Copyright@shravancharitymission
By Kamlesh Tripathi
By Kamlesh Tripathi
Once upon a time there lived a king whose
daughter was very beautiful and intelligent. She often used to be present in
the king’s court for fierce discussions and debates with the king’s pundits and
scholars on various issues, where she often used to defeat them. The pundits
and scholars were quite embarrassed and upset because of this fact. Therefore, they
all were silently scheming and waiting for an opportunity when they could take
revenge of the insults in the court.
One
day the king summoned all his scholars and pundits in the court and requested
them to look for a suitable match for his daughter. At this request of the king
all of them were extremely happy for they all wanted to teach the king’s
daughter Rajkumari a lesson.
Soon
they all set out on the mission and after searching a lot they found a murkh (simpleton) whom they assured good
food, drinks and clothes provided he kept his mouth shut under any situation. Murkh initially got scared but then for
the sake of good food, drinks and clothes and that too without working he
decided to do whatever the Pundits and the scholars wanted him to do.
They
decked the murkh with clean and holy appearing
attire and presented him before the king as a Maha Pundit. King was happy to meet
him. But Rajkumari wanted to test his knowledge and wisdom and so was keen to
debate with him. The pundit and scholars therefore decided to call for a
question and answer session in the king’s court. The topic of the Q&A session
was ‘The reality of God.’ But since the Murkh
had vowed to keep a maun-vrat (a vow
to remain quiet) he could have spoken only in sign language.
When
the session commenced Rajkumari was in a dilemma. But after pondering for a few
moments she lifted her finger. Soon a scholar who was sitting behind the murkh pressed two of his fingers on the
back of the Murkh and the Murkh catching the simple hint lifted two
of his fingers. Rajkumari in response lifted three fingers when the Murkh raised four fingers when he was
hinted to do so.
With
some hesitation Rajkumari then lifted five fingers and responding to that the Murkh raised six fingers. Rajkumari in
response raised seven and in response the Murkh
raised eight. Again after some hesitation Rajkumari raised nine fingers in
response to which the Murkh raised
both his hands. The entire court sitting there was watching with great interest
the question and answer session.
Finally
Rajkumari raised both her hands, when the Murkh too raised both his hands but in
a cross position. By now Rajkumari had lost her patience and was stunned at the
mysterious ways in which the Murkh
was raising his fingers and now his hands. She said if this Maha Pundit is on maun-vrat, someone else, and
at least one out of you can kindly stand and tell us what he is trying to
convey in his sign language. Finally one scholar got up and said, ‘fine but
first you kindly tell us, what you meant by those fingers that you raised.’
‘Fine’ said the Rajkumari, ‘when I raised one finger I meant God. God is
one and he is omnipresent, but what did his two fingers mean.’ One scholar
said, ‘divyata (divinity) is always
present in two ways. Female and male, right and wrong, high and low, true and
false, work and worship, clear and unclear etc. etc. ‘Fine’ said the Rajkumari,
‘my three fingers meant three subtle components of life (three gunas or habits)—sat, rajas and tamas.
Three periods of time—past, present and the future. There are three kinds of lokas (worlds) in mythology—swarglok, (heaven) prithvi (Earth) and yamlok (Hell). There are three jobs to
be done by anyone and everyone in this world—create, execute and destroy.
One
scholar stood up and said, ‘in response to three four fingers were raised. It means there are four Vedas (religious
texts of Hindus)—Samved, Rigved, Yajurved
and Atharveda. There are four
directions—North, West, South and East. There are four stages of life—bachpan, (childhood)
jawani (youth) prodavastha (middle age) and vradavastha (old age). There are
four ashrams- bramcharya-ashram,
grahastha-ashram, vanprastha-ashram and sanyas-ashram.
Rajkumari was happy and impressed is when she accepted the logics and
said, ‘my five fingers meant five basic substances required for life—sky, air,
fire, water and earth. There are also five gyanendrias
(sense points) - eyes, nose, ears, tongue and relieving points (anus and
urination).
The
reply to that was with six fingers. Which meant, there are six hurdles on way
to acquiring Brahmagyan (complete
knowledge)-desire, grief, greed, hate, anger and arrogance. There are six threads
to happiness- courage, kindness, humility, perseverance, love and happiness.
‘O
my God! This Maha Pundit is really great.’ Rajkumari whispered to herself.
Meanwhile the entire king’s court had started praising the Maha Pundit. Rajkumari
sermonized, ‘my seven fingers signify the presence of divinity that is present in
the saptarishis (seven-rishis), the seven rivers, the seven seas, the seven
colours and are also present in the seven threads required to run this life.
Maha
pundit replied to seven fingers by raising eight because in Yog (meditation) there
are eight branches, there are eight kinds of assets and eight types of tribulations
and it depicts all these. Nine fingers meant- nine faces of God, nine faces of
mother, nine types of ratnas (precious substances) and nine vents of the human
body.
Pundit
further said, ‘ten fingers of his meant that god is complete. God is one. No
matter how many names, how many faces, how many divisions, but the divinity is
firm, supreme, it is one and supreme.
Rajkumari said, ‘one last question, when I raised my one hand why did he
cross both his hands and lift it?
Pundit said, ‘this is quite simple because he
wanted to continue with his puja and meditation and therefore he wanted to stop
the question and answer session.
Rajkumari
was now ready to marry him and the scholars and pundits were happy seeing their
revenge coming through. Soon they were married.
But when they met in isolation after
marriage, the intelligent Rajkumari quickly understood, just to take revenge
the scholars and the pundits had planned all this, and got her married to a murkh.
But Rajkumari without getting annoyed, and in a peaceful manner asked
her husband to go to the close by temple of Goddess Durga and pray, and when
Goddess is happy to ask for a vardan (blessing)
of knowledge and wisdom.
Without saying a word the murkh
husband went to the close by temple with a heavy heart but open mind and
started praying sincerely and in due course he got a vardan from Goddess Durga.
This
person was no one else but famous poet Kalidas of ancient times.
***
