hinduism

King Chitraketu instructed by the sages
When king Chitraketu got the message of his son’s death. He became overwhelmed with grief. He remained like a dead man and sat beside the body of his departed son. Sage Angira knew about the incident and came along with Narada muni to the spot. They began to instruct him in the following ways:

“Dear King what relationship this body has with you. You may say that he was your son and you were his father, but do you think this relationship existed before he was born or will it continue to exist in future. Does it exist now? As the pieces if woods in sea come together and meet for sometime and with force of the waves again separate, in the same way the living entities who accept material bodies come together as relatives and with force of time they get separate. Therefore, there is no need to lament over the artificial parenthood which is controlled by the Supreme Lord.”

“Every living entity is in a temporary situation and whole cosmic manifestation is also temporary. All the varieties of material manifestation are not factual, although they cannot be considered as unreal.”

“The Supreme Personality of Godhead is not personally interested in this temporary manifestation of cosmic nature. Just as a boy on the beach plays while building castles that have no value, the Lord creates a father to beget a son. He actually maintains but engages a king and he is the one who annihilates through His agents for killing. All these instruments of creation, maintenance and annihilation are not independent but due to spell of material nature one thinks himself to be creator, maintainer and destroyer.”

According to his destiny King Chitraketu was not supposed to have a child. For this reason even he married many wives, all of them were barren. By the blessing of Angira rishi a son was granted to the king by the grace of maya, but the child was not to live long.

Hearing the above words from the sages king Chitraketu wiped his tears from his face and became sober. Read on the next article to know what happened after that.

Harshasoka Born
By the power of sacrificial sweet rice Queen Krtadyuti became pregnant. Very soon she gave birth to a baby boy and king named him Harshasokha. The news went all corners of the earth and all the citizens of the state were extremely happy. The king was overjoyed.

King Chitraketu took bath and dressed nicely to perform the birth ceremony of the child. He took the benedictions of all learned brahmanas and gave large amounts of gold, silver, ornaments and land as charity. He gave about six hundred million cows in charity. King distributed everything just to increase the opulence, reputation and longevity of his son Harshasokha.

When Sage Angira told about his son to king Chitraketu as jubilation as well as lamentation, he did not consider the statement seriously. He thought, “My son is giving so much jubilation to everyone. But due to only child and beloved one he will become proud and may not be obedient. Never mind, it is better than not having son at all.”

Distress of Co-queens
As Chitraketu carefully raised his son with great care, his affection for Krtadyuti increased so much that he lost interest in his other wives. Upon seeing Krtadyuti’s son Harshasokha, other co-wives became restless with a desire to have their own children. In their distress, which was born of envy, the queens lamented and felt very low of themselves. They felt as if they were like maidservants of the child.

Slowly but steadily the envy of other queens became strong. They lost all good intelligence and became very hard hearted and intolerant. They finally vented their anger and went to the extent of poisoning the child. And when nurse came to see the child and she found him dead, Queen Krtadyuti came running to the spot and saw her son dead, she immediately fell unconscious onto floor. All the residents, along with the queens who poisoned the child, could hear Krtadyuti wailing loudly came started crying loudly, although other queens made a show.

Read on to know what happened after the death of Harshasokha in the next article.

To answer Maharaj Parikshit’s question, Sukadeva Goswami narrated the story of Chitraketu. Chitrakethu was a powerful king who ruled the earth and has his kingdom in province Surasena. Maharaj Citrakethu has 10 million wifes and astonishingly he could not have children with any of them. King Chitrakethu wa very handsome, young and highly educated. In spite of all this, King Chitraketu was always in anxiety.

One day sage Angira, who was a mindborn son of Lord Brahma, came to Chitraketu’s palace. King Chitraketu received him properly. He offered the sage food and drink in an opulent way after worshipping the sage. He then sat down next to sage Angira while trying hard to control mind and senses.

The sage congratulated the king for his hospitality. He also praised him for his expert control over his kingdom, ministers and queens. But the sage could easily read his mind. He could know from his pale face that there was something that is disturbing and displeasing him.

