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I remembered once receiving an article in an e-mail from a friend. The article was called "The Four Wives." Apparently it is quite a popular article and is doing its rounds in cyberspace and chain messages. It probably has a Buddhist origin but because it has such universal value it can be readily shared even amongst the other faiths.
The Four Wives
Once there was a man who had four wives. According to the social system and circumstances of ancient India, it was possible for a man to have several wives. The man had become ill and was about to die. At the end of his life, he felt very lonely and so asked the first wife to accompany him to the other world.
'My dear wife,' he said, 'I loved you day and night, I took care of you throughout my whole life. Now I am about to die, will you please go with me wherever I go after my death?' He expected her to answer yes. But she answered, 'My dear husband, I know you always loved me. And you are going to die. Now it is time to separate from you. Goodbye, my dear.'
He called his second wife to his sickbed and begged her to follow him in death. He said, 'My dear second wife, you know how I loved you. Sometimes I was afraid you might leave me, but I held on to you strongly. My dear, please come with me.' The second wife expressed herself rather coldly. 'Dear husband, your first wife refused to accompany you after your death. How can I follow you? You loved me only for your own selfish sake.'
Lying in his deathbed, he called his third wife, and asked her to follow him. The third wife replied, with tears in her eyes, 'My dear, I pity you and I feel sad for myself. Therefore I shall accompany you to the funeral but no further. This is my last duty to you.' The third wife thus also refused to follow him to death.
Three wives had refused to follow him after his death. Now he recalled that there was another wife, his fourth wife, for whom he didn't care very much. He had always ignored her and any suggestion from her. In fact he treated her like a slave and had always showed much displeasure with her. He now thought that if he asked her to follow him to death, she certainly would say no.
But his loneliness and fear were so severe that he made the effort to ask her to accompany him to the other world. The fourth wife gladly accepted her husband's request.
'My dear husband,' she said, 'I will go with you. Whatever happens, I am determined to be with you forever. I cannot be separated from you, even if you don’t want me to accompany, I will go with you"
The story concluded as follows:
'Every man and woman has four wives or husbands respectively. What do these signify?'
THE FIRST WIFE
The first 'wife' represents our body. We love our body day and night. In the morning, we wash our face, put on clothing and shoes. We give food to our body. We take care of our body like the first wife in this story. But unfortunately, at the end of our life, the body, the first 'wife' is the first one to leave. She cannot follow us to the next world.
THE SECOND WIFE
What is the meaning of the second wife? The second 'wife' stands for our fortune, our material things, money, property, fame, position, and job that we worked hard to attain. We are attached to these possessions. We are afraid to lose these material things and wish to possess much more. There is no limit.
At the end of our life these things cannot follow us to death. Whatever fortune we have piled up, we must leave it. We came into this world with empty hands. During our life in this world, we have the illusion that we obtained a fortune. At death, our hands are empty. We can't hold our fortune after our death, just as the second wife told her husband: 'You hold me with your ego-centred selfishness. Now it is time to say goodbye.'
THE THIRD WIFE
What is meant by the third wife? Everyone has a third 'wife'. This is the relationships of our parents, sister and brother, all relatives, friends, and society. They will go as far as the graveyard, with tears in their eyes. They are sympathetic and saddened... Thus, we cannot depend on our physical body, our fortune, and our relationships. We are born alone and we die alone. No one will accompany us after our death.
THE FOURTH WIFE
The Buddha mentioned the fourth wife, who would accompany her husband after his death even if he does not want her to accompany. What does that mean? The fourth 'wife' is our karma. Every choice of Thought and Action is Karma and it has consequences - now or later.
As the fourth wife told her dying husband, 'I will follow you forever, wherever you go’, we cannot be separated from our own karma. Our karma will go with us wherever we go, NO MATTER WHAT!!!
We ignore and ignore that we are ignoring this important wife who would go with us ALWAYS. Mind you that all karma begins in the mind first. An ignored or neglected mind is like a garden that is unattended to. It grows weeds. When we focus only on our body, possessions and relationships, we distract ourselves from cultivating our mind. We need to focus our energy on cultivating our mind with good thoughts and take conscious choices of good actions.
How to achieve good Karma? That will be covered in my next article. Read more in my next article on The Spiritual Adventure …….