Little Sparrow!

“Fully rely on the grace of God, earn it and keep it. Then whatever be the magnitude of the calamity you face, you can survive it without any harm.” (Bhagwan Baba)

This is a little anecdote that our Beloved Bhagwan Baba, once narrated to His students.

There was a huge tree in a forest. It had a huge trunk and many large branches. The branches further had numerous small branches growing on them and there were innumerable leaves on them all. A tiny sparrow was perched on one of the tender branches.

All of a sudden, a storm started to brew. First of all, the leaves of the tree started fluttering. As the wind became stronger, the lighter branches started shaking. Eventually the gale became a virtual tempest and the mighty trunk of the tree started to shake!

But what about the sparrow? Yes! This is what Bhagwan Baba asked His students as they sat around him, eagerly awaiting the climax of the story. He asked them, “What happened to the sparrow?”

The boys offered answers like, “It got badly hurt”. Or, “It died!” But Baba shook His head, smiled and said “Nothing happened to it! It just flew away!” Now, that was quite a disappointing and a seemingly ordinary climax to a suspense filled build up. Baba said, “The tiny bird flew away because it was independent!”

It was ‘in’-dependent! It was dependent on its own inner reserve of strength. It did not rely on the might of the tree to give it shelter or succour! In times of distress or crisis, look within for strength, before you reach out to others for help!

More often than not, you are self-sufficient to deal with the situation. It is just a question of looking within and having the faith that God’s grace is eternally your legacy.