The Three Questions!
“The Three Questions” by Leo Tolstoy has guided me through many different events of my life: What is the Right Thing to do?, Who is the most Important One?, and When Is the right time to do it?
Tolstoy masterfully depicts (as I paraphrase), the three questions that the king has asked his nation promising great rewards for the right answers. Politicians, businessmen, clergyman, educators, physicians, soldiers and others all offer self serving answers unpleasing to the king. The King’s advisors suggest that the only person with the right answers is the Wizard who lives deep in the jungles.
The King anxious to find the answers heads to the jungle with his troop. They camp near the jungle and the king alone in commoner’s clothes goes to find the Wizard. He finds him on a warm sunny day digging a large hole near his tent. He says; Wizard I have come looking for the answers to these 3 questions as he recites them. The Wizard continues digging and finally after several trials, the Wizard says; let me finish digging the hole and we will attend to your questions later.
The king tired of waiting says to the Wizard, you are an old man digging this large hole in this warm sunny day, let me help you as he starts digging. The end of the day comes and the hole is finished when the king tired of waiting and working all day, says; Wizard I have been waiting all day and the hole is done please give me the answers to these 3 questions or tell me if you do not know so I can be on my way.
Suddenly, the wizard says; be quiet someone is coming. A man wounded and bleeding comes out of the jungle.
The king and Wizard run to the man and bring him to the tent and the king nurses him all night until the bleeding stops. Near the dawn the tired king falls sleep next to his patient. When he wakes up he sees the injured man looking at him smiling and appreciating for what he had done. The man says to the king; “you do not know me but I know you”. The king is surprised. The man says; you had unjustly ordered to execute my brother and to confiscate all his belongings. I had vowed to find and kill you. I knew that you were here alone without your guards. So I hid in the jungle waiting for you to come back to ambush you and finally when you did not come back I got tired and came looking for you when your guards blocked me and wounded me. Now, If it was not for you taking care of me I would have been dead. I am indebted to you and will be at your service from now on. The king listens to his story and all that was done unjustly to his family. He orders to give back all that was taken away and he sends him back safely to his home.
Then king says; Wizard I have been here all day and all night waiting and you still have not given me the answers to what I had come here for. Please give me the answers so I can be on my way. The Wizard says: what do you mean? Your questions have already been answered. The king does not understand.
The Wizard continues; when you came here yesterday and saw an old man digging a hole; the most important one was me, the right time was when you decided to help and the right thing to do was helping me digging the hole.
When you saw the injured man; the most important one was the injured man, the right time was when you rushed him to my tent to help him otherwise he would have been dead and the right thing was for you to nurse him all night to recovery. You see the answers to your questions are very simple; the right time is always now and the most important one is the person you are with and the right thing to do is ALWAYS TO DO GOOD. If you were not delayed by doing good to help me and had left early, the man had ambushed and had killed you.
Indeed a beautiful story!! However the choice is yours to make it a reality by practicing it and promoting it to others to apply these 3 questions in their daily lives. Peace can only come when each of us act in a peaceful manner and DO GOOD not for a selected group and not in special times but always and under all conditions as the essence of our being.
Alex Abossein,
InnerFit, Oasis For Perfect Health