EMPTY SHELLS Once upon a time, there was a man who lived in a hut in a deep forest who spent his days praying and fasting. He believed that the more prayers he said, the holier he would be. So he kept on muttering over and over again the many prayers he had learnt from his childhood. It occurred to him that it would be a wonderful thing to keep a count of the many prayers he used to say every day so that at the end of his life he might offer them to God. Thus every time he said a prayer he used to keep a walnut inside a big jar. He carried on doing that until, one day, he had countless jars lined up outside his hut. As the line of jars was lengthening, the happier he was, and of course, the happier God was, so he thought. One day, an itinerant monk passing by asked him what were all the jars doing there. With great pride he replied: “The remind me and God, of course of the great number of prayers I said.” The monk replied, “Kindly take a stone and crack all these nuts one by one. If you do think I am sure that God will teach you a little lesson.” Our pious man did as he was told, but only found that the kernel of each nut had dried up. When he finished cracking all the nuts, the only thing that remained on the ground was a large heap of empty shells! Then the monk said, “Is not God teaching you a lesson or two about the emptiness and useless of your prayers?” ------------------------------- The value of prayer is gauged by its quality and not quantity!
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 05:38:50 +0000
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