Tuesday, January 19, 2016

The Irreverent Devotee

Once during the festival of Navratri, Tenali Raman prayed to Goddess Kali seeking her revelations. Pleased by his devotion, the Goddess appeared before Tenali.

The Goddess Kali appeared ferocious and terrifying. She had ten faces and protruding red tongue. The Goddess was full of terrifying vigour and yelled, "Speak your desire!"

Tenali was awed. He was about to prostrate before the Goddess of defying evil when a silly thought stuck him and he took a look at the Goddess again and suddenly burst into a loud laughter.

The Goddess was stuck by Tenali's reaction and thundered, "Why are you laughing mortal?"

Rama stood up and replied in a humble polite tone "O divine Mother, I have only nose, and when I have cold I tend to struggle so much with it. I wonder how hard it might be for you, if you caught cold with these ten noses! Alas, must be so difficult!"

Hearing Tenali, Goddess pacified and her ferocious appearance melted into a pleasing one. She virtually smiled, pleased by Tenali's ready sense of humour and then held out two crucibles of nectar to him.

She said, "Here are two crucibles f nectar - one of them is the nectar of wealth, the other is the nectar of wisdom. I offer you to choose one from either of them".

Rama was quick witted and immediately dipped his fingers in both crucibles. The goddess blessed him and disappeared.

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