The Beggar

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."
The beggar was no ordinary beggar, he was the emperors past life master.
He had promised in that life, "I will come and try to wake you in your next life.
This life you have missed but I will come again."
But the king had forgotten completely -- who remembers past lives? 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 mans 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, and 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."
Diamons 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, 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. Some thing 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 drive, 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 drive,
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.