The most beautiful child in Agra!

Once after a busy day at the court , the emperor's mind free at last began to wander and think about various topics not related to the court. His thoughts on this particular day revolved around his beloved grandson. Suddenly the emperor voiced his thoughts aloud “Prince Khurram is smart, endowed with good looks and is unmatched is his pleasing appearance. Certainly there can be no child as beautiful as he! I feel that he is the most beautiful child in Agra!” so declared emperor Akbar. The courtiers, knowing fully well how much the emperor liked his grandchild agreed in unison “Yes, Jahanpanah! Why Agra? Prince Khurram is the most beautiful child on earth!”. While Akbar looked contentedly at all his courtiers, his eyes fell on one courtier who unlike the others had remained silent. Madhao Das, stood there deep in thought. Akbar enquired “Birbal, why do you keep quiet? Do you not agree with me?”. Birbal as Madhao Das was known replied “I do not know Jahanpanah! Beauty is subjective! It is in the eye of the beholder as they say! I do not think you can quantitatively analyze beauty”. “What non-sense!” Akbar retorted! “Everyone can see a beautiful thing! All right let us hold a contest. Each  courtier will bring a child whom he thinks is beautiful. Then we shall see if there is any child who is more beautiful than my Khurram!”

The next day every courtier brought a child with him! Akbar examined each child but found some defect or the other with each one of them. To one child, he said the nose was too long. Another child he felt was too dark. Yet another had slight squint in the eyes. At the end of his analysis, he declared “There, I think we can now safely say that Khurram is far more beautiful than any of these children.What say you, Birbal?” he asked. “Jahanpanah, I have heard of this child who is supposedly the most beautiful child in Agra! I need some time to locate him! Once I do so, I will show him to Jahanpanah”. Akbar angrily agreed to Birbal’s request.

A few days later Birbal declared that he had found the child in question. He said “Jahanpanah, the mother refuses to let the child out of her sight. We have to go to the child’s dwelling in disguise and marvel at it’s beauty!”. Akbar agreed, and grudgingly accompanied Birbal and a couple of courtiers. They were all disguised as commoners. After walking a long distance, they reached a shady area of Agra. There were muddy roads, gloomy looking huts were present everywhere. Then they arrived at a drab looking shanty. In front of the hut was playing a child which was extremely dirty and hence was quite unpleasant to look at! “There Jahanpanah, is the most beautiful child in Agra” declared Birbal! Even as Akbar looked on in shock, the child stumbled and fell.The moment the mother heard it’s cry she ran outside and started caressing the child. “There, there! Who has hurt my moon so! I will punish this earth far hurting my beautiful child!”.  Akbar, who was aghast immediately blurted out “How could she caress such an ugly child!”. Unfortunately, the mother heard what was said and she flew into a rage! “Who called my child ugly? You must be either blind or quite mad to call my child ugly!Go and look all over Agra! You will not find a more beautiful child! Now get out of here, before I  decide to flog you!” . Akbar and his courtiers beat a hasty retreat! Akbar then admitted “Birbal, you were right all along! Beauty is subjective! Each child appears most beautiful to it’s parent or grandparent!”.

The moral of this funny and interesting story is, that the closer you are in relation to a person, the more beautiful you appear to that person.  But if you observe closely, it’s not just physical beauty. There is a greater trait called inner beauty, which determines the goodness of a person. Even this inner beauty is directly proportional to your relationship to that person. Allow me to explain with a few examples.

Duryodhana was wicked, and yet Drutharaashtra was partial to him. Though he was fond of his brother Pandu’s sons, yet his love for Duryodhana was much greater. So angry was he, that he infact set out to crush Bhima feigning to hug him affectionately. His rage was so great at that instant that he destroyed the iron statue that was placed before him instead of Bhima by Lord Krishna. Gandhari forgot all about the fact that it was Duryodhana’s fault that had caused the great Mahabharata war and inturn the death of all the Kauravas and countless other warriors! When she the corpses of her sons, unable to bear the grief, she blamed Lord Krishna for this terrible war and she cursed him and his entire race. She cursed that the entire Yaadava race would be destroyed in another 36 years. And so it came to be. The glorious Yaadava race where the supreme Lord himself was born along with the fabulous island paradise of Dwaraka was destroyed.

Because Bimbisaara felt Ajathashatru was filled with inner beauty, he failed to see the wicked ambition that his son possessed.  One failed attempt at trying to usurp the throne also did not change his opinion of Ajathashatru. Ultimately Bimbisaara was imprisoned by Ajathashatru, and died in prison!

When I say relationship, it need not necessarily mean kinship. It could also be that, if you are in love with a person, you fail to see any of their faults. Too often have we heard stories of a person committing crime under the influence of someone he/she loves! To see plenty of such fictional examples you could read Agatha Christie.

What Birbal showed here is yet another of those eternal truths. It cannot be avoided. Only a few rare, noble souls are around, who would rise above this distinction of you and me and would treat all alike. I am glad to say that in my journey called life, I have met several such people, who have accepted me for who I am, who believe in me and who have treated me as one of their own. I verily consider it the blessing of Samartha Sadguru Sainath that I have made the acquaintance of such great souls. They have stood by me in the best of times and in the worst of times! Thank you all my friends :)