulated billions. And to settle those big deals they needed highly clever managers with high IQs and such big managers they recruited from the elite management institutes and paid them several times more than what they paid their front line officers. The new wave banks of India have been allowed to do play in the financial markets of India in the liberalized economy of India in this manner. 

Bhaskar fumed when he came to know about such class differences in his banking company. He too was an intelligent engineer, but his bank's top brass gave little credence to that. For them he was not having a degree from an elite institute and hence not eligible to become any of their big managers to draw big salaries!

But there was nothing that he could do. His father had told him about the class inequalities that India perpetuated after independence. Now the clever leaders of India are making other forms of inequalities. He was also learning some thing more from his few years of work experience. Cheating of some form was essential for doing any business successfully in his country. Honesty has no place and value. At least that was what he was experiencing.

He was slowly losing his self esteem and confidence. He was becoming melancholic. He wanted to meet some guruji or spiritual saint to discuss his problems. Fortunately there are several of those successful gurujis in his land. But of late, after reading and hearing the news about  the adventures of real life many of these swamijis are supposedly having he was in a dilemma. The conventional image that he had about a guru in his mind was not inspiring any more.

It was in 2013 while on a train journey that he finally met a person whom he has now placed as his guru. The guru who brought him out of his melancholy and his fuming anger to one and all for reasons that he was not in a position to explain. 

Bhaskar's new found guru did not wear any such mystic attires. In fact he was decently dressed and looked like any other white collared working class Indian. He was older by a few years. There was nothing extra ordinary about his co-passenger, except that he had some thing that made Bhaskar to get attracted to him after he began talking to him. 

Talking with him during the few hours of journey in the train was felt as if highly refreshing for Bhaskar. But his co-passenger did not talk about religion or spirituality or any thing of that kind. But he showed a keenness to listen to Bhaskar earnestly and also shared a few of his experiences of life with a kind of honesty that was too touching for Bhaskar. What was appealing was his genuine affection to another human being without the all pervasive selfishness that Bhaskar has been used to. 

Then the time came for both of them to alight the train and catch different trains. They were to part ways in another couple of hours. They had another few hours of togetherness in the station.

Bhaskar felt the urge to smoke and have a drink that he used to do in such occasions. He usually went to a restaurant located in one of the lanes adjacent to this railway station where he could eat, drink and smoke comfortably. But this day, he had his stranger co-passenger who by this time had become much more than a friend to him. And he felt awkward to disclose to his new friend about his usual way of time pass. But anyway, he told him about that.

To his surprise, his friend agreed to accompany him to the joint. Later, he became all the more comfortable when his friend agreed to share a drink and a smoke with him along with the snacks. At least this new guru of his was not one who gave any sermon about these so-called vices!

In the hotel, while continuing their talks about life and life experiences of various kinds, his new guru politely convinced him not to order for more drinks and smoke and taught him about the need for restraints in life. He was not against Bhaskar to enjoy simple pleasures of life once in a while but gently reminded him to think about the folly of drinking and smoking and many such so called pleasures. And Bhaskar was getting his point. Drinking and smoking did not actually gave him any pleasure and yet he was doing it. There was no reason why he did it. His ordinarily looking guru while sharing a drink and a smoke with him for the first time made a lasting resolve in his mind that day. He would use his self determination power of his mind and perhaps would not spend money for this wasteful expenditure that only caused only some discomfort and not any pleasure any way. He realized for the first time that his guru was right after all, and that too while in actual practice. 

He learnt many things. There was perhaps nothing that he could do in a situation that he is. There is nothing he could achieve by being sad about his condition. He is not alone in this world who is facing situations like this. There are millions and billions who are worse than him. Perhaps getting a job of a mechanical engineer also would not have solved his problem. He could find things that are not to his liking even then.

He cannot change the environment. He cannot change others. He cannot change the policy makers. He cannot change his company's policies or the thoughts of its top management. 

What perhaps he could do is to train himself to be cheerful and think good. He could be of some small help to others. He could think positive and make others think positive at least in some instances. On the whole he could remain as a blessing to him and others instead of being a curse to him and others.

