(While giving a talk on ‘Karma Yoga’, Swami Vivekananda was explaining that in ancient times life in India was divided into four stages – a persons life began as a student, then he married and become a householder (carrying on the duties of a citizen), in old age he retired and in the final stage he give up the world and become a Sannyasin (a monk) who devoted all his energy to worshipping and realizing God and also preaching. He went on to say that in later times these four stages were reduced to, two—that of the householder and of the monk. During his talk Swami Vivekananda emphasized the fact that no one of these stages is intrinsically superior to another. The life of the married man (the householder) is quite as great as that of the celibate monk (the Sannyasin). To illustrate this point he narrated the story of the Sannyasin and the householder.)
A certain king used to ask all the Sannyasins who visited his kingdom the following question, "Which is the greater man—he who gives up the world and becomes a Sannyasin, or he who lives in the world and performs his duties as a householder?" Some of these visiting monks asserted that the Sannyasin was the greater while others asserted that "The householder who performs his duties is the greater man.” Upon hearing their replies the king would demand that they prove their assertion. When they failed to prove, the king ordered them to marry and become householders. This went on for a while.
Finally a young Sannyasin come to the kingdom and the king as usual asked him the same question. The monk answered, "Each, O king, is equally great in his place." On hearing this, the king asked the monk to prove it. The monk promised to prove his statement, but he laid a condition before the king, "you must first come and live as I do for a few days, that I may be able to prove to you what I say." The king consented and followed the Sannyasin out of his kingdom. They passed through many other countries until they came to a great kingdom. When they entered the capital of this kingdom they witnessed a great ceremony taking place there. The streets were filled with people in gala dress and there was loud music and drums. This was a very special occasion when the daughter of the king would choose a husband from among those assembled before her. (This was an ancient custom in India for a princess to choose a husband in this way. In this interesting ceremony all the princes of the neighboring kingdoms presented themselves before her. The princess choose a husband depending on her taste – the most handsome man or the most learned or the richest, and so on. The princess was taken on a throne from one suitor to the next. If the princess was pleased with any one of them, she would throw a garland of flowers over him and he became her husband.) This princess wanted to marry the handsomest man. Several times before meetings like this had taken place but the princess could not find the right man to please her. This time everyone hoped she would be able to find a husband of her choice. But this time also to everyone’s disappointment the princess, like most girls - being very picky, did not like any of the men assembled. Just then a very handsome young man, a Sannyasin, came and stood in one corner of the assembly watching the proceedings. (This Sannyasin must not be confused with the Sannyasin who came with the king from the other kingdom.) The moment the princess saw this handsome Sannyasin she threw her garland over him. The young Sannyasin became furious. He seized the garland and threw it off yelling, "What nonsense is this? I am a Sannyasin. What is marriage to me?" The king (the princess’s father) put the garland again on the Sannyasin and said, "With my daughter goes half my kingdom now, and the whole kingdom after my death!" But the young man would not have any of this. He threw off the garland once again saying, "Nonsense! I do not want to, marry," and walked quickly away from the assembly. By now the princess had so desperately fallen in love with this young man that she cried, "I must marry this man or I shall die"; and she ran after him to bring him back. At that moment the Sannyasin, who had brought the king from the other kingdom there, said to him, "King, let us follow this pair"; so they walked after them, but at a safe distance behind so as not to be noticed. The Sannyasin who had refused to marry the princess left the kingdom and entered a dense forest. The princess and the other two also followed. The young Sannyasin was well acquainted with that forest and quickly disappeared. The princess tried to follow him but quickly lost track of him. For a long time she tried to find him. Finally she gave up and sat under a tree and began to weep for now she did not know the way out. Then the other Sannyasin and the king went to her and said, "Do not weep; we will show you the way out of this forest, but it is too dark for us to find it now. Here is a big tree; let us rest under it, and in the morning we will go early and show you the road."
On that tree, in a nest lived a little bird and his wife and their three little ones. The little bird pointing to the three people under the tree said to his wife, "My dear, what shall we do? Here are some guests in the house, and it is winter, and we have no fire." So he flew off and got a bit of burning firewood and dropped it in front of the guests. The guests added fuel to the little burning firewood and made a blazing fire. Then the little bird said to his wife, "My dear, what shall we do? There is nothing to give these people to eat, and they are hungry. We are householders; it is our duty to feed any one who comes to the house. I must do what I can. I will give them my body." So saying he plunged into the blazing fire. The guests tried to save him but he was too quick for them. The little bird’s wife saw what her husband did and she said, "Here are three persons, and only one little bird for them to eat. It is not enough; it is my duty as a wife not to let my husband's effort go in vain. Let them have my body also." So saying she also plunged into the fire and perished. The three baby-birds who had witnessed the supreme sacrifice made by their parents for the guests, realized that there still wasn’t enough food for the guests. They said, "Our parents have done what they could and still it is not enough. It is our duty to carry on the work of our parents; let our bodies go too." So saying they all dashed into the fire. The three people were amazed by what they saw but they could not eat the birds. In the morning they found their way out of the forest and the princess went back to her father.
Now the Sannyasin said to the king, "King, you have seen that each is great in his own place. If you want to live in the world, live like those birds, ready at any moment to sacrifice yourself for others. If you want to renounce the world, be like that young man to whom the most beautiful woman and a kingdom were as nothing. If you want to be a householder, hold your life a sacrifice for the welfare of others; and if you choose the life of renunciation, do not even look at beauty and money and power. Each is great in his own place, but the duty of the one is not the duty of the other."
