In prehistoric times the good and the evil forces churned the ocean of the cosmos, and one of the unique objects which the Divine granted to the churners was a wish granting tree. One day a traveler comes across this tree and sits down in the shade, not knowing the special nature of the tree. Admiring the dense shade of the foliage, he wishes that he had a bed to take a nap. Suddenly a bed manifests. After his nap he wishes for food, which then materializes in front of him. Then he desires a drink, and an assortment of libations are presented. After his immediate needs are satisfied, he wonders where all the goodies came from, and whether there were ghosts on the tree. Immediately, ghosts show up. He gets very scared and worries that the ghosts will eat him, and they do!

We are constantly under a wishing tree. Our conscious mind, body, emotion, and prana (life force) when aligned together will grant us our wishes, whether they are success in profession, studies, or relationships. However, for most of us these forces conflict with each other. We hamper our own progress by putting up obstacles of self-doubt, false comparison, and blaming others. Frequently, we hear someone say, “But I am only a human.” This is an extremely tragic misconception that the highest life form is used as an epitome of weakness. As a human we can achieve what we truly want. But what do we want?

In a certain village, there was a young boy who could not walk. He used to watch other kids play, and since he could not join them, he would hold their stuff, bring them water, and get joy from being part of the group. One day he heard of the wishing tree and decided to ask it to cure his legs. He reached the tree and instead of going directly, waited and watched from a small distance. First, a group of children came to the tree and asked for candies and toys. The tree showered them with lots of delicious candies and toys. But gobbling the candy gave them tummy ache and they got bored with the toys. The kids came back and threw the remaining candies at the tree. An old man came asking for a beautiful young bride. In a few weeks, the man got tired from being suspicious that his young wife may be interested more in the younger neighbor than him. Some men came and asked for fame, fortune and power. Fame was followed by jealousy. Fortune followed by greed, and power followed by enemies. If you ask for freedom, then the risk of getting lost is inherent. In a short amount of time, people who were begging the tree for boons wanted to cut the tree and burn it to the ground. Everybody blamed the tree. Nobody realized that all their misery was due to desire and fear. The quest to satisfy desire was like throwing gasoline to extinguish a fire.

Similarly, fear resulted in suspicion, cowering for safety, and the inability to advance due to fear of failure. The boy then realized that the only way to make the tree work for you was to wish for somebody else’s benefit. The joy of enabling someone else to become happy was the true satisfier of desires and overcomer of fears.

This is the secret of the Kalpataru. When a human aligns all mind, body, emotion and prana (life force) for the betterment of others, all their wishes come true. The next human you meet today, just smile, and truly wish him well. If you are going to ask, “How are you,” then plan to wait, listen and care as to how they really are feeling and if you could help in any way. When you say good-bye, do truly wish the person the best of everything. Overtime you will not get your wishes granted by the Kalpataru, but you will become a Kalpataru.