His banking job is perhaps the best opportunity. As a front line officer he was blessed with an opportunity to meet people. He could be a blessing and a help to scores of people every day. Perhaps a better opportunity than many of those big officers making big moneys.

It was time to say good-bye to his short time friend. But Bhaskar was a changed man now. He had already taken some firm decisions in his mind.

He was going to be a blessing to others in the days to come.

He was going to be like his modern swamiji who transformed him through some normal but touching human actions and not through those mantras, tantras or magical attires.

It was also very soothing for him to know that there exist so many of such loving gurus all around him. Perhaps they are not showing off. But they would definitely exhibit their godly natures when you need it most.

For Vinod Bhaskar, this land has become an interesting place to experience life! The secrets of happiness of living was unfolding in the minds of Bhaskar. 

The melancholy that was slowly accumulating in the mind of Vinod Bhaskar to become what doctors call as depression has been effectively removed. Vinod was feeling light and cheerful now than before. Had the situation continued he could have even decided to end his life succumbing to such thoughts that pervaded his mind many times earlier. 

While on his onward journey alone, Vinod was a cheerful personality. He thought of his co-passenger, the ordinary looking man who had become a blessing to his life. He thanked him silently in his mind and was now determined to become a blessing to others so long as he lives in this world. Just as his co-passenger was to him a couple of hours earlier.

Unni and the Boys of Aranmula Got Saved by the Vampire Bats (Story)

[The moral of this story is to highlight the importance of dental and gum care, something much neglected by the Indian public]

Unni is studying in an English Medium Public School near Aranmula, the sleepy Panchayat which has been known in the world for four relatively unconnected things. First it was the place where the famous metallic mirror known as 'Aranmula Kannadi' or Aranmula Mirror was made by a few traditional artisans using some metal mixing and polishing techniques known only to them. In the days when the Travancore King ruled this place and when Kerala was not a name in any maps, the mirror was only talked about in the locality as a peculiar magical one that could be possessed only by a few fortunate ones connected to the King.

But thanks to the prominence of tourist influx to the 'God's Own Country' the mirror and the artisans that made it were pulled out of their secret hiding places of Aranmula and was made no more a guarded secret. At least  now, the folks near Aranmula could also possess a small metal mirror if they so desired !

Unni's place is also the dwelling place of a powerful Hindu Deity who is the presiding deity of the centuries old Partha Saradhi temple, where Lord Krishna is revealed as the Charioteer of the epic Pandava Prince Arjuna. During the harvest festival season of Onam, the Aranmula folks conduct the famous snake boat races in the river Pampa that meander through Aranmula. 

Aranmula has also become a boiling political hotspot in recent times when a rich local business man with his wealth sources in the United States began to work for fulfilling his life's ambition of having a private international airport in Aranmula. He had quietly acquired a long unused patch of wet land together with some other paddy fields that the owners have long desired to sell out due to their disinclination to continue with the traditional farming vocations. But to his utter dismay the shrewd and clever politicians of modern Kerala got succeeded in making the people divided over this airport that it may not become a reality in his life time !

Unni, though a Malayali boy, is no more comfortable with his mother tongue Malayalam. He can speak it but can hardly read it comfortably, thanks to the development that took place in democratic India during the time of his parents. His parents studied in schools nearby which were existing even before India became independent. They learnt everything through their own mother tongue Malayalam and could even learn the English language comfortably that they could get their present highly paid jobs earning foreign exchange just as their many contemporaries most of whom worked either in the Gulf or in the US making them in an enviable position as compared to some of their unfortunate country cousins who worked in their native country getting much lower pays in rupees. 

The foreign money that Unni's parents and many of his friends' parents earned changed the style of Aranmula and the adjoining places considerably. Now most of them have palatial houses with almost all modern gadgets and facilities, unlike the times of their parents and grandparents. The Malayalam medium schools are all in the verge of closure as only few unfortunate boys and girls studied there. Those of Unni's stature have all moved in to the so called English Medium Public Schools run by rich individuals in the name of some fictitious societies. Here they studied everything in English and the schools followed a syllabus that is prescribed by some national level education boards. 

