The larger picture

There was a king who waged many wars to expand his kingdom at the cost of his soldiers’ lives in the battlefield and levied high taxes that were extorted by cruel means. One day a monk came to his palace and asked the guard to meet the main guest there. The amused guard pointed out that this was not an inn but a palace and that there were no guests in the premise at the moment. The monk was adamant and refused to budge till he met the main guest that he insisted was inside. The resultant commotion soon reached the ears of the king. Not wanting to irk a spiritual person who might have the power to curse him, the king came out to meet the monk. On seeing the king, the monk smiled and said to the guard, “See? Here comes the guest I wanted to meet.” When the king attempted to clear his confusion, the monk laughed and explained, “You may be the king now but a few years later someone else will be in your place. You are a temporary resident and caretaker presently but not for long. This world – like this palace which you call yours, is but an inn where there is a constant flow of various guests none of whom stay permanently. And yet you struggle to earn the ill-will of your subjects to fill a treasury that you will soon leave behind?” The king felt enlightened and mended his ways. 

We tend to forget that our life is a mere stop-over in the long journey of the soul; we miss the larger picture when distracted by the lure of petty acquisitions. 

An acquaintance went to seek the advice of her spiritual guru on a matter of great importance. She had found a match for her daughter who was the only son of wealthy parents and was doing well in his independent career too. However she had information that his parents were frauds who had acquired all that wealth by cheating a relative. But the prospective groom was claimed to be earning his money ethically.

Her guru explained, the boy being the only child would obviously inherit the parents’ ill-gotten wealth and by default, all the attendant bad karma. He asked if she was fine with her daughter being an involuntary partner in crime and reap the benefits – both the good and the bad, the material gains and resultant karmic effects that would pass through generations.

People go through great lengths to fulfil their greed for material objects that they will leave behind, not realising they will not be able to avert the impact of the deeds involved in acquiring them, in their journey forward.