5.

The Result of Begging

(The Prime Minister and Lakshmi)
There was a prime minister of a king who underwent all the ascetic practices, which
are necessary, to see the Goddess of Fortune in flesh and blood before him. Well,
he practised all those mantrams, incantations and charms. A million times he
repeated sacred mantrams that were calculated to make him realise the presence of
goddess Lakshmi. She did not appear. Three million times he underwent all the
ascetic practices; still the goddess was not visible. He lost all faith in these
things and renounced everything in the world, took up Sannyasa (monk life) and
became a monk. The very moment that he embraced Sannyasa (monk life) and left the
palace and retired into the forests he found the goddess before him. He cried, 'Go
away, goddess, why are you here now? I want you no more I am a monk. What has a
monk to do with luxury, with riches, with wealth and worldly enjoyments? When I
wanted you, you came not; now that I do not desire you, you came before me." The
goddess replied,
Parables of Rama
34
"You yourself stood in the way. So long as you desired, you were asserting duality,
you were making a beggar of yourself, and that kind of being can have nothing. The
moment you rise above desires and spurn them, you are a god, and to gods belongs
the glory." That is the secret.
MORAL: Rise above desires and they are fulfilled; beg and their fulfillment recedes
further from you.