To tell the truth, Unni did not understand much what was taught in English at his school, just as his friends. They talked in Malayalam but mugged up the questions and answers in broken English to score the marks. At least they were all fortunate that no one actually bothered to find out how much they understood through their school education.

Yet in some ways they were just as their parents. Whenever they got time, they loitered in the fields and the river banks to share their small adventures, stories, fantasies and the like. 

It was on one such time that Unni heard the story of the Vampire bats, the flying creatures that sucked the blood of animals and people while they slept. Though it was one of their friends who introduced the subject to their group from the little information he got from the NatGeo Channel, their fantasies and imaginations bloomed on Vampire bats and vampires for quite some time.

Unni sometime imagined that he is a vampire. He had horror dreams of vampire bats drinking his blood during the night. 

One day he showed his friends the way vampires sucked by showing the  action. Suddenly he felt the peculiar salty taste in his mouth.

Just at that time his friends shouted: " See ! there's blood in his mouth !" 

Almost instantly, he spitted out. Indeed it was blood. Blood in his mouth. From where it is coming? He was scared. His friends too felt too awkward. 

Just then one of them got an idea. He too imitated the sucking act of Unni. Yes, blood was coming out from his mouth too.

The boys tried it one by one. Except one, all the five of the boys could spit out blood by self sucking their teeth and gums.

The boy who did not succeed had sparkling white teeth who often smiled confidently.

He stepped in to explain the blood phenomena that now caused much worries to his friends.

He knew better about his teeth and its upkeep than his friends. He told them that the blood that they could get in their mouth was coming from their bleeding gums and it is a kind of disease that would not happen if they take some simple steps on a regular basis.

The beauty, strength and life of their teeth depended on the health of their gums that supported the teeth.

He knew all this because his mother was very careful to teach him about the importance of cleaning his teeth and the use of proper tooth pastes and tooth brushes.

Unni and his other friends too had all these things at home. But unfortunately, no one took that care to tell them.

At home the elders have been very casual. Teeth were the last thing that got their attention to take care of.

Unni who felt like a vampire of Aranmula, now felt uneasy. His friends too were in a similar mindset.

While returning home, Unni decided not to hide this from the elders at home.

He just did not want to have his teeth painful and distorted during his prime life.

Vampire bats anyway helped him to detect a hidden disease from going unnoticed !

Perhaps his friends too would be thinking the way he thought ! Good, they were not going to let their teeth and gums decay any more !

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]  

The Story of the Young Woman Who Desired to Marry Jesus !

The Bible gospels do not give much information about the childhood and adolescent years of Jesus Christ. However, the Apocrypha books contain some information, most of which seem to be imaginary tales by their authors. [Go to read Bible and Apocrypha here !]

However, neither the Bible nor the Apocrypha support the idea that Jesus ever had a wife or even a girl friend, though some of the modern fiction writers and speculators have made it a sensational speculation. The Da Vinci Code is an example where its author Dan Brown depicts Mary Magdalene as the wife of Jesus! In the recent years, some researchers have even found some ancient papyrus pieces which they claim as giving proof for the speculation made by Dan Brown.

But my favorite revelatory book, the Urantia Book, now gives the truthful and detailed history of Jesus Christ in the most elaborate manner. Even though the origin of the Urantia Book is a speculative mystery for many, the contents of the book never look like speculation even to the most hard core critic.

The Urantia Book's non-human authors assert that Jesus Christ was the human incarnation of the Divine Son of God who is the Creator and Sovereign Ruler of a great expanse of space containing a bit over 3.8 million worlds peopled with intelligent beings which include material beings like humans and non-material beings of various orders and kinds.

According to the Urantia Book, Jesus lived like a perfect man, on earth. He was the Divine Creator of his domain and according to the mandate of his Divine Father, he was required to experience the lives of the seven major life forms that were created under his command in his domain. That was required for him to get elevated to the position of the Sovereign Ruler of the domain that he created. Because the ruler should have the fair idea of the lives of his subjects !

