It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for truth in which alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to the truth is one of hostility and fear. So the spiritual Teachers of humanity, like Buddha and Jesus, created a device to circumvent the opposition of their listeners: the story. They knew that the most entrancing words a language holds are, "Once upon a time...", that it is common to oppose a thruth but impossible to resist a story. Vyasa, the author of the Mahabhrata, says that if you listen carefully to a story you will never be the same again. That is because the story will worm its way into your heart and break down barriers to the divine. Even if you read the stories in this book only for the entertainment there is no guarantee that the occasional story will not slip through your defences and explode when you least expect it to. So you have been warned!