गुलबकावली

The story of Gulbakavali
Janapada Stories

Gulbakavali is an imaginary special golden flower which spreads all its petals and develops fully in golden lake in the world of deities on the day of Purnima. It is an incredibly beautiful and fragrant flower. The daughter of Indra (the Lord of Heaven) used to decorate Jagadamba Maa with these Gulbakavali flowers. The speciality of this flower is that a blind man gets his eyesight, if it is kept upon his eyes. This Gulbakavali is the story of a Prince Vijay, the son of the King Prachanda who brought the flower from the deity world to the Human world facing so many obstacles, and by keeping the flower upon the eyes of his father, the blind father regained his eyesight.
King Prachanda, ruler of Avanthi and his wife were devotees of God Shiva. Daily the King and the queen used to worship God Shiva. All the subjects were incredibly happy in their kingdom. For several years, the king did not have any child. Therefore, he married second time, with a girl called Roopvathi, from whom he had three sons. All the three were foolish and dull minded. The first wife continued worshipping God Shiva every day for the getting a child. After some period, she gave birth to a child, who was named ‘Vijay’.
The second queen was very selfish and jealous because she thought that due to the birth of Vijay, her sons may not get the throne. As such, she made a plan along with her brother Vakraketu. She used the astrologers to advise the king that, he would become blind when Vijay attains the age of youth. The astrologers also advised the King to leave Vijay in the forest. The king unwillingly accepted the idea of leaving the child in the forest. The soldiers who were deputed to leave the child in the forest, were instructed by Vakraketu and her sister to kill the child in the forest. The soldiers after reaching in the forest, took out sword to kill Vijay but it turned into a garland of flowers. They tried to kill the boy by beating through legs, but their legs were paralysed. At last, God Shiva, in the form of a saint reached there and handed over Vijay to a shepherd and asked him to look after Vijay. As Vijay grew up, he becaming intellectual, clever and perfect in all the arts.
There in the palace, Vakraketu planned to make the king blind and rule himself. According to his plan, once while the king was going for hunting in the forest, he mixed a medicine in the milk and told the king to drink the same. After drinking it, the king started losing his eyesight. When the king was about to lose his eyesight completely, as a coincidence, he saw Vijay before him and became blind. The king recognised his son Vijay. Vijay also came to know all the things through his mother. After that, when Vijay entered the palace secretly to meet his parents, he came to know that the eyesight of the king could be regained by keeping the Gulbakavali flower upon the King’s eyes and the flower was available in the world of deities. After this, Vijay decided to get the Gulbakavali flower and started his journey to the Deities world.
On the way, he reached a city where a virgin, by the name Yuktimati was playing gambling. She defeated so many people in this game and made them as her slaves. Yuktimati’s planned to marry only that person who would defeat her in the gambling game. Yuktimati used to win the game by her clever technique. A lamp was kept upon a cat. While playing, Yuktimati used to leave a rat before the cat. As the cat ran to catch the rat, the lamp would fall down making it dark. In this darkness, she used to turn the game in her favour and win over the opponent. Vijay observed this and went to play the game in a disguised manner, as an old man. The tricks of the Yuktimati failed and Vijay defeated her and as per the condition, he married her.
Thereafter, he went to bring Gulbakavali flower from the world of deities. He reached on the day of poornima and found the flowers fully developed in the golden lake. He had to face many obstacles in order to get this flower to the human world. At last, after getting the flower, he kept the same upon his father’s eyes and the king regained his eyesight. Vijay killed Vakraketu, the enemy of the king and he was crowned as Yuvraj.

Spiritual Significance: – People have become spiritually blind because of darkness of ignorance and the five vices (Lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego). God Shiva, after having reincarnated in this world, is imparting spiritual knowledge and bestowing the third eye of wisdom to every willing soul. This spiritual fact is depicted in the form of giving the physical eyesight in the above story. Just as the prince had to face several obstacles to get Gulbakavali flower in this story, so also the followers of this spiritual path face several obstacles of Maya (five vices). But, they are able to conquer the five vices by having complete faith in Shiv Baba and become perfectly knowledgeful and powerful and also help the other souls by giving them the third eye of wisdom. It is said in the story that because of cat’s disturbance in the play, several players used to lose the game. Similarly on the spiritual path also, the cat equivalent Maya (the five vices) attacks silently and those who are unable to recognise Maya, take a hit and fall down. The cat of five vices attacks gradually and extinguishes the spiritual light. But those who achieve victory by realising the interruption of Maya or vices on spiritual path are considered as victorious souls. Just as the prince killed the enemy Vakraketu and was crowned, here also one has to conquer Maya to get the crown of deity sovereignty.