The book says that the Creator becoming a lowly creature is in itself a divine mystery. Human forms are the lowest of his intelligent creations and his human incarnation on earth was his last life bestowal. Thus this Divine Son of God took birth on earth as a helpless human child as Jesus of Nazareth, some 2000 years ago, to experience the human life while also helping his fellow humans to know more about his Divine Father in the most appropriate manner than what they had known earlier through other means!

But according to the divine mandate, Jesus was not supposed to marry and have earthly children. He was also required not to leave anything personally attributable to his person, such as his writings. That was because of the immature human tendency to deviate from core values and go after adorable fascinations which the divine wisdom did not wish to happen.

But Jesus as a young man faced situations that was normal to any human being in similar circumstances.

Below are the passages directly quoted from the Urantia Book in the words of its non-human authors, depicting a situation in which an young lady, named Rebecca, falling in love with Jesus and how Jesus faced that situation according to his Divine mandate:

Although Jesus was poor, his social standing in Nazareth was in no way impaired. He was one of the foremost young men of the city and very highly regarded by most of the young women. Since Jesus was such a splendid specimen of robust and intellectual manhood, and considering his reputation as a spiritual leader, it was not strange that Rebecca, the eldest daughter of Ezra, a wealthy merchant and trader of Nazareth, should discover that she was slowly falling in love with this son of Joseph.

She first confided her affection to Miriam, Jesus’ sister, and Miriam in turn talked all this over with her mother. Mary was intensely aroused. Was she about to lose her son, now become the indispensable head of the family? Would troubles never cease? What next could happen? And then she paused to contemplate what effect marriage would have upon Jesus’ future career; not often, but at least sometimes, did she recall the fact that Jesus was a “child of promise.”

After she and Miriam had talked this matter over, they decided to make an effort to stop it before Jesus learned about it, by going direct to Rebecca, laying the whole story before her, and honestly telling her about their belief that Jesus was a son of destiny; that he was to become a great religious leader, perhaps the Messiah.

Rebecca listened intently; she was thrilled with the recital and more than ever determined to cast her lot with this man of her choice and to share his career of leadership. She argued (to herself) that such a man would all the more need a faithful and efficient wife. She interpreted Mary’s efforts to dissuade her as a natural reaction to the dread of losing the head and sole support of her family; but knowing that her father approved of her attraction for the carpenter’s son, she rightly reckoned that he would gladly supply the family with sufficient income fully to compensate for the loss of Jesus’ earnings.

When her father agreed to such a plan, Rebecca had further conferences with Mary and Miriam, and when she failed to win their support, she made bold to go directly to Jesus. This she did with the co-operation of her father, who invited Jesus to their home for the celebration of Rebecca’s seventeenth birthday.

Jesus listened attentively and sympathetically to the recital of these things, first by the father, then by Rebecca herself. He made kindly reply to the effect that no amount of money could take the place of his obligation personally to rear his father’s family, to “fulfill the most sacred of all human trusts—loyalty to one’s own flesh and blood.” Rebecca’s father was deeply touched by Jesus’ words of family devotion and retired from the conference.

His only remark to Mary, his wife (Rebecca's mother), was:

“We can’t have him for a son; he is too noble for us.”

Then began that eventful talk with Rebecca. Thus far in his life, Jesus had made little distinction in his association with boys and girls, with young men and young women. His mind had been altogether too much occupied with the pressing problems of practical earthly affairs and the intriguing contemplation of his eventual career “about his Father’s business” ever to have given serious consideration to the consummation of personal love in human marriage. But now he was face to face with another of those problems which every average human being must confront and decide. Indeed was he “tested in all points like as you (humans) are.”

After listening attentively, he sincerely thanked Rebecca for her expressed admiration, adding:

“it shall cheer and comfort me all the days of my life.”

He (Jesus) explained that he was not free to enter into relations with any woman other than those of simple brotherly regard and pure friendship. He made it clear that his first and paramount duty was the rearing of his father’s family, that he could not consider marriage until that was accomplished; and then he added:

“If I am a son of destiny, I must not assume obligations of lifelong duration until such a time as my destiny shall be made manifest.”

