Chinna Katha - 23 (Vairagya - The Story of Mohajith) (Short Story: As told by Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai Baba)

12-02-2000, 04:48 AM

23. VAIRAGYA - THE STORY OF MOHAJITH

Bhakthi and the attitude of Sharanaagathi that is its final fruit will give you
great courage to meet any emergency; such courage is what is called Vairagya.

The story of Mohajith is a good example of this highest type of Vairagya.

Mohajith, the Prince, went to a sage in the forest and sought guidance in the spiritual path.

The sage asked him whether he had conquered Moha as his name indicated.

The Prince said that not only he, but also every one in his kingdom had!

So the Sage started to test the truth of this claim.

He took the Prince’s robes, soaked them in blood and hastened to the Palace Gate
with the gruesome story of the murder of the Prince by some ruffians in the
jungle.

The maid whom he met refused to hurry with the news to the Royal apartments because she said.

“He was born, he died; what is the special urgency of this news that I should
interrupt my regular routine and run to the King and Queen?”

When at last he got an audience and was able to communicate the sad news to the
father, he sat unruffled, whispering to himself,

“The bird flew off the tree on which it had alighted to take rest.” The Rani too was unmoved.

She told the sage that this Earth is a caravanserai, where men come and stay for
the night and when dawn breaks, one by one, they tramp their different ways.

Kith and Kin are the words we use for the attachment to the travelers cultivated
in thee caravanserai during the short term of acquaintance.

The wife of the “dead” Prince was also unaffected; she said, “Husband and wife
are like two pieces of wood drifting down a flooded river; they float near each
other for some time and when some current comes between, they part; each must
move on to the sea at its own rate and its own time.

There is no need to grieve over the parting of the two; it is in the way nature
of Nature that it should be so.”

The sage was overjoyed to see this steady and sincere Vairagya in the rulers and the ruled.

He came back to the forest and told the Prince that while he was away, a hostile
army had invaded his Kingdom and enslaved his subject.

He took the news calmly and said, “All this is a bubble, impermanent, flimsy.
Let it go the way of the bubble. Guide me to reach this Infinite, the
Imperishable”.
(from the Book: "CHINNA KATHA" (Short Story, as told by Bhagavan Sri Satya Sai BABA))
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