Long ago, there used to live a very great King by the name Nruga, the son of Ikshvaaku. He gave as many goodaanams as there are grains of sand on the earth, stars in the heavens, or drops in a rain shower. He gave the best quality kapila varna cows, decorated with pure golden hooves and horns, along with their calves. He gave them to the most learned braahmanas, whose families were in need, were young and possessed of excellent character and qualities, who were dedicated to truth, famous for their austerity, vastly learned in the Vedic scriptures and saintly in their behaviour. He performed many other such great daanams for the needy. In addition, he performed many yagnyas and executed various pious welfare activities.
Once, a cow owned by a learned braahmana wandered away and entered the herd being given as daanam by Nruga. Unaware that he was giving a cow that did not belong to him, he gave it to one other needy braahmana. When the owner of the cow saw his cow being taken away, he said "The cow belongs to me!" and the other said "No! It was given to me by Nruga." Nruga comes to know about this and offers each one of them a thousand cows of highest quality and asked them to save him from this difficult situation. However, both the braahmanas go away leaving the cow.
Yamadharmaraaja, after King Nruga leaves his physical body and comes to Yamaloka, asks Nruga "do you wish to experience the results of your paapam first, or those of your punya? Indeed, I see no end to the greatest daanams you have performed, or to your consequent enjoyment in the urdhva lokas. However, you made the sin of stealing a cow from a braahmana". Nruga chooses to face the consequences of his paapam first and immediately falls as a huge chameleon in a well. Since he always had bhakti towards the Lord and performed uncountable number of great daanams, he always remembered who he was, and what mistake he committed. He used to repent for his mistake and spent a very long time alone in the well, always doing Bhagavat-dhyaanam.
After a very long time, once when Shri Krishna, Saamba, Pradyumna, Chaaru, Bhaanu, Gada and other boys were playing, out of thrist they goto the well where Nruga was living. Out of pity, Shri Krishna takes him out of the well. The touch of the Lord of the universe made Nruga get a divya tejaswi form, with radiating kiritam and ornaments and tejas of Sun. On being asked by Shri Krishna, the Sarvagnya, the reason for the chameleon form, Nruga tells him his unfortunate story. He does a stotram to Lord krishna, does a pradakshinam, takes leave from the Lord and before the eyes of everyone flies to urdhva lokas in a divya vimaanam.
Morals in the Story:
1. Even for a great person like Nruga, one mistake, which he did unknowingly, made him experience the result of his paapam. Thus one should be very careful not to commit any kind of sin even unknowingly and lead a very ideal life.
2. Some or the other time, one must experience the results of his paapa or punya. However, if one surrenders himself to the God, He will lift you from the samsaaram and in the end give you kaivalyam, as Krishna did to Nruga.
3. Since Nruga never forgot remembering the Lord and the Lord was impressed by his great acts, Krishna granted him urdhva lokas in the end. So the end result for a good person will always be good.

