Leap of Faith

This is a story of a mountain climber and his team who started on an expedition to scale the heights of a mountain in Himalayas. The mountain climber planned to break the previous record by climbing the mountain higher than the other mountaineers in the past. His team was fully prepared for the hostile climate of the Himalayas. After scaling a considerable height, only few feet were left to set the world record. The team decided to rest for the day and experience the remaining part of the adventure the next day. But the greed caught better of the mountain climber. Against the consensus of the team, the mountaineer decided to continue climbing. The technicians warned the mountaineer of the merciless storm approaching quickly. But the mountaineer was adamant. He started walking towards the peak. The storm gathered faster than expected. Soon, the surroundings drowned in pitch black darkness. The mountaineer used his torch to find the way but the storm was so fierce that the mountaineer could not see anything. His hope hinged on his luck and his intution. After an hour of arduous struggle the mountaineer knew he was only a few feet away from setting the world record. Suddenly, the rock on which he stood gave away and the mountaineer and the rock both rolled down the cliff. The mountaineer had a free fall before he got stuck in the branches of a tree jutting out of the vertical cliff. He prayed fervently to god. He could hear some faint voices. The voices grew louder. It was telling him to break the branches & jump. He thought that these were just hallucination due to fatigue... perhaps? Mountaineer could hear the voices again! IT simply asked him to break the branches and jump! Mountaineer refused to listen to the divine voices. The cold bitter storm grew stronger and the mountaineer just stayed stuck in the branches for the rest of the night. The next day, the mountaineer's team started with the rescue team to find the lost mountaineer. After searching for a couple of hours they found him lodged in the branches of a tree...DEAD...just two feet above the firm ground! *** We lead our lives like the mountaineer. We work hard in life to scale the heights of success. Sometimes we fall down. And when we are groped by the problems we just pray to god. But do we let our selves fall in the lap of divine. We want god to help us. But unless we TRUST god, how can HE help? In fact how can anyone help you? To let go in the lap of divine, to trust the "un-manifested" divinity, we need strength. Surrendering gives us that strength to trust divine. Know that divine knows what is the best for you! Jai gurudeva! -- O.A.K. Tree