BharatiyaStories

  Vikram and Betaal – Story 4 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 Exchanged Heads In a village near Kashi there once lived a washerman named Dhavala. Once while at the pond to he spotted a beautiful woman. He realised that she was the daughter of another washerman. Dhavala fell in love with the girl and pleaded with his parents to get him married to the girl. His parents were also happy to find a girl in a nearby village and both families agreed. The girl, Madanasundari and Dhavala got married. Madanasundari came to live with Dhavala in his family home. As was the practice in those days, the families went to each other’s village to attend festivities. Once Madanasundari’s brother visited her home to invite Dhaval...

  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...

  Fight among the senses Chandogya Upanishad Many a time we take things that God has given us for granted. We do not appreciate its value. It could something as simple as our organs, our health or our skin. The beauty of creation is the specific role each of these play in our day to day life. Not caring for one doesn’t affect only that part. For example, over eating does not affect only our stomach. It has a bearing on our heart. There is a cute story in the Upanishads to teach us the importance   In Sanatana dharma, we consider the five karmendiryas (organs of action) and five gnanendriyas (organs of perception) as a blessing from the divine. The organs of action are hands, legs, speech (vocal chord), the reproductive organs and the anus. The five organs of perception are eyes, ears, mouth, nose and skin. All these ten are important for the productive life of a human being.   Once there was a ego tussle between the five gnanendriyas as to who was more important...

  Raikva – The Cart Puller Story from Chandogya Upanisha Charity as an act of good is given as a requirement in most religions. In Santana Dharma, like all the teachings charity is inter woven with every ceremony, yagna and puja – be it a Navarathri, shrardh or a charity or a dhaan is being given during a ceremony the priest any religious ceremonies. One of the important aspects if you notice while asks the person performing the ritual to say “Na Mama” which means “Not mine”. This means that we leave all the linkage to the material thing – be it clothes or precious metals or grains – that we give away. But what about the ego while we do the charity? A nice story depicts the learning on this aspect. Once upon a time, there was very dharmic and popular king ruling a part of the Bharatavarsha called Janashruthi. Janashruthi was not only a kind and dharmic ruler but was charitable and loved to give away his wealth and belongings to the poor. While he was doing all this with a g...

  Satyakama: The Seeker of Truth Chandogya Upanishad, 4.4 – 4.8 In Sanatana Dharma, knowledge seeking, debate and discussions is part of the fabric. We do not get angry when questioned about our practices. The other defining feature of the religion is the acceptance of knowledge from any and all sources. This is not now. A nice story from Chandogya Upanishad depicts this beautifully.   A young boy once came to Sage Haridrumata Gautama. He said “Guruji, I want to study under you. I would like to accept me as your student.” Gautama asked him for his family details and gotra. The boy was not aware of these details. He asked his mother but unfortunately, she also did not know. She was a poor woman and was only aware of her name that was Jabala. She had named her son Satyakama. Saying all this, Satyakama said, “Sir, I reveal myself to you as Satyakama Jabala. Is my name.”   In those days it was considered a requirement of every Guru to accept students who came for ...

  Hanuman and the nine planets   We had talked about Hanuman and Kali in one of our earlier stories. ( https://bharatiyastories.blogspot.com/2025/04/hanuman-and-kali.html ). In that story we saw how Hanuman cleverly planned the death of Mahiravana. Mahiravana was a great warrior and his death was a big loss for Ravana’s side. Ravana was now getting worried about the outcome of the war. He consulted his palace astrologers. They consulted their palm leaves and told their king “Lord, there is a problem for you currently due to the alignment of the planets. If you can do some parihara or prayers, the effects can be reduced.”   This advice would have satisfied normal people. But Ravana was not happy. He thought “I am the lord of the universe. Why should I try to appease the planets. I will realign the planets to go to a place where they can be in my favour.” Since he was a man of action, he decided to take action immediately.   If anything, Ravana was not doing an...