Every person by birth becomes rini for parents — without whom the very existence on this earth would not have been possible, devatas — for all the panchabutas, rains, nature etc. and rishis — for giving us puraanas, shastras etc. Of these, the runam of parents cannot be paid back easily and is virtually impossible. Hence one needs to atleast do seva to them, listen and adhere to their words and give them a lot of respect. This is the least one can do to them. Our puraanas also show that one can attain moksha just by doing seva to parents.
Once upon a time, there used to live a great Bhakta of Krishna. He had a wife, who deserved to be his ardhaangi. However, they had a son, Pundarika, who had all kinds of vyasanas. In the attraction for a mere vaaraangana, he drives his parents out of his house, does not love his wife and finally looses all his money. The vaaraangana, whose love he thought was eternal, left him once his money was over. In the sorrow of being apart from the vaaraangana, he walks into a forest and finally reaches a lonely kutir of a great person by name, Kukkuta muni. He sees the following wonder when he reaches the place:
Three very ugly looking old females, suffering from terrible diseases, will be cleaning the ashram. After doing all the cleaning required, they go inside the kutir and to his surprise, three very beautiful, young women with the tejas of sun come out. Out of his usual attraction to women, he goes and holds the hand of one of the women and immediately she turns ugly like before. The woman tells Pundarika “because people like you take dip in our holy waters everyday, we get these ugly forms and have to bare with such dreadful diseases. We are Ganga, Yamuna and Sarawathi. Everyday we clean the kutir of Kukkuta muni and have his darshan to relieve the loads of paapas you maanavas leave with us and get back our divya shariraas.” She again has darshan of Kukkuta muni and all the three leave the place (They wondered why a common human, that too a bad person, was able to see them in human form at the first place).
Pundarika, just to see what is there inside, goes into the kutir. He sees nothing great — no jewels, no big furniture nothing. He sees a person totally immersed in pressing the legs of his father. The person was totally engrossed in it and the only other thing he had in mind was the thought of Lord Shiva.Seeing Kukkuta muni, Pundarika asks him many questions about the woman etc., but sees that the muni gave back no reply, since the muni was totally engrossed with the seva to his father. Not able to bear the rejection, out of ahankaar, he tries to kick the muni and immediately falls on the ground loosing both his legs. Pundarika cries for help and the muni gets disturbed by his cries and attends to his help. Pundarika begs the muni to pardon him and the muni immediately pardons him. Pundarika realizes all the mistakes he has done in his life and asks the muni for prayaschittam. The muni says that there is nothing that can help him except the seva to his parents and even a bhrashta can achieve moksha by serving his parents. Immediately Pundarika, pulling himself with his hands, sets off in the search for his parents, whom he drove away from his house. He truly and whole heartedly repents for his mistakes and continues his journey to his parents.
He does not think about food, water, his bleeding legs, the only thing he has in his mind is to search for his parents, beg them to pardonhim and do their seva. He does not care about thorny paths, heat of the sun, steep mountain cliffs etc. and continues his journey. When he falls off a cliff, Lord Krishna used to catch him safely and let him move on. At all stages,Pundarika’s heart was filled only with the want of doing seva to parents, and hence Krishna bhagavaan used to help him all along. Finally, he reaches the kutir of his parents and falls on their feet. He begs them to pardon him for being so cruel to them and pleaded them to grant him the chance of doing their seva. The parents immediately pardon Pundarika and Pundarika again gets back his legs. From that day onwards, he always used to be busy doing seva to his parents and always think of Krishna paramaatma in his mind.
Unable to bear the separation from his bhakta, one day Lord Krishna comes to see Pundarika. He waits at the door of Pundarika’s kutir and calls for him. Pundarika sees Krishna, the paramaatma for whose darshan even great munis spend their entire lives in tapas, standing at his door. But Pundarika was at that time pressing the feet of his parents, who were asleep, with legs in his lap. Krishna asks Pundarika to come and take Him inside. Pundarika, seeing the Lord becomes very happy, but asks Him to wait a bit, since he cannot stop seva to his parents and he will come after taking their permission. Lord Krishna waits at the door and by being touched by his lotus feet, Indra who was lying in the form of a stone because of the curse of Lord Shiva, takes back His original form and leaves to Indraloka.
Meanwhile Pundarika’s father wakes up and asks him what happened. Pundarika says that Lord Krishna had come but he was unable to receive him. Immediately Pundarika’s father runs to receive the Lord, but does not see Him. He then asks Pundarika to call Krishna. Krishna appears immediately on the call of Pundarika and blesses moksha for Pundarika, his wife and his parents. Krishna also stays permanently at the house of Pundarika to bless bhaktas and it became the well known kshetram of Pandarpur. The kshetram is so ancient that the legs of the Pandarnath’s idol are half eroded just by the touchings of bhaktas!
Morals in the story:
1. Only because Pundarika did true seva to his parents, did Krishna wait for him at his door and immediately come when called by Pundarika. This shows the importance of being obedient to parents ans doing their seva.
2. Seva of parents is the most basic thing that the Indian culture prescribes. A person going against the word of his parents will not be liked by God.
Search Terms: Pundariika, Pundareeka, Panduranga, Paanduranga

