Once upon a time, there was a King. He ruled as best he could, loved as much as he was able, and lived as life allowed. Not everything went smoothly for the King, because, after all, he was only human. And nothing human was foreign to him. Among his human traits were weakness, common fears, occasional emotional outbursts (both positive and negative), a sharp need for love, and ordinary human stupidity, which was sometimes referred to as “shortsightedness” in kings and often forgiven. We, the common people, well… hmm… anyway…
Yes, our King was not only a distinguished ruler and honored saint, but also a renowned philosopher, a sophist of his time and his small kingdom. He solved many of life’s most complex questions in his spare time from managing his domain. Some he resolved, and some would remain unsolvable (because one cannot know everything or grasp the ungraspable). But then a dark day came for the King.
One day, he looked over his realm and realized that while he was merging the unmergeable in his sophistic mind, chaos had erupted in his kingdom: farmers had stopped harvesting the crops they had grown during the previous season of prosperity, nearly all the Sunday schools had closed, and children were running wildly through the streets, risking being hit by passing vehicles. Drivers were also behaving unpredictably – sometimes late, sometimes changing routes on their own, sometimes deciding not to work at all.
Cooks started making bland meals that were constantly burning, and tailors decided that basting fabric was enough, causing clothes to fall apart on their trusting customers in crowded places, initially causing great embarrassment, but soon everyone got used to it and started going out in whatever they could find. In addition, it rained frequently, chimney sweeps refused to work in such uncomfortable conditions, demanding higher wages for doing nothing, and roofers patched holes in roofs with cardboard and office glue, which, as you can imagine, didn’t last long. Even a superficial inspection of the territory was enough to understand that everything in the kingdom was going awry.
The King’s eyes filled with tears, and his heart with fear. He rushed from one house to another, urging plowmen, milkmaids, and cooks to work as they had before. But no one listened to him. No one cared. And at the butcher’s house, they even drove him away, not recognizing him. “But I am the King!” the King shouted in despair, pounding on the wooden window shutter.
The shutter opened slightly, and the butcher’s wife’s sneering face appeared in the window. She squinted one eye nastily and said in a grating voice, “You, a king? Ha! Look at the failure of a king! Look what you’ve done to the country! Lazy bum!” With that, the shutter slammed shut right in front of the King’s nose, and he was left standing alone in the rain.
The King felt very bad. He stumbled backward and bumped into a lamppost. The lamp had long since gone out – there was no one to replace the bulb. The King grabbed the cold metal and hugged it like a friend. “What to do? How to go on? Wouldn’t it be easier to die?” thought the great sage, genuinely frightened by his own powerlessness. At that moment, he felt as if the whole world was against him and there wasn’t a single person who could at least ease his mental suffering.
Fear gripped the King, not a single star was visible through the black clouds, no window was lit with a welcoming light, the ruler trudged along the muddy street thinking that even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t find a single creature in his kingdom worse off than he was. But he did find such a creature!
When the King approached the gates of his small castle, he saw a gray shadow on the steps of the stone staircase. The King came closer, and the shadow turned out to be a small gray kitten, quietly squeaking from cold and fear. The little ball of fur, curled up by the door, was frozen to the bone and soaking wet, seemingly too weak to even crawl closer to the house to escape the biting wind.
The King grabbed the miserable creature and rushed into the house, lit the fireplace, and collapsed on the fluffy carpet in front of the fire, warming the frightened animal in his hot hands. Very soon, the fire blazed with a hot flame, the King prepared warm milk for himself and his little guest, and after drying off, they settled comfortably: the King in his chair, and the kitten on the King’s lap. They warmed up so well that they immediately fell asleep by the hearth, lulled by the milk and the sound of the rain outside.
And then our friend the King had a strange dream that he had died. But no one knew about it. And he had died not quite normally. It was as if he wasn’t alive, but somehow not quite dead either. Everyone saw him, greeted him, servants prepared food, guests played billiards with him and even lost to him.
The King couldn’t understand what was happening: he was completely convinced that he was dead and buried in the family crypt. He even went to the crypt to check and made sure that his ashes rested there, along with the ashes of all his worthy ancestors. And then the sensations! He had never before felt such amazing bliss, peace, and indifference to all earthly problems!
For the first time in his life (or rather, now in death), he understood that he had nothing to fear, no obstacles, his power was invincible, and most importantly, he saw the whole world as it was, he saw through time and distance, he knew everything on Earth. The King only had to think about what he wanted to know – and the knowledge found him immediately!
The King returned to the castle, shut himself in his study, sank into his favorite “thinking chair” and began to ponder what was happening. Why was he, dead, being taken for alive? And then he remembered that one of his favorite philosophers had written something about the sensations of a dead person in the world of the living. He remembered the author and only thought that it would be good to get the book from the shelf that discussed this phenomenon, when the book jumped off the shelf and floated into the King’s hands. By itself! Through the air!
The King was stunned, but since he was a famous sage throughout the district, he quickly figured out that now, being dead, all his wishes were coming true! In one moment, a million good deeds that had been impossible to accomplish before without magical power flashed through his mind. He would turn the world into a blooming garden! He would sweep away grief, disease, and suffering from the face of the Earth! He would gift all the needy and feed all the hungry, grow new Hanging Gardens of Babylon in deserts, and raise Atlantis from the ocean floor! He… The King sneezed and woke up.
The kitten was still sitting on his lap. Now it was looking at the King, and it seemed to him that the little creature’s gaze was unusually intelligent. The King stared at the fluffy guest, who suddenly spoke in the most human voice.
“I am a kind wizard. For your nobility, for remembering others in the most difficult moment of your life, I have given you a gift. Now my mission in your kingdom is over, and I can leave, assured of your future and the future of your country. I will return in a year to see how everything has changed here!” And the wizard vanished into thin air.
The King wanted to say something, to call the creature back, because he didn’t understand what the gift was, but an overwhelming drowsiness overcame him, and he fell into a deep sleep again.
In his dream, he again saw himself as the King of a prosperous state. Other kings heard of his wisdom and came from distant lands to ask for advice on how to rule their countries and subjects. Our King had completely changed – his gaze was bright, his thoughts pure, the world seemed like a garment he was about to shed. Sometimes he would visit the crypt to check again if he had only dreamed that he was dead, but the urn with his ashes and the documents left no room for doubt.
He was dead, but alive! What a strange irony of fate! What had died in him? What had disappeared with “death”? What had he rid himself of by no longer feeling alive? He still had a body – flesh and blood, he had desires, but now all his desires were fulfilled! He knew they would all come true, so he never even considered the possibility of fear. He forgot about fear, he forgot about suffering. Do dead people suffer? The King forgot about mental anguish. What is there to anguish over if you’re dead? He was no longer troubled by worries and sorrows. He lived for the prosperity of his kingdom and the whole Earth.
In the morning, when the King woke up, he understood what the wizard had given him. It was as if the King had a revelation, a new birth! From early morning he rolled up his sleeves and began to restore harmony in his kingdom, always mindful of the new gift he had acquired. A year later, when the wizard visited the King again, the ruler and his domain were unrecognizable! Everything sparkled and shone with light, life, love, and goodness.
The wizard approached the wise King, smiled, and said: “Remember: death is only frightening when you don’t know what it is. But death is life. Death is the beginning.” The King looked at his benefactor with gratitude, and then his gaze turned far, far towards the setting sun. The sun was dying for the world so that it could be born again in the morning.
No responses yet