Parable about the happiest and richest man
Rigden: …Working on his internal problems, overcoming the obstacles of his own Animal nature, and at the same time living for the people and for the good of people, man paves his own path. All is in the hands of man. His desire and aspiration do not depend on life’s external factors. For some reason, people live in the illusion that someone should come to lead them, do everything for them, and only then will they all be able to live happily. Everyone is waiting for a leader from the outside. But man, just like society as a whole, should not focus on the external material but should rather be guided by the inner spiritual. There is a parable in this connection that tells the story of the happiest and the richest man.
“In one village, there lived a Man. He stood out among people because, although he lived in poverty, he lived with joy, always selflessly helping others doing what little he could – sometimes with a word and sometimes with a deed. There were rumours that when he was alone, he praised God, sincerely thanked Him for the rich gifts He had favoured him with. These rumours reached an eminent priest. The priest decided to visit the Man to find out from him, for which rich gifts he praised God. The priest came to the shabby shack, where this poor man lived, and said: ‘Good day to you!’
The man replied with a smile: ‘I really do not remember a day that was not good for me.’
The priest was surprised with this answer, because no one had ever answered him this way, so he decided to say the greeting in another way: ‘I just hope that God gives you happiness.’
The Man, too, was surprised and said: ‘But I’ve never been unhappy, either.’
The priest thought that the poor man simply was not taught how to conduct high-style small talk and said: ‘What are you talking about?! I’m just wishing you that you were fortunate in life.’
The Man got even more surprised and sincerely replied: ‘I’ve never had ill fortune, good man.’
The priest realized that this poor man did not even recognize his eminent person and hurried down to business: ‘All right, well, I wish you everything what you wish for yourself...’
‘What I wish for myself?!’ the man laughed. ‘But I do not need anything. I have everything I want.’
‘How so?!’ It was the priest’s turn to be surprised. ‘But you live in poverty! Even rich people need many things and wish for much, so the poor are in a greater need.’
The man said: ‘These people are unhappy because they are looking for earthly happiness and live in the fear of losing their illusions and being miserable. He is unhappy who seeks his fortune in the illusions of this world. After all, there is only one true happiness here – to be firmly united with God and live by His will. I am not looking for temporary well-being because I am thankful for what I have, for what has been given to me in life by God. I gladly accept everything – both what people call misfortune and what people call sorrow. I thank Him for favouring me with rich gifts.’
The priest scoffed: ‘But God has not given you anything. It means that you thank Him insincerely.’
The man uttered: ‘God sees me, He sees all my temptations, and all my opportunities. He always gives me that which makes me spiritually perfect.’
The priest asked: ‘How do you live then?’
The man replied: ‘My concern in each day is only to be firmly united with God and to live according to His will, that my life was totally united and aligned with the will of God. So goes my day. And each night, going to bed, I’m going to God.’
‘Where have you found God?’
‘In the place where I have found the Truth, when I had left, like clothes, all the things of the world on the banks of my doubts and went into His waters of Enlightenment, in the purity of my thoughts and good Conscience.’
The priest hesitated, for never he had seen such a poor man who would say such words. ‘Tell me, do you speak so out of your own belief? Are you going to think the same way if God sends your Soul to hell?’
The man shrugged his shoulders and said: ‘Every day I hold on to God with all my inseparable embrace of my Soul. My sincere Love for Him is immense. My embrace is so strong, and my Love for Him is so boundless that wherever God sent me he would be there with me. And if He is with me, why should I be afraid? Life for me is where He is. For my Soul it would be better to be out of Heaven with God than in Heaven without Him.’
‘Well, who are you?!’ the priest asked with surprise and fear.
‘Whoever I may be, I am happy with my life. And truly, I would not exchange it for the lives and wealth of all earthly rulers. Every man who knows how to be a master of himself, how to rule over his thoughts and who is in a strong embrace of Love to God, is the richest and the happiest man in this world.’
‘Say, poor man, who has taught you such wisdom?’
‘I have only one teacher – God. Each day of my life I try to do good in this world, I pray, I practice in having righteous thoughts. But at the same time, I always take care of one thing – to be firmly united with God, with His boundless Love for me. Only the union with God makes me spiritually perfect. It is life in the Love of God that teaches me everything.”
Every person is a Personality, which, first of all, carries spiritual responsibility for everything that it does and chooses in life. Most people do understand what responsibility is. They take responsibility when they solve everyday, ideological, home, financial and other issues. Basically, they make this effort not for themselves, but for their families, for the future of their children and grandchildren, for their friends, for their loved ones and so on. In the spiritual, as in the main task of each person, you must take responsibility for your own spiritual destiny and do everything possible and impossible in your life to unite with your Soul and find the real Freedom from the material world. There is no need to wait for anyone, you must act yourself and start, first of all, with yourself. You yourself must be a good example to others, and then positive changes will not keep themselves waiting in you and in society.
From the book by Anastasia Novykh «AllatRa»
