Ain Al-Hayat, The Essence of Life.pdf - Higher Intellect | Content ...

this! I seek your permission to let me go out. Otherwise the curiosity will kill me one
day!”
The king understood that the secret of keeping the prince in seclusion has somehow come
into his knowledge. He ordered the special retainers to take the prince out in a procession
of horses.
Yuzasaf stirred out in great pomp and pageantry. It was like a festival in the entire realm.
From that day Yuzasaf used to go out in the city occasionally. One day he noticed two
men. One had a swollen and yellowish face. The other was blind. He asked people about
the condition of the persons.
.
They said, “ The person with swollen body suffers from pains that have caused his
present condition. The other person lost his sight because of an ailment of the eyes!”
Yuzasaf asked them if they were the only two sickly persons or there were any more of
them?
• People said several persons fall ill.
• The prince was affected learning about the suffering of the people.
• He went out on an excursion on another day. He saw a feeble, old person. His hair
was grey and his back was bent forward that made it difficult for him to walk.
• He asked people, “ Is the old man the only of his type or there were many more such
persons?
• The people said, “ Everyone reaches this stage in his advanced age!”
• The prince asked, “ In how many years a person becomes like the way the old man
was?”
• They said, “ About a hundred years of age!”
• The prince asked, “ what happens to them, thereafter?”
• They said, “ The person dies or goes to the other world!”
• The prince was much affected hearing all this.
• He called the person from his companions in the mansion, who was his confidante.
and asked him, “ If this world is not the permanent abode of men, and the Hereafter is
really the final abode, then why people are so much enamoured of the world!?”
• The man related to the prince all the reasons in detail as to why the king wanted to
keep him in seclusion.
• The prince asked, “ Are there any men of God who are not attached to the world?”
• The man said there were many such persons in the realm but they have been banished
to other countries by the king. It might be possible that a few are still there hiding
themselves from the fear of the king’s anger and punishment. They must be awaiting
the end to this tyrannical rule to be able to freely preach the people.
From that day onwards the prince became very pensive and contemplative. It was the talk
of the town that the prince has turned his mind towards piety. At this time there arrived
from the island of Sarandeep a man of piety, Balohar by name, and he got wind of the