Within.... Without

Written: 2000,PK

Once upon a time, long time ago, there was a princess called “Within”. She was called “within”, because she had all the beauty within her. Many Maharajahs and kings from the neighboring states and countries had proposed her, but she refused all. She wanted to live her whole life within, as she was aware of the beauty within her. One day when she was passing her time painting in the garden, she heard a voice of a man, asking for something. She saw a man, in dirty rags, having a beard as if unshaven for years, and dirt all over his body, asking for water. First she thought of him as some beggar, but there was some thing unusual in him, there was some thing strange about his eyes that she was unable to stare at it. Interested in the strangeness she asked the man, “who are you, and why you look so strange to me”. The man told her that he is a traveler, and his name is “Without”. He is traveling for so many years now that he do not know where he has come from, and he never thinks of where he is going. He told her about the lakes and meadows he had traveled. This was the first time for the princess that the person though admiring her beauty is not getting attracted towards her, he was standing near by, but he was wandering in the far regions of Himalayas and Sahara at the same time. She told him about her loneliness and how she enjoys her solitudes. He told her about the loneliness and solitudes he experienced in the mountains of Himalayas and in the bamboo forest of China. She told him about the painting and the songs she had made from her inner thoughts, and he told her about the songs of the Indian birds in the early spring, and the sound of the dessert. He told her about how the scenes in the mountains change instantly as u cross a valley. They passed many long hours enriching each other.
Both of them were thinking that there is some sort of connection between them, but they were unable to name it. What is it? Is the flow inwards or outwards? They were traveling in different directions but it seems that they were going towards the same destination.
After some time the traveler ask princess for departure. The princess was so much in love with the traveler that she wanted him to live within her heart and eyes forever, but the traveler’s dreams were so pure and captivating that, she was unable to show what she want. But nevertheless she told the traveler that whenever he find his destiny do return to me. After saying good bye the traveler left.
Many years passed. The princess painted paintings and created immortal love songs in the hope of that the traveler might come, she realized that as the time is passing her paintings and her songs are getting stronger and beautiful then before.
And the traveler saw that the mountain colors are getting stronger and purer day by day, the lakes loneliness is getting clearer and clearer, and he thought that at last he now know the thing without which his solitude has brighten up. And one day he died, and the princess died too.
In the court of the God, both of them were standing, thinking of there past lives. They asked God, that why u did all this, why you never made us unite. And God replied, “well, u know that I was never happy with my creation of earth. It was not what I dreamt it to be. And then I dream about you, and then I realized that, the more my real conditions are bad, the more my dreams and my fantasies flourish and brighten my inner self. You saw that the more u spend time away from each other, the more your dreams became beautiful and imaginative. You are the dream seen by me, and I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed creating this world and universe. And now that u have realized that I am also a dream seen by you, so tell me , u enjoyed the destiny or the way………the within or without …………………………….