There
was a king who was a great admirer of art. One day an artist came and said to
the king, “Oh King! Give me a blank wall in your palace and let me paint a
picture on it.”
The artist was given the job. Just then, another young man said, “Oh King!
Please allow me to work on the opposite wall. I too am an artist.” The
king said, “What would you like to make?” The man said, “My Lord, I shall make
exactly what that man will make on the opposite wall. Moreover, I shall do so,
without looking at his work. I would even request you to have a thick curtain
put up between the two walls so that either of us cannot see the other.”
Everyone in the king’s court, including the king was intrigued. He decided to
give the young fellow a chance. The following day a thick curtain was put into
place and both the artists got to work. The first artist brought in a regular
supply of paint, oil, water etc. The second one worked with some cloth and a
bucket of water. After a month the first artist told the king that his work was
complete. The king sent for the second artist and asked him, “Young man, when
would your work be ready? I am coming to see the first wall this evening.” The
man said, “My Lord, my wall is ready too!”
The king went to see the first artist’s wall. He was very, very impressed with
the painting and gave a hefty sum as a reward to the artist. He then asked for
the curtain to be opened up. Lo and behold! The same painting was to be seen on
the opposite wall too! Amazing! But true! Each line, each minor detail was
exactly as it was on the first wall. But this man had not been seeing what was
going on, on the other side of the curtain. So how had he done it?
The king wanted to know the secret. He gave a double reward to the fellow. Then
he said, “Young man, I am indeed very happy with your work. But you must tell
me; how did you do it?”
The lad said simply, “It’s very easy! I just polished the wall every day till
it shone like a mirror!” It was a wall made of white marble! The reflection of
the painting across the room, showed up in it!
That is what it means to polish yourself. World is a reflection of you.
Whatever you are, the world will seem to be that too. If you are happy, the
world will look to be happy. If you are sad; jealous; angry; restless... that
is what the world will seem to be to you!
--
These examples are for animal kingdom whose one
sense is only active. But incase of human beings, all our senses are active.
Then what is our position? A man has got six wives, and he has entered the
house, and all the wives have captured him, "You come to my room."
You see? So one has taken his one hand, another has taken another hand, one has
taken his one leg, so he's like this: "Where shall I go?" So this is
our position. This body means the senses. My eyes want, "Oh, there is a
beautiful girl. Let us see." Ear. "Oh, there is very nice music. Let
us have it." "Oh, there is a very good restaurant, palatable dishes.
Let’s go." Tongue dictates. Eyes dragging to some place, ear dragging,
tongue dragging. So our position is like different wives and dragging to
different rooms. Thus, we are perplexed. Instead of controlling the senses, we
are becoming servant of senses and losing this great opportunity of human life.
The only way to get out of it is to be fully Krishna conscious. 
One
man went out of his village, and after ten years, he came back, advertised
himself that "I have become successful in yoga practice." So
naturally villagers surrounded him. "Oh, what yoga practice you have
learned?" "I can walk on the water." "Oh?" So the
arrangement was that he'll cross the river, walking on the water. One old man
came and said, "Sir, it is very wonderful, but it is two paise
worth." "Why?" "Now, you will walk and go the other side;
I'll take a boat, pay him two paise. I'll do the same thing. So what is your
credit?" So those who are actually intelligent men, they will question,
"What actual profit you have made?” Let us say you are a chemist and you
combine acid and base and you make smoke, an explosion or whatever. To somebody
ignorant, that's a miracle. But for everything there is a process, and so when
you see a miracle, it's just ignorance of the process. So-called transcendentalists
who have no real stock of knowledge they are fond of these miracles, and for
the most part, because the innocent public is generally foolish, therefore they
accept these magicians as saintly persons. So one who does not know these things,
they say, "Oh, these are all stories." It is not story. It is no
miracle. They are all possible. So there is no such thing as miracle. It is a
process of doing. One must know how to do it. There is no miracle. We don't say
anything miracle. The real knowledge means science or knowing everything about
something. So this Krishna Consciousness is not a miracle, it is science, and
because we are Krishna conscious, therefore we know everything.
