Folktales from India: The kingdom of Ignorance

“Once upon a time a guru and his most faithful follower decided to go on a pilgrimage. On their way, they had to pass thru a kingdom of which they have heard a great deal that seemed very strange. The king, they have heard, was very foolish. He made foolish men his ministers and paid them very well, while wise men could scarcely earn enough to eat. He ordered that everything should cost the same amount of money in the market so that one had to pay as much for spinach as for rich sweetmeats. He ill-treated the poor for being stupid enough to be poor and fined the sick for being idle.

The follower did not want to pass through this kingdom at all. ‘Let us think of another route,’ he said. ‘We are sure to run into trouble in this strange place.’

But the guru would not listen. ‘No’, he said. ‘I want to see for myself if all the stories I have heard are true.’ So they went to the capital of the kingdom.

They did not have to wait long to find out if what they had head was true. While walking around the town, they came to the king´s durbar and found a trial in progress. So they waited to see what would happen.

Two women came forward. ‘Sir,’ they said to the king, ‘we demand justice. A few weeks ago our husbands were trying to break into the house of a merchant when he was away in another village. As they were trying to make a hole in the wall big enough to get through, the wall collapsed and killed them. If the house was not so old and rotten, our men would not have been killed. Make the merchant pay for the lives of our men.’

The king sent for the merchant. ‘Sir,’ he said, falling at the king´s feet, ‘it is not my fault that the wall crashed. I called the mason to repair it last year and he did not do the job well. Punish the mason.’

So the king let the merchant off and called the mason who was very angry and said, ‘why do you blame me? It is that wicked water-carrier who is at fault. He poured too much water into the mixture when I was not looking and the wall became too weak to stand for long.’

So the king summoned the water-carrier and, without waiting to hear what he had to say, ordered him to be hanged. Everybody was shocked and angry at this new injustice, but they were too afraid to speak up for the water-carrier.

‘Let us leave quickly,’ pleaded the follower again. ‘Heaven knows what this king will be up to next.’

But just as they were leaving, one of the king´s guards came up to the guru and pulled him back roughly.

‘What is the matter?’ asked the guru, who was trembling with freight. ‘I have not done anything wrong.’

‘That doesn´t matter,’ said the guard. ‘The noose is too loose for the water-carrier´s thin neck. So the king is going to hang someone who fits inside the noose. You look as if you´d do.’

The guru felt at the guard´s feet and begged him to ask the king for mercy, but the guard refused. Bending down, the follower helped his guru to his feet and said, ‘Do what I tell you and all will be well.’

Just as the hangman was about to put the noose around the guru´s neck, the guru said, ‘Grant me one favor, king. Let me speak to my follower for a few moments before I die.’

The king granted the wish. The guru spoke to his follower for a few moments, and on his way back to the platform began to sing and clap his hands. Everyone thought he had gone mad with fear. But he called out, ‘I die happy.’

‘How is that possible?’ asked the king.

My follower tells me that he just had a vision. He saw the Lord of Heaven himself coming for me in his chariot. The Lord said, “I shall take the man the man who dies just now straight to heaven.”

Hearing this, the king was very angry. ‘Why should the Lord of Heaven come for you and not for me? I am the king. You are nothing. I am determined to hang in your place so that everyone will know the Lord of Heaven took me away with him.’

And so the king stuck his head into the noose and ordered the hangman to hang him.