Stories; lesson giving stories

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10-Akbar and a Girl Read also   Akbar and Birbal Stories
The emperor Akbar was a very religious king. He used to sit for his Namaaz (Muslim prayer) five times daily. Once when he was traveling. It was time for his prayers, so he spread a sheet by the wayside and sat down to pray.
It so happened that a young girl had promised her lover that she would come to meet him. And the lover had said that if she did not come by a particular hour he would leave. She was late so she ran to the rendezvous point. While running to meet her lover, she stepped on the sheet on which Akbar sat in meditation. Akbar was infuriated and when she returned a few minutes later he accosted her and said in an angry voice - "Can't you see? How dare you step on this sheet?"
The girl said - "I am sorry, but I was in a hurry. I had to meet my lover, I was already late. If I did not meet him on time he would have left. While running I did not notice the sheet. But, by the way what were you doing here on this sheet spreading on the wayside?"
"I was praying ." said Akbar.
The girl said - "Then how did you know that I had stepped on the sheet? It means you were not meditating. Were you with God or were you looking at me?" REFLECTION
This story shows more devotion of the girl to her lover as she did not know that she stepped on the sheet while less devotion of Akbar who cold know who stepped on his sheet. The devotion means forgetting about everything else, becoming completely lost in one's Isht is true devotion. You cannot reach God like this. There has to be determination. Just catching hold of His feet won't get you anywhere. No one teaches a river how to merge into the ocean. It just rushes and loses itself in the latter's vastness. This too is an important achievement of life. Just as laughing and crying are inseparable parts of life similarly life is incomplete without this fusion. You have to lose yourself completely, only then shall you gain something worthwhile.