Story of a Sculptor

 

 

Once there lived a very famous Sculptor. He was very proud of his achievements and was very ambitious to achieve more. Once an astrologer told him that he would die with in a few years. 

 

He was very upset and wanted to outsmart God's decision to take away his life. So instead of spending the rest of his precious time in the service of God, he decided to make 10 statues of himself perfectly resembling the real him in every way, except that they did not have life. When the day he was destined to die, he stood among those statues like a statue. As the astrologer predicted, the God of death, Yama Dharma Raja came to take him and God Himself was very confused to see the eleven statues and found it hard to differentiate the real sculptor from his perfect statues. Yama Dhama Raja meditated on Mahavaishnu and a bright idea came to his mind. 

 

Yama Dharma Raja said loudly to himself:" One of these statues are defective. Not all of them are equally perfect. "

 

The arrogant, real sculptor who was pretending to be a statue jumped out and shouted: "Who is a better sculptor than me to say that one of my statues are defective? All of them are perfect replicas of myself."

 

Yama Dharma Raja's confusion was cleared instantly and he took the sculptor away against all his protest. He tried to resist, he cried, he tried to hang on to his beloved statues, but nothing helped him to stay back in the same body.  

 

Yama Dharma Raja said: "Nobody can outsmart God. If only you had surrendered to God and spent your remaining life in the service of Him, end of your life in this body would have been more peaceful and smooth and you would have been experiencing eternal bliss. Arrogance and selfishness destroys one. When I was confused, did you see what I did? I meditated on Lord Vishnu and He persuaded me to say that "one of the statues are defective". Now I have to take you and at least in the next life that you will get after experiencing the results of your negative actions in this subtle body, please remember Bhagavan in pain and pleasure alike. He is the only one who can change or not change things."

 

May Bhagavan bless us with an attitude of total surrender!