Rebecca was heartbroken. She refused to be comforted and importuned her father to leave Nazareth until he finally consented to move to Sepphoris. In after years, to the many men who sought her hand in marriage, Rebecca had but one answer. She lived for only one purposeï—to await the hour when this, to her, the greatest man who ever lived would begin his career as a teacher of living truth.

And she followed him devotedly through his eventful years of public labor, being present (unobserved by Jesus) that day when he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem; and she stood “among the other women” by the side of Mary on that fateful and tragic afternoon when the Son of Man hung upon the cross, to her, as well as to countless worlds on high, “the one altogether lovely and the greatest among ten thousand.”

Since the name of Mary Magdalene appears in the Bible and in other writings connected with Jesus, it would be interesting to know what the Urantia Book's non-human authors tell about her. Yes, there are some remarkable information about this woman in the Urantia Book.

She was one of the twelve women disciples or apostles that Jesus selected for propagating his good news about the Kingdom of God among the people of earth.

I will cover that story from the my favorite book in another blog.

[Please also take some time to come back and read my previous  blogs and blogs on other topics as well. You can reach to those by clicking the links in this page. I would be happy if you take some time to express your views using the comments facility down below. Please  use the same comment facility to interact with me for any doubts or clarifications that you might have. Here is the page link which gives the   list of all my blogs  where you can open all my blog titles.]

The Emperor's New Clothes and the Neo-Indian Bourgeoisie !

The story of the emperor who was paraded naked in public apparently wearing the most exotic and invisible clothes made by two clever weavers was one that fascinated me for all these years after I read its abridged version in my native language Malayalam as a school boy.

The story goes some thing like this:

One day two clever fellows reach the emperor's palace posing as expert weavers of exotic clothes having some special magical qualities. They knew the art of making special clothes which are visible only to competent and intelligent people and not visible to fools. They were so excellent in their oratory skills of salesmanship that the emperor soon desired to have the dress made for him with this magical clothes.

They were appointed as the special royal weavers for making the special royal gown for the emperor and allotted a space in the palace to begin their weaving and tailoring. The clever guys shifted to the place and demanded money, gold and many such things from the palace to carry out their work and all those were duly sanctioned by the palace authorities.

The weavers soon appeared busy weaving and working with their looms and tools. But the palace authorities and the emperor himself could not see any clothes on the machines though they were all kept in action. But none of them dared to tell that lest they be branded as a fool. Instead, all preferred to praise the beauty of the clothe being made !

At last, the weavers declared that the royal gown was ready to be worn by the emperor. The emperor was duly escorted to the dressing room and the weavers acted so cleverly in making the king dress up with their new invisible dress that they supposedly created for him. All the emperor's ministers and officers were in full praise for the new dress that the emperor was supposedly wearing now even while the poor emperor was naked with no clothes on him in reality. The emperor too lacked the courage to raise his doubts in front of all others who were praising the new dress like any thing.

It was time for the emperor to make the royal parade for all his countrymen to see him in this exotic and magical dress ever made in the world.

The crowd too praised the emperor in the new beautiful gown. They talked each other praising the qualities of the new clothes of their emperor.

Then, alas, there was a little boy in the crowd who cried out loudly: ' Look Papa, our king is naked ! '

The story ends there.

The story was originally written by the Danish story writer Charles Christian Anderson as ' the Emperor's New Clothes ' in the early nineteenth century.

Anderson wrote this story to expose the hypocrisy and snobbery that he observed in his own society especially the middle class people who have been classified as the bourgeoisie. [ Let me write it phonetically as boorshwazee hereafter !]

The world has been undergoing various social class changes ever since. This class of people are the most hated ones in the economic theories and doctrines promulgated by Karl Marx and his followers. 

I am not here to give an analysis of the economic or class theories of great philosophers and writers.

The mindset of people who are neither poor nor traditionally rich is a peculiar type. That is the boorshwazee ( actual english pronunciation of bourgeoisie ) mindset. Whether it is in India or elsewhere, this mindset of this middle class is more or less the same. It has been the same for ages !

