Tenaliram used to use his brain every time to do such a thing that Maharaja Krishnadev of Vijay Nagar used to be stunned. This time, with a trick, he forced the king to reconsider his decision.
It so happened that once King Krishnadev went to Kashmir for some work. There he saw a golden flower blooming. Maharaj liked that flower so much that he brought a plant of it with him while returning to his kingdom Vijaynagar.
As soon as he reached the palace, he called the gardener. As soon as the gardener came, Maharaj said to him, “Look! Planting this plant in our garden at such a place that I can see it everyday from my room. It will bloom with golden colored flowers, which I like very much. Take good care of this plant. If anything happens to it, you can get life sentence.
The gardener nodded and took the sapling from the king and planted it in a place visible from his room. The gardener used to take care of that flower day and night. As the days passed, golden flowers started blooming in it. Every day as soon as the king got up, he used to see him first and then used to go to the court. If someday the king had to go out of the palace, he would feel sad because of not seeing that flower.
One day when the king came to his window to see that flower in the morning, he did not see that flower at all. Then he called the gardener.
Maharaj asked the gardener, “Where was that plant. Why can’t I see its flowers.
In response the gardener said, “Sir! It was eaten by my goat yesterday evening.
On hearing this, his anger reached the seventh heaven. He directly ordered Rajmali to be sentenced to death after two days. Then soldiers came there and put him in jail.
As soon as the gardener’s wife came to know about this, she went to the court to complain to the king. In anger, Maharaj did not listen to a single word of him. She started leaving the court crying. Only then a person advised him to meet Tenaliram.
Weeping, the gardener’s wife told Tenaliram about her husband’s death sentence and the golden flower. After listening to all his words, Tenaliram sent him home after persuading him.
The next day, in anger, the gardener’s wife takes the goat that ate the golden flower to the crossroads and starts beating it with a stick. While doing this, the goat became half-dead. This kind of treatment of animals was forbidden in the Vijayanagara state. This was considered cruel, so some people complained about this act of the gardener’s wife to the city police officer.
After knowing the whole matter, the constables of the Nagar Kotwal came to know that she was doing all this in anger because of the punishment given to the gardener. Knowing this, the soldiers took the matter to the court.
Maharaj Krishnaraj asked how can you behave so badly with an animal?
“Such a goat because of which my whole house is going to be destroyed. I am going to be a widow and my children are going to be orphans, how should I treat that goat, Maharaj, replied the gardener’s wife.
King Krishnaraj said, “I could not understand the meaning of your words. How can this dumb animal destroy your house?
He told, “Sir! This is the same goat that ate your golden plant. Because of this you have sentenced my husband to death. The fault was of this goat, but my husband is being punished. Punishment should actually be given to this goat, so I was beating it with a stick.
Now Maharaj understood that the mistake was not of the gardener, but of the goat. As soon as he understood this, he asked the gardener’s wife that how did you get so much intelligence that you could explain my mistake in this way. He said that Maharaj, I could not think of anything except crying. All this has been explained to me by Pandit Tenaliram ji.
Once again King Krishnaraya felt proud of Tenaliram and said that Tenaliram you once again stopped me from making a big mistake. As soon as he said this, Maharaj ordered to release the gardener from jail, withdrawing the death sentence. At the same time, fifty thousand gold coins were given as a gift to Tenaliram for his intelligence.
learn from the story
Never give up ahead of time. Even the biggest of problems can be solved by trying.
