The Parable of The Grief Stricken Japanese Emperor
Many many years ago, there lived on the Island of japan an emperor who was afflicted with the curse of undying misery. Indeed, so grief stricken was he because of his responsibilities and the duties that came with his high stature and office that he was convinced that he would proceed to remain sad for all the remaining years of his existence. So, he decided to seek the help of the greatest doctors of the land and when that did not work, he included neighboring realms in his search as well, so that they would be in a position to help him as a way of getting rid of his malady. So, they came, one by one and in groups, specialists and surgeons, doctors, and physicians, but all to no avail. Till one day there walked into the imperial Nipponese court a suitably wizened old man who was stooped and gray with old age and who after all due examination declared that the “emperor of japan will only be happy when he wears the shoes of a man who is happy from morning till night and from night to morning”.
Now that he had hope, the Nipponese emperor send the imperial troops trudging into every nook and cranny of the empire, looking for that hitherto elusive figure of a man who was happy “from night to morning and from morning till night”. However, not a single trooper was quite able to find such an individual as just about all the subjects of the emperor insisted that they were (or had been) grief stricken at least at some point in their lives. Till finally they came across a shore based fisherman who insisted that he was ‘always’ happy’ from morning till night and night till morning.’ The imperial soldiers watched him while being hidden behind some bushes, as he went about his job, methodically pulling his fish net hand over hand while laughing joyfully all day long. It did not matter how hard he worked and how many times his nets came up empty, he still continued to sing and laugh, irrespective of his setbacks
At last, once the soldier felt that they had enough know how regarding his lifestyle and moods, they decided to approach him and enquired from him as to the fact that if he was always happy, day and night combined. To which the man nodded his head to reply in the affirmative. “Your shoes, quickly’ said the soldiers. “In return for them we will give you a castle and sacks full of gold and all that your heart can desire” The fisherman merely laughed out loud and said “But good sir, I have never even had a single pair of shoes that I could call my own… in my entire life”
The moral of the story is that how we look at life itself is what decides how we are going to live it. If we radiate positive energy and ensure that the same is absorbed by us we will remain happy, irrespective of our circumstances in life. Because this is ultimately what decides our joy or lack of it thereof, is what makes us happy or sad, as the case may be. The emperor had a whole country and its vast population to do his every bidding along with all the huge wealth reserves of a rich and powerful empire (simply by virtue of his birth) and yet all of it had but contrived to make him even more miserable than ever before, while the poor fisherman on the other hand, who had been endowed with nothing, merely made light of his own grinding poverty and moreover, in his own personal opinion it was but a true blessing that he had no responsibilities or riches to guard against.
” The best secret of happiness is renunciation.”
American Philanthropist Andrew Carnegu
It is ultimately our own perception of the world around us that determines our happiness. The oft repeated cliché “well, look at the bright side…” certainly is as fresh today as it was on the day it was first used. Surely, many of us have used it to help someone get though a particularly difficult time in life who may have been feeling down and depressed. In fact, it is pretty much the first thing we say when we either see someone in pain or are accosted by such an individual. What we mean is that the blessings that we have are still there, in spite of the loss we may have borne and these blessings are the universe’s gifts to us to help us get though the tough times.
If we have shoes that are broken and no money to buy them. It may be a depressing thought certainly, but then while walking, the universe may show us a man sitting on the pavement who is not able to walk at all.
This is the universe’s way of telling us that yes, we will have many blessings to count on and be happy about. Perhaps the meaning of our live may also became clear to us and that might be to help that poor man walk once again.
