The lost key

However teachers from ancient times have used this interest in stories to impart knowledge through the medium of allegory which have proven to be highly effective. Every country and culture has its own set of stories.

One such is - ‘The tales of Mulla (Master) Nasurdin’, the age old teaching stories from the Middle East, which have become famous throughout the world. The speciality of these stories are that superficially most of the Nasurdin stories may be used as jokes but it is inherent in the Nasurdin stories that it may be understood at any one of the many depths it has. There is the joke, the moral and the little extra which brings the conscience a little further in the way of realization.

Here is a famous Mulla Nasurdin story; A man is walking home late one night when he sees an anxious Mulla Nasrudin down on all fours, crawling on his hands and knees on the road, searching frantically under a streetlight for something on the ground.

“Mulla, what have you lost?” the passer-by asks.

“I am searching for my key,” Nasrudin says worriedly.

“I’ll help you look,” the man says and joins Mulla Nasrudin in the search. Soon both men are down on their knees under the streetlight, looking for the lost key. After some time, the man asks Nasrudin, “Tell me Mulla, do you remember where exactly did you drop the key?”

Nasrudin waves his arm back toward the darkness and says, “Over there, in my house. I lost the key inside my house…” Shocked and exasperated, the passer-by jumps up and shouts at Mulla Nasrudin, “Then why are you searching for the key out here in the street?”

“Because there is more light here than inside my house,” Mulla Nasrudin answers non-chalantly.

In this parable, the outer shell is of course the humor in it. Beyond this, there are different levels of meaning in it. With a little reflection, its inner depth and meaning will be revealed to you. People are constantly looking for the key to happiness, the key to bliss, the key to freedom, the key to inner peace and tranquility, the key to love, and the key to God which they seem to have lost. And they are frantically searching for it by attaching themselves to different cults and immersing themselves in different theories just because they are popular and are in the light. Whereas the right place to look for it is the place where they have actually lost it, even if there is less light there and it is the only place where they can possibly find it and that is deep within themselves.