The story of a king and his two sons.

Once upon a time, there lived a glorious king and he had two sons. The king grew old and wanted to choose a worthy heir to his throne.

He called his sons, and gave them 5 gold coins each, and showed them two big rooms, and said they had to fill them with whatever they can buy of that 5 coins. He have them a time of one week.

The elder brother, immediately bought all the waste from the kingdom. It was cheap and he got great quantities of it. He filled the whole room with that filth. With all the waste that he bought from those 5 gold coins. He was happy that he had filled the room. Feeling satisfied with his work, he went to see what his younger brother was doing.

Surprisingly, the younger brother did nothing on the first day. And even after 6 days had past by, the younger brother seemed to do nothing to fill the room. The elder brother thought, he must’ve given up, knowing that I’m going to win the king’s heart, and also the throne.

The 7^th day arrived and the king came to inspect the rooms along with his ministers. They were all eager to see what the sons had done. The elder brother came first and said,’ “father, come to my room first, I have filled the room fully, no corner is empty!”

Saying this he opened his room and a foul smell cake out of it, the room was stinking with 7 days old filth, although the room was fully filled, it was full of garbage, filth and waste and a stench of it.

The king and his ministers were furious and they left the room right away. The younger son sat quietly by his room and when his father approached, he called him and invited him to his room.

To his surprise, the room was empty, with nothing but an oil lamp and some  fragrant flowers in the middle of the room.

The king enquired, “Son, your room is empty, what do you propose? Weren’t the coins enough? Weren’t the days enough? Or were you just lazy?”

The son replied, “Father, the room isn’t empty, it is filled with fragrance of the flowers, and the light of the lamp. Not a single corner is empty! And here, take the remaining coins. The room is full of light and fragrance.

The king hugged him and made him the king.

A little understanding…

Both of them bought things, spent money and bought things and filled their room. Both dreamt of becoming the king, while they were buying the things. But the difference was between what they bought.

Similarly, God has given us 5 senses, and 5 conative senses, and has given this body of 5 elements. We have been asked to fill the chambers of our heart. We spend our time, money, energy, our dreams to buy things. One fills the heart with the filth of sensual pleasures, and one fills the heart with the knowledge of God and souls.

So the garbage inside our heart, inside our mind, the vices in our mind, have come to us, because we have bought it, we have spent time, money and our energy and our whole body and life to buy it! We have filled our heart with filth!