 The king has just died very suddenly and in his place his son has been crowned the king which was the rule of the kingdom The only problem is that at this point the son is a tiny little baby He's not even a year old yet and there is a very evil uncle who has decided that actually by rights This throne should belong to him And so he's decided to have the baby king killed so that he can claim the throne so that he can claim the crown for himself Now he figures that it's not going to be very difficult to murder a child after all. It's only a baby He can't walk he can't even talk and so he puts together the simplest of plans He hires an assassin and he bribes the baby's attendance to leave him alone for half an hour Just half an hour because for goodness sakes. How long does it take to kill a child, right? So he bribes the attendance to leave the child alone for just half an hour And he figures that the throne is more or less his But of course destiny always has a hand in this sort of thing and in this case The assassin that has been hired is from a different kingdom because you see the evil uncle didn't want anyone finding out What he had done so the assassin who has been hired is from a different kingdom and he has absolutely No idea that the king is a little baby He's expecting to see a grown man because all that his message said was you need to kill the king This time this place get it done. So he has no idea that he's looking for a baby So when he arrives at the allocated time at the allocated place He doesn't find anyone there who he imagines to be the king There's just this little baby playing around and so he figures that maybe there was a mistake or a change of plans and He leaves and so the evil uncle's plan for this very simple murder doesn't work But although he's very annoyed. He's not going to give up that easily. He simply puts together another plan He knows that the next day the baby is going to be taken to the Devi temple to the goddess temple Which is in the middle of the forest and so this time he hires a group of duck who's a group of decoyates to do the job And because he's learned his lesson from the last time he gives them very precise Instructions he tells them that a group of four chariots will be driving by Each chariot will be made of gold and very richly decorated all the people in the chariots will be wearing Beautiful clothes and jewels, but the thing to really look out for is a baby who will be traveling with them and this baby will be wearing the most exquisite jewels and brocades and This is the baby that has to be killed and having given all these instructions He once again goes back to his house to wait for the good news the following day But as I said destiny is ever-present Before the group of chariots can get to where the duck who's are waiting where the decoyates are waiting for them Another group of duck who's attacked the group and they steal everything they take their chariots They take their money. They take their clothes. They take their jewelry They strip them off everything and so the group has no choice But to turn back towards the palace and once again the plan falls flat on its face By now the evil uncle is getting really frustrated He's so annoyed and he decides that maybe this is a job that he should just take care of himself because Obviously nobody else is qualified to do this So he turns up the next day with a glass of poisoned milk and he gives it to the baby with his own hands The baby takes it. He's about to drink it But just at that point remember what I said about destiny just at that point The pet dog comes running up to him to play with him Knocks into the glass of milk and the milk falls over Now to cut a very long story short or actually Destiny cuts this very long story short because the evil uncle gets into fight with somebody else and he ends up getting murdered himself Which brings us to the ever-present question What is the lesson from this story? What is the point that we wish to take away from this story? Well for me this story is about the adhbhutrasa Now for those of you who are dancers out there, you know exactly what I'm talking about if you're not a dancer Let me explain to you what I mean about the adhbhutrasa The adhbhutrasa is one of the nine russas that we use in Indian classical dance and it's the rassa that depicts enchantment or Enchantment that that sense of oh, wow I guess it's when yashoda looks into baby Krishna's mouth and she sees the entire Universe goes by it's how she would have felt that's the adhbhutrasa or when Arjun on the battlefield Realizes that he's face-to-face with God how he would have felt that's the adhbhutrasa Or even when you see images from the Hubble telescope of the universe beyond and you realize the Magic that lies beyond that that vastness the miracle that lies beyond and how tiny we are in comparison to that That that wonderment that you feel at that point. That is the adhbhutrasa You know in the Sondhara Lahiri It says that Lord Shiva wears the adhbhutrasa on his head Lord Shiva is Natharajis the Lord of the Dance and He embodies all of the rassas But he wears the adhbhutrasa on his head and I always think that if we can do that If we could wear the adhbhutrasa on our head if we could approach Every single thing in our life with that same wonderment with that enchantment with that sense that Everything is a miracle how differently our lives would pan out Events happen as they are we know that nothing is good or bad. It's all about how you react to things So maybe it's time to start embodying the adhbhutrasa Maybe it's time to give the adhbhutrasa a little place in our lives because I for one I'm ready to see miracles in everything