If you happen to be with this boorshwazee mindset you would exactly react the way the emperor and his courtiers behaved in the Anderson story which I mentioned earlier. You can never gain the courage to tell the truth in public ! Being transformed as a boorshwazee, the first thing you loose is your honesty- honesty to your own inner consciousness ! And of course, the courage to admit the truth openly regardless of what the other boorshwazee might think !

Now let me narrate some typical manners in which the neo-Indian boorshwazee conduct their day to day affairs making their lives a secret mockery for every one including themselves.

Some clever fellows, like the clever weavers in the Anderson story, have been telling them that the so-called new age public schools which extract huge sums of money from them officially and unofficially are the ones which transform the ordinary children to the so called elite class capable of speaking foreign English and such other pseudo mannerisms that are essential for getting admission to the elite class. The clever school business men have easily fooled them to believe all such nonsense that they are ready to sell out all their fortunes for getting their children admitted to such schools, even when the school management represented through  flashy principals or flashy sharp tongued lady teachers might insult them in so many ways ! They perhaps know and understand all these, but have now gained the boorshwazee mindset that they cannot possibly admit that ! 

So the clever 'weavers' of the public school education system keep exploiting them. In cities like the Delhi and its suburbs, these public schools  managed by societies and trusts of 'eminent' boorshwazee, but effectively controlled by shrewd businessmen who are more interested in money making than imparting education to the children of the locality, are effectively used to extract more than half of the household income of the young middle class parents for preparing their child for this kind of 'public school' education. Such looting by these schools have made these young working class parents with recenably good incomes so scared that many of them are not comfortable to have another baby in the household. But whether it is the school management or the parents, the mindset is boorshwazee that none of them can possibly ever admit the truth ! The simple truth that these schools do not impart any worthy education that justify the money they extract ! None of them can possibly raise the question on the money these school managements routinely collect from them as capitation fees, tuition fee and many other such fees. I was surprised to learn that some of these schools clandestinely collect admission fee amounting to the tune of Rs.200,000/- or more for admitting  a child to the nursery (kindergarten ) level class besides taking thousands of rupees as monthly fees !

The looters and the looted both belong to the boorshwazee class of neo-India ! So, if you are one, you would never ever make any hue and cry about this. You might well ridicule me publicly for writing this ! Even when you silently cry within yourself  or willing to share your woes to me privately.

Being a boorshwazee, you would never ever dare to tell your boss, friend or neighbour about any wrong that they knowingly or unknowingly do. Instead, you are likely to praise them always. You do not want to displease any one any time forsaking your comforts and possible advantages.

The boorshwazee always want to be with the majority. So you would like to be with the party in power or the majority of your vicinity who happen to oppose the party in power !

You try to develop a liking to the game of cricket when the majority around you exhibit themselves as cricket fans, even when you like the game of football more. But unfortunately, you fail to recognize the boorshwazee mindset of all others around you which made them fans of cricket like you ! That is the all pervading power of the boorshwazee mindset.

In the government various committees are set up to decide on various issues like award of contracts, framing rules, etc. The most powerful one would be the chairman of such committees. If he or she has some vested interests, he or she could easily make the rest of the committee members agree to his or her wish regardless of any guidelines or rules or statutes that are in vogue. Because, they are all with typical boorshwazee mindset and with that mindset they would be the last one to raise their voices against those in power or against the majority. 

There are several such examples and I do not want to elaborate all those.

My theory about the growth of boorshwazee mindset in any society is this: A developing nation is bound to have a higher percentage of boorswhazee among its population, the percentage would decline once the nation achieves the developed status.

Social evils, inequality and societal problems would be on a rising trend in a developing nation whose boorshwazee percentage also is also rising with the material development.

If you are with the boorswhazee mindset, it would be of great achievement to you if you could consciously take such mental exercises that could help you to  shed your boorshwazee mindset. 

Remember, the lesser percentage of the people with boorshwazee mindset  in the society, the more developed it is ! 

Do not be part of the crowd that would make the rulers of your country parade naked in public just as the emperor of the Anderson story ! 

