Distress

This once happened. A man was wrongly accused of a particular crime, and the king gave him a death sentence. He was to be executed next day morning. So when he was brought before the king, the man said, “O King, if you give me a year’s time, I can teach your horse to fly.” The king said, “This better be true, otherwise you will be executed by being crushed under the feet of an elephant. The man said, “Ok. Give me your horse and a year’s time; I will teach it how to fly.” He was given the time. He took the horse and went home. His wife was very distressed: “What did you do? How are you going to teach this horse to fly? What kind of horse ever fly?” The man said, “It’s one year. In a year’s time, the king may die. Or I may die naturally. Or the horse may die. Or, who knows, the horse may fly!”

The existing situations need not decide what happens tomorrow. Existing situations can be a guide, but never a cap, never a decision on what happens tomorrow. Distress and stress is coming because people are projecting the existing situations into the future.

-- Sadhguru