Maharaj Chitraketu replied with humility, “O great sage, you could understand internal and external of embodied souls like me because you are free from simful reactions. Yes Iam not happy. As a hungry person cannot be satisfied with flower garlands and sandalwood paste, Iam not pleased with my empire due to not having a son. O great sage, please save my forefathers from hellish life by giving me a benediction of having a son.”

Being merciful to king sage Angira performed a particularsacrifice wherein sweet rice is offered to the demigod Tvasta and the prasadam was given to the one qualified queen Krtadyuti among all queens. Then sage Angira said to the king that he will receive a son soon and he will be the cause of both jubilation (harsa) and lamentation (sokha). Thus name him Harsasokha.

In the next article there is description about Harsasokha.

Citizens Plea to King Prithu
Soon after the coronation of king Prithu, the citizens of mother Earth went to him and submitted a petition. Prior to the appearance of king Prithu there was a great scarcity of food grains in the cities. Many citizens died of starvation. The subjects took this an opportunity to show their plight to the king.

They addressed as follows: “Dear King, just as a tree dries when there is no water at its root or there is fire in its trunk, in the same way we are also drying with the fire of hunger in our stomach. You are protector of surrendered souls and so we all have come to your shelter. Please give us occupational engagements and arrange for proper distribution of food grains. Otehrwise we will die of hunger.

King Prithu immediately took the condition and contemplated on the solution. He could analyze that people are working properly and there was enough sacrifices done by them. Then he found that it was the earth itself not producing sufficient grains for the inhabitants.

King Prithu and the Earth Cow
King Prithu took his bow and aimed a powerful arrow at the earth. When Bhumi, the goddesses of earth, saw that Prithu was harming her, she began to tremble. She took a form of cow and ran in outer space between heaven and earth. But soon she realized that powerful son of Vena could her everywhere, she desisted. With submitted to Prithu Maharaj and begged for her innocence. She described her condition and then asked why he wants to kill her despite of her protecting the living entities on earth.

Then King Prithu replied, “My dear earth, you have disobeyed my orders. AS one of the demigods you have accepted your share of sacrifice but you have not produced sufficient grains for all. Although as cow you are eating green grass but you are not filling your utters so that we can take your milk. For this offense I must kill you. You have lost intelligence and so despite of my order, you did not deliver the seeds, herbs and grains that were created by Lord Brahma. You are hiding them within you. I will kill you and give your flesh to hungry citizens.”

The earth in form of cow replied while trembling, “O King all that Lord Brahma produced were being utilized by non-devotees. Because there was no proper king to rule all the miscreants exploited them, so I hid them under me. Being for long time they must be deteriorated so you must arrange to retrieve them.”
This pacified king Prithu. Then he called all sages who transformed different calves and milked various things from the earth. After this incidence the earth was called Prithvi. There was bounties and citizens lived happily.

The Coronation and the Offerings to the King Prithu
As the brahmanas praised King Prithu, the great sound resulted from the conch shells, bugles and drums. The demigods were very happy to see the King. While the sages arranged for the coronation, the rivers, hills, seas, cows, birds, animals, heaven and earth, as well as other living entities collected presentations according to one’s capacity to the king.

Kuvera, the treasurer of demigods, gave a golden throne to King Prithu. Varuna gave him royal umbrella which can spray fine particles of water. Vayu gave him two chamaras and Dhrama gave him a garland. Indra gave valuable helmet and Yamaraja gave him a scepter for ruling the world. Lord Brahma gave him a protective garment which was made of spiritual knowledge and Saraswati, Lord Brahmas’ wife, gave him a transcendental necklace.

Lord Vishnu gave King Prithu a Sudarshana Chakra which had partial prowess of His original disc and Laksmi Devi, the wife of Lord Vishnu gave imperishable opulence. Lord Shiva presented him a sword whose sheath was marked with 10 moons and Lord Shiva’s wife gave him a shield marked with 100 moons. The moon-god gave horses that produced from nectar and Visvakarma presented a beautiful chariot.