   

[View the linked list of all Blogs of the Author Here ] 

The Wedding at Cana-the Story from the Urantia Book

By noon on Wednesday almost a thousand guests had arrived in Cana, more than four times the number invited to the wedding feast. It was a Jewish custom to celebrate weddings on Wednesday, and the invitations had been sent abroad for the wedding one month previously. In the forenoon and early afternoon it appeared more like a public reception for Jesus than a wedding. Everybody wanted to greet this near-famous Galilean, and he was most cordial to all, young and old, Jews and gentile. And everybody rejoiced when Jesus consented to lead the preliminary wedding procession.

Jesus was now thoroughly self-conscious regarding his human existence, his divine pre-existence, and the status of his combined, or fused, human and divine natures. With perfect poise he could at one moment enact the human role or immediately assume the personality prerogatives of the divine nature.

As the day slowly passed on, Jesus became increasingly conscious that the people were expecting him to perform some wonder; more especially he recognized that his family and his six disciple-apostles were looking for him appropriately to announce his forthcoming kingdom by some startling and supernatural manifestation.

Early in the afternoon Mary (earthly mother of Jesus) summoned James (Jesus’ earthly brother), and together they made bold to approach Jesus to inquire if he would admit them to his confidence to the extent of informing them at what hour and at what point in connection with the wedding ceremonies he had planned to manifest himself as the ‘supernatural one.’

 No sooner had they spoken of these matters to Jesus than they saw they had aroused his characteristic dislike. He said only this much:

“If you love me, then be willing to be with me while I wait upon the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

But the eloquence of his rebuke lay in the expression of his face.

This move of his mother was a great disappointment to the human Jesus, and he was much sobered by his reaction to her suggestive proposal that he permit himself to indulge in some outward demonstration of his divinity.

That was one of the very things he had decided not to do when so recently isolated in the hills.

For several hours Mary was much depressed.

She said to James:

“I cannot understand him; what can it all mean? Is there no end to his strange conduct?”

James and Jude tried to comfort their mother, while Jesus withdrew for an hour’s solitude.

But he returned to the gathering and was once more lighthearted and joyous.

The wedding proceeded with a hush of expectancy, but the entire ceremony was finished and not a move, not a word, from the honored guest. Then it was whispered about that the carpenter and boat-builder, announced by John as “the Deliverer,” would show his hand during the evening festivities, perhaps at the wedding supper.

But all expectance of such a demonstration was effectually removed from the minds of his six disciple-apostles when he called them together just before the wedding supper and, in great earnestness, said:

“Think not that I have come to this place to work some wonder for the gratification of the curious or for the conviction of those who doubt. Rather are we here to wait upon the will of our Father who is in heaven.”

But when Mary and the others saw him in consultation with his associates, they were fully persuaded in their own minds that something extraordinary was about to happen. And they all sat down to enjoy the wedding supper and the evening of festive good fellowship.

The father of the bridegroom had provided plenty of wine for all the guests bidden to the marriage feast, but how was he to know that the marriage of his son was to become an event so closely associated with the expected manifestation of Jesus as the Messianic deliverer? He was delighted to have the honor of numbering the celebrated Galilean among his guests, but before the wedding supper was over, the servants brought him the disconcerting news that the wine was running short.

By the time the formal supper had ended and the guests were strolling about in the garden, the mother of the bridegroom confided to Mary that the supply of wine was exhausted.

And Mary confidently said:

“Have no worry—I will speak to my son. He will help us.”

And thus did she presume to speak, notwithstanding the rebuke of but a few hours before.

Throughout a period of many years, Mary had always turned to Jesus for help in every crisis of their home life at Nazareth so that it was only natural for her to think of him at this time. But this ambitious mother had still other motives for appealing to her eldest son on this occasion.

As Jesus was standing alone in a corner of the garden, his mother approached him, saying,

“My son, they have no wine.”

And Jesus answered,

“My good woman, what have I to do with that?”

Said Mary, “But I believe your hour has come; cannot you help us?”

Jesus replied: “Again I declare that I have not come to do things in this wise. Why do you trouble me again with these matters?”

And then, breaking down in tears, Mary entreated him,

“But, my son, I promised them that you would help us; won’t you please do something for me?”

