Nṛpanāpitaputra nyāyaḥ (king and barber's son)
A king once asked his barber to find and bring nicest boy, which he can find. The barber set out, and searched all over the kingdom for a long time, but did not find suitable candidate. He finally returned home. Being charmed by the beauty of his own son, he decided to show him to the king. When king first saw this boy's deformed stature and ugly frogface, he became angry. But he quickly calmed down being sympathetic with barber's liking and loving of his own child.
Actually, this humorous story shelters a deep spiritual meaning. It is in everyone's nature to have most affection for his near and dear. And this is also observable in animal kingdom. This gives us a hint about the original sentiment of each living entity, which is to love the most the Supreme Personality of Godhead in one of five direct mellow, such as neutral relationship, servitorship, fraternity, parenthood, conjugal love. Only because we abandoned the original affection for God, we take recourse in heavily diluted, grotesque, non-permanent, and any-ugly affection compensation, offered by Māyādevī. We make a laughing stock of ourselves, because we don't understand that it is the power of Śrī Hari, which is manifested in those materialistic affectionate dealings that ought to help us to point to the original ones with Lord Śrī Hari.
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