Short Story - The King's Challenge

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ॐ नमो नारायण ! जय श्री कृष्णा

While teaching and explaining Shrimad Bhagwat Geeta, Acharya Shri Shivender Nagar Ji tells beautiful and knowledgable short stories. These short stories are instrumental in explaining a point in the discussion. The following is one such short story.


Once lived a noble King. He didn't have any heir to the throne. He decided that he will name someone king, but that someone has to be capable and superior to others. So, he decided that he will create a challenge for all the young people below the age of 30 in his kingdom to contest. The winner shall be named heir to the throne.

He asked his servants to make announcements to everyone in the kingdom that the King is looking for his heir. And who so ever fulfill the king's challenge will be named heir to the throne after the King.

The challenge was simple, on a specific day, the King will invite all the participants to a gathering. In this gathering, the king will be hiding and who so ever finds the King first will be named the heir to the throne. Task has to completed before sunset.

As the task was very simple, find the kind and become king. Hence, everyone eligible in the kingdom decided to participate. A huge crowd gathered in front of the palace on the event day. When the gates to challenge were opened, people found that King has actually organized a grand carnival for all the participants. 

The word grand was small in comparison to the arrangements that King has made, there were different tents for specific enjoyments and entertainments. The first tent was full of delicious food and snacks from different parts of the world. All these foods were made live and available for free. Such amazing foods were available that no one has ever heard of.

The second tent was full of entertainment, live dancers were performing and hundreds of plays were going on. Comfortable sofa and beds were lying for everyone to eat food and enjoy the visual delights. 

The third tent was full of Weapons. Get any kind of weapon you like and that too free of cost. The next tent was for testing the free weapons. The next tent offered free chariots and horses. And then the next one offered free servents. Things even got rediculous when the after few tents free gold coins and jewelry were offered. Furthermore, free homes and villas were offered, and finally authentic educational degrees in your name. 

The entire carnival consisted of hundreds of such tents, offering free gifts and visual delights to all participants. The temptations were such that no one can resists. 

Youngsters, who came for the challenge got engaged in one or the other the fabulous attractions at the carnival, few who got passed from food, got stuck at weapons. Some got pass free horses. And finally, no one got passed the free jewelry section. No one passed the section of free homes and education. Inevitably, everyone was wasting time and forgot about the challenge. The day was about to get over, but everyone was forgetting about the purpose of the challenge in the wake of temptations.

But one young man was very focused on the goal. He was only thinking about the challenge. He avoided all the temptations although he wanted them. 
Towards the end of the carnival, he found a very simple temple. In the temple, a persist was offering evening prayers. The young man bowed to the priest and when he saw the priest's face he recognized the king. As the challenge was fulfilled, the king found his victor and he named the young man as heir to the throne.

Moral of the story: Our life is similar to a carnival organized by God. Our purpose in life is to seek and be with him. But in life, we follow temptations like home, car, jewelry, and trying to get them. In the end, we do become maters of one material thing or another. But like in the story the boy who avoided all the temptations and become king, also became the owner of all the temptations he left behind. Similarly, we should seek God and other material benefits will follow it's the course.