This is an interesting story. The story of ‘justice’: Justice delivered by the indiscriminate kings in favour of unscrupulous seekers.
This king was holding his court- as usual, surrounded by sycophants. Just as the royal entertainment programme was over, a petitioner barged in.
“Please give me justice my lord, please give me justice”, he cried.
Everyone’s attention turned towards him. He was in bad shape, his right eye mangled and blood oozing out from a corner of his forehead.
“What is the matter? Tell us in detail”, ordered the king.
“My lord, I am a thief by profession. Last night I went to a Seths’ house adjoining a weaver’s hut. It was a night so dark, that even moonlight was nowhere to be seen. As I jumped out of the Seth’s window, my head rammed against the loom kept outside by the weaver. Now, I have lost one eye and my lord you know how difficult it will be to commit thefts with just one eye. How will I work now? How will I feed my family.”
“What do you want now?” asked the king.
“Nothing but justice my lord. I have been crippled due to the weaver’s
carelessness. He should not have kept his loom there. Now the weaver must compensate me.”
“You are right”, said the king. “In my kingdom justice will always be done. But as per law, you have to be given ‘eye for an eye’. Call the weaver immediately.”
The weaver was brought to the king’s court.
“Look, due to your carelessness, the poor thief has lost his eye. Now as per law you will have to give one of your eyes to him”, ordered the king.
What a judgment, thought the weaver. But he was helpless. He knew that the king would listen to no logic. So he tried the cunning way out.
“You are very right my lord. Eye for an eye! It is justice indeed. But I have a submission to make. My work of weaving needs accurate sight of both the eyes. I have to keep my eyes fixed both above and below the cloth. Without one eye how will I earn my living. So if you take my eye, will it not be injustice to me?”
“You are also right”, said the king, scratching his head. “But I have to do justice- eye for an eye. Since the whole problem arose due to your loom, you will have to suggest the solution too”.
“I have a solution my lord”, said the cunning weaver. “My neighbour is a cobbler. He needs only one eye to do his work. One of his eyes can be taken out for the sake of justice. It would not effect his livelihood too.”
“All right, bring the cobbler here”, ordered the King.
It was poor cobbler’s turn now. He knew that foolish as the king was, he would not budge from his stand. So he also thought of a cunning way to wriggle out of the situation.
“Sir”, he said bowing before the King, “Eye for an eye-it is justice indeed, but there is a problem. No doubt, my profession requires only one eye at a time. Therefore all these years I have been using my right eye only. So I have used the entire power of that eye. Now I have only one healthy eye left, with which I will work for the rest of my life. Now if you take out my spent eye and give it to the thief, justice will not be complete and if you take out my left and the healthy eye, how will I make my living. It will be injustice to me.”
The king lost his patience by now. “All right you fool. But what about my justice. I have to have an eye for an eye, and that too a healthy one.”
The cobbler breathed a sigh of relief. But he knew, he would not be freed before an eye is provided. “My neighbour is a singer my lord. He sings with closed eyes. In his free time he also does some farming which he does with his hands. So eyes are not that important for him. So even if one of his eyes is taken out, it will not make much of a difference for him.”
“Good”, said the ‘justice loving’ king.
And finally the justice was delivered – the eye of the poor farmer-singer was sacrificed at the altar of ‘justice’.
The story seems funny but at the same time illogical and unreasonable too. How can you have such a foolhardy king. But the fact is that such kings did exist. In olden days one state had only one king. But if you take a closer look around, you will find such kings in abundance everywhere, though in different garbs. Spiritual education is daunting when the seekers are egoists, indolent and materialistic. The fame seeking ‘kings’ of spirituality pronounce judgements tailored to suit the whims and fancies of such seekers. Such judgements will force the poor spiritual learning to confine itself to the hearts and minds of a few sages only.
Spiritually barren people proclaim themselves to be the kings of spirituality on the basis of propagation of bookish information (not knowledge), publicity and money-power. Political patronage follows such ‘kings’ in no time. Such ‘kings’ maim and blind the enigmatic mysteries and systems in the name of simplifying them for general masses.
Awakening Kundalini in minutes; Naamdan over loudspeakers to thousands of people; Promises of mukti to every one, be it a an egoist, a materialist, a crook, a impious or immoral person; eating drinking and being merry in the name of Sahaj Sadhna; even preaching violence in the name of religion; preaching of narrowness, sectarianism using the name of most venerated and accomplished sages and saints; division of even Scriptures and holy books-[ Only we have a right to read this book, to recite the name of Ram, Allah, Waheguru etc.]
Poor spirituality, terrified, and maimed by the ‘Justice’ of such Kalyugi spiritual kings, must be taking refuge in the corner of some inward looking Mahatma’s heart.
When such irrational kings have intruded even into the empire of spirituality, how can the material components, that thrive on the ego and possessiveness, survive without the patronage of such idiotic kings.
Even in police stations it is common to see brute power being used to implicate some innocent but weak person for crime committed by someone rich and powerful. A poor person has always to beware of a rich, powerful, or strong neighbour lest he should be implicated in false litigation. God save the innocent one who has to go to a police station for testifying for truth.
In business this has become almost an accepted rule of the game. Ram Singh fleeces Sham Singh, who in turn fleeces Bham Singh. Not able to fleece some strong rival, Bham Singh fleeces his customers. All this has the tacit approval of the officialdom, which in turn fleeces the general public. The businessmen are ruled by the rulers of the new generation- the officials of administration- who reserve with them the un-proclaimed right to be richer than the businessmen, using their power to administer ‘justice’ and deliver judgements.
People not even remotely connected with science, direct the scientists. The old and the aged rule over the younger ones, completely forgetting their own days of youth. The youth in turn repeat the same when they grow up. The vicious cycle goes on.
The Boss vents his frustration on his engineer, the engineer on his wife, the wife on her son, the son on his younger sister, the sister on her doll. All this frustrates the engineer. The frustrated engineer cannot put in his best at the company, so the ultimate sufferer of the entire cycle is – the Company, the business.
The bigger one manages to implicate the smaller one- to shift the blame for failure. This system of ‘justice’ is propagated and nourished by every one contributing faithfully. The tradition goes on and on and on. Each ones of us goes on helping this system flourish, at the same time criticising its existing.
The one who can gather enough strength to pull himself out of this cycle, is truly valiant. He is a true human being. He alone will proceed further on the way realisation -of God.
—-()—-