Who's a great man?

"Who's a great man — he who gives up the world and becomes a saint or he who lives in this world as a house holder?". A king had this big question on his mind. He inquired all the wise men who came to his country but none could convince the king. At last there came a young man and the king asked him the same question.

Young man answered, "O King, each is equally great in his place."

King said : "Prove this to me" to which the man replied : "I will prove it to you, but you must first come and live as I do for a few days"

The king consented and followed the man out of his own territory. They passed through many other countries until they came to a great kingdom. In the capital of that kingdom a great ceremony was going on. The princess of that country was about to perform 'swayamvara' (choose a husband from among those assembled before her). All the princes of the neighbourhood put on their bravest attire and presented themselves before her. 

She was the most beautiful princess in the world and the husband of the princess would be ruler of the kingdom after her father's death. But she did not seem to care for anyone and everyone became disappointed that this ceremony was going to be a failure. Just then came a handsome, young saint. He stood in one corner of the assembly, watching what was going on. The princess came near him and as soon as she saw this handsome saint, she stopped and threw the garland over him. 

The young saint threw it off, exclaiming, "What nonsense is this? I am a saint. What is marriage to me?" . The king of that country thinking, he could convince the saint by telling him the amount of wealth he's going to incur, told the saint: "With my daughter goes half my kingdom now and the whole kingdom after my death!" and put the garland again on the saint. The saint threw it off once more shouting, "Nonsense!" and walked quickly away from the assembly. Now the princess had fallen so much in love with this young man that she said she must marry this man or she shall die. She went after him to bring him back. 

Then, our wise man who had brought the king to the ceremony told King - "King, let us follow this pair" and walked after them. The young saint who refused to marry the princess, disappeared into a forest, as he knew the forest very well. The princess who was following him could not find him and also lost her way out. She started crying. Our king and the wise man came up to her and said, "Do not weep; we will show you the way out of this forest, but it is too dark for us to find it now. Here is a big tree; let us rest under it and in the morning we will go early and show you the road."

A little bird, with his wife and their three little ones lived on that tree, in a nest. This little bird looked down and saw three people under the tree and said to his wife, "Here are some guests in the house, it is winter, and we have no fire". He then flew away and got a bit of burning firewood in his beak and dropped it before the 'guests', to which they added fuel and made a blazing fire. But the little bird was not satisfied. Now he was worried that there is nothing to give these people to eat and they are hungry. He told his wife: " We are householders; it is our duty to feed anyone who comes to our house. I must do what I can, I will give them my body." Saying this, he plunged into the midst of the fire and perished. The guests saw him falling and tried to save him, but he was too quick for them.

The little bird's wife saw what her husband did and she said, " Here are three persons and only one little bird for them to eat is not enough; it is my duty as a wife not to let my husband's effort go in vain; let them have my body also ". Then she fell into the fire and was burned to death. Then the three baby birds, when they saw what their parents have done, said, " Our parents have done what they could and still it is not enough. It is our duty to carry on the work of our parents; let our bodies go too" They too dashed down into the fire.

Amazed at what they saw, the three people could not ofcourse eat these birds. They passed the night without food and in the morning the king and the young man showed the princess the way and she went back to her father.

Then the young man turned towards the king and said "King, you have seen that each is great in his own place. If you want to live in the world, live like those birds, ready at any moment to sacrifice yourself for others. If you want to renounce the world, be like that young man to whom the most beautiful woman, a kingdom and immense wealth were nothing. If you want to be a householder, hold your life a sacrifice for the welfare of others and if you choose the life of renunciation, do not even look at beauty and money and power. Each is great in his own place, but the duty of the one is not the duty of the other"

[Extracted from Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda - Volume 1 / Karma Yoga / CHAPTER II : EACH IS GREAT IN HIS OWN PLACE]