One night, Mahakali (the wife of the god Shiva) appeared to Birbal in a terrible form - huge, multifaceted. Birbal looked at the goddess, laughed, prostrated himself before her, and then stood up and lowered his head with a sad look.
- My faithful Birbal! Why did you, when you saw me, first laugh and then become sad? - asks Many Faces.
- O Omnipresent! It is impossible to hide anything from you, but since you ask, I will not remain silent. I laughed with joy that I had the good fortune to see you. Well, I won’t tell you about the second one, I’m scared.
The goddess encouraged him, promised that no harm would come to him, let him boldly tell the whole truth. Then Birbal said:
- O Mother of the Universe! I thought: I have only one head, one nose and two hands, and you have dozens of heads, dozens of noses, but also only two hands. When I have a runny nose, I get tired of wiping my nose with both hands, and if you have a runny nose, how do you feel about wiping dozens of noses? This concern made me sad.
There was laughter in response. Having thrown off the mask and clothes of the goddess, the padishah appeared before Birbal. It was he who came up with the idea to scare Birbal and appeared to him at night in the guise of the formidable Mahakali, but that was not the case - Birbal cannot be frightened or taken by surprise.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru