Who is more powerful, your Majesty?

Who is more powerful, your Majesty?

The Royal court of Krishnadevaraya was in full session..

As is usual in the world of timeservers, each courtier was exceeding his own best levels of sycophancy to heap praises on the supreme authority of the monarch.

The king was elated.. Finally, he declared,

“ Can anyone around here be more powerful than me?”.

“Your majesty, you are the supreme” piped in all the courtiers.

But the chorus was not unanimous.

The king looked around.

He noticed one shaven and tufted head not nodding in agreement..

The owner of the head was Tenali Ramakrishna.

The king was much irritated. “ Rama, don’t you agree?” hissed the monarch.

“ My, lord and Master, I am trying to persuade myself to agree with that statement heartily , but still there is some small doubt”

“ If you can find anyone more powerful then me who could openly challenge my authority, show him to me.. exhorted the great Raya.

“Give me a couple of days, sire’ Came the reply from Ramakrishna.

Two days later, Ramakrishna entered the Royal Court in full session, carrying with him cute little boy of six months.

The child was so beautiful, so bubbly, ever giggling and making inarticulate sweet noises.

All the courtiers, including the King could not help watching the baby and its pranks.

The Queen, who was present witnessing the proceedings could not help getting attracted to the infant. She came forward and took the child in her lap..

The infant, in its innocence, played with the Royal Lady and even dirtied her silk dress.. The motherly instinct of the queen came to the fore and she was cleaning the baby, instead of caring for the stately clothes she was wearing.

 The king also saw the child and was attracted by its utter innocence.

He did not hesitate to take the child in his hands and even kissed it.. In that process the Royal countenance was smeared with the saliva of the infant...

The baby was not afraid of the Royal appearance or the thick moustache of the monarch.. and even the swords and spears carried by the bodyguards around had no impact on the child..

Laughing gleefully, the child pulled at the long moustache of the king.. and strangely, the monarch was roaring with laughter and encouraging the boy.

Now, it was Ramakrishna’s turn to mumble. 

” Who is more powerful, your Majesty?”

Lack of Selfishness

09-12-2006

Lack of Selfishness


I would seem to put to this group something that is too personal and not relevant to the group at all. If you feel so, please ignore this.Today Our marriage completes 19 years. I do not propose to use this forum to send a message to my wife because she will never see this, and she is not interested in groups or in computer either. I just thought how a typical Iyer woman spends her life even today. It was no romantic or idyllic match for us, but a match more dependent on idlis and dosas. But she was absolutely faithful in spite of the eccentric fellow that I was, with ungodly duty hours. If I am to leave for work on a day at 3A.M., she would wake up at 2A.M and cook a small meal for me, and when I return home 24 or 48 hours later again at a time when only ghosts will walk along the road, she will be waiting for me. I am not an attractive or charismatic man, and by any standards an under-performer.( I often wonder she would have abandoned me had she not been a typical Brahmin Mami ). She is in fact more educated than me and she earns sufficiently for herself through her job. We have a boy of 18 years who is as bad a devil as me demanding too much from his mother. Silently and happily she does everything. What I wrote above are personal. But I feel her attitude in life has been shaped like this because she grew up in a Brahmin family in a typical agraharam where human relations count a lot and reading Dale Carnegie or Stephen Covey is not necessary to learn the basics of life, but the advise of an old grandmother or great grandmother is taken as the gospel truth.I write this as a tribute to every Brahmin woman who builds up her exclusive world around her little family and can make it a heaven or hell (God forbid!) by her actions. Sure, Brahmin life is very different from others even in these modern times. Whatever we learned for thousands of years cannot be unlearned in a few years of ultramodern life. We men will brag and debate on various issues but the rock-like platform is provided by our own faithful (if I may be permitted to say, faithful to a fault) females. Thanks.

It is now five years later.. but I have had no reason to change my views...rather they are reinforeced.  I am just republishing the above post...even without editing it for spelling mistakes if any. 08-01-2012   K V Ananathanarayanan

It is further eight  years later...  I have absolutely no reason to  change my views  in any way.. 
kvananthanarayanan