Spoken by Supreme Master Ching Hai,
Florida, USA, June 16, 2001,
(Originally in English)
Videotape #724
This is a story from Au Lac about a prince, who although
he had once been an ordinary poor person, was adopted by the
king of Au Lac. And of course, after being adopted by the
king, he lived like a prince and had a princely kind of
life. He had everything he needed and was happy and well
taken care of. He wore beautiful silk clothes, lived in a
beautiful palace, and had beautiful servants and concubines
and nice facilities of every kind.
So everyone envied him and told him, "Wow! You’re such a
lucky person! Suddenly you have everything that anyone could
ever wish for: wealth, fame, health, convenience and honor.
Everyone respects you and everyone brings you anything you
ask at your beck and call. You’re a very lucky guy!" So the
adopted prince said, "Oh, yes, but I thank God for all this.
God is the only One: God is the provider; God is so full of
grace; God is good to me; God gives me everything!"
Overhearing this, the king became angry, saying, "You
ungrateful son of a ... something! I’m the king! I’m the one
who gave you all this comfort, wealth and convenience and
the good life and you never even say ‘Thank you’ to me.
Instead, you thank God and I don't even know who God is!
Have you ever seen him? Has he ever given you anything? You
thank that Guy while I’m the provider. I’m the one who’s the
king. You should remember that!"
But the prince still didn’t budge and said, "Even your
wealth and power, everything you have is also given to you
by God! We’re all indebted to God alone. I can’t say, 'Thank
you' to you, your Majesty! I can only thank the one and only
provider of the whole universe, which is God!"
Then the king became even angrier than before and said,
"You still don't repent, you unfilial son! Well, I’ll show
you who the real provider is. Without me, you’ll see how you
can live. Let's just see if that God of yours will provide
you with anything like I’ve given you here. Now, go! You're
going to be exiled to a very faraway, remote, isolated
island. No one lives there and it’s hard to survive because
it’s far away from civilization and far away from
everything. So see if that God of yours will give you
survival."
That was it: said and done, ordered, stamped and sealed.
The prince and his wife were sent away on a small ship, with
a little survival kit to last only a month. So he sailed
away with his wife and went to the island. And after one
month, they had nothing left to live on and the wife became
scared, but the prince said to her, "Don't worry! God gave
us birth and God has given us our life until now. God will
continue to provide for us."
So they both sat and meditated, reciting the name of the
Supreme Master. And lo and behold, something happened!
Sitting in meditation one day, they saw a black bird. And
then there were two birds and then three birds and then a
whole flock of birds, all eating something not too far away
from them. It was something that looked green on the
outside, red on the inside and had black seeds.
As we know, whatever a bird eats, we can eat. It may or
may not taste good, but if a bird can eat it, it means it’s
not poisonous. So the wife said to the husband, "It looks
like we have something to eat now after all." So they went
over to check it out, and they tasted the leftovers from the
birds. Oh! It tasted delicious! So they went looking for the
source of these plants in order to get more of the fruit.
And they didn’t have to go too far away because the fruit
grew everywhere on the other side of the island, where they
hadn’t been before. So they went there and collected the
fruit every day and ate it all. And that’s how they
survived. The melon provided liquid, and the seeds inside
were full of protein.
So they survived. They had protein, liquid and fiber,
like vegetables and protein in one meal. They ate the melon
and felt good and every day they had a wonderful time. There
was nothing to worry about, and they were very happy. Then
the husband said to the wife, "This life is even better than
life in the palace. In the palace you have silk, gold and
all kinds of delicious food, but you have to keep to the
rules and maintain the etiquette and you have to wear decent
clothes. You have to always appear princely, noble and
decent for everyone to look at you.
“As for the king, you always have to bow to him. Morning
and evening and every time you talk to the king, you have to
kneel before him and hurt your knees and so on. So I think
this life is much, much better! We sleep with the sun, we
get up with the sun and we meditate all day long. We stroll
around on the pristine white sand and hold hands under the
pine trees. We sing beneath the moon shadows, we walk for
miles along the beach and breathe in all this pure, one
hundred percent beautiful fresh air, without one worry in
the world. I wouldn't exchange the whole kingdom or the
whole world for this."
