Once the queen of ‘Anglo’ country went to bathe in the lake with her maids, she put her clothes and jewellery on a high place. The queen’s maid saw that a bird flew away carrying the queen’s necklace made of priceless gems. Hearing this, the queen and maids came out of the water, but by then the bird had gone away. When the king heard this news, the queen was disappointed and said, ‘Rajan! That necklace seemed more dear to me than life, if that necklace isn’t found, I’ll probably loose my life.” Hearing this, the king explained a lot to the queen, but the queen didn’t agree, the king announced, whoever finds my queen’s necklace, will be made an officer of half of the kingdom.’ On hearing this announcement, out of greed, every person in the city left all the work and went out to find the necklace. A woodcutter living in the same city was carrying wood from the forest. To take rest, he sat down under a tree on the bank of a pond which was filled with water from a filthy drain coming from the city. Suddenly his eyes fell on the queen’s priceless necklace shining in the pond, just by imagining half of the king’s kingdom, the woodcutter’s mind began to shake after seeing the necklace. Without caring about anything, he jumped into the pond full of mud and similar stuff with a great joy. Even after searching a lot, when he failed, came back tired to the bank of the pond and began to grieve that I must have dreamt. He was only thinking that the water of the pond became stagnant. That necklace started appearing again. He immediately jumped into the pond again. A person was watching all this, started asking the woodcutter the reason for his behavior. As soon as he came to know, he also jumped into the mud-filled pond in search of the necklace. Slowly this news spread in the city. The one who heard it left all the work and went out to find the necklace. The king also jumped inside the pond to save half of his kingdom from being lost. It is rightly said that Lobhanvitah Kim Na Karoti-Kilviyam means what is such a step which a covetous person does not do. By the will of God, a Saint came there and seeing this strange situation there, started asking the king and the subjects, “Hey brother! which holy pilgrimage is this? What is the auspicious festival today that everyone is taking a bath? I have done many pilgrimages, but this pilgrimage seems to be something new”. The king replied politely, “Lord! this isn’t a place of pilgrimage, nor is there any festival today. The necklace of my queen has fallen in it, which has been shown here in the pond, but isn’t being found.
Sri B V Vishnu Maharaj