A Kashmiri folktale
Once there lived a Seeker of the Truth who wanted to know the mystery of Death and the Great Time. For many years, the seeker kept visiting many gurus, scientists, academicians and ashrams.
Then one day, he came across a group of wandering mystic minstrels while walking on the bank of a river. One of them told him to go take a dip in the river that was flowing in front of them.
The Seeker went and immersed himself in the river water. But when he raised his head he saw that his body had changed and so had his surroundings. He saw that he is in the lap of a cobbler and everyone is congratulating the cobbler on the birth of his child. And the child is him!
The child grew up, became a cobbler himself, married and became a father of a big family.
Then suddenly he became aware that he is really a Seeker, so he abandoned everything and went to another country.
Now just as he reached that country, the king died without an heir.
So the ministers and elders resorted to the ancient custom of sending an elephant to elect a successor to the throne. It was decided that whoever gets picked up by the elephant with its trunk and made to sit on his shoulders would be accepted by the people as king.
Well, wonders of wonders, the stranger, the Seeker in the body of the cobbler, was chosen for the royal office.
A few years later, the cobbler’s wife came to know of his whereabouts and went to join him. Then people began to gossip and ask questions. Soon the people got divided into many groups – some supported the king, some were against him, some wanted to wait for interference of the priests, some wanted to elect a king again. Riots started everywhere. The King too could not bear the shame and the chaos and losing his mind he threw himself into a fire.
At once he found himself standing as the Seeker on the bank of the river in which he had taken the dip. He saw some beggars sitting at a distance. He walked towards them.
When he reached them one of them said, “Please give us some money as alms. We have not eaten for days now. We have been running away from a country in which a cobbler became a king. Once everyone came to know about it, riots let loose all over the country. And now here we are hungry and penniless.”
The Seeker found some money in the pocket of his shirt. He gave them the money and quietly walked away perplexed in his mind.
When he reached home he was even more astonished. All the family members looked exactly the same age that he had last seen them. Nobody even bothered to ask him anything. It looked like any other ordinary day. Clearly he was not gone for long. He looked at the mirror to see himself as he was when he had left the house.
The Seeker thought, “How is it even possible? I have lived as a cobbler, raised a family for years and then reigned as a king for several years. I was not dreaming as the beggars confirmed the truth of those happenings. Yet I have not been absent from the house for very long. Neither I nor my family members look a day older. What is the mystery?”
Then slowly the Seeker felt, “Maybe the soul passes through various stages of existence according to a man’s thoughts and words and acts. Maybe the Great Time is not to be understood with our linear thinking reasoning mind. If the Great Time decides then a day is equal to an aeon and an aeon is over in a day. Maybe the difference between the real and the dream is nothing but an illusion controlled by the Great Time too.”
The Seeker smiled to himself and closed his eyes. He sensed peace in his entire being.
Then he whispered to himself, “Maybe to live in wonder and acceptance of the unknown is the Truth I have always sought.”