Pray Until Something Happens

[Neutral Singh]

A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly his room filled
with light, and God appeared. The Lord told the man he had work for him
to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. The Lord
explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might.
So, this the man did, day after day. For many years he toiled from sun up
to sun down; his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface
of the unmoving rock, pushing with all of his might. Each night the man
returned to his cabin sore and worn out, feeling that his whole day had
been spent in vain.

Since the man was showing discouragement, the Adversary (Satan) decided to
enter the picture by placing thoughts in the man's weary mind: "You have
been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't moved," thus
giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he wa
s a failure. These thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.

"Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time,
giving just the minimum effort; and that will be good enough." And that
is what he planned to do, until one day he decided to make it a matter of
prayer and take his troubled thoughts to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "I
have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to do
that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even
budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"


The Lord responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve
Me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the
rock with all of your strength, which you have done. Never once did I
mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And
now you come to Me with you strength spent, t hinking that you have
failed. But, is that really so? Look at yourself. Your arms are strong
and muscled, your back sinewy and brown, your hands are callused from
constant pressure, your legs have become massive and hard. Through
opposition you have grown much, and your abilities now surpass that which
you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was
to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My
wisdom. This you have done. Now I, My friend, will move the rock."

At times, when we hear a word from God, we tend to use our own intellect
to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just a simple
obedience and faith in Him. By all means, exercise the faith that moves
mountains, but know that it is still God who moves mountains.

When everything seems to go wrong, just PUSH! When the job gets you down,
just PUSH! When people don't react the wa y you think they should, just
PUSH! When your money looks "gone" and the bills are due, just PUSH! When
people just don't understand you, just PUSH!

P= Pray
U= Until
S= Something
H= Happens

 

[Amarpal]

Dear Member (sikhphilosophy),

The story you have put on this forum has few inconsistencies with the Sikh Religion.

I can make out that the story has come from the collection of some religion that originated in what we now call ‘Middle East’. There the God is conceptualised in a different manner than done in Sikh Religion.

In those religions all the good things that happen in the life of an individual are attributed to ‘God’, and for the bad things the ‘Satan’ is blamed. The religions of ‘Middle East’ have two entities – ‘God’ and ‘Satan’ - that operate in parallel, which the story you have posted suggests. A doubt come the mind; who created ‘Satan’: why will God create an adversary ‘Satan’? If ‘God’ is one then it is every thing. By creating ‘Satan’ they have created ‘Duality’.

Sikh religion is monotheistic religion; this concept Guru Sahib has summed up in a single phrase right in the beginning of ‘Siri Guru Granth Sahib’ – ‘Ek Onkar’; there is no place for Duality in our religion. Good and bad things happen in our life because of the cause and effect of our Karmas, this reason is rational. Such stories, which include beliefs contrary to Sikh Religion, if told to sikh children, their tender minds will get confused, we must be careful in what we are teaching.

Second aspect on which I am commenting is related to prayers. ‘Naam’ is essential part of our religion; it is followed by another equally important part ‘Kirt’. We grow by applying these two elements together in our life. Prayer alone produces inactive people, which we Sikhs are not.

The third aspect that I want to comment is the idea of attempting to make the story more potent to tender minds by using the word ‘Miracle’. Miracles have no place in Sikh Religion. If it were so our Guru Sahibs would have used miracles to secure victories in the battles against the adversaries. History tells us that Guru Sahib won many battles and lost many. No Miracles were used. Siri Guru Nanak Dev Jee did not use miracles to avoid being imprisoned by Babar. All this is part of recorded history. I repeat that ‘Miracles’ have no place in Sikh Religion; we have to evolve and become great by our own efforts.

I will give a different meaning to the word ‘PUSH’ – Perform Until Success is Harvested, this is the way I see it.

Please keep in mind that stories, like metaphors, have the capacity to by-pass the resistance of conscious mind and reach the deeper layers of consciousness where they reside permanently as values and beliefs. What we tell to our children will affect their tender minds. If we are not very careful, we cannot blame our children if they acquire un-sikh-like beliefs. We have to be careful in selecting entities to which we expose our young children.

With Love and Respect for all.

Amarpal

 

[Arvind]

Keep on PUSHing, and let God take credit of the naam and kirt?

If success
then God did it
else
keep on PUSHing until success
default: God does it

Is that what we call Karta Purukh? And we are advised not to get the misconception of being Karta ourselves?

 

[Gyani Jarnail Singh]

Waheguru Ji ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji ki fateh.

IMHO there is a little bit of Gurmat in this story. When we read the life stories of Guru nanak ji, we find that His sons.."questioned" every Hukm Guru ji Gave..."why pick up the katora from the dirty sewer ? Why did you throw it there in the first place IF you needed it ?, "just use another katora..we have plenty"..etc etc..While Bhai lehna Ji didnt question one little bit and just jumped into the sewer and retrieved the katora for Guru ji...and thus became GURU ANGAD JI.

Secondly the Tharra building story of Guru Amrdass Ji and Guru ramdass Ji..Guru Amardass ji kept on "REJECTING" the tharras built by his sons and Bhai Jetha Ji..until the sons gave up and said" we have built the tharras exactly as you want but since you are not satisfied we cant do any more"...BUT Bhai jetha Ji continued building and re-building as often as Guru ji commanded and never once "give up"....and thus became GURU RAMDASS JI.

So the underlying lesson for us seems to be to OBEY the GURU's COMMAND. We are Sant Sipahis... Our "DUTY" is NOT to QUESTION WHY ??? But to DO and DIE !!!...am I right ?? Guru Angad Ji and Guru Ramdass ji sure behaved this way...in the sakhis above.

Gurbani says: Swaal jawab dohen kare mundoh ghuttah jaiyeh... One who QUESTIONS and "OBEYS" at the SAME time loses BOTH WORLDS

Secondly the shanka about Satan/God...Duality. In Gurmat we also seem to have this same DUALITY.... our "satan" is in the Form of MAYA. Gurbani again and again stresses on DUALITY...and how we MUST DESTROY DUALITY and just stick with ONE WAHEGURU. And who "created" MAYA..it has to be WAHEGURU..because no one else can create anything..certainly nothing as big as MAYA.
Jarnail Singh