BharatiyaStories

  The Power of Association There is a saying “Tell me who your friend is, and I will tell you who are.” Association and friendships are that important in shaping our thoughts, deeds and speech. Sanatana Dharma believes association with the wise and the devout automatically brings benefits – not just to humans but also to the animals and birds. This nice story depicts the importance of association with the wise and devout. Sage Narada had a doubt. It is one thing to pray to the divine and get blessings but how does doing service to the rishis and the learned gets divine blessings. The sage decided to go to his favourite God in the Ksheerasagara (milky ocean), Lord Vishnu. He paid his respects and asked “Lord, what is the importance of associating with bhakts and devotees? Is it not better to serve you directly?” Vishnuji smiled and said “Go to the Naimisharanya forest. There will be a tree at the southern end where there is a...

  Vikram and Betaal – Story 2 We saw how King Vikramaditya (Vikram) went to the cremation ground at the instruction of a sage to get a dead body and found a ghost. It agreed to come on the condition that the king should not talk till he reached his destination. The ghost then started telling him a story. Here goes. The Sensitive Queens In the beautiful city of Ujjain once ruled a king who was valorous and dharmic at the same time. He was a good ruler and gave good and impartial judgement. As was the habit in those days the king had multiple queens. In this case, the king had three queens. The first one was from the nearby kingdom. She was well accomplished and beautiful. As the eldest queen he was a good friend and counsellor to the king on the right path. The second queen was from the far off easter kingdoms. She was very beautiful and was good at music and dance. She was also a good swords person and helped the king in his military strategy and war preparations and plan...

  The Lord and his pretender – Paundraka Vasudeva We all hero worship many people – sportsmen or sports women, leaders, scientists, teachers and in many cases even actors / actresses. We buy clothes like theirs, try and copy their mannerisms, way of talking etc. We think this is a modern day phenomenon? Certainly not. It was happening 5000 years ago during Krishna’s times. Once in a kingdom called as Karusha there was a king by the name of Paundraka. Paundraka was a friend of King Kamsa. Naturally being a friend of Kamsa, he was against Krishna. He was also jealous of Krishna’s popularity. Knowing his weakness, all his friends told him he is equal to or better than Krishna. They foolishly even encouraged him to dress up and behave like Krishna. Paundraka was foolish and vain enough to believe them and start doing the same. He painted his body dark blue in colour, attached some arms with shanka and chakra. He carried a flute too. Unfortunately, a donkey dressing as a peacock d...

  Story of Nriga (Bhagavatha purana) This was the time when Krishna and Balarama were young men and enjoying their time. Although Dwaraka a small kingdom was very rich in natural resources and wealth. Naturally the princes of this kingdom, Balarama and Krishna were treated with great affection and respect. Once the princes along with their friends had gone into the forest for a day of fun. In the heart of a lush forest near Vrindavan, young Krishna and his friends are gathered under the shade of tall trees for a joyful picnic. Mats made of woven grass are spread out, holding simple clay plates filled with fruits, sweets, and butter. The boys are laughing, some playing the flute, others feeding birds or reclining on the grass. Suddenly, their play is interrupted by a strange sound. A curious boy peers into an old dry well nearby and gasps. One by one, the boys—including Krishna, easily recognized by his peacock feather crow...

  Vikram and Betaal – Story 1 We saw how King Vikramaditya (Vikram) went to the cremation ground at the instruction of a sage to get a dead body and found a ghost. It agreed to come on the condition that the king should not talk till he reached his destination. The ghost then started telling him a story. Here goes.   The three special brahmins Once upon a time there lived a brahmin called Vishnuswamin. He had three sons. In the olden days, it was very common for sons who were part of the Vedic varnas to stay with their father and help him in his duties. The main duties of the people of Vedic varna was to chant the Vedas, perform yagnas (fire sacrifices) for the sake of the world and also to teach the scriptures to students who come to the Vedic school. Let us come back to our story. Vishnuswamin was once doing a yagna. For the purpose of that particular yagna he needed a tortoise. (Funny, isn’t it?) Vishnuswamin sent his three sons to go to the seashore and get him a tor...

  Vikramaditya – the Journey Begins Betaal Pachisi wrote a set of beautiful stories 2500 years ago in Sanskrit. These stories cover a whole lot of issues and are famously known as the Vikram and Betaal stories. The hero of the stories as the name indicates is King Vikramaditya also known as Vikram. Let us start with the first story of how Vikram meets Betaal. Betaal means a ghost. Once upon a time there was a strong and powerful king called Vikramaditya. He ruled over a province near the river Godavari. He was a fair and intelligent king. Once a sage visited the king and gave him a fruit and asked him to keep it safely. The king in turn gave it to his finance minister who kept it in the treasury with the gold and silver. After that regularly the sage came to the court and kept giving the king fruits. All these fruits were in turn kept in the treasury. This went on for some time. One day, the king gave the fruit to a monkey sitting on the wall. The monkey smashed it and inside...