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...

  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 forgotten tenth man The need for a Guru is felt by most people at some point of time in their life. In Sanatana Dharma, we say गुरुर्ब्रह्मा   गुरुर्विष्णुर्गुरुर्देवो   महेश्वरः   । गुरुरेव   परं   ब्रह्म   तस्मै   श्रीगुरवे   नमः   ॥१॥ Gurur-Brahmaa Gurur-Vissnnur-Gururdevo Maheshvarah Gurure va Param Brahma Tasmai Shrii-Gurave Namah This shloka means that Guru is the Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara. Guru is the Supreme Brahman and to that Guru, we salute. The Sanskrit term Guru itself comes from Gu that means darkness and ru meaning the light to dispel the darkness. Guru is a person who guides a person from darkness to light. There are innumerable stories both in the Vedic and Puranic age, where kings and even avatars of Gods had deferred to their Gurus. There is an interesting story that brings forth this simple but powerful concept. Once in the village in the country of Mahishmati, there were ten friends. They wer...

  Madurai Meenakshi – A Cinderella story   As children we were all wide eyed when listening about the glass slippers of Cinderella story. But did you know that there is a real-life occurrence in our own back yard in Bharat? Only difference was here the miracle was performed first and the shoes came as a thank you whereas in the Cinderella story the shoes were part of the magic. When and where did this happen? This happened in the early 19 th century in Madurai. Madurai, like the rest of the country was under the control of the British. Once there was a British collector by the name of Peter Rous. Peter, was the collector of Madurai from 1812-1828. We need to understand that the many of the British officials in those days were disrespectful of local traditions and customs. Peter was an exception. One of his administrative responsibilities included managing the temple activities. He was very sensitive to the local practices. While passing the temple on his way to work, ...