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fakir. What did he say? For what purpose did he say it?
Ibrahim could not sleep the rest of the night. While he was holding court the next morning, he was in a melancholic mood. The words had struck hard. He must have been someone like Janak. He was hit by the truth of what had been said. If this man is mad, am I intelligent? Who has found happiness in this world? I am also searching for it. Happiness is not found in this world and if it is, a camel can also be found. Then the impossible does happen, there is no problem. But who is that fellow? How did he get up on the roof? How did he escape, where did he go?
He sat lost in thought. He was holding court. Court was open, business was being discussed, but today his mind was not there. His mind had flown away somewhere. The bird of his mind had already flown off to some other world. As if renunciation had already happened! Just a small incident -- as if Ashtavakra himself had climbed up on his roof and spoken.
Just then he noticed there was trouble at the door. A man wanted to come in and was telling the courtier he wanted to stay in this caravansarai. And the guard was saying, "You are mad, this is not a sarai, this is the palace of the emperor. There are many sarais in the city, go and stay there."
But the man was saying, "I will stay right here. I have stayed here before, it is a sarai. Tell someone else this nonsense, you can't fool me."
Suddenly, hearing his voice, Ibrahim realized that this is the same voice and this is the same man. He said, "Bring him in, don't chase him away."
He was brought in. Ibrahim asked, "What are you saying? What kind of arrogance is this? This is my palace. You call it a sarai? This is an insult."
He said, "Whether it is insult or praise, I ask one thing: I have come here before, but then, someone else was sitting on this throne. Who was he?"
Ibrahim replied, "That was my father."
And the fakir said, "And before that I had come, another man was here."
So he replied, "That was my father's father."
So he said, "This is why I call it a sarai. People sit here then depart, they come and go. How long will you sit
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