And then spoke Jesus:

“Woman, what have you to do with making such promises? See that you do it not again. We must in all things wait upon the will of the Father in heaven.”

Mary the mother of Jesus was crushed; she was stunned!

As she stood there before him motionless, with the tears streaming down her face, the human heart of Jesus was overcome with compassion for the woman who had borne him in the flesh; and bending forward, he laid his hand tenderly upon her head, saying:

“Now, now, Mother Mary, grieve not over my apparently hard sayings, for have I not many times told you that I have come only to do the will of my heavenly Father? Most gladly would I do what you ask of me if it were a part of the Father’s will—”

And Jesus stopped short, he hesitated.

Mary seemed to sense that something was happening. Leaping up, she threw her arms around Jesus’ neck, kissed him, and rushed off to the servants’ quarters, saying,

 “Whatever my son says, that do.”

But Jesus said nothing. He now realized that he had already said—or rather desirefully thought—too much.

Mary was dancing with glee. She did not know how the wine would be produced, but she confidently believed that she had finally persuaded her first-born son to assert his authority, to dare to step forth and claim his position and exhibit his Messianic power.

And, because of the presence and association of certain universe powers and personalities, of which all those present were wholly ignorant, she was not to be disappointed.

The wine Mary desired and which Jesus, the God-man, humanly and sympathetically wished for, was forthcoming.

Near at hand, stood six water-pots of stone, filled with water, holding about twenty gallons apiece.

This water was intended for subsequent use in the final purification ceremonies of the wedding celebration. The commotion of the servants about these huge stone vessels, under the busy direction of his mother, attracted Jesus’ attention, and going over, he observed that they were drawing wine out of them by the pitcher.

It was gradually dawning upon Jesus what had happened.

Of all persons present at the marriage feast of Cana, Jesus was the most surprised.

Others had expected him to work a wonder, but that was just what he had purposed not to do.

And then the Son of Man recalled the admonition of his Personalized Thought Adjuster in the hills. He recounted how the Adjuster had warned him about the inability of any power or personality to deprive him of the creator prerogative of independence of time.

On this occasion power transformers, midwayers, and all other required personalities were assembled near the water and other necessary elements, and in the face of the expressed wish of the Universe Creator Sovereign, there was no escaping the instantaneous appearance of wine.

And this occurrence was made doubly certain since the Personalized Adjuster had signified that the execution of the Son’s desire was in no way a contravention of the Father’s will.

But this was in no sense a miracle.

No law of nature was modified, abrogated, or even transcended.

Nothing happened but the abrogation of time in association with the celestial assembly of the chemical elements requisite for the elaboration of the wine.

At Cana on this occasion the agents of the Creator made wine just as they do by the ordinary natural processes except that they did it independently of time and with the intervention of superhuman agencies in the matter of the space assembly of the necessary chemical ingredients.

Furthermore it was evident that the enactment of this so-called miracle was not contrary to the will of the Paradise Father, else it would not have transpired, since Jesus had already subjected himself in all things to the Father’s will.

When the servants drew this new wine and carried it to the best man, the “ruler of the feast,” and when he had tasted it, he called to the bridegroom, saying:

“It is the custom to set out first the good wine and, when the guests have well drunk, to bring forth the inferior fruit of the vine; but you have kept the best of the wine until the last of the feast.”

Mary and the disciples of Jesus were greatly rejoiced at the supposed miracle which they thought Jesus had intentionally performed, but Jesus withdrew to a sheltered nook of the garden and engaged in serious thought for a few brief moments.

He finally decided that the episode was beyond his personal control under the circumstances and, not being adverse to his Father’s will, was inevitable.

When he returned to the people, they regarded him with awe; they all believed in him as the Messiah.

But Jesus was sorely perplexed, knowing that they believed in him only because of the unusual occurrence which they had just inadvertently beheld.

Again Jesus retired for a season to the housetop that he might think it all over.

[This story with much details as retold in Paper-137 of the Urantia Book has made me think deeper into the meanings of all these. Reading this has been very refreshing to my mind. For reading the Urantia Book visit my website.]