No collection of moral stories will be complete without the mention of Satya Harishcandra. His story is well known and praised by everyone. Truth is the most fundamental moral to be learnt by everyone and it is alone enough to reach God. The following is a small incident showing the satya vaak paripaalanam of Harishchandra:
When travelling in the forest, with his family and Nakshatraka to the great kaashi kshetram, Harishchandra sees un-controllable Daavaagni (forest fire) sorrounding them. They donot understand the reason for it and Nakshatraka worries a lot, not knowing any way of getting out of the fire. Harishchandra worries for a different reason. He was not worried for loosing his life, but if he dies in the agni, then he will not be able to return the debt to Vishwaamitra maharshi and thus will not be able to keep up his word.
Seeing this, Agnideva (sent by Vishwaamitra) tells them a way to cross the fire safely. He says anyone who says that his name is not his own name, can safely walk through him. Immediately Nakshatraka, to attract them to say a lie, says I name is not Nakshatraka and walks into the fires. Nothing happens to him and he walks back suggesting Harishchandra and his family to try out the same. Obviously Harishchandra will not say a lie, but gets worried since he will be not be able to repay Vishwaamitra maharshi. Seeing the worry of her husband, Chandramati devi does a stotram to agni saying that if she were a pativrata, then the agni must stop. Immediately the huge daavaagni vanishes and they cross the forest safely.
The whole episode of Vishwaamitra maharshi testing Harishchandra starts with a conversion at Indra Sabha: A discussion will be raised to zero-in on a vratam which anyone whether rich or poor, whether king or servant, kid or elder, male or female can follow, exists or not. Vasishta maharshi suggests that satya vratam (speaking truth always) is there and tells that Harishchandra is a firm follower of it. Vasishta and Vishwaamitra both challenge each other, Vasishta saying "In the impossible event of Harishchandra uttering a lie I will leave sandhyaavandanaadi aahnikas, japa, tapas, remove yagnyopavita, become Bhrasta, have wine and behave in a way co-rishis will hate me, throw me out of there community and eventually goto naraka!". Vishwaanitra says "If Harishchandra stands my tests I will give half of my till now earned entire tapashshakti, make him rule the earth for many years and for 14 manvantaras will make him occupy the ardha-simhaasanam of Indra". Harishchandra in the end qualifies the tests of Vishwaamitra, enjoys all these bhogas and in the end with Lord Shiva's anugraham gets Moksham.
Morals in the Story:

1. Let even death may came, one must never leave the path of truth.
2. Though a person has to face temporary difficulties for following the path of truth, in the end always truth only wins.
3. The power of pativrata is enormous. It seems the power of Agni or howmuch ever tapashshakti cannot equal that of a pativrata. This is evident by the power of Chandramati devi.
4. निन्दन्तु नीतिनिपुणाः यदि वा स्तुवन्तु
   लक्ष्मीः समाविशतु गच्छतु वा यथेष्टम्।
   अद्यैव वा मरणमस्तु युगान्तरे वा
   न्याय्यात्पथः प्रविचलन्ति पदं न धीराः॥
   — भर्तृहरेः नीतिशतकम्
   nindantu nītinipuṇāḥ yadi vā stuvantu
   lakṣmīḥ āgacchatu gacchatu vā yatheṣṭam|
   adyaiva maraṇamastu yugāantare vā
   nyāyyātpathaḥ pravicalanti padaṁ na dhīrāḥ||
   — bhartṛhareḥ nītiśatakam
   “May those proficient in law praise or decry;
   May the Goddess of Wealth come or go as she pleases;
   Let Death come today or at the end of the yuga;
   The resolute will not deviate from the path of righteousness!”

