The Lighter Side of Wisdom

Kabir ridiculed the degree to which people are impressed with name and fame. A village washerman had a donkey who performed his duty faithfully at all times, except when the temple priest blew the conch in the evening to call the people to temple. Then the donkey would cease working and begin to bray loudly. The washerman at last came to the conclusion that, because his donkey responded in this manner to the sound of the conch, it must have been a sadhu in its previous birth. Therefore, the washerman named his donkey Shankheshwar Swami, which means Swami of the Lord of the Conch.

After some years, the donkey died and the washerman went into mourning. To all those who asked him why he was in mourning, he replied, “Don’t you know that Shankeshwar Swami has passed away?” And so the word went round the village and soon every man had shaved his head, beard and moustache as a sign of mourning. From one village the news quickly passed to the next until at last the news reached the capital. Hearing the news, the king decided to go into mourning also. The queen, however, did not like the idea of the king shaving his head, beard and moustache, and asked the chief minister to find out exactly who Shankeshwar Swami was.

Inquiring from one person to another, the chief minister at last reached the village of the washerman. “Who was this Shankeshwar Swami for whom everybody is mourning?” asked the chief minister. “It’s a pity we never met him.”

“Did you not know Shankeshwar Swami?” replied the washerman. “He was my donkey who used to bray at the call of the temple conch.”
_{Kabir, The Great Mystic}