The King Who Gave Away His Kingdom

by **Sarveswara** Wed Feb 06, 2008 2:38 pm

The King Who Gave Away His Kingdom

A king who had grown old decided to abdicate his throne and become a recluse. He proclaimed that he would give away his kingdom to the first man who came to see him at eleven o’clock on the morning of the seventh day. Many people were attracted by this offer and they set out with the intention of appearing before the king at the appointed hour.

But the king had laid out a well constructed plan to select the most suitable person. On the way to his palace, he had built a beautiful pool with lotuses blooming – so beautiful that people were tempted to stop there and have a dip in it. Then the way led through a market which contained the best possible garments, which anybody could take free. The third stop was a big dining hall with luscious foods and drinks laid out. The fourth was a big bedroom containing voluptuous furnishings and bedding. In the fifth there was beautiful music provide4d. The sixth contained god and jewellery. At all these places, people stopped to help themselves, and lost time or forgot their quest.

But one man, who was the last to start, overcame all these temptations, went through all the gates and met the king at the appointed time. To him the king formally handed over his throne and went away to the forest. The first act of the new king was to put under arrest all the people who had started out to see this predecessor, on the charge that they had taken things which did not belong to them. Thus renunciation brought him a kingdom.

We want pleasure but we get pain instead. This is because each pleasure contains the seeds of pain. The seeds of a thorny plant do not show any thorns. The thorns appear only much later when the seed has germinated and das grown up into a tree.

Thinking over the story of that one man who went through the gates to get the keys of the kingdom from the king himself, I had understood that this ‘one man’ was the individual Self and the king was the Universal Self. Is this correct?

The gated are the covering layers of manifested nature, such as the five elements, earth, water, etc., and mind and intelligence, enclosing in the most inaccessible layer of the soul the individual Self and the Universal Self. The Individual actually sits in the lap of the universal, but the trouble is that the individual, in spite of such close proximity, possesses an external outlook and worries about those external layers of manifested nature. If the individual could turn his eyes inwards through meditation, then he would see where he is, namely in the very lap of the Universal Self. Then the gates would cease to matter and there would be a state of unbroken joy all round.

In true love you always give and don’t demand in return. By giving, you allow things to happen. Love of the Absolute makes the desire to enjoy the riches of creation unnecessary, for all that would have already been offered to the beloved, the Absolute. In this way greed and attachment break their bondage and emancipate themselves, or realize themselves. True lovers never go to sleep while waiting for the beloved! One must learn this lesson well - that one never demands anything in return for ones love and then, only, does one get all one needs for a good and happy life.

So its not true love, but demanding love which constitutes attachment, Love is good when free from attachment?

When people love someone, they forget that real loves means no demands on the beloved.

This extract is from the book, "The Man Who Wanted to Meet God"
Myths and Storied that explain the Inexplicable.
~ His Holiness Shantannand Saraswati.

by **Jon28** Wed Feb 06, 2008 4:33 pm

I believe that the man was already self-realized, and, calling on the self-discipline gleaned from his meditation realized that the sense pleasures are not where happiness is to be found. By turning inward, and "shutting off the sense telephones" as my guru says, God is realized in the silence of the higher regions of the brain and spine...

by **Sarveswara** Thu Feb 07, 2008 2:39 pm

I agree with your thoughts Jon, it is about the battle of desires and how hard it is to eradicate those desires. I also see within it the message that getting control over desires will help one to eliminate demands on our relationships which will in turn help us to learn how to LOVE in TRUTH, unconditionally, divinely.

Why do we need to do this? Because I believe that enlightenment is in actual fact … The ultimate knowledge and practice of DIVNE LOVE in all its TRUTH.

TRUE LOVE... all relationships are the learning grounds for Divine Love. We all go through life and relationships, with all our family members and loved ones, even just acquaintances, to learn how to LOVE first and foremost but to learn also how to LOVE correctly. So it makes much sense that diminishing the desires will eliminate the needs and expectations one puts on others in relationships.

Every lesson in life we have to learn can always be brought back to the source LOVE, so it stands to reason that LOVE is the main lesson in life. If we focus on LOVE we will always attain our spiritual goal.

We cannot gain any knowledge of DIVINE LOVE without first getting to know our creator, who is the source of this LOVE.

Hence we all search for a “higher power”, to guide us on a particular path that can substantiate our beliefs, one that will lead and guide us on our personal journey, learning how to LOVE in the fullness of divine TRUTH.

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