Those who believe in pure love, pause at Tokyo's busy Shibuya station to pay tribute to the statue of Hachiko, an Akita dog.

Hachiko was a pup when professor Eisaburo Ueno took him home in 1924. An inseparable bond developed between them. Each day Hachiko would accompany the professor to the station to see him off to work. In the evening when the professor would return, he would find Hachiko waiting expectantly for him!

This routine continued for a year, until one evening when Hachiko watched the train pass by and wondered why his friend did not return. The professor had suffered a stroke and died at work. But Hachiko refused to leave the station and continued to wait at the same spot for 10 long years. Tearful commuters would pat Hachiko and marvel at his devotion.

Finally, when Hachiko died in 1935 at the same station, he did so in love and not in fear and perhaps reincarnated into a higher species.

When perfect love casts out fear, a transfer to a new and more enlightened sphere of existence takes place. Evolution itself is dependent on the love and the endless longing for love is also an inherent desire for the soul to evolve.

Ramana's reply to his mother when she requested that he return home with her, "The ordainer (God) controls the fate of souls in accordance with their destinies. Whatever is destined not to happen will not happen, try as you may. Whatever is destined to happen will happen, do what you may to prevent it. This is certain. The best course, therefore is to remain silent".

Sometimes when we are feeling sad, its important just to feel the sadness. Like a snake shedding its skin, old feelings of remorse, regret, hurt and anger often have to come up in order to be released (disentangled, gently dismissed). On the other side we are a better person, capable of a happier life, who we are when we are no longer burdened by the buried feelings that weighed us down, or the self-defeating patterns that the pain produced.

During a conversation on non-attachment, Bhagavan said, “In this part of the country, one of our ancients wrote, ‘O Lord, thou hast given me a hand to use as a pillow under my head, a cloth to cover my loins, hands wherewith to eat food, what more do I want? This is my great good fortune’! That is the purport of the verse. Is it really possible to say how great a good fortune that is? Even the greatest kings wish for such happiness. There is nothing to equal it. Having experienced both these conditions, I know the difference between this and that. These beds, sofa, and articles around me – all this is bondage.”

“Is not the Buddha an example of this?” asked a devotee. Thereupon Sri Bhagavan began speaking about Buddha. “Yes.” Said Bhagavan, “When the Buddha was in the palace with all possible luxuries in the world, he was still sad. To remove his sadness, his father created more luxuries than ever. But none of them satisfied the Buddha. At midnight he left his wife and child and disappeared. He remained in great austerity for 6 years, realized the Self; and for the welfare of the world became a mendicant (bhikshu). It was only after he became a mendicant that he enjoyed great bliss. Really, what more did he require?”

“In the garb of a mendicant he came to his own city, did he not?” asked a devotee. “Yes, yes,” said Bhagavan. “Having heard that he was coming, his father, Suddhodana, decorated the royal elephant and went out with his whole army to receive him on the main road. But without touching the main road, the Buddha came by side roads and by-lanes; he sent his close associates to the various streets for alms while he himself in the guise of a mendicant went by another way to his father. How could the father know that his son was coming in that guise! Yasodhara (the Buddha’s wife), however, recognized him, made her son prostrate before his father and herself prostrated. After that, the father recognized the Buddha. Suddhodana however, had never expected to see his son in such a state and was very angry and shouted, ‘Shame on you! What is this garb? Does one who should have the greatest of riches come like this? I've had enough of it!’ and with that, he looked furiously at the Buddha. Knowing that his father had not yet got rid of his ignorance, the Buddha too, began to look at his father with even greater intensity. In this war of looks, the father was defeated. He fell at the feet of his son and himself became a mendicant. Only a man with non-attachment can know the power of non-attachment”, said Bhagavan, his voice quivering with emotion."

What are the three marks of a healthy personality? 

• The propensity to see what is good in every person and situation. Starting with your own self and all the good in your life. 
• The ability to quickly let go and forgive others when things do not happen to our liking, starting with yourself. 
• The ability to get along with a wide variety of different people, including all your sub-personalities, all your various faces, moods and mind states.

There was a group of elderly gentlemen in Japan who would meet to exchange news and drink tea. One of their diversions was to search for costly varieties of tea and create new blends. When it was the turn of the oldest member of the group to entertain the others, he served tea with the greatest ceremony, measuring out the leaves from a golden container. Everyone had the highest praise for the tea and demanded to know by what particular combination he had arrived at this exquisite blend. The old man smiled and said, "Gentlemen, the tea that you find so delightful is the one that is made and drunk by the peasants on the farm. The finest things in life are neither costly nor hard to find".

Kasan was asked to officiate at the funeral of a provincial land. He had never met the lords and nobles before, so he was nervous. When the ceremony started, Kasan started sweating. later, when he had returned, he gathered his pupils together. Kasan confessed that he was not yet qualified to be a teacher for he lacked the sameness of being in the world of fame that he possessed in the secluded temple. Then he resigned and became a pupil of another master. Eight years later, he returned to his former pupils, enlightened.

An earnest devotee asked Sri Bhagavan about the method to realize the Self. As usual, Sri Bhagavan told him to find out who is the ‘I’ in his question. After a few more questions in this strain the devotee asked, “Instead of inquiring ‘Who am I?’, can I put the question to myself ‘Who are you?’ since then, my mind may be fixed on you whom I consider to be God in the form of Guru.”

