Baba's Storytime - The Minister

In the Tamil land, many great saints have taken birth. Many great scholars were born in the Tamil land. 

One of the Tamil kings was very fond of horses and sent his Prime Minister to buy horses. During his journey the minister came across a holy man named Thirukannan. He was attracted by the teachings of the holy man. The sage said that all worldly pleasures were ephemeral and God was the only reality. Inspired by these teachings, the minister decided to give up his mission (of purchasing horses) and used the money given to him to build a temple for Shiva. 

Meanwhile, the king was worried about what had happened to his minister and why he had not come back. He came to know that the minister had used the money, given to him for purchasing horses, to build a Shiva temple. He had the minister arrested and put in prison. The minister was unaffected. He continued to chant the Lord's name in the prison.

Later the king realized his mistake. Recognizing that the minister was a great devotee, he summoned him to his presence and asked him what he had done with the king's money. He said: "Oh King! I used the money for God. What God had given, I gave it back to Him. Without the grace of God no one can have anything. Without the power of the Divine not a cell in the human can move, not a blade of grass will move. The whole universe exists by the will of God. Oh king! By a stroke of good fortune you have become a ruler. Because of my bad luck I became a minister." 

That minister considered his becoming a minister as a misfortune. When one becomes a minister he should be prepared to use all his energies and powers in the service of the Divine. Only when Spirituality prevails, will humanness blossom. The lotus blooms when the Sun's rays fall on it. The lotus of the mind residing in the lake of the human heart will blossom when the light of Divinity illumines it.

(From the Divine Discourses of Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba)