Ego

[Guest guest]

Here is an interesting story that illustrates King Janaka's path to

enquiry.

 

One eveing after a long day in court the king fell asleep in his

royal couch. He went into a dream state where an enemy defeated him.

He was captured and sent out of his kingdom and into the neighbouring

city, where no one knew who he was. He roamed the streets looking for

food and water. At the end of the day, he was hungry, tired and

thirsty and was exhausted. As he was wandering aimlessly, he saw an

Ashram and thought he could get some food. As it was late, there was

no food. Looking at the pathetic state of Janaka, the Ashram cook

scraped out the remains from the vessels and gave it to Janaka in a

bowl. While he was about to eat this last morsel, a crow came flying

down and toppled the bowl. Janaka now was so miserable. he screamed

with hunger. At this time, his own screams woke him up. The dream was

so real it took him a while to realise that he was not in the next

village, but in his own royal couch in his own palace. When Janaka

saw the difference between his experiences in the ream state as a

beggar and in the waking state as a king, he was quite perturbed and

started inquiring everyone whether " is this tsrue or is that true? "

People did not understant what he meant. The ministers and his wife

called the royal doctors to cure the king of this aimless prattle,

but no one could help him.

 

One day, sage Ashtavakra happened to come to his kingdom and the king

asked him the same question " is this true or is that true? " Being a

sage, he could intuitively read Janaka's m ind and with a smile he

asked him to return question " While you are a king, can you be the

beggar at the same time? " . The king said 'No'. His next question

was " When you were a beggar, were you also a king? " Again Janaka

said 'N'. Then the sage says " As you just pointed out, while you are

a king, the beggar is not there, and while you are a beggar the king

is not there. What this means is that you are n either a king nor a

beggar. " The king then asks " Who am I? " The sage then points out that

the thing that was common to both states is that 'Self' which is the

absolute 'I' and not any physical manifestation such as 'King'

or 'Beggar'. And that is the absolute Truth.

 

Contd...