Pehchaan

Geeta Saxena (Oct-Nov, 1994) This is a story I made up for Bitti just to make her eat soup. There was once a magician who had great knowledge but no one to give it to. So he wanted to capture the eldest son of a king and queen and keep him with himself to train as a magician. For 16 years these attempts were futile, and tremendous bloodshed happened all over the country. The parents hid the son here and there, and fought the wicked magician. But when the prince grew up, he just couldnt take it anymore. He told them that he would go and find the magician and kill him once and for all. He then went on a white horse to find the magician, and after crossing many rivers, forests, and mountains. And after braving many dangers, he found the invisible castle of the magician. Again a long struggle ensued, after which the prince got trapped into a cave underground, deep and intricately tunneled. There was a cage there with a parrot inside, who contained the life force of the magician. The prince managed to somehow open the cage and twist the neck of the parrot. The magician was killed. But now the prince had no inkling of how to get out of the cave. He wandered underground in tunnel after tunnel for months. Then he somehow came up to the ground level. But now he did not know the way home. The magician was dead and his own horse was gone. There were beautiful mountains, in which nestled the invisible castle. The prince could subsist if he went out and hunted for wild berriesand fruits and water. The prince wandered aimlessly around for a long time. At last he entered the castle. It was mysterious but not frightening. It had all comforts but no life. It was good to explore. It had trinklets, ornaments, carpets, furniture, silver and gold and rich wall hangings, and all of it intrigued the prince. However he went on exploring because the gold and silver were good for nothing, and there was noone to share it with, nothing that he could he could buy, or use it for. So at long last, he finished exploring the ground floor (with a balcony) and the second floor. Then he reached a terrace, where there was one more room. The terraces were by themselves beautiful but bare, except for this one room which was locked. Now started the struggle to open the door. The prince just couldnt give it up. He just had to open it. and see. But the door was so well sealed that sometimes he could hardly make it out, leave alone open it. For one year the struggle went on till one day the rays of the setting sun showed him the message written on the door - speak the magic word. The word! The prince went mad trying to find the right word. He said all the words he knew and combined them into all possible combinations, but it did not work. The door was there,

still locked. The prince was patient, angry, resigned, hateful, sorrowful, frightened, mad. After many months of struggling he finally lost his temper one day - and said, I am going to break this door, I am going to burn this castle, I am going to kill myself. And he rushed blindly forward to kick the door... ... but he fell in, because the door was not there. His saying I am even in anger, had turned the key. The magic word was I am. So the prince found the door open, and a large room full of books on magic. He started studying magic, and for many years just went on studying and experimenting. At the end of 10 years, he became a great magician - who could do anything, go anywhere, get anything or anyone. One day he remembered his family and his country, and went there - invisibly. He found that they were all well settled and happy, had given him up for dead, and had put his younger brother on the throne. He was married and also had a son. The prince then turned back and went back to his castle.... and every one lived happily ever after... Bitti found this an unfair ending, cruel and meaningless. After a lot of trial an error, and emotional upset she said, there has to be recogintion - pehchaan - someone must know that here is the prince who has now become great magician. After that he can can give anywhere he wants. They should know that he exists. Nothing else will do. In the morning V told me about his question about Ken Wilber - Why does he have to write it? Why bother? If you have experienced the Truth, what else matters? And about his identification with Wilber. I told him the story.
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