Desire
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."
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 man's 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, but 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."
Diamonds 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, and went out of existence. Finally it
was the evening, and the people were standing there in utter silence. The king dropped
at the feet 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. Something 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
driveway, 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 driveway, 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
“Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour
that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all [was] vanity and vexation of
spirit, and [there was] no profit under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 2 : 11
“ Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again:But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up into everlasting life. “ John 4 : 13 - 14