Prince Mohajith

This is a story about Prince Mohajith (means once who has won over attachment). One day, the Prince went to the forest, to the hermitage of a sage. He pleaded for guidance on the path of spirituality. The sage asked him, “Have you conquered attachment as your name, Mohajith indicates? The Prince replied, “Oh realized one! Everyone in my kingdom, including myself, have conquered attachment.” That was a tall claim and the sage decided to test it. He took the prince’s robes and splattered them with blood. Then he went to the Palace and told a tale of the ruthless murder of the prince, to the gateman and the maidservant.
The maidservant said, “All those who are born, have to die, what is the need for me to leave my chores to go and inform the king. I shall tell him when I am free.”
The sage was finally able to meet the king in the evening. He conveyed the sad news to the king and queen. The king said, “The bird rested for a while on our tree, it had to fly away some day” The queen said, “It is Gods will. If his time had come, we could not have stopped him.” There was not a trace of misery on their faces. Their eyes shed no tears. The bewildered sage requested for an audience with the prince’s wife. He told her that the prince had been murdered. She said calmly, “Life threw us together for some time like two pieces of wood floating in a river. One day the two pieces had to separate. It is just another incident in life. We met, so we had to part. This is the way it is for us all.”
The sage was astounded. He had never witnessed such detachment or surrender to the will of God. He returned back to the forest. He decided to carry on the drama, a little further. He said to the prince, “Oh prince, after you left your kingdom, the king from the neighbouring land waged war on your territory; your entire clan has been killed. Your kingdom has been captured and your subjects are now slaves.” The prince heard it all without batting an eyelid. He said, “All relationships are worldly and temporary in nature. Give me the knowledge of that, which is divine and permanent. Oh master! Guide me from death to immortality!”
This story was narrated long ago by Bhagwan Sri Sathya Sai Baba in one of his talks. He went on to say that, such courage comes only out of the Grace of the Lord and needed generations of learning and struggle. What we can do is to take the first step i.e. of cleansing the mind and cultivating virtue.
For those of us who do not want to start this step even now, we should at least not laugh at those who do and thus refrain from discouraging them.