Putralipsāya devaṁ bhajantyā bhartāpi vinaṣṭāḥ (praying to have a son after loosing one's husband)
A woman earnestly prays to God to have s son, after her husband died. However, she is not getting any.
A lesson, an intelligent man can take from this anecdote, is that religion, for most of its adherents, means to get satisfaction for material greed and need. For that end, any semi-demigod is worshiped and often mistaken to be supreme. If the worship is followed correctly, the yearned fruit will be bestowed upon the worshiper.
A commonplace religious person at least turns to God, but only to get more entangled, because usually after getting what he wanted, he is so enthralled by the desired result that he easily forgets about God. This is described in ghaṭārthin nyāyaḥ.
Another important lesson is that if an immediate cause for our desire to be fulfilled is removed, in this case, the husband of the wife, the desired result will hardly come to happen. This is how we are blinded by our desires. That is cheating to ask God for material desires. We are trying to cheat God, making Him our servant, and then blame Him that he is not supplying our orders. Kaitavodharmaḥ nyāyaḥ explains that. There is a saying that if God takes our possession with His ten hands, how can we protect it without two hands, and if He gives us riches with His ten hands, how can we hold it with our two hands? It is better to remain humble and tolerant, not expecting anything for oneself, be thankful for whatever we get, and be generous to others. That is the attitude of a true religious lover of Śrī Hari.
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