About Wellsprings

This site is a cluster of wellsprings. Wellsprings of heartwarming anecdotes, stirring stories, age-old fables, epic tales, mythical musings, good deeds, life's lessons, inspiring insights, and much more. None of these are our own but they have something for all of us. That's why we have taken the liberty of putting them together, acknowledging the source or the author wherever we could.

  • Who’s packing your parachute?

    Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Charles ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured…

  • The saviour

    Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river. The current of the river swept silently over them all – young and old, rich and poor,…

  • Worse than a clown

    There was a young monk in China who was a very serious practitioner of the Dharma. Once, this monk came across something he did not understand, so he went to ask the…

  • Buddha’s path

    The lamp contains its oil, which it holds securely in its close grasp and guards from the least loss. Thus is it separate from all other objects around it and is miserly.…

  • Serving others

    A Sufi story tells of a man who prayed continually for the awareness to succeed in life. Then one night he dreamt of going into the forest to attain understanding. The next…

  • In your hands

    A young man caught a small bird and held it behind his back. He then asked, “Master, is the bird I hold in my hands alive or dead?” The boy thought this…

  • The order of things

    A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could ensure the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish…

  • Faith

    Once there was a drought-hit village. There were absolutely no rains for three to four years. The villagers, who were solely dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, were almost starving to death.…

  • Lakshmana’s respect for Sita

    This is an anecdote from the Ramayana that shows us how to live by the ideals of Gods who came down to Earth in human form. When Prince Rama went in exile…

  • An epic dictation

    The Mahabharata is India’s greatest epic. ‘Mahabharata’ means ‘Great India,’ India the Sublime. This unparalleled epic is six times the size of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined. The great sage Veda…