Motivational and Inspirational Posts 4

• I was speaking to the Lord one day and asked Him the difference between Heaven and Hell.
• ‘Come, I’ll show you,’ said the Lord, as He led me up to two doors.  
• I was first taken to Hell. I had expected it to be full of fire, flames, miseries etc. To my utter surprise it was all green, well manicured gardens, 8 lane roads, great facilities etc. I was shocked. 
• However, the inhabitants were very frail and thin. As if they have not eaten for days – skin stretched on skeleton!
• I then went to Heaven. The scene here was exactly the same. Same infrastructure, greenery, roads etc. The only difference was that the inhabitants looked very fit, healthy and happy!
• What was the mystery? I rushed to Lord and asked. “Please tell me why people at these two places look so different?”
• Lord smiled. “Did you see their canteen?”
• “No. What is there to see in the canteen?” I asked.
• “There you will find your answer!” Lord said.
• I went again. Outside the Hell canteen, there was a notice. “You can eat ONLY with the spoon provided”. There was a big spoon put on the notice board – 2 feet long. Also the spoon was tied to the one arm of each inhabitant as they entered (with elbow locked), the other arm was tied behind his back. 
• Inside the canteen, the scene was interesting. Each person was dipping his spoon in the food and throwing it towards his mouth & attempting to catch the food. 
• Everyone was doing that. All were busy. Most of the food was falling on the floor.
• I then went to Heaven’s canteen. Same rule, same spoon! Yet the scene was different. However, here people were sitting in pairs, facing each other. 
• Each person was picking food in the spoon and feeding the person in front. No one was shirking. Every person was doing his/her job. No one was fed out of pity, none were pleading helplessness.
• "It is simple" said the Lord, "In this place the people have learned to feed one another." The greedy think only of themselves.’
• The Long Spoon and yet Short of Life. Wow! If we only think of “I/Self, Me, My/Mine”, we may most likely create hell around us (to create their individual heavens people fighting for resources, power and control only to create hell for each other). 
• If we choose to be in pure contribution mode (not ‘Helping out of pity” which is totally opposite and fuels the ego subtly), where we contribute to others, “Help them to help themselves”, we may create heaven around us. 
• The rooms, pots, stews, spoons and constraints are all the same, for all of us. Trying to feed yourself or learning to feed each other.  – we all have it in our power to create our own heaven or hell, right here on this earth.

Moral of the story

Whenever we find something a drag and struggle, let's do a check. Are we shifting to ME-ME mode from the contribution mode. Shift the choice back to pure contribution and see the drag disappear magically! The joy of being a star pilot in one's own life is miniscule in comparison to the joy of assisting others to fly in their lives in reaching their dream destination. Come forward, contribute and assist everyone to be a winner and then see what comes our way. We'll simply be amazed!!!