Drushtant Kathao

Author(s): Shrimad Rajchandra, Dinubhai M Patel
Publisher: Shrimad Rajchandra Ashram

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King of kings Bharateshwar
ready; one whose fame as a victorious king had spread far and wide like wind in the skies; one whose enemies had no occasion to sleep with ease or without fear of attack or in other words the wives of whose enemies were constantly shedding tears; one against whom none dared to fight as an enemy but none dared to even point any finger against, one in whose bidding many wise advisers were seeking his favour; one whose bodily form, beauty and lustre were mind absorbing, one in whose body valourous might, prowess, power and highly victorious actions were clearly visible, one for whose pleasure resorts were maintained with fragrant gardens, parks and vernal woods, one who had a number of equally valourous and bright sons; one to take up whose commands were ready lacs of servants in all directions, one who wherever went was adored with high praises and plates of flowers of gold and emeralds, one to touch whose auspicious lotus like feet were anxious person's like Indra, the Lord of Gods, one in whose armoury, the great famed Divya chakra-the divine wheel (a sharp circularly rotating missile of God) had emerged, one in whose kingdom the lamp of empire was unfailingly burning bright; one on whose head the crown of the victory over six great continents was shining with lustre and brightness. In short whose army, whose cities, whose prowess and majesty and whose enjoyments knew no bounds from worldly point of view-such Shrimad Raj Rajeshwar (king of all kings) Bharat adorned with beautiful apparels and ornaments was sitting on his royal throne in his grand palace of mirror - Adarsh Bhavan. All entrances to the palace in all directions were open, incense spices of many fragrant kinds were burning and their aroma filled the place all around, all sort of fragrance giving objects were spreading fine fragrance all around, various kinds of melodious musical instruments were playing around, cool, mild and fragrant winds were blowing all around. In that palace, the great king of kings Shriman Bharat while observing his adorned ornaments achieved unprecedented enlightenment of the soul.
A ring from one of the fingers of his hand fell out and Bharat's attention was drawn to it and the finger without the ring seemed quite ugly to him. As compared with other nine fingers adorned with beautiful rings, this finger without the ring drew Bharat to reflective thinking. He pondered why should this finger appear ugly? And with this thinking he realised that the finger without the ring was the cause of it appearing bereft of beauty. To substantiate his this thinking. he took out the ring from another finger and the second finger appeared to have lost its beauty like the previous finger; then he took out the ring from his third finger. This substantiated his thinking still more. Then he took out the ring from his fourth finger, and it also appeared just like previous finger. Thus he took out the rings from the rest of his fingers one by one and all of them without rings appeared having lost their beauty. As a result, this great king of kings said with a deep impressive feeling of separateness as under :
Oh ! how strange it is that from raw gold, extracted from the earth this beautiful golden ring was skilfully prepared and this ring gave beauty to my finger and when this ring fell out from my finger, it lost its beauty and looked lonely and ugly, quite unpleasing one. Then is it not proved that the ugliness of my finger was due to its losing the ring? If there would have been ring on my finger I would have not seen this finger as ugly; by wearing this ring my finger gets beauty and by that finger my hand gets beauty and with that hand, my body looks beautiful. Then whose beauty I should admit ? Much wonder ! My so called fascinating beauty is shining by my colourful dress and ornaments of gold and diamonds and this lustre is the cause of beautiful appearance of this skin, and this skin is covering the interior of the body which would otherwise appear quite ugly. Oh what a wonder it is ? The body which I believe as mine, looks beautiful due to skin
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