Namaste, Welcome to SAM-VAD (Together In Conversation), as we begin today ‘let us remember this about ‘Attention’.
Our life experience would ultimately amount to whatever we had paid attention to. Attention: is important and most of the times we are so indifferent to it. It is as fundamental as food; and we go blundering about, seeking ways to assuage the craving, instead of learning how to provide ourselves with what we need, sensibly and calmly. We feed the hunger blindly. Once the mechanism is brought to our attention and we begin to study it, it is as if a veil has been stripped off ordinary life, and we become freer in our action and choices.
This week I bring to your attention yet another story which is extracted from an interesting and thought provoking work, ‘World Tales’ by Idries Shah.
‘World Tales,’ is divided into five volumes and contains stories from great works like Panchatantra, Thousand and One Nights, Straparola, Boccaccio, Chaucer and Shakespeare and a dozen others which now form the basis of the classic literature of Europe and Asia.
The Desolate Island
There was once a very wealthy man, who was of a kind and generous disposition, and who wanted to make his slave happy. He therefore gave him his freedom, and also presented him with a shipload of merchandise.
‘Go,’ he said, ‘and sail to various countries. Dispose of these goods, and whatever you may get from them shall be your own.’
The freed slave sailed away, across the wide ocean. He had not been long on his voyage before a storm blew up. His ship was driven on to the rocks and went to pieces, and all on board was lost except the former slave himself. He managed to swim to a nearby island and drag himself ashore.
Sad, despondent and lonely, naked and with nothing to his name, he walked across the land until he came to a large and beautiful city.
Many people came out to meet him, crying, ‘Welcome! Welcome! Long live our King!’
They brought a rich carriage and placing him in it, escorted him to a magnificent palace, where many servants gathered around him. He was dressed in royal garments and they addressed him as their sovereign: they expressed their compete obedience to his will.
The ex-slave was, naturally enough, amazed and confused, wondering whether he was dreaming; and all that he saw, heard or experienced was merely passing fantasy.
Eventually he became convinced that what was happening was in fact real; and he asked some people around him, whom he liked, how he could have arrived in this state.
‘I am, after all,’ he said, ‘a man of whom you know nothing, a poor, naked wanderer, whom you have never seen before. How can you make me your ruler? This causes me more amazement than I can possibly say.’
‘Sire,’ they answered, ‘this island is inhabitated by spirits. Long ago they prayed that they might be sent a son of man to rule over them, and their prayers have been answered. Every year they are sent a son of man. They receive him with great dignity and place him on the throne. But his status and his power end when the year is over. Then they take the royal robes from him and put him on board a ship, which carries him to a vast and desolate island. Here, unless he has previously been wise and prepared for that day, he finds neither subject nor friend: and he is obliged to pass a very lonely and miserable life. Then a new King is selected, and so year follows year. The Kings who came before you were careless and did not think. They enjoyed their power to the full, forgetting the day when it would end.’
These people counseled the former slave to be wise, and to allow their words to stay within his heart.
The new King listened carefully to all this: and he felt grieved that he should have wasted even the little time which had passed since he came to the island.
He asked a man of knowledge who had already spoken:
‘Advise me, O Spirit of Wisdom, how I may prepare for the days which will come upon me in the future.’
‘Naked you came among us,’ said the man,’ and naked you shall be sent to the desolate island of which I have told you. At present your are King, and may do whatever you please. Therefore, send workmen to the island, and let them build houses and prepare the land, and make the surroundings beautiful. The barren soil will be turned into fruitful fields, people will go there to live, and you will have established a new Kingdom for yourself. Your own subjects will be waiting to welcome you when you arrive. The year is short, the work is long: therefore be earnest and energetic.’
The King followed this advice. He sent workmen and materials to the desolate island and, before the end of his term of power, it had become a fertile, pleasant and attractive place. The rulers who had come before him had anticipated the end of their time with fear, or smothered the thought of it by amusing themselves. But he looked forward to it with joy, for then he could start upon a career of permanent peace and happiness.
And the day came. The freed slave who had been made a King was stripped of his authority. With his royal robes he lost his powers. He was placed naked on a ship, and its sails were set for the island. When he approached its shore, however, the people whom he had sent ahead came forward to welcome him with music, song and great joy. They made him ruler, and he lived ever after in peace.
World Tales – Idries Shah
Many traditional tales have a surface meaning (perhaps just a socially uplifting one) and a secondary, inner significance, which is rarely glimpsed consciously, but which nevertheless acts powerfully upon our minds.
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As I conclude today’s episode;
I want to draw your attention to these wise words of a Storyteller which I have extracted from a monumental work ‘Kalila wa Dimna’, which has been inspired from “The Panćatantra”.
My stories require, at this stage, no extra commentary, imaginings, or guesswork by you, me, or anyone else. The very worst would be that of moralizing. To explain away is to forget. Thus, let the stories which you can remember do their own work by their very diversity. Familiarize yourself with them.
Excerpt from Doctor’s orders:Kalila Wa Dimna; Vol.1 – Ramsay Wood
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