Transcript
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There was once a young prince all
dressed up in soft silk clothes,
beautiful garments of royalty, shining
with a golden sash and sparkly shoes.
And he was riding in a big fancy
carriage with gold trim and soft velvet
seats. The servants dressed him up,
adorned him in this because there was a
special celebration in the meadows
outside the city. strong, beautiful
horses, beautiful, pulled this huge
wooden mahogany carriage and their
hooves were clattering as they went
along on the dusty road. And as the
prince looked around, he saw a small
falling apart house, a bunch of them
made of wood and mud and smoke rising
from the crooked chimneys and people
wearing ragged clothes. And his heart
literally felt heavy for all these
people. But he said, "Okay, I'm the
prince. I'm riding. I understand that
people are not going to be at my level.
The prince was young. He said, "Okay,
these old people, I won't be like that
one day." But the
test challenge really
nagged at him when he noticed a group of
boys that were his own age. They were
barefoot and they were rolling in thick
black mud and they were laughing,
seeming to have a party and they were
shouting and screaming and throwing
handfuls of mud at each other. It was
having literally fun that this prince
who grew up in royalty and class and
dignity has never experienced before.
And the smell of the mud and all that
was going on was strong. And for a
moment, the prince identified he wanted
to have fun, too. He wanted to be a kid
and he thought it might be fun to jump
out and play with these children. But
then he looked at his silk clothes, the
golden sash and the shiny carriage and
the beautiful white horses and realized
he simply could not. He realized his
life was different. And he watched the
boys a little curious and wishing he
could join them just for a moment. Their
world was free. It was messy. But his
life was something else. It was
important. There was dignity. There was
royalty.
There was selfworth. And even though he
wanted to play, he was stayed in the
carriage caring about them. Remembering
though who he was and what he as the
prince was supposed to do. And just like
the prince was able to fight the
realizing his self-dignity, realizing
who he was. And just like this prince
realizing that he is a step above, he's
a cut above, he's made from something
else, we learn the same exact thing that
true strength comes from knowing who we
are and the purpose we were given. And
temptation is always going to try to
pull us towards the mud to what's easy
to what's fun and it's going to look
like they're having a blast and we want
to do it too.
But then comes knocking on the door our
identity, our values and mission and
that can anchor us. And this teaches us
like and like this prince in the mush
that when we remember our worth and we
remember that we're that we're
responsible for ourselves for our family
for our connection with
and we realize that we're here on
emission. We're here for something
elevated. We're here for something
higher. Then we can rise above the pole
of the world. We can act with courage,
integrity, and clarity and stand firm in
our purpose. Honor our lineage, our
heritage, and let our inner light, our
inner fire, the malikim that's burning
inside. And let that guide us even when
the world and its tests try to drag us
into the mud.
As Marcus Aurelius said, never stain the
divine spark inside. You are much much
greater than that. This is the message
of Sadi. This is the message of the
prince. We're all princes. We're all the
balabas, the boss, of our fate, of our
journey, of our mission. And the
temptations are going to come. They're
going to try to bombard us and take us
down. But when we fight back and we say,
"I'm a king. I'm a prince. I'm a Ben
Melik. I'm so much greater." That is
going to help us fight. That's going to
help us stay above and overcome and be
victorious of everything that's trying
to drag us in the mud.