And the wife said, "You’re right, darling. You’re right.
We’re really lucky!"
So day after day, they enjoyed their life. They enjoyed
it very much until one day the wife thought of something and
said, "Such fruit as this we’d never enjoyed before in our
lives. Before, we never saw this fruit, but now we know that
it’s delicious and good for the health and it makes you feel
very cool and beautiful! So we’d better share it with
whomever we can. But since no one comes here, maybe we’ll
just put it into the sea and whoever gets it can eat it."
The husband said, "That's a good idea! Maybe we could
also draw a map of this island so that people can come here
and take even more back to their homeland to eat."
So they wrote notes with charcoal on leaves and cut a
hole in each watermelon and stuck a message inside along
with a map and then sealed it somehow. And then they let
them go so they could float all around the island and the
waves of the ocean would carry them in all directions. And
soon after, some merchants who were doing business by way of
the sea caught some of the watermelons, opened them and then
saw the message inside and ate them and loved them very
much. So they found a way to go to the island and get these
melons.
And when the merchants arrived there, they got the melons
but they also traded for some things like basic necessities.
Whatever the couple needed, the merchants would bring in to
trade for the watermelons because at that time the melons
were a delicacy, a rarity. No one had ever had them; even
the king had never had them. So the merchants brought the
fruit home and sold it. And they made a big profit because
it was so rare that people would pay any price, especially
wealthy people. They would pay any price to get watermelons
so they could show them off to their friends and give
presents to their precious loved ones, or even to the
officers in the king’s court and also to the king himself.
So the people paid a lot of money and the merchants brought
the couple everything.
Soon after, the island became like a big trading center
and the husband and wife didn't even have to take care of
the fruit. The birds would eat it and then throw the seeds
out on the sand, where the melons would grow again. All year
round, they always had enough fruit for everyone.
And it wasn’t long until this couple became very rich
once more, even richer than before. They had every precious
and rare thing in the whole world because the people who
came from different nations brought all kinds of presents to
trade for the melons. Even though the couple didn't take
money, they were grateful for such beautiful fruit and the
good profit made at home, and they got many presents that
they didn't even want.
Then one day the king also had a taste of that fruit,
asked where it came from and wanted more! So the merchant
said, "We can get some more, but you have to wait for a few
months. We have to go to the island and then get it."
So the king said, "Where is that island? What kind of
island is it that has such good fruit as this?"
And they said, "It’s the very island where you exiled our
prince a few years ago." So then the king remembered. In
fact, he had been remembering the couple very often and
missed them so much that he felt very sad inside. Repenting
to everyone for his previous anger, he said, "In just one
moment of anger I didn't think straight. But now I think
they’re right; I think God is the only provider. What would
I do without God anyway? So I think it's better if they come
back."
Thus it was because of this fruit that the father and son
and daughter were reunited again, and it became a very happy
time for the whole nation. The king made a big, big national
holiday and party, where everyone drank, danced and sang
happily for one whole month, and some people continued into
the next month or even for three months. And of course, the
couple brought a lot of these melons back home to give as
presents to the king and to the whole court. Also, they took
plenty of seeds to the mainland, where they cultivated them.
And ever since then, we’ve had many, many watermelons, and
every time we eat them we can think of God. That's what we
should do when we eat watermelons.
So now you know the story. It's a very nice story and
that prince must have been a very good spiritual
practitioner because after that the king devoted his time to
finding God and enlightenment. So the watermelon spoke more
than volumes! It converted the king and nearly the whole
nation into becoming enlightened so that they would remember
God every day, just from eating watermelon and from the king
setting such a good example. And he devoted himself more and
more to meditation practice, to prayer, to remembering God,
to praying to God and to being one with God.
♥
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