Day 14
There is a story about Diogenes of Greece. When Alexander the Great saw him, he was being carried out to be sold as a slave. The people who were taking him to be sold also looked like slaves. Diogenes announced that he was a slave and asked loudly who wanted to buy him.
Because he was roaring like a lion, it was difficult for the people to make out who was the slave and who was selling the slave. Before Alexander the Great came to India, people in his country had told him that if he found some sanyasi here he should bring them back with him that, they were very precious and were there only in India.
So, when he was in India he ordered that some sanyasis should come to him. But, nobody would come. He then sent a message threatening them. He said that if they did not come, he would chop off their heads. Even then, nobody came. So he said that he was going to take away their books - the four Vedas and some other scriptures, too.
The pandits agreed and said that they would give him all their books the next day. Overnight, the pundits made their children memorize all the manuscripts. And then they gave them to Alexander. They told him that they did not need them any more. Alexander got the manuscripts but he wanted a sanyasi, and a sanyasi would not come.
Finally, he had to go to one sanyasi and threaten him saying that he would chop off his head if he did not go with him. The sanyasi replied that Alexander could do is if he wanted. The mighty emperor could not even look into sanyasi's eyes. He could not stand the power of dispassion that he saw there.
Here was a person who, for the first time, did not care for an emperor. When Alexander was in India, some people presented him some golden bread in a plate. And he said that he was hungry and wanted some real bread. They replied that he was an emperor, and how could he eat mere wheat bread. So, they had prepared golden bread for him.
Alexander said that they were making fun of him and he was starving and wanted real bread. Hearing this, the people got some real bread. They asked him whether such bread was not available in his country. And why had he conquered so many places? Was it to get bread and if he too ate the same bread that was eaten in India? This shook Alexander for a moment. He felt that it was the truth.
What was the point of conquering country after country. All that he needed was to live peacefully and happily. When he did not have the happiness and peace, and when he didn't have that care and concern for his people, putting his stamps on all the villages and towns had no meaning. So it seems Alexander said that, when he died, his hands should be kept open.
He wanted the people to know that, though he conquered so many countries, Alexander the Great was going with empty hands. That he could not take a thing from this earth. Dispassion is the strength in you. Even if the Lord of the Wealth comes, you do not need to take anything from Him. That is the strength of dispassion.
It is not arrogance. It is centeredness. If you are so centered and calm, then you can understand that everyone who has come to this world has come to give something and not to take anything from here. A very different shift takes place.