Kaala Mahima is great. Kaalam is unavoidable, unbreachable and un-surpassable. Only the paramatma has control of it. Adi Sesha, the bearer of the worlds, is the Kaala swarupam and if you notice Lakshmana and Balarama who are Adi Sesha’s avatars were always with the paramaatma Raama and Krishna respectively. Under the influence of Kaalam, even great mightly warrior like Arjuna was not able to defeat mere thieves. Krishna’s brother Saathyaki and Krutaverma were one of the greatest yaadavas. Yet in the end they had to obey the result of their karma (because of muni shaapam for their arrogance, die in a petty fight amongst each other).
Arjuna arrives after the end of the avatar of Lord Krishna to Dwaaraka. He asks the residents of Dwaaraka to vacate the island as it would sink. He guards queens on their way to indraprastha. There the most distressing thing happens. He fails to ward of some thieves who kidnap and loot the ladies, the mighty Gaandiva fails to fire a single arrow. Later it is explained by bhagavaan Vyaasa about the power of time and its effects on everybody.
Garuda, the vaahana of Lord Vishnu, is one the strongest. A slight fanning of His wings would make the waters of the ocean spill out, showing the ocean’s bed. However, He too had to obey the rules of Kaalam and had to do daasyam for his cousins. The Naagas, the strong children of Kadruva, cousins of Garuda, ultimately had to go into the fires of the Sarpayaagam of Janamejaya, the prathama shrota of MahaaBhaarata. Their strength could not stop them from being burnt.
In order to imagine the enormous extent of Kaalam, consider the following:
Kaliyugam (Venkateshwara, Vikramaaditya) – 4,32,000 years.
Dvaapara (Krishna, Dharmaraaja) – 2*Kaliyugam
Tretaayugam (Raama, Lakshmana) – 3*Kaliyugam
Krutayugam (Narasimha, Harishchandra) – 4*Kaliyugam
Total is called one Mahaayugam – 4.32 million years
One Manu rules a Manvantaram composed of 71 Mahaayugams. (Current manu is Vaivasvata, the son of the Sun, Vivasva)
14 Manvantaraas is one day for Brahma and known as Kalpam. Other 14 will be nights.
For such 100 years, one Brahma is the shruti-karta. Next Brahma is Shri Hanuman and Bali chakravarti will be Indra in Saavarni Manvantaram. And such thousands and thousands of Brahmas have passed, so many that people no more have count of them. Imagine how tiny is the life of a human being in this! Yet a human has ahankaar that surpasses everyone’s.
Morals in the Story:

1. Many great people, however strong they are, could not surpass kaalam. So being a mere human being, one needs to shed all his ahankaar and be very happy with the fortune he has and stop lamenting for the things he does not posses.
2. There are a few instances in the past, where time was controlled by Paramaatma for upholding Dharma or for Bhaktas. So a true devotion in Him only will help us survive the ravages of time….

Lord Raama, the paramaathma, was ofcourse the greatest warrior ever. Lord Krishna in Bhagavadgita remarks “I am Raama among warriors”. He learnt all the Shastras and unparalled Dhanurvidya under the guidance of the great Vasishtha. He was also given super-human powers like bala, ati bala by the great Vishwamithra, the Rishi of Gayathri manthra. Vishwamithra maharshi also taught him all the secret astras that ever existed, which only he in this whole universe knew (he originally learnt it from Lord Shiva). In addition to these, Agasthya mahamuni gave him many additional powers.A few glimpses of Lord Raama’s valour:

1. With one arrow Raama kills taataki, the mighty raakshasi.
2. With two simultaneous arrows he kills subaahu and throws Maaricha seven seas away.
3. Effortlessly lifts the Shiva dhanush, which was pulled to the court by around 50000 well built people.
4. Raama kills Khara, Dhushana, their 1000 brothers and their army in 14 minutes single handed.

