The queen chooses her successor

There was a king who was extremely good and kind. Unfortunately, this king died at a young age. The kingdom was then ruled by his wife. Unlike her husband, she was very, very bad. At every moment she showed her autocratic nature, her cruelty and her lack of compassion for her subjects. She ruled the kingdom in a very uninspiring way.

The days and years passed. The queen was now in the evening of her life. Now that her days were numbered, she said, "Since I do not have any children of my own, I must think of choosing a successor. The kingdom has to be ruled by someone."

The queen had many nephews. She decided to choose her successor from among them. One day she invited all these nephews to the palace so that she could make her choice. Right in front of them she placed lots of apples. Then she said, "I will blow a whistle, and in five minutes whoever brings me the most apples will be the winner."

There were six candidates. The queen blew the whistle and all but one rushed to the apples. They each grabbed two or three and then began fighting with the others to steal whatever apples they had. A vicious fight broke out. In the process, quite a few apples fell to the ground. Still they were grabbing each other's hands and trying to snatch away their apples. It seemed that they were more interested in fighting. Their faces were bruised, their noses were bleeding, and they were all badly injured. They had forgotten that the goal of the contest was to gather the most apples.

Only one nephew stood apart. He said, "What is the use of fighting? Let them fight." He did not participate. He stayed a metre or two away. When he saw that the others were dropping their apples, he quietly went and collected them. In this way he collected far more apples than the others.

Eventually the queen blew the whistle to signal the end of the contest. Each nephew came to the queen. One came with two apples, another with three, another with four and so on. But the one that only observed the fighting and did not participate came forward with twenty apples. Because he did not become involved in fighting, he collected twenty apples.

The queen was so pleased with this nephew. She said, "This is the one to be the future king." Then she went on, "I have been a very bad queen. I did all kinds of undivine things — quarrelling, fighting, challenging other kingdoms — and I deeply repent what I have done. Now I realise that a ruler should be a good person, an honest person. That is why this particular nephew is the right choice. When I pass away, he will rule my kingdom with wisdom-light."

In the spiritual life also, many seekers waste time in insecurity-battles, jealousy-battles, impurity-battles, inferiority-battles and superiority-battles. Why should you be involved in these things? Like the nephew who stood aside, just say, "If I have something within me, I will increase it. If I have an iota of sincerity, purity, self-giving or any other positive quality, I will only try to increase it." Quite a few seekers try to grab all kinds of good qualities. They fight with others to see who is going to get more purity, who is going to get more sincerity, more simplicity, more divinity, more inspiration, more aspiration. While they are engaged in fighting, the seeker who is only observing discovers that his own divine qualities are increasing and increasing. Then that seeker comes to the Supreme and the Supreme says, "You are My choice instrument."