Once upon a time there lived a woman who had no children. So she approached a great sage and begged him for the boon of a child. The sage took pity on her and told her to go to a yonder mango tree, pluck one ripe fruit and eat it. She would surely give birth to a son. The grateful woman prostrated to him and went to the tree to get a mango.

When she looked up at the tree, she saw hundreds of ripe mangoes hanging in big bunches from its branches. She thought, "how nice it will be if I can get a few more mangoes, the sage said that if I eat one fruit I will get one child. After all there are so many mangoes here. This Rishi will not notice if I take one or two extra mangoes."

So she slowly climbed the tree, plucked four or five fruits. But then by the time she came down she was surprised only to find one fruit in her hand. Where did the other mangoes go? Did they fall from her hands. She searched everywhere but couldn’t find them. So she went up the tree once more and plucked five fruits. This time she carefully bundled them in the corner of her saree, and came down taking care to see that no fruit fell out of the bundle. But when she opened her pallu after coming down, she found only one fruit here. How did the mangoes disappear? She was confused.

Again she went up a third time. This time she plucked a whole bunch of ten mangoes and tied it firmly to her pallu and came down. But there was no sign of the bunch. There was only one fruit tied in her pallu. And when she looked up she found the whole bunch back on the tree, hanging as before.

Then she realized that the sage had sanctioned only one fruit to her and that she should not try to get anymore. One fruit and therefore only one son was all that she could have. She learnt to be satisfied with her lot and to stop craving for more.

Swami Chinmayananda ------- Contributed by: D.D. Maini