A holy man was talking to God one day.
Priest; Sir, I want to know what is the nature of paradise and hell. (the kingdom of heaven, and evil)
In answer, the Lord presented two doors to the holy man;.
He opened one, and they entered ... In the middle of the room was a large round table, and in the middle there was a large pot, including a tasty vegetable stew. The Priest could smell the wonderful food, and became very hungry. The people who sat around the table were bone thin and pale as death. All were starving.
Each has a long-handled spoon in his hands. All of them reached the sabji in the bowl. But as the spoon handle was longer than their arms, they could not raise the spoon to their mouth !
The holy man shuddered miserably, seeing their suffering.
God then said What in the hell did you see ?!
Then they both entered the second door. Opened it, and the sight revealed by God, was the same as the previous room. There was a large round table, a delicious pot of stew, which made the holy man again to feel hunger. People sat around the table with the same long-handled spoon held in their hands. But this time the people are well fed, they were smiling, laughing and talking with each other. The holy man then spoke;
Priest; I do not understand ! How are they so happy compared to the others, so worry free?
The Lord; Oh, this is simple, it is a questions of learning.
These have learned to feed each other, while in the first room, the greedy and selfish people think only of themselves ! ...
Comments
The affection has a peculiar feature:
the smaller one directs the bigger one. When the little boy takes his father's finger, and one draw it into a direction, his father is going with him.
The father of course stronger, compared to him the little boy's strength insignificant, the strength of the tenderness overcomes his father after all. There are tenderness and affection where the smaller one directs the bigger one.
( HH. Bhakti.Raksaka. Srídhara Swami: Observe the angels! )
Wonderful illustrations of the power of cooperation and love! Yes, Krsna Himself falls under the sway of the pure love of His devotees. This makes for equality, yes? In fact, the lesser becomes the greater, in this sense. When we realize our true identities as eternal servants of Krishna, and Krishna includes all His expansion parts and parcels, we will lose our selfishness with a small "s", and things then can fall into blissful place, and we can become satisfied.