Vaishnava Kathamrita

Story from Brahma-vaivarta Purana: Once there lived a poor brahmana in the city of Pratishthanapura in South India. He was a very sincere devotee of Lord Narayana and was satisfied with whatever the Lord had given Him. Knowing well that his present material condition is due to his past deeds, he is always peaceful and grateful to the Lord. He was very open-hearted and used to hear the glories of the Lord from realized souls. At one such meeting, while he was very faithfully hearing about Vaishnava activities, he was informed that these activities can be performed even by meditation. As part of his daily routine, he used to take bath in river Godavari. After taking bath he would sit in a secluded place on the bank of the river and then started meditating on the Lord in his mind. When he had fixed the form of the Lord in his mind, he began to imagine in his meditations that he was dressing the Lord very nicely in costly clothing, with ornaments, helmets and other para

Once a man was chased by a rogue elephant in a forest. Seeing no respite, he climbed a tree to save himself but unfortunately slipped off. Before hitting the ground he could hold on to one of the lowest branches of the tree. He looked around and found that the elephant is lingering just nearby waiting to crush him with its mighty mountain like legs. He then looked above, there were two rats, one black and another white, were slowly nibbling the branch he was hanging on to. As the man looked down, he discovered that there were many venomous snakes awaiting to suck his life out. He understood that very soon the branch would fall to the ground and his life came to an end.  Suddenly a drop of honey fell on his face. He pulled his tongue out and licked it. Tasty! There was a honeycomb between the two branches he was holding. Due to disturbance caused by his holding and shaking the branch, bees were out to bite him. But at the same time honey was also oozing from the comb. He just ad