Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having
Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having (cast)
THIEF
KING
QUEEN
PRINCESS
PRIME MINISTER
A GROUP OF SPIRITUAL SEEKERS
ROYAL RETINUE
AN ANGEL
Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having (act I, Scene I)
(A room of the royal palace late at night. A thief enters and is quietly moving around when the King and Queen enter, talking. The thief quickly hides.)
KING: I think the time has come for our second daughter to get married. But this time we shall not make the same mistake that we made with our first daughter. We married her to a military man. We thought that this man, who held a high post in the military, would bring her joy. But alas, there is no joy, no peace in her life. It is all constant fighting, constant battle. This time let us not ask for name and fame. Let us look for a simple man, very simple. Let us look for a religious man for this daughter of ours, for she is also very religious and spiritual.
QUEEN: My Lord, I fully agree with you. Our daughter is extremely spiritual. She should have a saintly person as her husband. She will then be happy, and we shall be happy. You are the King. We have abundant wealth. We have name and fame. All we need now is peace and joy. This daughter of ours will have peace and joy and she will give it to us.
KING: Where can we find a saintly person?
QUEEN: Well, there are always saintly people praying and meditating on the banks of the Ganges. I see them quite often. I think it would be a nice idea if we chose one of those saintly people who meditate every morning watching the sun rise over the Ganges. They are sincere people, simple people. How I wish our daughter could marry one of them!
KING: Ah, that is a splendid idea! I, too, thought of it. Tomorrow morning let us ask our Prime Minister to go and see if there is one saint there who is really suitable for our daughter.
Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having(act I, Scene Ii)
(The next day. The King and Queen are speaking to their daughter.)
QUEEN: My child, you will be really happy and you will make us really happy if you marry a saintly, simple, religious person. You can see your elder sister's fate, how miserable she is with her military husband. Although he holds a high post, there is no joy, no peace in their life together. If you live with a simple, innocent, aspiring person, then your life will be all joy.
PRINCESS: Mother, you are right, absolutely right. I really want to have a person like that as my partner, someone who is simple, religious and spiritual.
(Enter Prime Minister.)
KING: Prime Minister, I wish you to go and mingle with the saints and sincere seekers who are praying to God on the banks of the Ganges. I wish you to see if any of them would like to marry my daughter. Then you select a husband for her.
QUEEN: It is beneath our dignity, it is beneath our daughter's dignity, to ask if anybody would like to marry her. Is there anybody on earth who wouldn't marry our daughter? She is so charming, so beautiful, so loving. Is there anybody who would dare to say that he would not marry my daughter?
KING: Dearest wife, I am not sure. These religious people do not care for earthly beauty, name and fame. But if we find one, I will be so proud and happy.
PRIME MINISTER: Your Majesty, let me try at least. Let me see what I can do for our Princess. I am sure I will be successful.
PRINCESS: I feel shy. I do not wish to come with you.
PRIME MINISTER: It is not necessary at all, since this is the first time. Let me go alone and see what actually happens. You come next time.
Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having (act I, Scene Iii)
(The bank of the Ganges. The thief who had overheard the King and Queen's conversation is wearing an ochre cloth and meditating with the religious people. He is chanting most devotedly, crying for God's Grace and nothing else. He wants to show that he is the most religious person on earth.)
(Enter the Prime Minister. He goes to these religious people and asks several of them one by one, if they would like to marry the Princess. They all refuse.)
PRIME MINISTER (to another seeker): Would you like to marry the Princess?
SEEKER: What do you mean? We are crying for divine Light, Peace and Power. Do you think we will be satisfied with a human being?
PRIME MINISTER: Don't argue with me! Don't you know that I am the Prime Minister? I can easily take you to the palace and compel you to marry the Princess. If you don't obey me, I can put you into jail.
A SECOND SEEKER: You can put us into jail, you can even kill us, but we are not going to marry the Princess, no matter how beautiful she is, no matter how wealthy her parents are. We want only the infinite riches of God, not human wealth. Do anything you want with us, but we shall not marry the Princess.
PRIME MINISTER (turning to the thief, who has kept silent all this time): It seems to me that you would agree to my request. Are you interested in marrying the Princess?
(The thief remains silent.)
