Kalidasa reached the village after travelling through the forest. While he was looking around for water to quench his thirst, he spotted an old woman who was drawing water from the well.
He went up to the old woman and asked her for water as he was thirsty. She agreed but her condition was, that hold he introduced himself to her.
Kalidasa was knowledgeable and a great scholar of his time. People knew him but he felt it was not important for an ordinary old woman to know about him. According to him, it was worthless to himself to her.
But as per the condition, he went ahead and told her that he was a traveler. The old woman instantly disagreed with him. In her knowledge, only the Sun and the Moon were two travelers, who keep travelling constantly. Because she did not agree with the answer he was asked the same question. By now Kalidasa was extremely thirsty and requested her to just treat him as a guest.
Well, even this time around she disagreed and said you cannot be a guest too. The only two guests she can think of, are youth and wealth. Both are temporary and refuse to stay even if you plead with them a million times.
So for the old lady, Kalidasa was neither a traveler nor a guest.
She pressed upon the same question and with not much of an interest, he replied that he was a tolerant person. Kalidasa was sure that this time the old lady would agree to his answer and give him water but to his surprise, she disagreed. For her, no one was more tolerant than the Earth and the trees, and this is easily agreeable because no matter how much you stamp or pelt the trees, they don’t fail to nurture us.
Kalidasa had to face the same question once again and he had no option but to answer it patiently. But his thirst made him irritable. Kalidasa called himself a stubborn man. As expected the old lady disagreed with this too. She very politely told him, son, you are not stubborn too. She explained to him that the absolutely two stubborn personalities whom she can think of are our nails and hair. During our life span, we keep cutting them but they continue to grow back. So who else can be more stubborn than them?
Kalidasa had become very furious by now and to get rid of this question and answer round, he called himself the biggest fool. To this, the old lady smiled and said that the only two fools she can think of is the King who rules without having any capability or knowledge and a Minister who is a sycophant to such a king who showers useless praises on the King. The old lady wanted to know out of the two which fool is Kalidasa.
After all the disagreements, Kalidasa realized that he had been outsmarted by the old lady. He fell at her feet and apologised and begged forgiveness for being such an ignorant man who thought that he knew everything about himself.
He was extremely ashamed of his ignorance and was awestruck of the humility of the old lady. Kalidasa touched her feet and when he got up he understood that she was Mata Saraswati, Goddess of Knowledge and Wisdom. She came to make him realize what he perceived about himself was not completely right. He was wise but to become a good human being it is important to be humble. His ego of knowing it all had overpowered his achievements. His education was buried under arrogance. Mata Sarawati wanted to show him his real side so she appeared as an old lady.
A true human being is not one who has too much knowledge but someone who is humble. No education or intellect is of use if we are overpowered by our ego.
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