Acharya Tulsi
There was an emperor. He spent his life like a captive of his luxuries and power. He had lordship over a vast stretch of land. He had no dearth of wealth. He had a mighty army. His ministers were wise and able. Neighbouring kings respected him. He had a happy family. In spite of that, the emperor was not happy. Neither the emperor neither felt hunger in time nor enjoyed sound sleep. The royal physicians tried their best to cure the emperor, but of no avail.
There was stability, fearlessness and peace in the kingdom. The people were contended. Nevertheless, the emperor remained ever vigilant. In cognate he moved around to learn the state of his subject. Once he was moving at the outskirts of the city. He found a farmer sleeping in a field. The earth was his bedspread and shade of a tree was his covering sheet. He was fast asleep even on an uneven floor. The emperor was envious of the farmer’s carefree life. He was helpless. Had sleep been a commodity, he could have bought that at any cost, but it was not possible. He thought, “Perhaps this farmer knows the art of enjoying a sound sleep. Let me learn that art from him.” He sat under the tree and waited for the farmer to wake up.
After a while, the farmer got up. The emperor asked the secret of his ability to enjoy sound sleep. The farmer could not recognize the emperor. He said, “You cannot enjoy sleep while sitting in such position. If you wish to know how to enjoy a sound sleep then do as I command.” The emperor just obeyed him. The farmer asked him to disrobe and do a good deal of physical labour"
The emperor had no occasion so far even to fetch a glass of water for him. But on that day he did a lot of manual work with spade. Just after a little work, he got tired, but he did not yield. One hour non-stop work made him exhausted. He had no stamina left with him even to stand on his feet. He sat down on the earth. The farmer came to him and said with smile, “you got exhausted so quickly.” Emperor had a backache in his complete body. He could not reply. The farmer said, “It is all right. Take rest for a while and then take your bath at the well.”
The emperor took rest for a while and went to the well. He
took out water from the well and had a bath. He felt hungry then.
The farmer offered a coarse bread of millet flour. The bread tasted him sweet. His hunger was satisfied. After whiling away with the emperor for some time, the farmer handed over the spade to the emperor again. After digging the soil for about an hour, the emperor again got exhausted. The farmer advised him to have a nap under a tree. The emperor was waiting for this moment. Putting the spade aside, the emperor immediately lay down on the earth. There was no bed, no pillow, there was a bedspread and on that the emperor fell fast asleep. After about two hours, the emperor awake from sound sleep.
The day I read this story, the day I realized that neither authority nor riches can give you happiness. Physical labour is the simple way to attain happiness. Our culture gives due importance to physical labour. S0 long this culture lasts, no one would be able to take our happiness away from us.
