Once, Lord Indra got upset with Farmers, he announced there will be No rain for 12 years & you won’t be able to produce crops
Farmers begged for clemency from Lord Indra, who then said, Rain will be possible only if Lord Shiva plays his Damru, but he secretly requested Lord Shiva not to agree to these Farmers & when Farmers reached Lord Shiva he repeated the same thing that he will play Damru after 12 years.
Disappointed Farmers decided to wait till 12 years but one Farmer regularly was digging treating & putting manure in the soil & sowing the seeds even with no crop emerging.
Other Farmers were making fun of that Farmer. After 3 years all Farmers asked that Farmer why are you wasting your time and energy when you know that rains will not come before 12 years.
He replied “I know that crop won’t come out but I’m doing it as a matter of “practice”. After 12 years I will forget the process of growing crops and working in the field so I must keep it doing so that I’m fit to produce the crop, the moment there is rain after 12 years.”
Hearing his argument Goddess Parvati praised his version before Lord Shiva & said You may also lose the practice of playing the Damru after 12 years.
The innocent Lord Shiva in his anxiety just tried to play the Damru, if he could, and hearing the sound of Damru immediately there was rain and the farmer who was regularly working in the field got his crop emerged immediately and others were disappointed.
Debriefing of this story
The game is won during the practice, not during the performance. If you are waiting for the good opportunity before you start practicing, then you have lost the race.
“Practice is boring but that’s what makes your performance interesting”
Present Moment Is Eternity
We always wait for not doing our duty or practice. The farmer who also has heard Indra’s announcement, but he was the person who created meaning in his life. For him life is meaningless unless we create meaning to it, for him life was grace of God, so for him he is not living for any meaning but creating meaning from his every act.
He thought that Indra can control rain but he cannot control my practice. I have to sharpen my practice in all circumstances. His thinking was very insightful, so irrespective of all the odd circumstances he has not given up his practice. He has full trust in himself without any expectation, desire. This is call non-attachment.
All the other farmers were doing their job for the fruits bit only the one who was not at all worried regarding fruits of his act, knowing well that there will be no rain still with the same enthusiasm he was regularly digging treating & putting manure in the soil & sowing the seeds even with no crop emerging.
When you do any act for your own joy, without any desire expectation of the fruits, it will become a prayer. Prayer is not in the words, it’s through your action. When this farmer without any desire for fruits did his act even Shiva followed him, he found truth in farmer when he said “I know that crop won’t come out but I’m doing it as a matter of “practice”. After 12 years I will forget the process of growing crops and working in the field so I must keep it doing so that I’m fit to produce the crop, the moment there is rain after 12 years.”
He was focused on what he was doing, practising so when there will be rain his practise only will help him. All the farmers were making fun of him. But still he continue. This is trust in himself, living in unknown. There is not somewhere in the future that we can live in unknown we can live in unknown only in this moment. There is no other eternity other then this moment.
Now is eternity; now is the immortal life.
Learning from story It Will Rain Only After 12 Years: Present Moment Is Eternity
Experience Learning
What is Death and Eternity?
When you walk through a forest that has not been tamed and interfered with by man, you will see not only abundant life all around you, but you will also encounter fallen trees and decaying trunks, rotting leaves and decomposing matter at every step. Wherever you look, you will find death as well as life.
Upon closer scrutiny, however, you will discover that the decomposing tree trunk and rotting leaves not only give birth to new life, but are full of life themselves. Microorganisms are at work. Molecules are rearranging themselves. So death isn’t to be found anywhere. There is only the metamorphosis of life forms. What can you learn from this?
Death is not the opposite of life. Life has no opposite. The opposite of death is birth. Life is eternal.
Sages and poets throughout the ages have recognized the dreamlike quality of human existence – seemingly so solid and real and yet so fleeting that it could dissolve at any moment.
At the hour of your death, the story of your life may, indeed, appear to you like a dream that is coming to an end. Yet even in a dream there must be an essence that is real. There must be a consciousness in which the dream happens; otherwise, it would not be.
That consciousness – does the body create it or does consciousness create the dream of body, the dream of somebody?
Why have most of those who went through a near-death experience lost their fear of death? Reflect upon this.
Of course you know you are going to die, but that remains a mere mental concept until you meet death “in person” for the first time: through a serious illness or an accident that happens to you or someone close to you, or through the passing away of a loved one, death enters your life as the awareness of your own morality.
Most people turn away from it in fear, but if you do not flinch and face the fact that your body is fleeting and could dissolve at any moment, there is some degree of disidentification, however slight, from your own physical and psychological form, the “me”. When you see and accept the impermanent nature of all life forms, a strange sense of peace comes upon you.
