THE TOUGHEST THING TO DIGEST

What is the toughest thing to digest? Well the answer to this question may not come from even the most competent of the dieticians. Who, then, will give the answer? Only someone who has studied psychology may do it. If guesses so far have not yielded any cogent answer, here is the one. It is power. Power is the most difficult to digest. The reason being that it has the strange attribute to enter the head and remain there. No logic, no reason can mellow the effect of power. And if somebody can digest power, he becomes the saint. Truly, therefore, did the former US President once say that if you want to test a man’s character give him power. Why this is so may not be easy to understand because there have been instances in which even the most humble have been rendered arrogant once given a seat of power. In fact, power is a derived attribute that comes not from the individual’s internal psyche. It is acquired from the mere possession of the chair.

It is the chair that plays the spoilsport. Sounds complicated? Here is an old story from the times of the famous Ujjain king, Raja Bhoj. The king was known for his uncanny wisdom to dispense justice. Even the most complex of the issues would be resolved in a matter of minutes. He was to the Indian ethos what king Solomon was to the western. With this high credibility, the king was trusted to the level of being adored. But on one occasion, he came across a difficult case that brought him to his wit’s end. Even after long hours of pondering, he could not come to a cogent answer. With his credibility at stake, he called his ministers for a thorough brainstorming. The oldest of them told him that in one of the distant villages of his kingdom, there was a shepherd boy who had a gifted ability to dispense justice. The king immediately summoned that boy.

The ministers rushed to the village requesting the boy to come to the king. The boy, along with his father, came. The king, finding an ordinary shepherd boy being a judicious wizard, was not convinced. Yet, he put his problem to the boy for an answer. The boy, scared as he was, trembled and told the king that he could not provide the answer there. There is a mound in the village sitting on which only could the boy solve such issues. Raja Bhoj was surprised to hear this, yet he ordered to prepare for his journey along with the boy to that village. After they reached that mound in the village, the boy climbed it and asked the king to narrate the problem.

The king did so and in a flash came the answer from the boy. The king, then, got the clue that the power was not in the boy, but in the mound. He ordered for its digging. After digging very deep his men could find a throne, the famous throne of king Vikramaditya. So, the king got the answer. If it is so powerful lying that deep, it would work wonders for someone who will sit on it.  Moral of the story — it is the chair that makes people powerful. It is this power that corrupts, disrupts and sometimes erupts. This just shows that rightly did Plato say that Kings should be philosophers and philosophers should be Kings.