Who is the King and Who's the Beggar ?

A lovely Sufi story told by the Mystic Osho.

A great Sufi mystic, Farid, was very much respected by the emperor, Akbar. Akbar used to come to pay his respects to Farid, to his small village, just near Delhi. The villagers once told Farid, ”If you say to Akbar – just a hint from your side is enough – that we need a school, our children can get easily educated. If you can just give a hint it will be done immediately. There is no question about it.”

Farid said, ”Then I will have to go to the court, because when he comes here it is not right to ask anything. If I have to ask something I have to go to his palace myself.” So he went.

He arrived early in the morning. The king was in his prayer, but Farid was not prevented; everybody knew that the king respects him like a Master. So Farid went in, he stood behind the king. Akbar was praying with raised hands towards the sky. He was just finishing his prayer, and he said to God... not knowing that Farid is present, not knowing that anybody is hearing, he said to God, ”Give me more money, give me more power.”

Farid turned away.

Akbar finished his prayer. He stood up and saw Farid going out of the room. He rushed, fell to his feet and asked, ”This is the first time you have come – why are you going back without saying a single word?”

Farid said, ”I was wrong. I used to think that you are a king – you are not. I am far better a king than you are. You are still asking, still demanding. What kind of prayer is this? It is begging, pure begging. I had come to ask for some favor, but now I cannot ask it of you; you are so poor that to ask for a school for the village will be too much for you. No, I am not going to ask. And moreover, if I have to ask, why should I not ask God himself? Rather than using you as a mediator – you ask God and I ask you – if I have to ask, I will ask God himself.

”But remember that one of my great illusions has disappeared. It has been good that I came: I have seen the beggar in you.”

Akbar has written in his memoirs that, ”I also became aware that although I am a great king,” – he

dominated the whole of India, in his time the Mogul empire was the greatest empire in the whole of the world – ”I understood. Farid is right: I am a beggar and Farid is the true king.”

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