China's foolish king

Many, many years ago in China there lived a king who was always afraid of losing his prestige. The king thought that if his subjects had more information, knowledge or wisdom than he did, then they would not bow to him and obey him. So he asked his ministers to burn all the books in the schools, the libraries and everywhere in the kingdom. He did not want anybody to read books. The ministers carried out his orders and all the books were burned to ashes. Then the king was very, very happy because he thought nobody would be able to surpass him in information, knowledge or wisdom. O God, there were some scholars who had learned by heart some important books and who had also hidden their books. The king was very happy that others would become fools, and the scholars were so happy that they had made a fool of the king. They became even greater scholars than before because they learned many things by heart and also because they had kept the really good books in hiding. It is because of these great scholars that Laotzu’s and others’ works are still available in China.

From:Sri Chinmoy,Is your mind ready to cry? Is your heart ready to smile? part 1, Agni Press, 1981
Sourced from https://srichinmoylibrary.com/mrc_1