Whereas riches may
become a mighty barrier between man and God, and rich people are often in great
danger of attachment, yet people with small worldly possessions can also become
attached to material things. The following Persian story of a king and a dervish
[1] illustrates this:
Once there was a king who had many spiritual qualities and
whose deeds were based on justice and loving-kindness. He often envied the
dervish who had renounced the world and appeared to be free from the cares of
this material life, for he roamed the country, slept in any place when night
fell and chanted the praises of his Lord during the day. He lived in poverty,
yet thought he owned the whole world. His only possessions were his clothes and
a basket in which he carried the food donated by his well-wishers. The king was
attracted to this way of life.
Once he invited a well-known dervish to his palace, sat at
his feet and begged him for some lessons about detachment. The dervish was
delighted with the invitation. He stayed a few days in the palace and whenever
the king was free preached the virtues of a mendicant's life to him. At last
the king was converted. One day, dressed in the garb of a poor man, he left his
palace in the company of the dervish. They had walked together some distance
when the dervish realized that he had left his basket behind in the palace.
This disturbed him greatly and, informing the king that he could not go without
his basket, he begged permission to return for it. But the king admonished him,
saying that he himself had left behind his palaces, his wealth and power,
whereas the dervish, who had preached for a lifetime the virtues of detachment,
had at last been tested and was found to be attached to this world -- his small
basket.
The possession of earthly goods is often misunderstood to be the only form of attachment. But this is not so. Man's pride in his accomplishments, his knowledge, his position, his popularity within society and, above all, his love for his own self are some of the barriers which come between him and God. To rid oneself of these attachments is not easy. It can be a painful process and may indeed prove to be a spiritual battle which lasts a lifetime.
- Adib Taherzadeh (‘The Revelation of Baha'u'llah’ vol. 1)
[1] A Muslim, often a mystic, who renounces the world and communes with God, subsisting on the charity of his fellow men.
[1] A Muslim, often a mystic, who renounces the world and communes with God, subsisting on the charity of his fellow men.
