Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
I found the following in another forum and thought.....wow, so true! Not sure if its on this forum anywhere, but no harm in sharing again.....
Importance of balance
Mahatma BUDHA WAS a prince , beautiful dancers , wealth , palaces , aritocracy , all pleasure of kingdom were not able to gave the internal peace to him , one night he left the palace and started living in forest , he gave much harsh treatment to his body , he lived without food , he sarted performing difficult aasans to remember lord , he tied himself up side down from trees , stayed in cold waters and so on , but all invain , still he was without peace
in this frustation he was wandering , and he saw a artist adjusting the string of a musical instrument ,when string was loose it donot produce sweet voice , when it was tightened it breaks down , then artist made a very fine balance of the tension in the string , then the instrument produces a very melodious music .
then mahatma budh sensed that neither hardship nor pleasure leads to god , there should be delicate balance bw them , the path of religion is very narrow ie on edge of the sword , balance is very necesasary as said by baba sheikh farid ji
ਵਾਟ ਹਮਾਰੀ ਖਰੀ ਉਡੀਣੀ ॥
The path upon which I must walk is very narrow.
ਖੰਨਿਅਹੁ ਤਿਖੀ ਬਹੁਤੁ ਪਿਈਣੀ ॥
It is sharper than a two-edged sword, and very narrow.
ਉਸੁ ਊਪਰਿ ਹੈ ਮਾਰਗੁ ਮੇਰਾ ॥
That is where my path lies.
ਸੇਖ ਫਰੀਦਾ ਪੰਥੁ ਸਮ੍ਹ੍ਹਾਰਿ ਸਵੇਰਾ ॥੪॥੧॥
O Shaykh Fareed, think of that path early on. ||4||1||