King Vikramaditya rushed after the flying Betal and reached the peepal tree. He found the Betal there again inside the corpse, which was hanging upside down. Vikramaditya, though tired from its repeated escapes, was not deterred from his chosen path. He hoisted the corpse onto his shoulder and began walking.
Seeing Vikramaditya walking quietly, Betal said, “Vikram I’m going to tell you a very good story. Listen carefully.”
The king didn’t answer him. However, Betal began his story.
Once upon a time in the city of Patliputra, there lived a devout Brahmin named Ved Prakash Pandey. The Brahmin lived his life piously and spent a couple of hours every day meditating on the creator. He had no grudge with his life except that he was childless. In his everyday prayers, he would complain to God about his misfortune. Then one day, his voice reached heaven, and his much-cherished wish was fulfilled. The Brahmin’s wife gave birth to a cute baby boy. The Brahmin thanked the Almighty for the joy of fatherhood bestowed upon him. The child began growing in the loving care of his parents.
He was taught the greatest values of life and was provided with the best available education. The wonderful upbringing of the child gradually developed him into a fine youth. At a very young age, he had acquired supreme knowledge of the Vedas and Puranas. The Brahmin couple felt proud to see their capable son and offered their gratitude to God for giving them such a nice son.
But destiny had something else in store for the Brahmin couple. One day, the boy fell ill. Gradually, the casual illness took a serious turn. The Brahmin consulted all the good physicians of the region, but nothing could really work. Leaving his parents in despair, the boy passed away. The Brahmin couple was shattered; they could not believe that their only son had left them forever. In their gloom, they cried and wailed before their son’s dead body for hours. Even after reaching the cremation ground, the Brahmin was crying inconsolably. He was desperate and unable to believe that he would never see his loving son again.
A little away from the cremation place, an old sage was meditating under a tree. The crying, pleading, and wailing of the Brahmin broke his concentration and caught his attention. He walked up to them and found a handsome young boy’s body lying on the pyre. The sage gazed at the boy’s father, who was still crying bitterly. A thought flashed in the mind of the old sage: “Why shouldn’t I leave my own body and enter the boy’s body?”
Liking this thought, he returned to the tree. There, he wept for a while and then laughed heartily. After doing so, he willingly abandoned his old body and entered the body of the young boy. The boy rose up from the pyre at once. The Brahmin’s joy knew no bounds. He hugged his son passionately and thanked God for returning his son’s life. The tragedy turned into jubilance. The gathered people returned happily to their homes, wondering about the grace of the Almighty.
Betal ended his story here and asked, “Vikram, tell me why did the sage behave so strangely? He wept first and then laughed. What’s the meaning of such acts? You must answer my question if you want to keep your head intact.”
Dear readers, pause for a moment to try finding an appropriate answer to this riddle before checking it with King Vikramaditya’s reply🙏.
The king replied, “The sage cried first because he was leaving the body he had inhabited for such a long time. He felt sad about that. But when he thought about acquiring a young, handsome body after leaving his old and weak one, he felt happy and so he laughed.”
“Absolutely right!” exclaimed the ghost Betal. “Your answer is correct. But you broke the silence, and for that, I’ll have to go.” Saying so, the mischievous Betal flew away from there, while the king ran after him, chasing desperately.
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