The King Consoled in Grief

The sages told the Pandavas of King Senajit, who was sunk in grief at the death of his son, and of the wise brahmana who came and lifted him out of his sorrow with the truth - a tale of consolation, of the universality of loss, and of the equanimity by which the wise are not overwhelmed by grief.

King Senajit was a great and prosperous ruler, blessed with every fortune; but a heavy sorrow fell upon him, for his beloved son died. And the king was utterly overcome with grief, plunged into a despair he could not master, weeping and lamenting without ceasing, his whole spirit darkened by the loss of his child, unable to take comfort or to find any reason to go on. His ministers and friends could not console him; he sat sunk in his sorrow, broken, like a man for whom the light of the world had gone out. And in this condition there came to him a wise brahmana, who looked on the grieving king and resolved to console him, not with empty words, but with the deep truth that alone can ease such grief.