An Indian Folktale
There was a woman who worked for the queen. The queen trusted her very much.
While sweeping the queen’s room, some-times the woman found pearls or gold beads which could have fallen from the queen’s several neck-laces and other jewellery. She faithfully restored them to the queen. The queen was so pleased with her that she let her keep a few such precious things for herself.
The woman’s little son lived at his maternal uncle’s house in a distant village. It was because the uncle was a teacher and a number of boys lived with him for their education.
One day the boy returned to his parents. At night he saw the pearls and the gold beads his mother had stored. “How beautiful these are!” he exclaimed, handling those glittering objects.
“They are beautiful. But, my son, only if you see the queen adorned with similar and more precious things, you’ll know what true beauty is,” commented the boy’s mother. “She is the most beautiful of anything I’ve known.”
The boy fell silent and appeared absorbed in some thought…
The boy went missing in the morning. The anxious parents began looking for him. Neighbours also cooperated with them in their search of the boy. But he was not to be found.
Years later the mother received a message from her lost son:
“Mother, I had heard from my uncle that the sun, the moon, the stars, the sky, were all ornaments of the Divine. Your statement that while the ornaments were beautiful, the queen who put them on was much more beautiful, suddenly inspired in me a different urge. The sun, the moon, the stars are so beautiful. How magnificent must be the Divine whom they adorn! I went out in search of That. You will be happy to learn that I have found That. The Divine is so magnificent that words cannot describe its charm.”
The mother wept, but she was also happy that her son had achieved what only few could.