26 November 2013

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.