The woman who used to clean the queen's latrine in the palace was sick one day, so she asked her husband, who was also a scavenger, to do the job for her. When he went to the palace, he was admitted through the back door so that he could the basket of night soil from under the queen's latrine hole. When he went to the place under the latrine from where he could remove the basket, the queen was sitting on the seat. He looked up and caught a glimpse of her inner thigh. It was smooth as silk, fair and soft as a jasmine petal. With just one glimpse of it, the scavenger was infatuated with the queen. He began to imagine how beautiful the rest of her might be. Even while he trudged home, his mind was with that inch of the queen's thigh. He was so obsessed with her; he could neither eat nor sleep. When his wife asked him what the matter was and why he was mooning that way, he slowly confessed to his obsession. He wanted the queen for himself.
'O God! How can you get the queen? You, a mere scavenger! If you had wanted any other woman, we might have tried. But the queen herself- Forget it! Ordinary people can't even get a glimpse of her', said his wife, and tried to distract him from his obsessive vision of the queen's thigh. But she didn't succeed. His thoughts went round and round and round and round around the same thing, and he was all wound up in them.
He began to act crazy, didn't change his clothes, didn't eat or sleep, and finally left home and became a wanderer. One day, when he was sitting under a banyan tree, thinking of nothing else but the queen's thigh, her beauty, some villagers gathered around him.They had been watching him for days sitting in this meditative state, without food or sleep, without a word or even a movement. It fitted their idea of a sage, and they began to take care of him, brought him offerings, food, clothes, to most of which he was quite indifferent. His indifference only convinced them of his holiness. He didn't even seem to notice the crowds of devotees and disciples who gathered around him.
Within the month he had become a celebrity, and his fame spread all over the country. The queen too heard about him and wished to visit the holy man. She came with her retinue and stood before him. She prostrated herself before him, touched his feet, placed offerings in front of him. He didn't so much as look at her. He didn't know who she was and didn't even ask. It mattered not at all to him.
So intense was his desire that it had moved him to a state where he had no desire at all.
(An Oriya Folktale- Taken from FOLKTALES FROM INDIA by A.K. Ramanujan)
'O God! How can you get the queen? You, a mere scavenger! If you had wanted any other woman, we might have tried. But the queen herself- Forget it! Ordinary people can't even get a glimpse of her', said his wife, and tried to distract him from his obsessive vision of the queen's thigh. But she didn't succeed. His thoughts went round and round and round and round around the same thing, and he was all wound up in them.
He began to act crazy, didn't change his clothes, didn't eat or sleep, and finally left home and became a wanderer. One day, when he was sitting under a banyan tree, thinking of nothing else but the queen's thigh, her beauty, some villagers gathered around him.They had been watching him for days sitting in this meditative state, without food or sleep, without a word or even a movement. It fitted their idea of a sage, and they began to take care of him, brought him offerings, food, clothes, to most of which he was quite indifferent. His indifference only convinced them of his holiness. He didn't even seem to notice the crowds of devotees and disciples who gathered around him.
Within the month he had become a celebrity, and his fame spread all over the country. The queen too heard about him and wished to visit the holy man. She came with her retinue and stood before him. She prostrated herself before him, touched his feet, placed offerings in front of him. He didn't so much as look at her. He didn't know who she was and didn't even ask. It mattered not at all to him.
So intense was his desire that it had moved him to a state where he had no desire at all.
(An Oriya Folktale- Taken from FOLKTALES FROM INDIA by A.K. Ramanujan)
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