Moral story in English: Words Came True
Many years ago there was a very powerful king by name of Bhujangsen. There was a great scholar in his court. The scholar used to teach the king different philosophies. Once he chanted a shloka to the king.
No meal without ghee
No sleep without wakefulness
No guest without welcome
No woman without control
The king thought, “Let me check if this ‘shloka’ is true. Let me examine the words.”
The king asked for a meal without ghee. He could not eat even two bites. It meant that the first line of the ‘shloka’ was correct.
To test the second line, he decided not to sleep one night. He kept awake. He heard a woman crying. He immediately told his security guard to bring the crying woman to him. She was a poor woman who lived in a hut nearby. The king asked her why she was crying.
She said, “Sire, I am the Goddess of Wealth. You are going to die of snake bite in four days. I am very happy living in your ideal kingdom. But I do not know how I will cope and what will happen to me after you die. I am crying because of this worry.”
The king realized that he had kept awake because of the words of the scholar, and that was why he had come to know about his death. It meant that the words of the scholar were true.
Now, the king became sure that he was going to die of snake bite. He found a solution to that. The third line of the ‘shloka’ said that whoever comes to your house, you must welcome him. So he decorated his palace. He put the garden in proper shape. He decorated the bed with flowers. He sprayed perfume everywhere. He poured milk in a glass of gold. He added sugar to it. He waited for the guest to come. Four days went by. A snake came to bite the king. The king was waiting for it. When he saw the snake coming, he stood in front of him greeting it.
Snake was very pleased when he saw the welcome. It said, “I have come to take your life but you are still welcoming me. You are great. I am pleased with you. I will grant you a wish.”
King said, “I do not understand the language of birds and animals. Please give that knowledge to me.”
The snake said, “You will get this knowledge. I will grant your wish. But remember, you have to keep the knowledge to yourself. If you pass it on to anyone else, you will die.”
The king promised to keep the knowledge to himself. He obtained the knowledge immediately. The snake went away.
The third line of the ‘shloka’ came true.
When the queen heard that the king knew the language of the birds and animals, she asked the king to teach it to her. The king declined. But the queen was adamant. She stopped eating and went on a fast. She threw a tantrum.
The king said to her, “Prepare a funeral pyre. Light it. I will sit on it and then I will pass on the knowledge to you.”
The queen was mad. She wanted to gain the knowledge anyhow. The people of the kingdom were miserable because the king was going to die.
At that moment, the king remembered the fourth line of the ‘shloka’. You must keep your woman under control. She must be punished. The king immediately asked for a cane and punished the queen by caning her.
The queen came to earth. She apologized to the king. She said, “Sire, please do not hit me. I will not throw tantrums ever again.”
The king forgave and stopped caning her. The people of the kingdom were ecstatic because the king was alive. They celebrated.
The king realized that the fourth line of the ‘shloka’ was also true. He called the scholar Brahmin. He praised his knowledge and gave him award of Rs 1 lac.
The moral of the story is that whatever knowledge we have gained, we should test it on our own experience.
Web article: Moral story in English, Words Came True
