A Grand Wish

There was a Brahmin. He used to worship a certain goddess regularly. Once the goddess was so pleased with his devotion, that she asked him to seek a boon. The Brahmin was an innocent man. He said, “Mother! Please allow me two days’ time, I will think and then ask for the boon.” The goddess agreed.

Now the Brahmin consulted his wife. They had no son. So she suggested asking for a son. The Brahmin said that my mother is blind and she says that I should ask for her sight. Hearing this, the wife said angrily, “Are you mad? Just think, how long the old lady is going to live! She is to die soon. Even if she gets sight, she will not live long. But if we did not get a son, we will die without an heir. You better don’t listen to the old lady and ask for a son only. We need a son in our house.” Then the Brahmin consulted his father. He advised, “My son, we are paupers and are starving. If you get a son, that will not solve the problem of our poverty. So you better ask the goddess for money, so that we should overcome our poverty.” The Brahmin was all the more perplexed. He thought and thought but could not decide as to whose advise he should accept. Pleasing of the goddess had become a problem for him.

Engrossed in these thoughts, he went to take bath in a river. Before entering the river for bath, he sat at the bank of the river and was contemplating deeply. He was thinking whom to please and whom to displease. Per chance a wise friend of him, a shrewd businessman, came there. Seeing him so worried, he asked the reason. The innocent Brahmin narrated the whole story. How the goddess got pleased and asked him to seek a boon and what were the views of his wife and parents. His friend heard him patiently and understanding everything in detail, he laughed loudly and said, “You are a fool. Why don’t you ask the mother goddess that ‘My mother wants to see her grandson drinking milk in a golden cup.” The Brahmin got the point and was much pleased. He then eagerly waited for the appointed time when the goddess was to appear before him.” When the goddess appeared before him and asked him, “Now tell me, what boon would you like to have?” The Brahmin repeated the same sentence that his friend had suggested him. The goddess smiled and said, “Be it so.”

Just in one grand wish, the brahmin had solved all his problems.