Three wishes of Alexander the Great

On his way to Macedonia from conquering many countries,Alexander the Great succumbed to illness. At that moment he captured vast territories, amassed stupendous amount of wealth and power. He realized that death was close and he would be unable to reach his homeland. He called over his close generals and said: "I will soon leave this world. I have three final wishes. You should carry out what I tell you." Although there is controversy about whether these three wishes have any historical authenticity or not but certainly they have philosophical values.

The three wishes were:

• First wish: "My physicians alone must carry my coffin."
• Second wish: "When my coffin is being carried to the grave, the path leading to the graveyard be strewn with gold, silver and precious stones which I have collected in my treasury"
• Third wish: "Both my hands be kept dangling out of my coffin"

The generals were perplexed with these strange wishes of their master. They asked: "My Majesty, we will follow your instruction. But can you please tell us why you want to do it this way?"
Alexander said:

• "I want my physicians to carry my coffin because people should realize that No doctor on this earth can really cure anybody. They are powerless and cannot save a person from the clutches of death. So let not people take life for granted.
• "The second wish of strewing gold, silver and other riches on the path to the graveyard is to tell people that not even a fraction of gold will come with me. I spent all my life with the greed for power, earning riches but cannot take anything with me. Let people realize that it is a sheer waste of time to chase wealth".
• "And about my third wish of having my hands dangling out of the coffin, I wish my people to know that I came empty handed into this world and empty handed I go out of this world”. With these words, the king closed his eyes and breathed his last.

The moral

"EMPTY HANDED WE CAME INTO THIS WORLD AND EMPTY HANDED WE WILL GO FROM HERE."