Cycle of Desires

A miracle happened in the life of a stone cutter.

A fairy appeared before him and told him, “From today, you will become whoever and whatever you would like to be.”

The stone cutter had always wanted to be rich, very rich and he wished he could become the king, and instantly he became the king.

He slept happily that night, ‘there is no one more powerful than me from now.’ The next morning, the stone-cutter who had then become king, wanted to go round his city in his chariot and called his minister.

The minister said: Oh king! It has been raining heavily from yesterday and you cannot ride in the chariot.

The king thought: Is the rain more powerful than me? Then I should become the rain. Forthwith, he became the rain.

He was extremely happy as the rain and flooded the city. Suddenly, there came a strong gust of wind which scattered away the clouds and stopped the rain.

Very angry at this, the rain thought: Is the wind more powerful than me! All right, then I must change as the wind. The rain instantly changed into wind.

The wind became very happy and blew hard and fast. It uprooted very big trees and destroyed many houses too. But, try as it might it could not do any thing with the mountains.

‘What? Are the mountains and the rocks in it more powerful than me? I then wish to become a mountain.’ The moment he thought so, he turned into a mountain.

At dawn, a stone cutter came to the mountain and began to cut on the rock face. The mountain could do nothing. Every cut and blow hurt terribly.

Even as the mountain thought, ‘Is this stone cutter so powerful that I cannot stop him even though he hurts me? I may then as well be a stonecutter’ the mountain changed into a stone-cutter.

The stone cutter returned to his starting point. One cycle was completed. How he has to be hereafter depends upon his desires. This is what continuously happens due to desires.

The stone cutter would not have continued upon such a cycle if at any stage he had remained contented and happy with whatever nature has bestowed on him, and without any pride whatsoever.

It was only because, at every stage of his desires, he did not feel fulfilled that he had to go frantically searching: what next? What next?

What we call Karma, is the collection of unfulfilled desires and unsatisfied aspirations that we accumulate during our lives.