Mindfulness: What the Saint Told the King was Right

A king, while on a state wide tour, stopped in front of a saint’s hut. The ministers called the saint out, but he refused. He said, “If the king wants to meet me, he must come himself.”

Ministers felt bad. Usually the subordinates are tougher ti deal with than the masters. However, the king went inside. He said, “You must visit the capital once. Your philosophy will add happiness and peace there.”

Saint said, “I will, but your people will not recognise me.”

The king replied, “It is not so, there will be no lack of service to you.”

Later, the saint went to the king’s palace. He told guards, “Tell your king that the saint has come.”

The guards replied, “Thousands like you come here. All say the king had called them. If you want alms, you can have it but it is impossible to meet him.”

Saint returned.

A few days later, he went back to the palace, wearing new clothes and on a cart. He demanded to see the king. The gates quickly opened, and the king took the saint inside. Excellent food was served to him in expensive dishes. Suddenly the saint started rubbing the food on his clothes.

To the king’s bewilderment, the saint said, “How can I leave those clothes without food as they made me reach there?”

The king understood!

Basically, what I wanted to convey is that we are recognised by the mortal things, without seeking our actual identity.

Will a person be known only by his professional Identity?

We keep ourselves engaged so that we may not meet our inner self. If we ever meet our inner self, we will asked questions like what are you engaged in?

Such queries make our inner soul restless, so we put curtains of ambitions and wealth over it.

We find fault in others. We believe whatever we are doing is right. World has become problematic by this illusion. We get away from our responsibilities because we have deep greed for things over which the world is going crazy. Yet, we do not want to be defeated by this madness. So, we keep running after addiction of position, reputation and wealth.

We are not looking at life, nor at the quality of it.

Do you think we are doing the right thing? If not then start setting everything right.

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