This time will also pass…

A king once called all his wise men and asked them to come up with a Sutra which is small and not a long elaborate scripture as he did not have time to read them. The Sutra should be useful in any situation, good times, bad times, in life, or  death situations. Please find such a Sutra.

The wise men got together and had long debates, discussions to come up with something but in vain. They were worried and did not know what to do. One of the wise men in the group said –  

“I have heard of a saint who is staying outside of our village. He is very learned and wise. Maybe we should go and ask for his help.” 

They went to meet the saint and shared with him their dilemma. The saint was wearing a ring, he removed the ring and gave it to them and said – 

“Please give this to your king. There is a paper note beneath the ring which has a Sutra written on it. This was given to me by my guru but I never needed to open it. I have never seen what is written on it. 

 

But there is a condition, this has to be opened when there is no solution in sight to a problem or you have reached a dead end. If it is read without meeting this condition, it will lose its value.

 

I never faced such a situation in my life so I never used it but there should be something very valuable. Please take note of the condition I mentioned.”

The wise men thanked the saint and went to give the ring to the king. They shared the condition of using the ring as told to them by the saint. The king wore the ring. Few years passed. Many times the king had the curiosity to open the ring and read the Sutra but was afraid that it would lose its value remembering the condition.

Once war broke out between the King and his enemy. The king lost the battle and had to flee from there to save his life. He along with a couple of his soldiers escaped towards the forest on their horses. King left behind his family, relatives, and friends. The soldiers accompanying him also left the king after a while as everything was lost and there was nothing to protect.

King was still being chased by his enemy as he could hear the taps of the horses at a distance. He came across a dead end, there was a deep ditch. He could not go back, he felt stuck and did not know what to do. Just then he remembered the ring. He opened the ring and read the Sutra –

 “This time will also pass…”

As soon as he read the Sutra, he had a smile on his face. He started thinking deeply,

Everything has passed – I’m no longer the king, I lost my kingdom, my family, all the good things. So this bad time also will not be permanent, it will pass too!

Sutra was conveying the truth. He had a deep realization and became calm. He sat down, he was not afraid anymore. He wore the ring back. He could not hear the enemy horses now, they probably had lost track of the king in the deep forest. 

After a few days, he assembled his army again with help of his friends and attacked his enemy. This time he won the battle and got back his kingdom. He was very happy to sit back on his throne. Just then, he saw his ring and read the Sutra again and smiled. All his excitement of getting his throne back, the pride of the victory, all vanished. Seeing the King’s face, his Wazir asked  – 

“O, King! You were so excited and happy just now, why did you become silent? What happened?“

The king said – 

“When everything is going to pass, there is nothing to be happy about or nothing to be sad about.”