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| Sunday, 15 May 2005 |
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The king, me or the river Sunday parable by Sunanda Mahendra
"He says that he is a wandering ascetic coming from the Himalayas," they said. "What is he doing here?" "No idea, but according to the people who have met him, he has magical powers". "Like what?" "We don't know, perhaps your honour, you can ask him." "Ask him to see me." The wandering ascetic, was ushered into the royal palace. He stood without talking. "From where did you come?" "From the Himalayas." "What sort of magical power have you got?" The ascetic thought for a while. "I can sweeten the bitter kohomba tree, and as you know all parts of the kohomba tree are bitter. I can plant new kohomba trees that will sprout sweet leaves." "That sounds fantastic and unbelievable. I have never heard that bitter kohomba can be sweetened. Kohomba is bitter and it will never be sweet. That is the law of the nature," the king said. "The laws of the nature could be changed with my mantras. And that exactly is the point. I can show you if you give me time and pay attention to me." "That is not difficult at all what exactly do you want from me?" asked the king. "I want a place to stay and food to eat and time to think," said the ascetic. At this point the royal advisors looked at each other, and as they never got attention of this nature, they felt jealous. "This is just an ascetic who has come from the Himalayas. Who knows whether he has magical powers or not," they discussed among themselves. "Make arrangements for this ascetic to live and see that he is given the food he wants and all the other requirements," ordered the King to his Royal courtiers. For over a period of one week the ascetic enjoyed all the facilities and benefits provided by the Royal palace. He had never relaxed in this manner in his whole life. He would get up early in the morning and wash his face and walk along the banks of the river that flowed past his living quarters. When people came to see him, he would just say, "Please don't disturb me. If you disturb me, that means you are disturbing a Royal duty, as such please go away and come back later." The people reported this to the Royal Officials and they in turn reported the matter to the King. The king felt quite happy thinking, "at last I have come across a serious duty minded man in my royal palace." But the whole kingdom was watching as to what the ascetic was going to do. "Get me three small saplings of kohomba," he said to a servant, who brought food for him. No sooner he said that when the three saplings were brought before him. In the days that followed, people observed what he was doing. During the first week, the ascetic took the three plants to the bank of the river one by one. He sat cross-legged and started meditating. One of the village elders walking along the bank of the river, saw this peculiar action. An ascetic seated cross-legged before three kohomba saplings meditating or charming, murmuring mantras. "Are you going to plant these kohomba saplings on the banks of the river?" asked the elder without paying much attention to what he was doing. "Yes I am going to do that, so what?" "But there will be a flood and the saplings will be washed away". "That is never going to happen." "How do you know ?" "I have magical powers." "You may have magical powers, but there will be a flood and it will be destroyed. So, it is going to be a waste of your effort." "Never mind, raja ho ma ho ganga ho," murmured the ascetic. The village elder thought it was a part of the charm. He too murmured "raja ho ma ho ganga ho", wondering the ohrase meant. "That must be a sacred charm" he concluded. Then he went to several places and asked the opinion leaders as to the exact meaning of the utterance. One learned man in the kingdom said "You know, these Brahmins and ascetics who come from the Himalayas are well versed in spiritual matters and there is symbolic significance in their utterances. It needs sensitive analysis and if you analyse this particular phrase you will see three meanings. Firstly, the raja or the king, then ma or me, and finally, the ganga or the river. So, perhaps one is linked to the other. As such one can affect the other." The wandering ascetic planted the three kohomba saplings on the bank of the river and went off obtaining the best of gifts from the King, enough for a person to live for some time. He left the kingdom secretly for another. Then as expected, after a heavy shower of rain the floods came, and it was one of the worst floods in many years. The three kohomba plants were washed off in the floods. Meanwhile, the
King had spent a lot of money on the ascetic, and the floods had caused lot
of damage to the cultivation. The King too murmured "raja ho ma ho ganga
ho". |
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"Who is that hermit-like man who has come to my kingdom?" asked the King
from his advisors. 
