JOIN USLife is certainly stranger than fiction. Yet if we decide to go with the flow of life after overcoming the initial shock, it will not only make life easier for us, but will also make life more bearable to our loved ones.
Sage Dhaumya narrates the story of Maharishi Chyavana and his spouse Sukanya to the exiled Pandavas and their consort Draupadi to help them understand the unpredictable aspects of life. Once, king Sharyathi went on a picnic with his royal family. Sukanya, the young princess wandered away from the group. She was attracted to an anthill. When she got closer, she noticed two shiny spots which seemed to be within the ant hill.
The little lass felt tempted to tease out the glittery worms from their position. She scouted for a long sharp twig and began digging into the spot. What began as a fun exercise, horrified her as she noticed blood oozing out from the anthill, punctuated with agonizing cry of a human being.
The royal family rallied around her after they heard her hysterical shrieks. The king immediately knocked off chunks of the anthill steadily and gently. He was shaken when he saw an old and wizened sage bleeding in the eyes. Young Sukanya realised that she had inadvertently poked the gleaming eyes of sage, mistaking them to be glow worms.
The king and his entourage apologised profusely. The king offered his daughter Sukanya in marriage to the sage to make amends for the damage rendered to his eyes. The princess had no choice but to accept the blind sage as her groom to assuage her guilt and also to uphold her father’s respectability.
Though Sukanya’s marital life began as a compromise over bizarre inequalities, she accepted her new station in life. She took her role as the dutiful and loving wife seriously. She surmounted many more trials, but that is another story. Her intrinsic values and determination to make the best out of the given situation transformed her into a worthy role model. Life sometimes has the penchant to take us through unimaginable paths. At such times it will be in our best interests to remember that if life gives us a lemon, we must make lemonade out of it!