Once upon a time a Kazi or Governor happened to come to a certain Emperor, under the Mahomedan rule. The Emperor, who honoured the Kazi so much because of his religious pretensions, wanted to examine his capabilities. He was no scholar himself, but the following questions which he was going to put to the Kazi were suggested to him by somebody else who wanted to got the Governorship. This Kazi came before the Emperor and he was asked: “In which direction does God keep his face, where does God sit, what does He eat, what does He do? “The King told him if he could answer the questions to the king’s satisfaction, he would be promoted. The Kazi thought that the questions coming from the king must be very difficult. He knew how to humour and flatter the king by praising him, and then asked him for an interval of eight days to answer these questions.
For eight days the Kazi went on thinking and thinking, but could come to no conclusion. How could he answer to the king’s satisfaction! Finally the eighth day came, but the answers to the questions did not come to the Kazi. He then pretended to be sick in order to gain time. The Kazi’s servant approached him and wanted to know what the matter was. He said, “Off with you, don’t bother me, I am about to die.”The servant said, “Please let me know what the matter is. I will die rather than you should be subjected to any pain.”The difficulty was then explained to him. This servant occupied a very lowly position, one that was not considered at all respectable, that of slacking lime or mortar. But in reality he was a pupil of the Kazi and a learned man. He knew the answers to the questions and he said he would go and answer them, and the Kazi should write on a piece of paper ordering him to go, and i£ his answers were not to the satisfaction of the king he would die and not his master. The Kazi hesitated to do this, but just at this moment a messenger of the king approached him, and he trembled and trembled. So he told the servant to go. He put on his best clothes which consisted of mere rags. He was a Vedantic Brother. In India the kings always go to the Swamis and learn a great deal of wisdom and knowledge. This Pandit fearlessly approached the king and said, “Sir, what do you want. What do you wish to ask? “The king said, “Could you answer the questions given to your master? “The Pandit said, “I will answer them, but you know he who answers them is a teacher, and he who asks them is the pupil. We expect you to be a true Mahomedan and conform to the laws of the sacred Scriptures. According to the law, I must have the seat of honour and you must sit lower down than myself.” So the king gave him some beautiful clothes to put on and he sat on the king’s throne, and the king sat down on the steps. But the king said, “There is one thing more, if your answers are not satisfactory to me, I will kill you.”The Pandit said, “Of course, that was understood.”
Now the first question which was put was “Where does God sit? “If he answered it literally, the king would not have understood it, so he said, “Bring a cow.”A cow was brought. He said, “Does the cow have any milk? “The king said, “Yes, of course.”“Where does the milk sit?”“In the udder,” answered the king. “That is wrong,” said the Pandit, the milk pervades the whole cow. Let the cow go.”Then some milk was brought. “Where is the butter? Is the butter present in the milk? “They said, “It is.”“But where is it”, said the Pandit, “let me know.”They could not tell. Then he said, “If you cannot tell where the butter sits, still you have to believe it is there, in fact, the butter is everywhere.”Similarly, God is everywhere throughout the whole universe. Just as the butter is everywhere present in the milk, the milk is everywhere present in the cow. In order to get the milk, you have to milk the cow, so in order to get God you have to milk jour own heart.”The man said, “Are you answered, O king,” and the king said, “Yes, that is right.”Now all those people who said God was living in the seventh or eighth heaven fell in the estimation of the king. They were nothing to him, their position was not correct.
Then came the next question. “In which direction does God look—to the East, West, North, or South? “This was also very queer, but these people looked upon God as a personality. He said, “All right, bring a light.”A candle was brought and lit. He showed them that the candle did not face the North, South, East, or West, but was everywhere equal. The king was satisfied. Similarly, God is the candle in your heart which faces in all directions.
Now came the question, “What does God do? “He said, “All right,” and told the king to go and bring the Kazi. When his master came, he was astonished to find the servant seated on the king’s throne. Then he told the Kazi to sit at the place that the Pandit was to occupy, and the king to sit in the Kazi’s place, and he himself on the king’s throne. “This,” he said, “is the way—God does constantly keep things moving. Changing the Pandit into king, the king into Kazi, and the Kazi into Pandit.” This is what is being continually done in the world, one family rising into ascendancy, then becoming unknown and another taking its place. For a time one man is highly honoured, then another takes his place, and so on, day after day and year after year. And so on in this world change is going on all the time. From that day the Pandit was made Kazi.