Sri Bhagavan replied, “Whatever form your inquiry may take, you must finally come to the one ‘I’, the Self. All these distinctions made between ‘I’ and ‘you’, Master and disciple, are merely a sign of one’s ignorance. That ‘I’ Supreme alone is. To think otherwise is to delude oneself.” Thereupon Sri Bhagavan told the following story.

A Puranic story of Sage Ribhu and his disciple Nidagha, is particularly instructive. 

Although Ribhu taught his disciple the Supreme Truth of the One Brahman without a second, Nidagha, in spite of his erudition and understanding, did not get sufficient conviction to adopt and follow the path of jnana, but settled down in his native town to lead a life devoted to the observance of ceremonial religion.

But the sage loved his disciple as deeply as the latter venerated his Master. In spite of his age, Ribhu would himself go to his disciple in the town, just to see how far the latter had outgrown his ritualism.

At times the sage went in disguise, so that he might observe how Nidagha would act when he did not know that he was being observed by his Master. On one such occasion Ribhu, who had put on the disguise of a rustic, found Nidagha intently watching a royal procession.

Unrecognised by the town-dweller Nidagha, the village rustic enquired what the bustle was all about and was told that the king was going in procession.

“Oh! It is the king. He goes in procession! But where is he?” asked the rustic. “There, on the elephant,” said Nidagha.

“You say the king is on the elephant. Yes, I see the two,” said the rustic, “But which is the king and which is the elephant?”

“What!” exclaimed Nidagha. “You see the two, but do not know that the man above is the king and the animal below is the elephant? What is the use of talking to a man like you?”

“Pray, be not impatient with an ignorant man like me,” begged the rustic. “But you said ‘above’ and ‘below’ – what do they mean?” Nidagha could stand it no more. “You see the king and the elephant, the one above and the other below. Yet you want to know what is meant by ‘above’ and ‘below’?” burst out Nidagha.

“If things seen and words spoken can convey so little to you, action alone can teach you. Bend forward and you will know it all too well”.

The rustic did as he was told. Nidagha got on his shoulders and said, “Know it now. I am above as the king, you are below as the elephant. Is that clear enough?”

“No, not yet,” was the rustic’s quiet reply. “You say you are above like the king and I am below like the elephant. The ‘king’, the ‘elephant’, ‘above’ and ‘below’ – so far it is clear. But pray, tell me what you mean by ‘I’ and ‘you’?”

When Nidagha was thus confronted all of a sudden with the mighty problem of defining the ‘you’ apart from the ‘I’, light dawned on his mind.

At once he jumped down and fell at his Master’s feet saying, “Who else but my venerable Master, Ribhu, could have thus drawn my mind from the superficiality of physical existence to the true Being of the Self? Oh! Benign Master, I crave thy blessings".

If you have a decision to make, close your eyes (with a calm mind) and ask the Spirit for guidance. What you hear may startle you, but that doesn't mean it's not the right answer. Its coming from a part of your consciousness that knows more about the future than you could possibly know. Place all decisions in God's hands.

Mullah's wife is dressing up for a party.

Mullah (lovingly): You look so slim In this dress, my dear!

Mullah's wife: Are you trying to say that I look fat in all my other dresses?

Mullah: No, I'm thinking it may be time to change my glasses.

A partially deaf boy came back home carrying a note from the officials at school. The note suggested that the parents take the boy out of school, claiming that he was ‘too stupid to learn’.

The boy’s mother read the note and said, “My son Tom isn't ‘too stupid to learn’. I’ll teach him instead.” and so she did.

When Tom died many years later, the people of the USA paid a tribute to him by turning off the nation’s lights for one full minute. You see, this Tom had invented the light bulb and not only that, but the motion pictures and the record player.

In all, Thomas A. Edison had more than 1,000 patents to his credit.

Lawrence Anthony, a legend in South Africa and author of three books including the bestseller, 'The Elephant Whisperer', bravely rescued wildlife and rehabilitated elephants all over the globe from human atrocities, including the courageous rescue of Baghdad Zoo animals during US invasion in 2003.

On March 7, 2012 Lawrence Anthony died.

He is remembered and missed by his wife, two sons, two grandsons and numerous elephants. Two days after his passing, the wild elephants showed up at his home led by two large matriarchs. Separate wild herds arrived in droves to say goodbye to their beloved man-friend.

A total of thirty one elephants had patiently walked over twelve miles to get to his South African house. Witnessing this spectacle, humans were obviously in awe not only because of the supreme intelligence and precise timing that these elephants sensed about Lawrence 's passing, but also because of the profound memory and emotion the beloved animals evoked in such an organized way.

Walking slowly for days, making their way in a solemn one-by-one queue from their habitat to his house. Lawrence's wife, Francoise, was especially touched, knowing that the elephants had not been to his house prior to that day for well over three years! But yet they knew where they were going.

The elephants obviously wanted to pay their deep respects, honoring their friend who had saved their lives. So much respect that they stayed for two days and two nights without eating anything.

Then one morning, they left, making their long journey back home.

Something in the universe is greater and deeper than human intelligence.

Love speaks all languages.