There once lived a beautiful princess. Among her suitors was also a wicked wizard. One day he magically entered the palace, kidnapped her, and hid her far away into a dense and dangerous forest. Daily he pleaded with her to marry him, but she steadfastly refused. One day a prince rode into the forest and saw this lovely maiden, he at once fell in love with her and proposed to her, she told him that the wizard would kill him if he tried to rescue her.
He assured her that he would kill the wizard, but she told him that no one could kill the wizard as his life was locked up safely somewhere else. They both conspired to get the secret out. So, when the wizard again proposed marriage, the princess said, “I am tired of living imprisoned here, I could marry you, but I am scared that if you are killed by my disappointed suitors what would happen to me?”
At this he laughed and said, “Oh, no man can kill me as my life is safely kept away.
It lives in a bumblebee that resides under a Shivaling guarded by snakes. The Shivling is in the middle of a pond, north west from here, filled with hungry crocodiles, who devour all that enter the pond.”
The princess agreed to marry him the next day. She told the prince the whole secret, and the clever one quickly found the pond, killed a few animals and threw them to the crocodiles and swam across, slaughtered the snakes, uprooted the Shivaling and clutched the bumblebee.
At once the wizard appeared and threatened to kill him. The prince was quicker and he crushed the bumblebee in his fist, killing the wizard instantly.
In how many bumblebees is your life imprisoned? Even if one of them is crushed you die.
Prarthna Saran, President Chinmaya Mission Delhi.