God as the purifier of Silver

"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver." (Malachi 3:3)

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.' She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed. The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?' He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it'.

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Speaking Tree - Happiness is not everything - May 24, 2010

The idea of happiness is a kind of ignorance. If your understanding is healthy, then you will never give too much importance to happiness; we do so because of our ignorance. Happiness is not the idea, purpose or aim of life; happiness is a consequence, a fruit.

Happiness is a subject of the senses; it is felt by the senses, it is an idea of the senses; it is information got from the senses. The scope of the senses is limited and the senses are completely unaware of the greatness of life. So if you are thinking for happiness or working for happiness you are just following your senses, you are indulging them. You are just living with your senses.

Understand the game of the senses, and then go beyond them. Discover that portion of life, that part of life that can give us something permanent, the highest knowledge of life, the highest clarity in life.

Nobody enters the path with full clarity, so even if you are ignorant or you lack the aspiration, somehow you will get connected. For instance you have a certain understanding of life and what you want. On the basis of what you know, your highest goal is to find happiness. As you undergo experiences in the course of life, your understanding grows wider and deeper. As your understanding develops you begin to see that happiness is not everything, that there is something beyond, that happiness comes and goes. You begin to think that perhaps satisfaction and being content is more important, no matter the kind of circumstances you are faced with. You could be content if you wished to be so.

Earlier your level of understanding prompted you to say: “How can I be content when I don’t have this, or I don’t have that?” Now your level of understanding has changed, and with that understanding you don’t miss anything, you are fully content. So it is just that in the level of our understanding something happens; if the understanding is high then you will not give too much importance to happiness, or sadness. When you aspire for something higher you will give more importance to your clarity, to your higher understanding, you will live for that; you will not give importance to whether the path is long or not, you will not give importance to the path at all, you will give importance to the target, the target is higher, aspiration is higher.

When you climb a mountain with the aim of reaching the top you have clarity. You know that you have to reach the top. That clarity helps you. The path will be very difficult, and maybe you will not be happy on the way, but when you reach the top that will give you much more than happiness, it will give you contentment. If we are only looking for happiness then we will never be able to climb high, aim high, or aspire for anything that can help us to evolve further.

What we understand by happiness lies on the surface. When you live at a deeper level, you give importance to clarity of consciousness which gives you information on the purpose of your existence; it gives you purpose. Once this is clear, everything will come to you including contentment and balance.

(Swami Brahmdev - As told to Sudhamahi Regunathan)

5 of 10 worst habits at work u should try to break....

1) Improper planning

While all of us are aware of the benefits of planning, when it comes to work, most people don’t have their agenda in place for the day, week or month. There are no set goals on what they want to achieve. They simply reach their workplace and then decide on the work to be executed.

“Lack of planning of the day at work or at the job is one of the most ‘non-productive’ habits at the workplace. This can, however, be rectified by a simple basic discipline of starting the day with some basic agenda in place,” says Alok Bansal, CEO, Alethia Education Services.


2) Carrying a chip on the shoulder

When you feel that you are more superior to others and as a result of this, don’t give an ear to others’ thoughts, ideas and work and don’t feel the importance of including others in your work because of the feeling of greatness, you are doing more harm to yourself than to anyone else.

“Sometimes, some people only want to work in the so-called ‘juicy’ areas (read brand management, strategy, analysis etc.), which is commonly seen in the fresh joinees from premier institutes who have been led to believe that they are god’s gift to the organization. This is also nod good for one’s career,” says Gagan Adlakha, partner, Vyaktitva, a performance consulting and training organization.


3) Not making notes/ filing information

A large amount of time is wasted at the work place as well as in normal life as we don’t maintain notes or records. It has been observed that people in the corporate world, especially the new generation, do not make notes of conversations they had with clients or peers. This then becomes a vicious circle of trying to haphazardly retrieve information when required. Most of the time it becomes a Chinese whisper like game.

Similarly, a large amount of time goes waste in trying to retrieve information. “Despite the tools available today, most of us seem to be losing on this count. Simple yet important things like relevant phone numbers or contact details of clients are lost or need to be searched. This causes immense loss of time and effort. As they say, information is the key and will always remain a powerful tool in the corporate world,” says Mr Bansal.


4) Improper time management

In a usual workplace, a good number of people are always complaining of too much load on them. A fewer lot have a claim to be doing lesser work. And hence are free to leave on time. This is largely attributed to using scientifically set time management principles. Some people manage their time exceptionally well and hence are found suitable to take up higher positions. “A poor time management skill is a habit that needs to be worked upon if one is looking up to rise up the ladder,” says Mr Bansal.


5) No sense of responsibility/ownership

When a person shuns away from his work and doesn’t feel responsible for his/her activities or refuses to take ownership of his acts and failures, this may hamper one’s growth in the long run. “This is by far the worst of all bad habits that can mar many promising careers,” says Mr Adlakha.


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Source: Economictimes