Despite being such a great warrior, he never displayed in strength on his own to show others. The anger on the samudra stands as a good example for this quality of Raama:
Raavana gives 30 days time to sita maata to decide if she will marry him, else will kill her. Bharata took word from Raama saying that if he does’nt return on the next moment of 14 yrs of aranyavaas, then he will sacrifice himself. Raama and his army reaches the shores of ocean with barely 30 days in hand. They have to cross the ocean, defeat Ravana & his army, take sita back to ayodhya in around 30 days time. With such a press for time and given the strength of Raama, Lakshmana suggests Raama not to spend time asking ocean God for way, but to order him.
What Raama does is unbelievable. Though he had the strength and power to control the ocean God, he did not do it. He did penance on the shores of the ocean for 3 long days to give them a way. Finally after 3 days Raama gets angry on the ocean and to make remember his duty, aims an astra at him and immediately ocean God appears and suggests a way of crossing him…

Morals in the Story:

1. We, for our small petty achievements in life, are very proud (ahankaar) and given a chance, display our strengths. The way of great people is quite different as shown by Lord Raama.
2. One must never use the strength or powers just because they exist with him, but judiciously use them for the benefit of everyone, upliftment of Dharma.

Message:

1. Controlling one’s ahankaar is one the most difficult things. If it is controlled we will see a more peaceful world.
2. Always people who are humble and obedient are only respected by others. If Lord Raama Himself is so humble, as mere normal human beings imagine how much obedient we must be to our elders and parents.

I am sharing a Story to "Importance of keeping one' word".

We all know that the pandavas left their kingdom for 13 long years for keeping up their word! Well, for Arjuna going away from the bhogas of a king, for the sake of truth, was not new. He did it once well before the aranyavaas. The story goes like this:
The kalyaanam of pandavas with Draupadi was an unusual one. However, it was perfectly according to dharma shastras. Infact Draupadi is one of the greatest pativratas and praised even by Lord Krishna for her Dharma vartana. A few reasons to justify the kalyaanam:

1. Kunti Devi, the mother of pandavas, who never knew what a lie was, gave her will.
2. Vyaasa Maharshi, one of the avataar of Lord Vishnu, ordered the kalyaanam to be done.
3. Lord Shiva, pleased with her tapas, gave a boon to Draupadi to marry the pandavas.
4. Pandavas, though were five physically, were all amshas of Indra, the King of the Gods. Hence, pandavas were actually one.

Naarada, again an avataar of Lord Vishnu, suggested some rules to be followed by pandavas and Draupadi for living together. This is because, though they were amshas of Gods and Godesses, since they had a human form some addition rules according to dharma shastras needed to be followed. One of the rules was that: Draupadi should spend one year with each of the pandavas and while she was with one of them, no other pandavas should visit the palace where they might be. In case of any breach of their rule, one-year pilgrimage was prescribed by way of penance leaving the kingdom.The pandavas and Draupadi were living happily until one day: a brahmana came running to Arjuna saying that the thieves had stolen his cows. Arjuna wanted to rush with him to catch the thieves but he realised that his bow and arrows were kept in Yudhisthira's palace and he was there in the company of Draupadi. He hesitated for a while, then seeing brahmana's plight he rushed in to Yudhisthira 's palace took his bow and arrows and ran to catch the thieves. After he caught the thieves and punished them, after restoring the cows of the brahmana, Arjuna came back to Yudhisthira and told him about his transgression of the rule.
Yudhisthira, knowing the reason of the breach of their rule, said their is no need for Arjuna to take the pilgrimage. Since it is a mistake committed towards him, and that too for a good reason, he will pardon arjuna . However, Arjuna would never break his word. He immediately set out for a one-year pilgrimage. May be this is why Arjuna is such a favourite sakha of Lord Krishna.
Morals in the Story:

1. The story shows how important it is to keep up ones word, whether it is of any consequence or not, how much ever difficult it is.
2. Arjuna, knowing that he will be punished for breaching the rule, did not stop doing his duty as a king to protect his people and punish the theif. Thus, one must always perform his duty without any laziness or any kind of fear.
3. Rewards for such people do show up as immediate difficulties, but in the end – it is truth is what always wins (Satyameva jayate). Arjuna's win was in the way of gaining eternal friendship with the Lord.

