A RAJA was once taught by his Guru the sacred doctrine of Advaita, which declares that the whole universe is Brahman. The king was very much pleased with this doctrine. Going in, he said to his queen: “There is no distinction between the queen and the queen’s maid servant. So the maid-servant shall be my queen henceforth.” The queen was thunderstruck at this mad proposal of her lord. She sent for the Guru and complained to him in a piteous tone, “Sir, look at the pernicious result of your teachings,” and told him what had occurred. The Guru consoled the queen and said, “When you serve dinner to the king today, have a potful of cow-dung also served along with the dish of rice.” At dinner time the Guru and the king sat down together to eat. Who could imagine the rage of the king when he saw a dish of cow-dung served for his meal. The Guru, seeing this, calmly interrogated: “Your Highness, you are well versed in the knowledge of Advaita. Why do you then see any distinction between the dung and rice?” The king became exasperated and exclaimed, “You who pride yourself to be such a great Advaitin, eat this dung if you can.” The Guru said, “Very well,” and at once changed himself to a swine and devoured the cow-dung with great gusto and afterwards again assumed his human shape. The king became so ashamed that he never made again his mad proposal to the queen. (177)