राजा हरिश्चन्द्र

Raja Harishchandra

Raja Harishchandra is the story of an ancient Hindu King who was steadfast in honouring his words. One day Devendra, the king of all Deities was sitting with all the great sages at his Darbar. Devendra asked the sages, “Whom do you think is the most truthful on this earth?”. Sage Vasishtha referred to the King Harishchandra. But Sage Vishwamitra who was unable to believe this, wanted to test the king’s truthfulness. In order to test him, Sage Vishwamitra appeared in Raja Harishchandra’s court and tricked him into a promise by which he relinquished his throne, jewels, palace – everything. In the end he was obliged to pay Dakshina, a fee offered to the Brahmins for the performing the yagna. Unable to pay, the honour-bound king served as a slave at cremation ground. His wife, Queen Taramati, was reduced to work as a domestic servant in the house of a rich man. Their young son was bitten by a snake and died. Taramati carried the dead child to the cremation ground but the truthful Harishchandra did not cremate him because she could not pay the fee. At that moment, Vishwamitra appeared. He admited the glory of the truthful Harishchandra, revived his son and restored him to the throne. Vishwamitra blessed the king that he would be renowned in the world by the name Satya Harishchandra.

Spiritual Significance: – When one decides to shed the vices, and when the vices are completely donated to Shiv baba, then he should not take the vices back, which means that he should not commit any vicious action again. Some people commit the mistake even after offering their vices to Shiv Baba and attribute the mistake to the external circumstances. But Baba teaches from the above story that whatever may be the circumstances , one should not commit the mistake again after having given the vices as donation to Shiv baba. That is why there is a saying, “Leave the world but do not leave the religion”.