#144 Who is the greatest man?
Which is the greatest man - the one who gives up the world and becomes a sannyasin or he who lives in the world and performs all his duty as a householder?
A king once inquired this question to all the wise subjects of his court. The ones who asserted that the sannyasin was the greater of them, the king asked them to prove their assertion. But they could not. The others who said that the householders who perform their duty are the greater, were also asked to prove their assertion. But no one could prove it. Then at last came a young sannyasin and answered "Each, O king, is equally great in his place. Come along with me, live as I do for a few days and I shall prove it to you."
The king followed the sannyasin and passed through many forests and countries until they came to a kingdom where they heard sounds of drums and music. It looked as if the kingdom was in the middle of celebrating some festivities. The king and the sannyasin stood there to see what was going on.
It was the swyamwar of the kings daughter - an old custom in India for princesses to choose husbands. If the princess was not pleased with what she saw and heard, she said to her bearers, "Move on," and no more notice was taken of the rejected suitors. If, however, the princess was pleased with any one of them, she threw a garland of flowers over him and he became her husband. The princess was taken around on a throne in front of all the princes, putting on their bravest attire - hoping the princess would throw the flower garland towards them.
She was the most beautiful princess in the world and her husband was supposed to be the ruler of the kingdom after her father’s death. This swayamwar was arranged many times before but the princess had failed to find the perfect suitor for her. This was supposed to be the biggest one in which more people than ever had come to it. Sitting on the throne, her bearers carried her from place to place but she did not seem to care for anyone. Suddenly enters a young man, a Sannyasin, handsome as if the sun had come down to the earth, and stood in one corner of the assembly, watching what was going on. The throne with the princess came near him, and as soon as she saw the beautiful Sannyasin, she stopped and threw the garland over him.
On seeing this the sanyaasin got angry and threw the garland exclaiming, “I am a sannyasin. What is marriage to me? This is all nonsense”. The king perhaps thought that the man didn’t know that he would become the king and thus put the garlang again on the sannyasin telling him that he would become the king. The sannyasin threw the garland again vowing not to marry her daughter and left towards the forest in a haste. The princess by now had fallen in love with the sannyasin and followed him towards the jungle. “I must marry this man or I shall die”, said the princess. The other sannyasin and the king followed them to the forest maintaing a good distance.
The young Sannyasin who had refused to marry the princess walked out into the forest for several miles. Now this young Sannyasin was well aware of the routes in that forest and knew all the intricate paths in it. He suddenly passed into one of these and disappeared, and the princess could not discover him. After trying for a long time to find him she sat down under a tree and began to weep, she did not know the way out. Then our king and the other Sannyasin came up to her and said, "Do not weep; we will show you the way out of this forest, but it is too dark for us to find it now. Let us rest under this tree and we will go back tomorrow morning."
Now a little bird, his wife and their children were living on that same tree. Seeing the king, the sannyasin and the princess, the little bird said to his wife," Dear love, what should we do? We have guests in our home and they don’t have anything to keep themselves warm for the night.” He flew away and got a bunch of sticks for the three of them. The king, the Sannyasin and the princess added fuel and made a blazing fire. But the little bird was still not satisfied. “We have guests in our house and we don’t have anything to give these people to eat. We are householders; it is our duty to feed any one who comes to the house. I must do what I can, I will give them my body.” So he jumped into the fire and gave up his life in order to feed the three of them.
The little bird's wife saw what her husband did, and she said, "Here are three persons and only one little bird for them to eat. It is not enough; it is my duty as a wife not to let my husband's effort go in vain; let them have my body also." Then she fell into the fire and was burned to death.
Then the three baby-birds, when they saw what was done and that there was still not enough food for the three guests, said, "Our parents have done what they could and still it is not enough. It is our duty to carry on the work of our parents; let our bodies go too." And they all dashed down into the fire also. The three people could not of course eat these birds. They passed the night without food, and in the morning the king and the Sannyasin showed the princess the way, and she went back to her father.
The Sannyasin then told the king that everyone has their own path in life. If you want to live in the world, be like birds willing to sacrifice for others. If you want to renounce worldly things, be like the young man who cared nothing for beauty or wealth. Whether you choose to be a family person or live a life of renunciation, do what is right for that path. Each path has its duties, and they are different from each other. Each is great in his own place, but the duty of the one is not the duty of the other.
But what is a duty? Let’s leave this for the next edition.
See you next weekend, have a wonderful week ahead :)
Cheers!
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