Desire
There
is a story about a king who went to a foreign country. He told his
queens that he would return after a few days and would bring anything
that they wanted. The first queen asked for clothes, the second asked
for jewellery, and the third asked for sweets. But the fourth queen
wondered, "What should I ask for? It should be something which will give
me everything." So she took a piece of red paper, wrote, sa on it and
sent it to the king. The king opened the pieces of paper. One queen had
written, "Please bring me sweets," another had written," Please bring me
clothes." When the king opened the fourth piece of paper he saw that it
contained only the letter sa. He wondered what it could mean. Where
would he find such a thing? He
called his minister and said, "Make some sense out of this." The
minister looked at the red paper and the letter sa and he grasped it
meaning. He said to the king, "Your Majesty, it means lalsa (which in
Hindi means `desire'). Your fourth queen is telling you that she has
only one wish, that you should come home to her." So the king was very
pleased. He returned home and the presents were distributed to the
queens. But he himself went to the palace of the fourth queen, and
wherever a king goes, everything will follow him, won't it? So the queen
received everything without even asking.
