दक्षिणी मराठी खजाना

We know that King Janaka, even while performing ordinary worldly duties like ruling kingdom and looking after the needs of the kingdom, found it possible to turn his thoughts completely towards the divine. The great rishi Sukha was once teaching several things to his disciples in a forest quite close to Mithilapura. Janaka, hearing about this requested permission to attend the classes. Janaka became one of the students. One day when he did not arrive on time, Suka did not start his class and waited till he arrived. But the other disciples started murmuring amongst themselves. From that day, their faith in the Guru started weakening. They also became envious of King Janaka.

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As soon as Suka saw such envy and jealousy among his disciples, he decided to teach him a lesson. At an opportune moment, all the disciples were made to feel that the entire city of Mithila was in flames. Then each of them began to think of the consequences, of the effect it would have on their houses. They ran to the city, to salvage what they could. But King Janaka did not waver or move from his place. Suka told Janaka that the flames appear to have spread to the palace and he asked Janaka to go and save the inmates of the palace. Janaka was only smiling, thinking that God's will shall be done and no one can change it. The envious students who ran to the city found that there were no flames at all and it was only a make-believe. 

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They came back and reported this to Suka. They expressed surprise at the steady mind of Janaka. Suka looked at the disciples who were envious and told them it is better to have one disciplined student rather than many who have no stability of mind