The statue and the King

Today's sloga would be:
Mudha karatha modhakam, sada vimukthi dayakam,
Kaladaravathamsakam, vichithra loka rakshakam,
Anayakaika nayakam vinasithebha daithyakam,
Nathashubha pranasakam, namami tham vinayakam.

I salute that remover of obstacles,
Who has modakas in his hand,
Who always bestows salvation,
Who wears a part of moon on his head,
Who protects this world which is varied,
Who is the leader of those who cannot be lead,
Who is the cause of destruction of asuras,
And who destroys all things which are not good.

Story:

Once upon a time,there was a king whose one desire in life was to grow popular.No doubt,he did his best, to please his subjects.He had created a post of a headman in every village and had appointed a prominent villager to the post. Once a year he called a meeting of all the head men.

In their annual meetings the headman generally praised the king and at the same time they brought to his notice whatever problems their villages faced. The king took steps to solve their problems."Never in the history of our kingdom was there a king who was loved so much?" a head man would say.

"why in the history of our kingdom alone? Was there ever a king in all the neighbouring kingdom who could rival our king in popularity" would say another.

The king though a good man was quite flattered by such comments.

when the king was quite sure that the people loved him very much,he made his statue adorn all the villages.No doubt people derived much benefit from the king,so they regularly garlanded his statue.In many villages they grew gardens

when the king learnt how his statue was being treated,he was delighted.

In the next conference the headman of Nijampur, Suryakant informed the king that his villagers suffered much due to scarcity of water.The king made arrangements for pot fulls of water to be brought from a river in a cart and distributed among the villagers.But the arrangement did not work satisfactorily.those villagers who were influential claimed more water,poor families continued to suffer.

Suryakant told the king,"your majesty we are grateful to you for the arrangements you have made,but the system is not dependable.the cart may break down or the cart man might fall sick.The best course will be to send a team of water diviners,they can point out where the water can be found and we can dig a well.The king sent a team of diviners and they examined the ground in every part of the village and found only one chunk of the ground where water could be found,but that is the ground on which the statue stood.The team and Suryakant reported to the king the findings and the statue must be shifted to another place,if water is to be struck.

"How dare you propose such a step"blurted out the king"don't you realise how sacred my statue is to the people?"

He dismissed Suryakant from his post and took the experts to task.However in order to remove the difficulty of the people of Nijampur he arranged for two carts to supply water instead of one.He had no doubt in his mind that the villagers would feel grateful to him.

A year passed ,one day the king donned a disguise and paid a visit to Nijampur,to his sup rise he saw the statue stood neglected wild shrubs grew around it nobody cared to garland it.They had grown aversion to it because it deprived them of water.

The king,upon returning to the palace,shifted the statue and ordered two wells instead of one.He restored Suryakant to his position and apologised to the experts.

A year later the king visited Nijampur again.He observed that the villagers had grown a garden around his statue and it was duly garlanded.

The incident proved to be of great value to the king.He went on doing good to his people but without giving much importance to the people's praise for him.