Know Thyself

The Prince

Once upon a time, there lived a Prince, who was tall, handsome and gentle, every girl in his kingdom and nearby kingdoms wanted to marry the prince, everyone adored the prince for his kindness too. The Prince was lazy, happy go lucky type, always partied with friends and ignored his responsibilities. The king wanted the young prince to get married, so that he will be responsible towards his duties but the prince had few conditions of his own and said to the king, I will marry the one who meets all my conditions.

The King died to illness and prince was forced to look after the kingdom. The prince wanted to enjoy his life without worrying about his kingdom or his duties, so he  searched for a girl who can be loyal to him, contribute in maintaining his wealth and look after his kingdom.

Finally, the prince found such a girl and married her, the girl was very loyal and loved him very much, and she was even ready to die for the sake of the him. They started to live happily together.

Three Wives

After a few days, his kingdom was in trouble and the prince noticed that his wife could not help him in resolving the crisis. So he married another woman who has helped him to resolve problems, she was clever, considerate, humble and listened to whatever the prince said. The prince started to ignore his 1^st wife now and always turned to his second wife whenever there were problems and she would help him out and tide with him in difficult times.

The Peace Celebration

The Prince who is the king now, had to visit neighboring kingdoms for celebrating peace in the region. He reached there with his two wives, everyone greeted the prince and introduced their wife’s, they were beautiful and all the kings were proud of their wife’s. The Prince was ashamed to introduce his wives, so he decided to marry another girl.

The prince married again and now he is very proud of her and shows off her to other kings, but was worried that she might leave him and marry another person or king.

Few days later, he met a beautiful girl and fell in love with her, so he married again and adorned her with richness, treated her to delicacies, took great care of her and always gave nothing but the best.

Now the prince was happy and his kingdom is also very happy, Years passed and the prince was near to this death and was very worried that he will be all alone in the next world and wanted someone to come with him.

The Prince

So he decided to ask the 4^th wife, whom he loved so much to accompany him in this death. The 4^th wife responded, Even though you have taken good care of me and gave me nothing but the best. I cannot follow you and ran away. The prince was shocked and but did not lose hope.

He asked his 3^rd wife, who also replied ‘you have used me as a 'thing' to show off, now that you will die, I will remarry and live happily” and she walked away. The prince was dumbstruck.

After sometime, he asked his 2^nd wife, “You have helped me in difficult of times, please help me one last time” But she replied, “Even I cannot help you this time, you are on your own now” and left him.

Then suddenly, he heard a clear and sharp voice, “I will come with you “, he looked around to see his first wife standing there. At first he did not recognize her, as she was very weak, looked very old, she did not look after herself and dedicated her life to King and his kingdom. The Prince realizing his mistake said , “I should have taken care of you as you are the one who kept me and my kingdom safe and happy all this time without even uttering a single word”,  “I am sorry” and never woke up again.

If we observer carefully, everyone is married to 4 wives, they are Physical Body, Wealth/Money, Family/Friends and Soul

The 4^th wife can be compared to physical body, where a person spends most of his time in adoring and providing finest clothes etc. but in the end it will leave you behind

The 3rd wife can be compared to Wealth, Money, Status Quo, Pride, Assets etc, These things will be taken or enjoyed by others when we die. It might be passed on to children, family or anyone

The 2^nd wife can be one of our family member or friends. They will not come with us when we die, even though they are the closet to us when we lived.

The 1^st wife is our soul, No matter where you go, it will be follow us and everyone chooses to ignore it for the sake of the other things like money, material and Pleasure.

Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul. -Oscar Wilde