Talassery, 10-11 February 2008,<\/p>\n
During a recent tour stop in Talassery a friend was walking back from the ocean to the Amrita school where we were being housed.\u00a0 As she approached the gates of the school she noticed a frog merrily hopping across the road, seemingly care-free and in not particular hurry.\u00a0 Certainly it seemed unaware that it was actually in grave danger.\u00a0 Approximately four feet behind he frog followed a tan and copper-colored snake, about two and a half feet in length.\u00a0 It slid across the sandy ground with its head raised and its eyes sharp and intensely focused on the frog.\u00a0 So entirely fixed on the frog was the attention of the snake that it seemed oblivious of my friend as she watched the ensuing drama unfold.
\nThe frog hopped down into a dry ditch and hid under a clump of leaves.\u00a0 Continuing its chase, the snake went down into the ditch as well and began looking for the frog.\u00a0 It then slid under the leaves prompting the frog to jump out from under them and back up onto the road.\u00a0 The snake followed in close pursuit.\u00a0 Again, its eyes stood out as being so sharp, so intensely focused was the snake on its prey.\u00a0 Then, in a flash the snake made its lightening-fast move, catching the frog and quickly swallowing it whole.
\nMy friend was deeply affected by this experience and recalled Amma\u2019s words that even our very next breath is no guarantee, so we should stop delaying our true purpose in life of pursuing spiritual values.\u00a0 Just as the snake was so intensely and completely focused on the frog, so should we try to be seriously and intently focused on the true goal of life \u2013 realizing God or our true Self\u2014and try to resist the many distractions and desires that pull for our attention daily.
\nLike the frog, we are easily distracted by our surroundings, completely unaware of how near death might be.\u00a0 It is easy to hide beneath comforts and desires, just as the frog hid beneath the leaves, oblivious to how utterly brief life really is.<\/p>\n
Wake up, children!\u00a0 Wake up!\u00a0 Amma\u2019s loving voice repeatedly, patiently tries to rouse us from our sleep-walking.\u00a0 Life is so brief.\u00a0 Time is so precious, and once spent, cannot be regained.\u00a0 Wake up, children!<\/p>\n
~ Malini<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talassery, 10-11 February 2008, During a recent tour stop in Talassery a friend was walking back from the ocean to the Amrita school where we were being housed.\u00a0 As she approached the gates of the school she noticed a frog merrily hopping across the road, seemingly care-free and in not particular hurry.\u00a0 Certainly it seemed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-with-amma"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}