Saturday, August 8, 2015

SHORT STORY: KING CHITRAKETU

Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi






    Once upon a time there lived a very eminent king by the name of Chitraketu. He had many wives but no children. One day Maharishi Angiraj landed up in his Raj-Bhawan. And with his spiritual powers he could make out Chitraketu was very unhappy and even desperate for a child and so he decided to perform a yagya (Hindu ritual of sacrifice) to help his queen conceive. And after the yagya he handed over its leftovers to the eldest queen Kritdhuti. And while leaving, Maharishi Angiraj said—‘Maharaj! You will soon be blessed by a son; but he will be the reason for both your happiness and sorrow.’

    Maharani Kritdhuti was soon pregnant. And at the right moment the king was blessed with a son. And with this Maharaj Chitraketu’s happiness knew no bounds. The whole kingdom was in celebrations. After remaining issueless for such a long time Maharaj Chitraketu was finally blessed with a child, therefore: his love for the child was boundless and oozing all over. And to remain with his new born son he started spending more time at the residence of his eldest queen Kritdhuti.  And he had once again started loving her immensely for having given birth to his child. And, the resultant effect was; other wives on being neglected by king Chitraketu, felt extremely demoralised and soon demoralisation turned into intense jealousy. They lost all their noble senses. And the main reason for that was the king’s neglect, which they found was because of the child. And, in the end all the neglected wives of the king consented to quietly poison the child, and the child died. And upon realising what had happend Maharani Kritdhuti and Maharaj Chitraketu, fell like a fallen tree next to the body of their child. The entire kingdom now was in a pall of gloom.

    And amidst the gloom and wail two distinguished personalities arrived in the Raj Bhawan. Maharishi Angiraj this time was accompanied by Devrishi Narad. Maharishi told the king—‘Rajan (king) you are a great devotee of Brahmins and God and so I was happy with you. And because of that I had come to you earlier thinking I would teach you the prowess to attain God’s darshan; but since it was written on your face that you desperately wanted a child, I instead gave you a child as a blessing. Now that you have suffered the tragedy of losing your son, and there ain’t a tragedy, bigger than this, you would have known by now that this world is a place, full of sadness.’

   Raja Chitraketu was still in mourning. He therefore could not understand the essence of Maharishi’s address. But he was spellbound at the sight of them. Devrishi Narad who was accompanying Angiraj could understand that Chitraketu’s intense love for his child will not go like this. And so using his divya-shakti (divine-power) he attracted the soul of the child. And as the soul came he said—‘Dear son! See they are your parents and they are mourning for you. So please get back to your body to make them happy and start enjoying the royal life as the son of the king.

    And everyone there clearly heard what the soul of the child had to say—‘Devrishi they are my parents of which life? A soul does not have any parents, brother or friends. Many a times I was their father and many times they were mine. And many a times they were my friends and even enemies. All these relations are because of your mortal body. And as you leave your mortal remains behind you also leave behind your relations. And then everyone is all by himself and has to suffer, as per his karmas.’

   The soul after having said all that vanished from the scene. King Chtiraketu’s deep affection for his son after hearing the conversation started subsiding. And after cremating his son, with a fresh and sombre mind he appeared in front of the Devrishi and Maharishi. Devrishi Narad then gave instructions for prayers and puja of Lord Shesh Narayan, and with the influence of that King Chitraketu got darshan of Lord Shesh Narayan and soon he started on a long pursuit of spiritual knowledge and became a big scholar and was ranked as a Vidyadhar.

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