Once there was a beautiful girl called Parvati. She was an innocent effervescent being who loved playing in the mango orchards all day with her friends.
Rabbits, koyals and monkeys were her friends. She talked little with her human companions and more with the trees, clouds and animals.
One day an old fakir was passing through the village, he saw the little girl in a deep and animated conversation with a mango tree. It made him smile instantaneously. The girl reminded him of the beauty and simplicity of his childhood.
How he valued and loved all forms of life. He decided that this girl deserves to stay in this blissful innocent state for the rest of her life.
He walked upto her and offered her an enchanted orange. The girl remembered her mother telling her not to accept gifts from strangers. Though she understood that fakir's intentions were good, she refused his offer. Fakir shrugged his shoulders thinking atleast he tried.
The girl thought about what happened in the day, she decided to talk to the fakir the next morning and accept the orange that she had refused earlier. Fakir waited for her the next day by the orchards and gave her a little peanut instead of an orange. Again because she was conditioned not to demand things from people she gratefully accepted what he offered. When she ate that small peanut she felt the taste of the sweetest candy filling her mouth. She desired more for that taste, so the next day she waited there for the old fakir. Sure enough he showed up ready with another peanut.
Days and months passed by, this game continued. Her elder siblings and friends got married one by one and started their own families. Whereas Kaashi desired nothing more than the taste of that enchanting peanut. She cared little about food, clothes or jewels. Her parents finally decided to get her married to a nice boy from a nearby village. She did not protest, the only question that weighed on her mind was what will happen to her fakir and will she be able to live without the everlasting sweet taste of those candies.
She migrated to her new home. Kaashi and her husband laughed, played and enjoyed their domesticity for a few years. Soon something started to gnaw at her being, she missed the fakir and those enchanted peanuts. All she longed for was the deepest truest sweetness that filled her being. She felt more and more empty by the day till she could not take it anymore. She fell severely sick; local healers and vaidhyas could not diagnose the disease that afflicted her.
Finally the boy's family decided to send her back to her parents. When she reached home her parents were heartbroken to see their vibrant child in that state. She felt better being back under her parents care but she missed her fakir and those candies. She inquired from everyone but nobody had seen him in years. She sighed as she resigned to her fate; a life without that sweetness.
That night in her dreams fakir showed up, they chatted about old times. Then she asked the fakir about those candy peanuts. He laughed and said there were no peanuts ever. What he offered her was a glimpse of the sweetness of divine. Just a glimpse a day! And she was so hooked that she yearned for the divine, that deep love, she missed it so much that it made her sick with longing.
It dawned on Kaashi, 'what he said was true he always asked her " Are you hungry child?" When she said "yes". He would touch her forehead and offer her the peanut. The sweetness was never in those peanuts, they could be bought a dime a dozen from anywhere. The deepest fragrant sweetness that blossomed into her, came through the touch that conveyed the divine samadhi of the Fakir to her. Peanut was just an illusion. She understood the secret and smiled. She took the old fakir blessings and thanked him for helping her to retain the memory of the divine in her being all those years. It was so effortless she thought!
She started her inner journey from that moment onwards. Everything else was unrolling as divine will before her eyes thereafter. All the external circumstances and relationships appeared like a divine play to her. She witnessed, indulged, laughed, played and smiled till she found the right moment to drop the cocoon to join the ever-flowing bliss.
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