he heard a merchant shouting, 'Wisdom for sale; come and buy some wisdom!' Greatly intrigued, the king went up to the man and asked him, 'Do you really have wisdom for sale? How much is it?' 'It comes in three sizes', said the merchant, ' One hundred crowns, a thousand crowns or ten thousand crowns.' 'I'll take ten thousand crowns-worth!' said the king. 'Very well! Here you are: ' Do what you have to do , but think of the consequences.' 'Is that all?' 'Yes, that's all.' The king laughed, paid the merchant his ten thousand crowns and walked off, chuckling and murmuring, 'Do what you have to do, but think of the consequences'.

By the time he got back to the palace he had forgotten the incident until, suddenly, the phrase came back into his mind: 'Do what you have to do, but think of the consequences', and he laughed again, thinking of that strange philosopher. The next morning, the king was being shaved before going to an important meeting with his ministers. His chin was already covered with shaving cream and his barber was approaching him with the razor in his hand, when he suddenly thought of the wisdom he had bought in the market and, looking at his barber, he said, jokingly, 'Do what you have to do, but think of the consequences.' To his astonishment, his barber went as white as chalk and fell at his feet, sobbing, 'Mercy, Lord; have mercy on me! I didn't want to do it; it was the ministers who forced me.' The king quickly recovered form his amazement and, realizing that some dreadful plot had been hatched against him, pretended to know about it. 'I know all that', he said, 'But tell me exactly...' 'Sire, I was meant to slit your throat while I was shaving you. I have a wife and children, sire, and they threatened me. I had to do it.' 'Yes, but who?' 'I'll tell you, sire; but promise me you won't kill me.' Well, you can imagine the rest of the story for yourselves, but this is how the king was saved, thanks to the wisdom he had bought in the market.

And I, too, have a stall in the market, but my wisdom is free. And this is what I am telling you today: 'Cherish light above everything else; cling to light and you will be saved.' And now, just a world or two more to complete what we were saying about the servant. What does a servant - or the housewife, if she hasn't got a servant. What does a servant - or the housewife, if she hasn't got a servant - have to do every day? She has to sweep, dust, wash and tidy her house and adorn it with some flowers here and there. But human beings have never understood the meaning of what they do every day. For me, this is a language. It is the book of Nature that I love to read and interpret. Since we are all obliged to look after the cleanliness, order and harmony of our houses, shouldn't we show the same patient care, regularity and tenacity in keeping our inner life clean and tidy? It is this understanding that is so lacking in ordinary human beings: they focus only on the physical dimension and fail to see that cleanliness and order must also exist in their mental life; that it is on this level that they must get into the habit of making everything tidy and harmonious every day, without fail. It is this that is beautyful and useful: unfailingly, every day, to look into oneself, saying 'Let's see: what needs to be tidied up?' And then, to clean and tidy up anything that is out of place, untidy or bizarre and to get rid of any rubbish or dust that has gathered. If the disorder is not tidied up every day, it will end by becoming unmanageable. Every day, therefore, several times a day, you must try to restore peace, order and harmony within yourself. Those who fail to do so will never be in command of the situation. People hasten to repair the destruction caused by a storm, an air raid or an earthquake as soon as it is over. Why don't you do the same, every day, in your inner life? There are always some little storms going on, some rain or some bombs falling, a few holes through which mice can get in ...so there is always a little patching and cleaning and tidying to be done. You must look into yourself every day, and if you see that your thoughts and sentiments are not what they should be, you must set things straight immediatly.

But people do none of this. They do nothing because they have never been taught the truths of Initiatic Science or, if they have learned these truths, they scoff at their precepts. And yet, by practising these methods a human being can achieve complete control of all his cells. Yes, because he will have understood, he will have been faithful and constant and, one day, everything will fall into place and work exactly as he wants it to. When the bombs were falling we saw how the soldiers and firemen put out the fires and repaired the bridges and so on, without delay, and we think that that is normal; we take it for granted. But when it is our own inner life that is concerned, we don't know what to do. So, now you see why we try to concentrate three, four, five, ten times a day, so as to remedy the situation. If you hear a voice setting up a great hubbub within you, tell it to keep quiet and go and sit down and listen. And preserve until you succeed in making it obey you. You will be proud of yourself when you gain the upper hand. But if you let everything go and expect the situation to sort itself out alone, peace and tranquility will not be restored for years... if ever.

There; now you see what interesting conclusions we can draw from this image of the lady of the house and her maid.

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

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