Scene 4
(The King in his palace. Enter a minister.)MINISTER: Your Majesty, do you know what your Guru is doing? He is walking around the streets mocking you. He is wearing a sign around his neck which says: “I am fallen, I am fallen. By initiating the King, I am fallen.”
(The King becomes furious.)
KING: What! What an insult! First he initiates me and then he laughs at me, telling the world that I am corrupt and useless! He shall see the power of my anger! Have him arrested.
(Exit Minister. In a few minutes the King’s Guru is brought in.)
KING: What kind of audacity do you cherish? What kind of stupidity do you enjoy? Your insolence knows no bounds!
GURU: O King, I am helpless. I too have a Master, and because I initiated you my Master is totally disgusted with me. He says that you did not deserve initiation, that only a spiritual person, a sincere seeker can be initiated. You have done countless wrong things. You have led an undivine, unspiritual life, and I initiated you before you were actually ready for spiritual life. That is why my Master is furious with me. He said that only if I acknowledge my mistake by wearing this sign will God forgive me.
KING: So it is your Master who is causing me this disgrace! That rogue! I knew you were a sincere man, a good man. You would not have caused me such embarrassment. Your Master will be arrested and you will be freed. Your Master will be thrown into my deepest dungeon and left there for the rest of his life. (To Minister.) Minister, have my Guru’s Master arrested and brought here immediately!
(In a few minutes the Master is brought before the King.)
KING: Aaah, you fool, you rogue, you rascal! What embarrassment you have caused me! How you have disgraced my royal family and my dear subjects! You know what you have done! I will not waste a moment more on you. You shall spend the rest of your life in prison.
(The disciple-Guru bursts into tears.)
GURU: Oh no, oh no. It is impossible. Oh King, it is I who have initiated you, and it is I who should pay the penalty. Let me remain in prison for the rest of my life, but don’t punish my Master. He has hundreds and thousands of disciples. They will be fatherless.
KING: Let his disciples be fatherless! He has made me an object of ridicule. He has mocked me, as though I were some insignificant creature. This is my kingdom, this is my world. And I sentence him to lifelong imprisonment.
