An emperor was coming out of his palace for his morning walk when he met a
beggar. He asked the beggar,
"What do you want?"
The beggar laughed and said, "You are asking me as though you can fulfill
my desire!"
The king was offended. He said, "Of course I can fulfill your desire. What
is it? Just tell me."
And the beggar said, "Think twice before you promise anything."
The beggar was no ordinary beggar, he was the emporers past life master. He
had promised in that life, "I will come and try to
wake you in your next life. This life you have missed but I will come
again." But the king had forgotten completely -- who
remembers past lives? So he insisted, "I will fulfill anything you ask. I
am a very powerful emperor, what can you possibly
desire that I can not give to you?"
The beggar said, "It is a very simple desire. You see this begging bowl?
Can you fill it with something?"
The emperor said, "Of course!" He called one of his viziers and told him,
"Fill this mans begging bowl with money." The vizier
went and got some money and poured it into the bowl, and it disappeared.
And he poured more and more, and the moment he
would pour it, it would disappear. And the beggging bowl remained always
empty.
The whole palace gathered. By and by the rumor went throughout the whole
capital, and a huge crowd gathered. The prestige
of the emperor was at stake. He said to his viziers, "If the whole kingdom
is lost, I am ready to lose it, but I cannot be defeated
by this beggar."
Diamons and pearls and emeralds, his treasuries were becoming empty.The
begging bowl seemed to be bottomless.
Everything that was put into it -- everything! -- immediately disappeared,
went out of existence. Finally it was the evening, and the
people were standing there in utter silence. The king dropped at the fet of
the beggar and admitted his defeat. he said, "Just tell
me one thing. You are victorious - but before you leave, just fulfill my
curiousity. What is the beging bowl made of?"
The beggar laughed and said, "It is made up of the human mind. There is no
secret. It is simple made up of human desire."
This understanding transforms life. Go into one desire -- what is the
mechanism of it? First there is a great excitement, great thrill,
adventure. you feel a great kick. Somehting is going to happen, you are on
the verge of it. And then you have the car, you have
the yacht, you have the house, you have the woman, and suddenly all is
meaningless again.
What happens? Your mind has dematerialised it. The car is standing in the
drive, but there is no excitement anymore. The
excitement was only in getting it. You became so drunk with the desire thah
you forgot your inner nothingness. Now the desire
is fulfilled, the car in the drive, the woman in your bed, the money in
your bank account - again excitement disappears. Again
the emptiness is there, ready to eat you up. Again you have to create
another desire to escape this yawning abyss.
That's how one moves from one desire to another desire. That's how one
remains a beggar. Your whole life proves it
again and again -- every desire frustrates. And when the goal is achieved,
you will need another desire.
The day you understand that desire as such is going to fail comes the
turning point in your life.
The other journey is inwards. move inwards, come back home.
