For ya Christian/Catholic out there...

SydneyJim

Rookie
THE KING'S FOUR WIVES

Once upon a time there was a rich King who had four wives.

He loved the 4th wife the most and adorned her with rich robes and treated her to the finest delicacies. He gave her nothing but the best.

He also loved his 3rd wife very much and was always showing her off to neighboring kingdoms. However, he feared that one day she would leave him for another.

He also loved his 2nd wife. She was his confidant and was always kind, considerate and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem he could confide in her and she would help him get through the difficult times.

The King's 1st wife was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining his wealth and kingdom. However, he did not love the 1st wife. Although she loved him deeply he hardly ever noticed her.

One day the King fell ill and he knew his time was short. He thought of his luxurious life and wondered, "I now have 4 wives with me, but when I die, I'll be all alone."

Thus, he asked the 4th wife, "I have loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I am dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"

"No way!" replied the 4th wife and she walked away without another word. Her answer cut like a sharp knife right into his heart.

The sad King then asked his 3rd wife, "I have loved you all my life now that I'm dying will you follow me and keep me company?"

"No!" she replied "Life is too good! When you die, I am going to remarry!" His heart sank and turned cold.

He then asked the 2nd wife, "I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die will you follow me and keep me company?" "I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!" replied the 2nd wife. "At the very most, I can send you to your grave." Her answer came like a bolt of lightning, and the King was devastated.

Then a voice called out: "I'll leave with you and follow you no matter where you go."

The King looked up, and there was his first wife. She was so skinny as she suffered from malnutrition and neglect. Greatly grieved, the King said "I should have taken better care of you when I had the chance!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In truth, we all have four wives in our lives:

Our 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort was lavish in making it look good, it will leave us when we die.

Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others.

Our 2nd wife is our family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.

And our 1st wife is our Soul. Often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world. However our Soul is the only thing that will follow us wherever we go. So make sure your Soul is in tune with the Lord ... cultivate, strengthen and cherish it now, for it is the only part of us who will follow us to the throne of God and continue with us throughout eternity.
 

nopiforyou

Rookie
its really true and yea thats a pretty a good story. i agree with that 100%. Too many people care too much about wealth and appearance.
 

shrakkie

Semi-Pro
the point is the wife is metaphorical.he doesnt love her...as he doesnt appreciate her.as in the soul is something we should keep intune and love but too may of us dont and care for material posessions and wealth above our firts wives(soul) .like the king who should have stayed loyal to her but neglected her so...i like th story 35ft6 :)
 
M

mm_tennis

Guest
Amazing lesson although I don't really support polygamy, haha.
 

oldguysrule

Semi-Pro
35ft6 said:
:) I get it, but I don't think it's a very good story. Is this really in the Bible?

No, it is not in the bible. It is a way of illustrating that many people forget or do not know that our bodies are temporal (have an end) and our souls are eternal (don't have an end). They take care of their earthly, material needs but neglect their eternal, spiritual needs. The story is a way of pointing to the importance of taking care of your soul, that is, where will your soul spend eternity?
 

thejerk

Semi-Pro
Why did the king stop at four wives? It's good to be da king:) Kinda funny, you called a wife a possession. First wife must not have been an atheist :)
 

TaintedWisdom

New User
Wow really good story.
I'm not one who follows church/religion (just cause I find is almost a government, but wont get into that). But it really has a great moral.

I could see this story developed into a short story (a few pages long) describing each character and stuff and then the climax. Those character could really come alive.

Anyways, sydney, great stuff man, keep them coming.
You sound like you know what you want in life hehe.
 

max

Legend
Well that's a nice story, doesn't matter if you're Catholic (I am), but it illustrates some good teaching. I'm always amazed at those folks who virulently overreact when they find someone interested in religion. . . talk to a few of them, and you'll find they never really explored the area much, but just picked up on the general anti-religion theme in order to feel contemporary.
 

35ft6

Legend
max said:
Well that's a nice story, doesn't matter if you're Catholic (I am), but it illustrates some good teaching. I'm always amazed at those folks who virulently overreact when they find someone interested in religion. . . talk to a few of them, and you'll find they never really explored the area much, but just picked up on the general anti-religion theme in order to feel contemporary.
Religious people can be accused of the same thing, believing simply to go with the flow. It's not a coincidence that most believers believe in the same way their family and neighbors do.

It's just a really bad parable. Actually, the explanations for wives 2, 3, and 4 are cool, it's just the 1st one that doesn't make sense. It's sort of interesting that as he's about to die, the King suddenly realizes that he was a jerk to starve the wife who loved him the most, but to say she represents the soul is a stretch. First off, it says she helped him maintain wealth and power, so if wealth and power are the things that distract a person from focusing more on their spiritual well-being, she was sort of like the woman who loves her man so much she helps him self destruct. Are you people sure the 1st wife is supposed to represent the soul? Because it just doesn't make sense. Oh well.
 

35ft6

Legend
Okay, through the magic of googling, I found an alternate explanation.
Our 4th wife is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish in making it look good, it'll leave us when we die.
Our 3rd wife is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it will all go to others.
Our 2nd wife is our friends. No matter how much they have been there for us, the furthest they can stay by us is up to the grave.
AND
And our 1st wife is our Parents, often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the ego. However, our Parents are the only thing that will follow us and guide wherever we go.
This makes more sense. It's a more modest explanation but by not campaigning for the 1st wife to represent the "soul," it achieves coherency it not transcendence.

Another version is the best version of all IMO:
One rich business man was conducting his business. He had four wives.

The first one was continuously ill and suffering from some disease or other. One other wife was given to worldly pleasures. The third wife was always pursuing a spiritual path and was wanting to meet learned persons and learn about religious aspects. The fourth wife was very healthy but was not given to worldly pleasures and had no desires of any kind. She had only one thought and that was to become one with the divine.

The businessman went to a foreign land and wrote to the four wives just before coming back and asked them what they wanted to be brought.

The first wife replied that she wanted a special kind of medicine for her illness while the second wife asked for special gifts like Sarees, jewels etc. The third wife asked for religious books of the foreign land. She also asked him to search for information given by learned scholars concerning the aspect of Brahman.

The fourth wife had nothing to ask except the safe return of her husband.

As soon as he gave all the things which he had brought with him from the foreign land to the respective wives, he himself went to the house of the fourth wife. The other wives grew jealous and asked him why he is spending all the time with the fourth wife especially after being absent from the house for such a long time.

He replied that he had given to each wife what she had asked for and as the fourth wife asked for him, he had gone to her house.
This is a very satisfying parable. It's truth is self-evident. IMO this one has all the things the first post's version doesn't.
 

max

Legend
Oh this is true, too, as you say, but I don't feel remiss mentioning it. It's not that good a thing to see people jump into any perspective without really studying it.
 
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