The Princess Of Kaashi

In the kingdom of Kaashi, there was a grand celebration and the royal family had to participate. As per the play being prepared, there was a need for a beautiful young princess. However, the king and queen had only a 6-year-old son. While everyone was dwindling with their thoughts, the Queen thought of dressing up her son - the young prince - as a princess for the play. So the dresser did her job and the Prince turned out to look like an amazingly beautiful princess. The Queen loved how beautiful the young Prince looked in the attire and makeover of the princess so she ordered the painter to create a portrait of her son. The painter was called and he made a breathtakingly beautiful portrait and named his piece of art as the ‘The Princess of Kasi’ and timestamped the portrait with the date, time and year.

Years passed, the Prince was now a young man. one day he wandered into the storeroom of the palace. Lo and behold, he stumbled into the portrait named ‘The Princess of Kasi’ and was amazed by the beauty and charm of the image. He saw the date and time stamp on the portrait and thought that the girl in this portrait must have grown to my age by now. within a few seconds, the Prince had fallen in love with the Princess of Kasi. He came out of the room as a man in love, he would keep thinking about her and his distracted demeanor was visible to his mother - the Queen. She asked the Minister to find out the reason for her son's delusional behaviors as she was concerned something was not right. The Minister had a good rapport as a friendly elder with the Prince so he persuaded him to share the reason for his changed mannerisms. The Prince told the Minister that the latter was in love. Minister was happy and curious, wanted to know who the fortunate girl was. The Prince took him to the storeroom, made him sit, and shared the portrait with the Minister. Ahh, there was silence for a few mins as the Minister could instantly realize the problem, he gathered himself and Told the Prince that this alliance wasn’t possible. The Prince was heartbroken and wasn’t willing to accept. He kept saying that the aha was a princess, so elegant and charming and must be age-appropriate too. He kept arguing, so the Minister had to spill the beans and state that the person in the portrait is none other than the Prince himself who was dressed as a princess for a specific occasion. The Prince came out of his delusion and realized that he had fallen in love with his own image.

Guruji led us to the powerful concept of Tatwamasi - That You are or You are that - through this beautiful story - there is no other being but just ME. When there is none other than Me and it’s all MY creation - I am the creator, the DOer, the SEEer, the Sought, then where is the ego, what is there to lose, who is winning, and why this fear. In this simple story, Guruji derived the most powerful learning yet again - Aham Brahmasmi 

Tat Tvam Asi (Sanskrit: तत् त्वम् असि or तत्त्वमसि) is a Sanskrit mantra from the Advaita tradition, typically translated as “I am that” or “Thou Art That”. Tat Tvam Asi is to recognize that Brahman and Atman are one, and as such, there can be no ego or sense of separation.