Message:

1. Imagine if everyone keeps his word and always speaks truth — will we have corruption? will we have poverty? Though its a very difficult to inculcate, unless we are truthful there will be no development.
2. Like Arjuna if everyone does they duty — will there be such slow development for such a large community of intelligent people?
3. Temporal gains got by saying lies never will be permanent. They will not only bring us down on a long run in life, leave aside winning the heart of the God.

The story of Rantideva

A hand is odorned with daanam rather than with kankanaas. Daanam must be done expecting absolutely nothing in return, admiring the greatness of the dana-grahita, for giving the daata an opportunity to help the grahita. Stories of great Daatas are huge in number in our Indian history, who gave away everything they had.

King Rantideva is well known not only in Bhuloka, but also in the urdhva lokas for his daana gunam. Rantideva never endeavored to earn anything for himself. He would enjoy whatever he got by vidhi and when atithis came he would give them what they needed. He gave away everything he had to the poor and underwent considerable suffering, along with the members of his family. Finally, he and his family members did not even get food and water, yet Rantideva always was always satisfied — a sthita pragnya.

One morning, after fasting for forty-eight days, Rantideva received some water and some paramaannam (paayasam with rice, milk and ghee). Just when about to eat them, a brahmana atithi arrived. Because Rantideva perceived the presence of the Paramaatma everywhere, and in every living entity, he received the atithi with faith and respect and gave him a share of the paramaannam. The brahmana ate his share and left the place satisfied. Thereafter, having divided the remaining paramaannam with his family, Rantideva was just about to eat his own share when another atithi, a shudra arrived. Seeing the shudra in relationship with the Purushottama, King Rantideva gave him also a share of the paramaannam. When the shudra went away, another atithi arrived, surrounded by dogs, and said, “O King, I and my company of dogs are very hungry. Please give us something to eat.” With great respect, King Rantideva offered the balance of the paramaannam to the dogs and the master of the dogs, who had come as atithis. Thereafter, only the drinking water remained, and there was only enough to satisfy one person, but when the King was just about to drink it, a chandaala appeared and said, “O King, although I am lowborn, kindly give me some drinking water.”

Aggrieved at hearing the pitiable words of the poor fatigued chandaala, Rantideva spoke the following madhura vaakyas. “I do not pray to the Lord for the ashta siddhis, nor for vimukti from samsaara saagaram. I want to stay among all the living entities and suffer all distresses on their behalf, so that they may be freed from suffering. By offering my water to maintain the life of this poor chandaala, who is struggling to live, I have been freed from all hunger, thirst, fatigue, trembling of the body, moroseness, distress, lamentation and illusion”. Having spoken thus, King Rantideva, although on the verge of death because of thirst, gave his own portion of water to the chandaala without hesitation, for he was naturally very kind.

The trimurtis appeared before Rantideva, satisfied by his daatrutvam and bless him. They revealed that they had come in the forms of the brahmana, shudra and chandaala in order to test his karuna, daya and daatrutvam.

Because Rantideva was a pure devotee, always thinking about Krishna and free from all material desires, the maaya could not exhibit herself before him. On the contrary, for him maaya entirely vanished, exactly like a dream. All those who followed the principles of King Rantideva were the favorites of Lord Krishna and became pure devotees, attached to the Purushottama. Thus they all became the best of the yogis.

Morals in the Story:

1. The importance and greatness of the daanam, helping others self-lessly is very well protrayed in the story of Rantideva.
2. Reluctance to earn for himself and sharing everything he had show the detatchment of Rantideva from materialistic world.
3. Rantideva truely realized God everywhere, thus did not see any difference between all the atithis and himself.
4. All the qualities of an uttama daanam are showed clearly in the story. All the daana-grahitas were hungry and thus deserved to be given food. Rantideva expecting nothing in return gives them everthing he has. He shows great respect to the atithis, without any kind of pride of being a daata.