Once a monk came and knocked at the door of the King. It was early in the morning and King was taking a walk in his palace garden. The monk saw the king and went to him. He placed his bowl in front of the king. The king asked what he wanted.
The Monk said –
“Give me anything but there is one condition, you need to fill my bowl. I have got tired of filling the bowl, it never fills up!”
The king started laughing and said –
“You seem to be mad. You wouldn’t be a monk otherwise. This small bowl of yours is not filling up? Whom are you kidding?”
The king called his minister and ordered him to fill the monk’s bowl with the gold coins. The monk warned the king –
“I’m reminding you again. If you attempt to fill this bowl, as per the condition, I’ll not leave until it gets filled.”
The king said –
“Don’t sweat you, mad man. I’ll fill your bowl with gold and diamonds.”
The king soon realized his mistake, gold coins were put in the bowl, they disappeared. Diamonds were put, they too disappeared. But the king was stubborn, he would not give up and did not want to lose to a monk. Soon the word spread like wildfire in the capital and thousands of people gathered to see this.
The king started emptying his treasure, he wanted to bet everything but had made up his mind to fill the bowl. It was almost evening and the sun was setting. The king, whose treasuries were always full became empty but the bowl remained empty.
The king finally gave up and fell at the feet of the monk and said –
“I give up. It is good that you crushed my ego. I thought I had abundant wealth but I could not even fill your small bowl with that. I accept my defeat. Please forgive me.
But before you leave, please tell me just one thing. This question has been bothering me since morning – What is the secret of this bowl? What magic has been used to create it?”
The monk laughed and said –
“It is not made from any magic rather it is made from a human’s heart. The human heart never gets filled, nor does this bowl.”
There is nothing in this life that can satisfy you or make you content. Your bowl will always remain empty. Put any amount of wealth you want, it will get lost. Put whatever post, position, the status you want, your bowl will remain empty. Your heart will never get filled up. The only thing that can fill you up is God because our thirst is infinite and God is infinite. So only infinite can fill up the infinite!”
Story Credit: Osho Talks
Wisdom Bite
It is so true, there is no end to our desires. It is like the bowl that never gets filled. We spend our entire life chasing and trying to fulfill our desires. We think we will be happy once our desire gets fulfilled but that happiness is momentary. We look for something else, a new desire that we think will make us happy but the result is the same. It is a vicious cycle. We are stuck in this cycle forever until we decide to break it.
The problem is that we try to find happiness in materialistic things that can never give lasting happiness. Instead, we need to look inwards and discover our true self, the God within us. That will be the true and ultimate source of everlasting happiness.