A THIRD SEEKER: Shame, shame, shame! Look at this fellow. He has cast a slur on us. We are all spiritual people crying for God's Peace, Light and Bliss, and he meditates with us. Now he is silent because he wants to marry an earthly woman. He wants to enjoy earthly pleasure. Shame, shame! Get away from here! We don't want you with us!
THIEF: You hypocrites! You liars! Outwardly you are acting like saints, but inwardly you are really animals. Outwardly you are saying you don't want women, but inwardly you are crying for earthly wealth and pleasure, and inwardly you are enjoying vital pleasure. I can see clearly that you people are all impure, impure, impure! I am sincere. I want God. But at the same time I still have not transcended the pleasures of the human senses. I shall marry her. And I shall realise God much sooner than you by gradually transcending my desires instead of suppressing them as you people are doing.
PRIME MINISTER: All right, tomorrow I shall come to you with the Princess and we shall take you to the Palace.
(Exit Prime Minister)
THIRD SEEKER (to the thief): It is beneath our dignity to sit beside you. You are an earthly man, whereas we are all crying to be heavenly beings. We would not marry any woman. We know we would fall if we did. Marriage is frustration. Frustration is destruction. Meditation on God is illumination, and illumination is transcendental Delight. This is what we have come to realise.
(Exit all the seekers)
Light Is The Only Wealth Worth Having (act I, Scene Iv)
(The banks of the Ganges the following morning. All the seekers have left the place where they were meditating the day before and are meditating in another place. The thief, in his ochre cloth, is praying and meditating all alone in the same spot as on the previous day.)
(Enter Prime Minister with Princess and retinue.)
PRIME MINISTER: Look, I have brought the Princess here.
THIEF: O Prime Minister, I have changed my mind. I know she is beautiful. I know she is rich. I know she has everything that the world longs for. But I am not really a religious person; I am a thief. I overheard a conversation between the King and the Queen. They said they wanted their daughter to marry a religious person, and I thought that if I could marry the Princess I would be the happiest and the richest person on earth. Therefore I put on this ochre cloth and started meditating with the saints and seekers. Yesterday you saw, Prime Minister, how much they hate me. I fought with them, I insulted them, saying that they were all insincere people. But today a new light has dawned on me. Today I see that if I can get the boundless wealth of the world and this paragon of beauty by being false, just by telling lies, then if I tell the truth, if I meditate on the Truth, I will naturally get something far more satisfying than the wealth of the King and the beauty of the Princess. The Princess has beauty; this I don't deny. Her father has wealth; that I don't deny. But my sincere cry for God, who is all-Beauty, who is all-Wealth, will give me real joy, real satisfaction. There are many, many kings, many queens, many princesses on earth, but they do not have happiness. I need happiness. I used to steal people's money; I used to tell lies and accomplish quite a few things, but there was no happiness for me. Today I am determined never again to swerve from the path of Truth. I shall only follow the path of Truth, and grow into the Highest, Eternal Truth.
(An angel appears and blesses the thief.)
ANGEL: I am most pleased with you, my son. Take the inner wealth I give to you: boundless Peace, Love and Bliss. I want you to marry this girl. You will not fall from the Truth. I have given you the wealth of the Spirit; now with this spiritual wealth I wish you to enter into material wealth, to control and guide the material wealth. I wish you to manifest the divinity of your inner wealth on earth through your outer wealth, I am blessing you. Your life's inner cry has reached its highest height. Now, manifest that highest height here on earth. Your acceptance of this Princess, your acceptance of this material wealth, will please me. Use this material wealth to serve the inner wealth which you already have. Here I unite you (addressing the thief) the spirit of the inner world, and you (addressing the Princess) , the matter of the outer world. Now I make you one. (To the Princess.) It is here on earth, in you and with you, that your husband will manifest God. It is with your help, your conscious help, that your husband will manifest God on earth. Without your help he cannot do it. And it is with him, with his help, that you will realise God, the Highest Absolute. Your realisation depends on him; his manifestation depends on you. I make both of you one to please the Supreme with your realisation and manifestation. By realising the Supreme and by manifesting the Supreme you will fulfil the Supreme.
(The thief and the Princess bow down to the angel.)
