Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Long time ago there lived a king, who was
truly righteous but extremely arrogant. One day, he called his Prime Minister
and said,
‘I have a doubt that keeps bothering me. And
as you know, in this universe everyone has a fixed job to do just like, a king is
supposed to rule, a soldier’s job is to fight, a trader is supposed to trade,
teacher is supposed to teach, a preacher is supposed to preach and even the
rest of the civilisation have prescribed jobs to do.
And there is the law of the universe. In
the same manner the person who runs this universe also must be having a definite
job to do about which I know nothing. So please tell me what is the job of the
person who runs the universe—God.’
Prime Minister had no answer to this as no
one had ever asked him a question like this. But he attempted.
‘Your Majesty, no one knows the answer to
this question, and neither, it is mentioned in any book—as the job of God.’
And, since he was an extremely cunning
person he thought for a moment and added, ‘But your question is quite
justified, as this question came to my mind also several times, but since my
job is to advise you to help you run the administration, so I didn’t bother to
ask. And these are spiritual issues where I
think the Raj-Purohit (Chief-Priest)
will be in a better position to give an apt answer.’
And after expressing his views he very
strategically left the place immediately, leaving the entire responsibility of
answering the question completely on the Raj-Purohit.
When the king posed the same question to
the -Purohit Raj he got bewildered, as
no one had ever asked him such a question, and no one knew the exact job of God.
And everyone only knew to the extent they had read in the books, and even in
the books there was no separate information about God’s job responsibility.
But the King specifically wanted an answer
to his question. Raj-Purohit didn’t
want to offend the King, so he sought a week’s time.
King agreed, and said, ‘okay, but I need a
comprehensive reply to my question.’ Raj-Purohit
went home. And in the next one week he went to all the libraries and went
through all the books that he could lay his hands on, but he could not get a
comprehensive answer to this question.
By the end of the week he was mentally
quite exhausted. So he went out of the city and sat under a tree and started
thinking, how will he show his face to the King tomorrow, or should he leave the
kingdom and flee.
One shepherd boy who was grazing his sheep
there, saw the Raj-Purohit sitting
there in a pensive mood and recognised him. He asked, ‘why are you looking so
sad?’ The Raj-Purohit replied, ‘child
you please do your work, as I have some spiritual work to handle.’
But, when the child assertively asked again,
the Raj-Purohit narrated his problem,
knowing full well, the boy will not be able to solve his problem.
‘Raj-Purohit
ji, if you are troubled only because of this small problem, then please go
home and relax, and tell the King this shepherd boy knows the answer to his question.’
Upon
hearing this, the Raj-Purohit was
stunned, because even the most renowned scholars of the kingdom didn’t know the
answer to this question. He pleaded to the boy to let him know the answer, but
the child insisted he would tell the king himself, the answer to question.
A bit relaxed, Raj-Purohit left for home. Next day when he reached the King’s
court the king repeated his question and with great amount of eagerness he
waited for the answer, but was flabbergasted to hear that the answer to his
question was available with a shepherd boy. He immediately ordered for the
child to be there. The boy arrived at the King’s court in great enthusiasm.
And, everyone looked at him with a great
amount of disgust, but also waited for the valuable words to come out of his
mouth. The king asked, ‘Oh shepherd boy! Do you know the answer to my question that
even the renowned scholars sitting in my court don’t know? So tell me what you
know about this topic?
The shepherd boy hesitated for some moments
and then said, “Respected, before I answer your question I wish I be given the
right kind of seat to sit. Because, as far as this query is concerned, you are
the student and I’m the teacher, for I’ll provide you with that knowledge. And in
principle the seat of the teacher should be higher than that of the student,
but it is not the case here.
On hearing this everyone started whispering
in an appreciative manner about the boy. The King also felt some truth is his
statement. After a few moments the King vacated his throne and requested the
shepherd boy to occupy it, after which he eagerly started waiting for the
answer while looking at him.
But the boy after sitting on the throne
went quiet and started enjoying the great feel, while perched on it. The King
got restless and in an arrogant tone shouted, ‘Oh you child, will you answer
now, what is the job of God?’ the boy looked at the King and peacefully asked,
‘what answer?’ and on hearing this, all present in the King’s court got stunned.
The boy then said, ‘the job of God is to put down the arrogant and lift the
humble.’
This story is one out of the thousand stories
of Puran (mythological scriptures)
that is still relevant even today as it was in those days.
***
No comments:
Post a Comment