The riddle¹³

There was once a king who had a most beautiful daughter. She was endowed with beauty, intelligence, self-giving and many other virtues. When she was of age, her father wanted her to get married. She told her father, “I am ready to marry, but first I shall have to ask the person only one question. Whoever can answer the question correctly, I shall without fail marry.”

Many, many prospective bridegrooms came to the court. They were from different walks of life, and they were all eager to marry such a beautiful, intelligent and pious girl. To each one, she posed the same question. Her question was: “Who is both blind and not blind at the same time?”

Some of the candidates were puzzled; others became angry or disgusted. A few of them even cursed her. All of them said, “Either one has to be blind or not blind. How can one person be both blind and not blind at the same time?”

Then they insulted and even cursed the king for allowing his daughter to make such an unreasonable request. “Your daughter has many good qualities,” they said, “but she is very haughty!” The poor king was so disappointed. Among all the young men who had come to the court with the hope of marrying his daughter, not one could pass the test.

At long last, after everyone else had gone home, an old man approached the king and his daughter. His hair was long, his beard was long, and he had a long moustache. Everything about him was old, very old.

As soon as the princess saw him, she became furious. “Am I going to marry you? You should be ashamed that you are thinking of marrying me! I will never, never marry you. You are such an old man. It is absurd!”

The old man said, “You had a question. If I answer the question, will you marry me?”

The princess said, “You will never be able to answer that question.”

He said, “No, I can. Let me try.”

"All right,” said the princess, “see if you can answer my question. Who is both blind and not blind at the same time?”

This old man happened to be a very great sage. He said to her, “You see, I am definitely blind. At this age, I still have lower vital problems. Otherwise, why would I want to marry you? You are beautiful, true, but I should have controlled my senses. So I am blind. I am blind because I have not yet conquered my vital forces. My weakness is nothing other than my blindness.”

Then he continued, “Now I want to prove that I am not blind. I see God inside every human being. There is not a single person in whom I do not see the living Presence of God. This is all due to my yoga, which I have practised for so many years. In your case, I see God inside you very vividly. Very clearly I see the Presence of God. That is why I love you. According to your understanding, I have weaknesses: I am old and so forth. But I want to tell you, I see God so vividly inside you. God is infinitely, infinitely more beautiful than you are, so I want to marry that infinitely more beautiful Person inside you.”

When the princess heard that, she immediately garlanded the old man and said, “You have answered my question.” As soon as she garlanded him, the old man became very young, of her age.

The king was so delighted. He said, “O my God, how can you become so young? Just a few moments ago, you arrived here as an old man!”

The sage said, “This is what yoga has done. Your daughter saw me as an old man, but I am so proud of her that, in spite of my appearance, she wanted to keep her promise and marry me. I knew that she would keep her promise. And now, you see, I am quite young.”

The sage and the princess got married, and they lived happily, happily, happily for many years.