There was a great curiosity in the kingdom. Everyone was eagerly waiting for the result. Reason being, it was an equal competition between the two sides. Both were champions in the field of art. The king, along with his cabinet of ministers, arrived to announce the final decision. Both the painters were standing alongside their paintings. The partition was removed from between the painters. However, their paintings were still covered.
As such, both these painters were famous for their skill in the whole state. The question was that who was more adept between the two. To take this decision, the king had organised a competition between them. Both of them were given a defined time. They had to project their skill by making a painting on the wall within the specific time. There was a distance of two yards between the walls. A curtain was drawn between them so that they couldn't see each other's wall. Both would come in the morning, work the whole day, and go back in the evening. On the last day of the competition, both of them inspected their paintings and did the final touching. They then covered their walls with a cloth.
The king asked the first painter to show his painting. On receiving the command, that painter removed the cloth from his painting. The moment the painting was unveiled, the king and his cabinet of ministers stood mesmerised. The whole room echoed with praises and applauds. Indeed, what a spellbinding picture it was! It seemed as if the scene of Mahabharata got alive, instead of being there on the wall. All the ministers said in one voice, “O King, it's impossible to find any match to this marvellous painting in the whole world. Therefore, this painter should be declared the winner instantly. Now there is no need to see the other painting.” Staring at the painting, the king also remarked, “Even my heart doesn't want to see any other picture. My eyes are fully satisfied after seeing this picture. But, we cannot do injustice to the other painter. Therefore, we will see his painting also before announcing the decision.” As ordered by the king, the other painter removed the cover from his painting. The moment everyone looked at that wall, there was pin drop silence in the hall. Hearts skipped a beat! Eyelashes forgot to blink! Jaws dropped in wonder. This painter stole the hearts of all. All eyes were glued to the wall. It seemed as if the picture was made going two yards deep inside the wall. The king also remained awestruck. Now the first painting seemed insipid in front of the new one. Undoubtedly, this painter completely outscored the first painter.
After all, what did this painter do? Actually, where the first painter kept using various colours on his wall the whole time, the other painter kept rubbing his wall. He rubbed and cleaned it to such an extent that it started shining like a mirror. By doing so, his wall reflected the picture that was made on the other wall. According to the principle of optics, the painting appeared to be engraved as deep inside the wall as was the distance between the two walls. In other words, the second painter had captured the complete effort of the first painter, i.e. his colourful painting, all for free!
This story gives us a very beautiful message. Like the first painter, we also keep filling our heart's palette with the outer colours (means illusions and delusions of this world). However, these colours of illusion cannot provide us with that inner beauty in life, which we can imbibe by making our hearts pure and clean. Therefore, the need is to remove the dust particles of vicious tendencies and ignorance from our heart and make it clean. Because then this world will not be inside us. But, its image, reflecting inside, will give us happiness. This is indeed the art of detachment in the real sense, i.e. living in this world and enjoying the worldly pleasures, but not letting this world live inside the heart.