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he is also before God.
The fame of that king went on increasing; but his soul kept on drowning. The fame kept on spreading and the soul kept on shrinking. His branches were spreading but the roots were getting weak.
He had a friend. That friend was the Kubera of the day. Just as the rivers and rivulets meet in the sea, similarly several canals of wealth met in his treasure chest. He was entirely different from his king-friend. He would not part with a penny in the name of charity. He was very infamous.
The king and the rich man both became old. One was filled with pride, the other with remorse. Pride was giving pleasure and remorse was pricking the soul. As the death appeared nearer to the king, he was holding faster to his pride. He had something to hold. But the remorse of the rich man at last became a revolution in him. It could not be his support. It was necessary to give it up. But let us remember that remorse is also the reverse side of pride, and therefore that is also difficult to leave. Very often when it is turned up, it becomes pride. For the same reason the pleasure-seekers become saints and the greedy, the charitable and the cruel become pitiful. But basically there is no revolution in their souls.
That rich man went to a good teacher. There he told him: "I am perturbed. I am burning in fire. I want peace".
The good teacher asked: "Could you not find peace with so much of wealth, fame, power and ability? '
He said: "No. I have fully realised that there is no peace in wealth."
The good teacher then said: "Go and throw away your all to those from whom you have snatched it. Then you come to me. Come to me after you have become simple and poor."
The rich an did it. When he came back the good teacher asked
"How now?"
He said: "Now I have no support except yourself."
But that good teacher was very strange. We might say he was mad. He turned out that poor rich man out of his hut and closed his doors. The night was dark and the forest was lonely. In that forest there was no other shelter except that hut.
The rich man had thought that he had returned after doing something big.
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