Agni, the fire god, gave king Prithu a bow that had been made from the horns of cows and goats and Surya, the sun god, gave him arrows that were brilliant as sunshine. The predominating deity of Bhurloka gave mystic slippers to the king and other demigods gave the art of music, drama and the ability to disappear at will (antardhana). The Ocean presented king Prithu a conch shell and the rivers, seas and mountains gave him space to run his chariot without impediment.

Thus King Prithu was coronated with great pomp and celebration.

Vena Purified Body
Vena was puffed up of his kingly position and disregarded the sages. The sages, who always think in favor of Dharma, killed Vena by uttering Hum mantra. When died his mother Sunitha preserved his body and presented sages for continuing the generation.

The sages saw that body of Vena was powerful enough to produce. The sages appreciated that the semen of those appeared in the dynasty of King Anga is very powerful and thus the children in this dynasty will be godly. They concluded that King Anga’s dynasty should not be stopped. They took Vena’s dead body and began churning his thighs. From the churning Bahuka appeared.

Churning of Vena’s Body
Bahuka was a dwarfish person with a complexion of crow. After his birth he bowed down before the sages and asked what to do. The Sages called him Nisida (please sit down). From then he began the Naisada race. He took charge of sinful reactions of Vena and his classes of people are allowed to live in forest for they indulge in stealing and plundering.

After that the sages churned the two arms of Vena’s body which produced a couple – male and female. With great pleasure, the sages welcomed the appearance of King Prithu and Arci. They declared Prithu as the incarnation of Lord Vishnu and Arci as the expansion of goddess of fortune. As the brahmanas praise King Prithu, Gandharvas began to sing and Siddhas showered flowers from the sky. Conch shells, bugles, drums resounded in the sky as demigods descended from heavenly planets to the earth. When Lord Brahma observed the lines of Lord Vishnu and marks of lotus flowers on the soles of Prithu’s feet, he could understand that he is a partial representation of the Supreme Personality of Godhead.

Then the sages arranged for the coronation of King Prithu. His coronation is described in detail in the next article.

The sages always think of welfare of people in general. They thought that the absence of king may be a great threat to the kingdom and public well-being. They called for Queen Sunitha and decided that her son Vena will be the king. Though Vena’s nature was not satisfactory for the post, everyone have to respect the decision, for it was need-of-the-hour.

After getting the throne Vena became even more puffed up just like a child becomes more adamant on getting everything at his disposal. Vena began to misuse his powerful position. He traveled throughout kingdom and forbade sacrifices and other religious activity. He began exploiting and destroying things. This was brought to the notice of all sages. They were all the more concerned about the behavior of Vena who is a king now.

The learnt sages tried to counsel Vena as follows: “Dear King Vena, we came to give you good advice…Please listen attentively. Duration of life, opulence, reputation and strength of a king are dependent on the religious principles that he follows. Those who are devoid of religious principles dwell in hell. The religious principles are the basis for spiritual advancement. A king should take care of spiritual advancement of public in general and his own family members in particular. If you stop sacrifices, you are ruining the chances of spiritual advancement and ruining your life.”

The above words could not change Vena’s demeanor even the slightest. On the contrary he began to criticize sages saying, “You are inexperienced and hence you are preaching irreligion in the name of religion. Actual it is the king who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. One should worship the king and if one does not do that it means that he is not the right person. You sages are envious of me. If you are intelligent then you should have known my superiority and worship me.”

The above words pained the hearts of sages. They cried with great anger, “Let this sinful person be killed. If he lives more, the whole world will be destroyed. How dare he could insult the Supreme Personality of Godhead.” Thereafter just by uttering the mantra ‘HUM’ the brahmanas could kill Vena. Sunitha, her mother came running and shocked by his son’s death. She reserved body of Vena while applying various substances and chanting mantras.

Read another article to know about King Prthu, who was produced from the semen of King Vena.