Dear Friends,
Namaste!
Let’s now look at what personality type the second prince turned out to be!
In came the second prince. The Guru explained the rules of the game and asked him to make his choice. The prince took a careful look around, thought for a moment and said, “Among all these things, I will choose the idol of a deity and the material to worship the idol.”
“That’s interesting!” observed the Guru, “Does the wealth not attract you?”
“Not any more” reflected the prince, “I have had enough of materialistic pleasures. I have found them inadequate to give me what I really want.”
“What do you really want?” inquired the Guru.
“Well, all I want,” came the reply, “is peace of mind!”
“And what are you doing about it?” the Guru probed further.
“I am confused, to be honest. Not sure whether the peace of mind will turn out to be just a mirage. Not sure what next to do if it can indeed be ever attained. I am desperate to get it on one hand, on the other, totally clueless as to how to do it. The more I chase, the farther it seems to be moving. I do not seem to have any control over what I want to happen, my destiny. It’s as if someone else - God? - is pulling the strings all the time. Therefore I am now surrendering to that God and hoping that He will show me the way!”
“May God show you the way.” sympathized the Guru, “Pray send in next any one of your brothers.”
As the second prince left, the King turned to the Guru, “I have been thinking that as princes of a great kingdom, my sons had everything at their mercy and were the happiest lot in the world! Only now it is dawning upon me that that is not the case. What, O Guru, will you teach this son of mine to end his suffering?”
The Guru smiled and said, “This prince is Disillusioned. People in this category have run after the materialistic pleasures long and hard only to find out that their assumption that these will give them all the happiness in the world is wrong. Therefore they desperately look for an alternative way, an alternative method. This is when they turn to God – or the Supreme Power that seems to be ‘pulling the strings all the time!’
“The disillusioned have thus already learnt the hard way that happiness is not the state of their body, rather it is the state of their mind. Hence the curriculum for them is to learn some basics about calming down the mind so that they can be happy.”
“So what are those basic things that the disillusioned must learn?” asked the King a bit impatiently.
“Well, to start with, they must resolve to stand by a set of core values. The value system gives our mind the anchor that it needs to remain steady. In the science of Yoga, such value system is referred to by the name ‘Yama’. Further, our lifestyle also needs to follow certain basic discipline or observances so that the mind’s activities do not spin out of control and it gets a chance to rest, to feel peaceful. Such observances are referred to in the science of Yoga as the ‘Niyama’. Once the mind is steadied in this manner, it becomes fit for focusing on God, having faith in Him, surrendering unto Him. This practice is called as the Yoga of Faith/ Surrender (‘BhaktiYoga’).”
“Will this then cure my son of his agony?” asked the worried father.
“It is an important step,” said the Guru, “However, it is merely the beginning of his journey on the right path. Faith and Knowledge are two sides of the same coin and unless the Faith is also supplemented by knowledge – fully internalized - about the true nature of God and how Life works, the journey is not complete.
“Unfortunately this is a ‘chicken and egg’ problem. It is difficult to develop true faith without having the right knowledge and it is equally difficult to internalize the right knowledge if the quest is not undertaken by a truly faithful mind.
“However ‘Yoga of Faith/Surrender’ breaks the deadlock. One does not know much about God at this stage but one assumes that He will relieve one’s grief and take one to the destination. It is like solving a theorem in mathematics based on a hypothesis. The earlier hypothesis about materialistic pleasures has been proved wrong so you start again with another hypothesis – ‘God will show the way’! Using such trial and error method, you try to solve the problem. If people have got to the solution using a particular hypothesis, then that hypothesis must be correct!”
Wiedersehen….
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