--> Skip to main content


Story of Rich Merchant – Who Realized the Light That Can Provide the Correct Direction

A rich merchant once went to a sage to find out the reason for his inability to see god and failure in spirituality and his inability to achieve peace in life. He complained that all his prayers are unanswered.

He was not able to concentrate while praying. His mind was wandering into unwanted territories.

He used to close his eyes and attempt to meditate but all kinds of desires flashed in front of his eyes. His mind kept drifting into unwanted areas.

The sage realized that the rich merchant was under the influence of desires, past impressions and influences.

His attempts were honest but they were not powerful enough to overcome the latent impressions hidden in his mind.

The Sage took the merchant to a window in the room and it had a plain clean glass. The merchant was able to see the beautiful scenery outside. He saw the sun, big trees, a beautiful pathway lined with trees with purple bushes at their base, he further saw beautiful green rice field with two big trees, blue sky, and mountains in the distance. There were birds, animals, people working and children playing.

The Sage closed this window and opened it again. However, this time the plain glass was decorated with silver and gold. Silvering was done on the glass. The rich merchant could not see the beautiful scenery. All he could see was his reflection.

The sage then told the merchant that the silver that is blocking his view on the window is also found in his mind. It is stopping the prayers of the merchant from reaching its destination. The internal light is hidden through ignorance and desires. All openings are closed by ignorance and ego.

Even in meditation only the ego and desires are reflecting through the silvering. The merchant needs to remove the silvering to see the internal light.

The merchant was advised to give up ego, aversion, desires, anger, avarice, hatred and passion. He was asked to drop all that was covering the internal light.

Through constant practice, the merchant was able to come out of the wrong impressions and influences. Slowly the darkness began to move away.

With constant spiritual practice and patience, the merchant removed all that was blocking him from seeing the internal light.

Like the merchant, we all need to clean our mind and see the light within. Only this light can help us in our life’s journey. Only this light can provide us the correct direction in life.