One of the greatest quotes – and its misinterpretation

Credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/567101778051494831/

One of my favourite quotes is from the film Kingdom of Heaven. It is said by King Baldwin IV of Jerusalem to Balian of Ibelin when the latter comes to Jerusalem and meets the King for the first time.

“A king may move a man, a father may claim a son, but that man can also move himself, and only then does that man truly begin his own game. Remember that howsoever you are played or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone, even though those who presume to play you be kings or men of power. When you stand before God, you cannot say, ‘But I was told by others to do thus,’ or that virtue was not convenient at the time. This will not suffice. Remember that.”

King Baldwin, despite his young age and illness (he suffered from leprosy), was a good man and a wise ruler – not just in the film, but in the real life as well. He did everything to save his people and his kingdom which was dying in its last days – everything he could and considered to be right.

There’s a Buddhist tale about a Buddhist monk who was sailing on a ship when the crew found treasures – gold, jewellery, diamonds and other gems, floating in the sea. They got them on the board. The mind of one sailor was poisoned by the treasure and he planned to kill the others so that he could keep everything. The monk, however, saw his intentions and killed him. By killing this one man not only he saved the other crewmen’s life, but he also saved that one sailor by taking over his sin and punishment for murdering.

Did the Buddhist monk think that murdering someone is right? Obviously not – he knew that he would become guilty and that he would have to serve the punishment. But he considered his own life, fortune and fate to be less important than that of the sailor. In the end, he did good – a “greater good” –, despite committing a sin.

To say something is “for the greater good” is very difficult and dangerous. Who has the right to decide on what that “greater good” is? Who knows the outcome of our actions? In some certain cases, however, there indeed is a “greater good” – just as there was in Kingdom of Heaven.

When the King asked Balian of Ibelin to “eliminate” Guy de Lusignan and marry Lusignan’s widow, the King’s sister, Princess Sybilla of Jerusalem, he did this keeping in mind this “greater good”. He wanted to save his kingdom. Balian, citing the King’s words, refused to murder Guy de Lusignan and the chance to be the new king of the Holy Land.

When I watched the film for the first time I thought Balian was right and that this decision shows how a good and true person he was – he resisted the call of wealth and power, the call of Jerusalem’s crown, and he remained “pure”. Now I think he was wrong. He was merely selfish: he didn’t care about Jerusalem, he only tried to save his own soul and disclaimed responsibility for the kingdom and for Princess Sybilla. Or – in the light of his role as the captain of Jerusalem during the Muslim siege – let’s say he valued his own soul more than the Kingdom of Jerusalem and the life of her subjects. On the other hand, this scene highlights another person’s character, greatness and true personality – the King’s. He wanted to save his kingdom and in order to do this, he wouldn’t mind to “say in front of God that virtue was not convenient at the time” – and, after Balian said no, even though he knew that this meant the end of Jerusalem, he didn’t force him to do something against his will.

Alla

Edit: please see this post for my reply to one of the comments.