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.

Story on Ganesha

Lord Ganesha is the one of the most popular gods of the Hindu Religion. Ganesh is known as the eradicator of obstacles and god of beginnings. Lord Ganesha is considered as the first god to be worshipped. Slokas on Lord Ganesha form the part of prayers offered to the lord.

"Shuklaambara Dharam Vishnum,

Shashi Varnam Chatur Bhujam

Prasanna Vadanam Dhyaayet,

Sarva Vighna Upashaanthaye"
Meaning: Lord Ganesha always dressed in white represents purity. He is omnipresent with gray complexion like that of ash glowing with spiritual splendor. The Lord with bright countenance has four arms. I meditate on the God who can destroy all obstacles whether material or spiritual.

Story:

One day when Lord Shiva was away, Goddess Parvathi wanted to take bath in the river.
To guard against any unwelcome intrusion, she took a little turmeric paste from her body
and created a young boy. She gave him clear instructions not to allow any body inside.
Unfortunately at this time Lord Shiva returned. The new boy refused him admission,
though lord Shiva told him that he is the husband of Parvathi. Lord Shiva became very
angry and cut off the head of this new boy and threw it away using his trident. At this
time, Goddess Parvathi came back and became very sad, that the boy created by her was
killed. Lord Shiva wanted to console Parvathi. So he sent his army to bring the first head
that that they see on their way. The first head that they saw was the head of dying
elephant. Shiva fixed that head on the boy’s trunk and brought him back to life. He also
adopted him as his elder son and made him chief of his army.
The most popular story as to how Ganapathi lost his tusk is as follows. Veda Vyasa
decided to compose the huge epic Mahabharata. He needed some body to write down his
composition, as soon as he composed it. Ganapathi, being the God of knowledge, was
requested to do this job. Ganapathi agreed on one condition. Veda Vyasa should dictate
all he wants to write at one stretch and without break. Vyasa agreed but he put a
condition that Lord Ganapathi should write a verse only after understanding it. After
agreeing to this Ganapathi broke one of his tusks and used it as a pen.

Enn priyamula thathavirku ethu samarpanam

There have been some enlightened souls in my early life,without them Iam nobody.The strong sense of faith in my religion and the know how of things was nurtured by my grand father,who was my first guru and from him I heard stories which shaped and groomed me as a person.I don't know whether I will have such patience as him and this blog with short stories from the epics is a dedication to this great soul who has been guiding me in all walks of life.

As I sat thinking of him i wanted to preserve these stories and crystallize it for two reasons.one is I don't know whether children will ever have an opportunity to hear stories from their grand parents like I did.It was all from memory.He never used a book to read from .It is amazing the volumes of stories he told me and he never repeated a story because i use to tell him to tell me a different one if he told me the same one.

secondly, these stories are with hidden morals which is appealing even for the adults.I remember his condition as well. he used to tell me a sloka, and then a story.the more slokas I learnt the more stories he would tell me.

So this blog is dedicated to him and for all the children who are already in this world and for the little ones who will arrive in this world in the future......