Mulla Nasruddin's father was a keeper of a shrine,
The burial place of a saint which was a place of pilgrimage,
Attracting all kind of spiritual seekers.
Nasruddin was expected to inherit this position,
But when he turned 15 and was considered to be a man,
He decided to seek knowledge on his own.
I will not try to prevent you,
My son,
Said his father,
So Nasruddin saddled a donkey and set off on his travels.
On these long travels,
Nasruddin went through the lands of Persia,
The Tar Desert,
Samarkand and the Hindukush mountains,
Visiting renowned dervishes.
Nasruddin was struggling across the mountain ranges in Kashmir when his donkey suddenly laid down and died.
Nasruddin was overcome with grief,
For this was the only unfaithful companion of his journeys,
Which have covered a period of a decade.
Heartbroken,
He buried his friend and raised a simple mound over the grave.
There he remained in silent meditation,
The towering mountains above him and the rushing torrents below.
For very long people who were taking this mountain road observed this lonely figure dropping tears while serenely standing on a meditative pose beholding the fertile and deep valleys of Kashmir.
This must indeed be the grave of a holy man,
The travelers said to one another,
A man of great spiritual development if his disciple mourns him that way.
He has been here for many months and his grief shows no sign of abating.
Within those days a rich man passed and gave orders for a dome and a shrine to be erected on the spot.
Their pilgrims terraced the mountainside and planted crops whose produce went to the upkeep of the shrine.
The fame of the meditative mourning dervish spread until Nasruddin's father came to hear of it.
He at once set off on a pilgrimage to the sanctified spot.
When he saw Nasruddin,
He asked him in awe what had happened.
Nasruddin told him the whole story.
The old dervish raised his hands in amazement.
No,
O my son,
He exclaimed,
That the shrine where you were brought up and which you lately abandoned was raised in exactly the same manner by a similar chain of events.
When my own donkey died over 30 years ago.
