Slow growth to success

Slow & steady wins the race

A girl, about to get happily married, goes to the cellar to fetch wine, and sees a large stone in the corner (used to press pickled cabbages). She imagines being married, having a baby, and then imagines her darling little boy sneaking down into the cellar, and then pictures the stone accidentally falling on him and crushing him to death. The image is so vivid that she breaks down crying in the middle of the cellar. Her mother follows, hears what she is crying about, and breaks down as well. So does the father. Eventually the groom shows up, and when finds out that the entire family is crying about the unlikely death of a nonexistent child, he sets out saying that he will only marry the girl if he finds bigger fools than her. He goes out, and he does - turns out, the world is full of people with their own particular foolish ways. So he returns and marries her, and they live happily ever after.

A shy barber desperately wants to make friends, so he joins a procession - that turns out to be made of convicts walking to execution. By the time he realizes his mistake, he doesn't want to make a fuss, so he goes along with the whole thing, and doesn't speak up. The story goes all the way to the actual execution before someone notices the extra person in the lineup in the last possible second. The barber gets to live, and learns something about speaking up for himself.

काक चेष्टा, बको ध्यानं, स्वान निद्रा तथैव च
स्वल्पहारी, गृहत्यागी विद्यार्थी पंच लक्षणं।

Kaaka chyeshta bako dhyanam.
Swana nindra tathaiwa cha
Swalpahari, grihathyaagi,
Vidyarthi pancha lakshanam.

1. Perseverance & Effort of a Crow
2. Concentration of a Heron
3. Alert & Light Sleep like a Dog
4. Eat Light
5. Lesser attachment of homely pleasure

Spirituality is the gym for your inner peace. Daily ritual brings mental clarity.