Raja Janaka and Narada

My New Year's first blog...I am still continuing with the series of stories with a moral...Today I am going to write about Raja Janaka's story. He was the father of Sita.

Raja Janaka was a great king who ruled over a great kingdom. One day Narada, the messenger of Gods came down to him and said, "O Great King...I have heard so much about your greatness. I have heard that you are a powerful and generous king. At the same time I have heard that you are a 'Vidhehi' (one who is above everything)...How can it be possible as you are such a powerful king having so many responsibilities, have so many luxuries, have so many things to worry about and still how can you be above all this? "

For this Raja Janaka responded, "Narad, I will answer your question in the evening. But please do me a favor. Can you please hold this pot filled with milk to the brim and not allow even a drop to spill. Please have this pot with you and return it back to me in the evening."

The sage Narada came back in the evening and was looking all irritated. Raja Janaka asked him what happened. To that Narada retorted, "I have been carrying this pot all day and have not been able to do anything else lest the milk spill from it. All my attention has been on this pot. I didn't see anyone, talk to anyone or do anything else."

Raja Janaka said, "My friend, that is exactly how my attention is. My attention is all the time on my spirit and hence I do not get bothered with any mundane things. My attention is always at a higher level."

Narada said, "O Great one, you have opened my eyes. I now understand the importance of attention. Long live King Janaka!"

This story talks about the importance of attention in our daily lives. If we keep our attention on something pure, then we rise above all other evils. So always keep your attention on good things and remember attention is different from concentration. You may ask how can we keep our attention on pure things when there is so much evil around us. We keep hearing, watching and reading so much negative stuff. That is very true, so to help improve your attention power, try meditating. This will take away all the negative thoughts and ideas and help focus your attention only on the positive.

So until next time, be purely attentive ;-)