The Lost Prince

I will tell you a story about a baby child. There was a king who was fond of hunting game. One day the queen insisted on accompanying the king for the hunt. She decided to take their little boy along and they started out. 

In the evening they pitched a tent in the forest so they could go out in the night, riding on an elephant to find some game. Generally, hunting is done at night because all the animals go out for food then. The young prince was kept under the care of nurses, and sentries were posted outside the tent. So the king and queen and all their retinue went out the whole night to hunt game and returned to the tent at about ten the next morning. It was then the queen found that their son was missing.

In the night the nurses and the guards had fallen asleep. The boy had woken up, and not finding his mother lying next to him, he had walked out of the tent and gone deeper and deeper into the forest in search of his mother, the queen.

The queen was despondent. Everyone was exhausted, they had not slept the whole night. The queen said she would not even eat breakfast until she had seen her son again. Some said that he had been eaten by a wolf or a hyena, but the queen said that there would have been marks of blood inside the tent or nearby. 

A search was mounted to find the bones. The queen said that if the bones were produced she could be sure that her son had been killed by a wild animal and she would accept the situation. A search party looked around the tent for a mile in all directions but they did not find any trace of blood stains. When the king and queen had to return to the palace, the king decided to send more search parties in all four directions throughout the country and instructed them not to return until they found the boy, or at least a clue as to his fate. The search parties were dispatched to console the queen. 

Months and years passed. The boy was only three or four years old when he wandered into the forest dressed only in his underwear. A potter who lived on the farther side of the forest was collecting clay to make his pots and found the boy crying. His family had no child, so they were very happy to find this boy, a gift from the gods — a very handsome boy. They brought him home, gave him a bath and food, and new clothes. The boy grew up with his new family, helping his foster father by collecting clay and bringing it home to help the family make the pots.

Twelve years passed and police with search parties were still looking for the prince. One search party was very thirsty so they stopped at a well where this boy was collecting water to take home to his family. The police saw the boy with a bucket and asked him for a drink. He gave them a cup of water and they were thankful. “What is your name?” they asked the boy. “My name is Junglee.” he replied. Junglee means forester in Hindi. The family gave him this name because they found him in the jungle.

The police were very shrewd. They asked him, “This is a very rare name. We have never heard of anyone with the name Junglee before. Who are your parents?” “Our house is over there. We make pots. My parents are at home,” replied the boy. That was all he could say. He had forgotten all about his past. The police were very suspicious about this boy’s name. They wanted to see his parents and find out why they named him Junglee. 

Seeing the police party, the parents became very afraid. The police asked the father, “Who is this boy?” “He is our son,” came the reply. “Is he your son? When did you beget him?” the police asked. 

So the potter told his story. “About twelve years ago I was walking to the forest to fetch some clay and I found this boy crying. I brought him home and for the last twelve years he has been with us. He is not our son but we have brought him up with great love and care because we didn’t have a child of our own.” 

The policemen explained what had happened and who this child was. The boy could overhear the entire conversation. Finally, the police told the boy to come with them and they would take him to the king. The foster father was only crying out in fear, “It is not our fault, it’s not our fault. We found the boy.” 

At that point a party of boys arrived to call Junglee to a game that they had all left unfinished the night before. “Come, Junglee. Come finish the game we did not finish last night.” This boy had only overheard what the police had said to his father. “Do you know that he is the prince?” the police said. “He is the prince. Come with us and you will be rewarded. You have no reason to fear.” 

The boy only overheard the conversation, that is all, but he turned to his friends who were calling him to play and told them, “Shut up! I’ll have you arrested by my police! Keep quiet or I’ll have you arrested!” He became the prince by simply overhearing what had been said. He did not meditate to become a prince nor did he read any Sutra or any book. He simply overheard the truth of his situation from an authority, and immediately he became the prince.

Once you hear from an authority that you are That, it is quite enough. You do not need anything more. Overhearing the words of an authorized source is enough to know the Truth. But not all who hear the Truth respond in the same way. Some are very sharp witted — they are like camphor touching a flame. All is over, nothing is left. They belong to a very superior quality of seeker. In going to the teacher, once they touch the word, the ego is destroyed like camphor.