Stories of India King Harishchandra

  Closed CaptioningKing Harishchandra Unknown 0:06Welcome, everyone, and I know some of you but by no means all of you. And my name isMurali. I serve at the Seattle Center, and I lead many of the hatha yoga programs inthere and as I was saying, I was born in India.

Storytelling s a tradition in my family, andstorytelling is by no means unique to the Indian tradition. Of course. Every major traditionhas stories, and some of those stories are very, very enduring. I was, I recently wentto London, and I flew via Iceland on my way to London because Iceland there has very cheaptickets to go from Seattle to London for whatever reason, and in the Keflavik airport, theyhave a little bookstore, and the bestsellers, about maybe four or five bestsellers of theten, were Icelandic mythologies, and as I was browsing through the books--as a storytellerI'm always interested them--I was not surprised but yet surprised to see how big a part ofIcelandic culture their mythology was, and, of course, we all know Norse mythology veryfamously and then Greek and Roman mythology, Native American mythology, Indian, Chinese,Japanese and other South and Southeast Asian mythologies, Russian, they all have this.So what's the deal? Why do we have those mythologies? Well, primarily because they have archetypes.They, they speak to the very essential nature, essential archetypes of humankind and thehuman condition, stripped of all the complexities of day-to-day life.

It ends up as archetypes.We have in America recent mythology since the 40s with America s experience with thetwo World Wars spawned our own set of archetypes and mythologies, the most famous one beingSuperman, and anthropologists 300 years from now will recognize Superman perhaps as Americanmythology and then trace back, trace it back to the traumatic times of the Great War thatspan for 40 years. So what's the deal with stories? You see, divine truths can be conveyedin two ways.

One is through the intellect. That's the Scripture. That's the Vedanta.That's the yoga sutras and that speaks primarily to the intellect and logic and it's calledcognition. The second way is speaking to the heart, and that, too, is an equally validway of experiencing the divine. While Scriptures speak to the intellect, stories speak to theheart, and in the Indian overall yogic, Vedantic, Sanatana Dharma culture, stories have occupieda central place simply because when you, there is an art of listening to the story.

The firstthing is, you know what it is when you listen to a story, the first thing you should dois stop thinking. Suspend disbelief. The more you logic your way through the story, themore you will entirely miss the essence of it. Okay? Identify yourself with the characters,go through what they are going through, chant with them, sing with them, be happy with them,suffer with them, and then without you knowing if it's a good story, if it's a good story,without you, knowing the mind will be uplifted in ways that you can perhaps not explain ina linear fashion.

So my invitation to you is as we start this, sit back, get into thecharacter. This is, I mean, this is a meditation of a different sort. It's okay for the spineto be a little bit bent. That's perfectly fine. Try not to fall asleep. I won't be offendedif you do. It's fine, but just sit back and listen with your heart. That s where I'm goingwith this, and the story I'm about to tell you is a little bit heart-rending. Okay, andyou will, you ll see, but let's begin as we do.

All stories always begin with an invocationto God and guru so let's begin with an invocation. [Invocation is sung.]Unknown 5:46 As we listen to the story of Satya Harishchandra,Harishchandra, the truthful. Those of you that have looked at the schedule, I know itsays it's a story of Bhishma, but the story of Bhishma, it's not something that lendsitself very well to... It's something that should be told over weeks, not in the courseof a single day, so I changed it to the story of Satya Harishchandra. Don't worry, you'llget your money's worth.

It's a very...Satya means truth. Bhavaa-teetam Triguna-rahitamSadgurum Twam Namaami. That s Bhavaa-teetam beyond feelings, triguna-rahitam devoid ofthe three qualities of sattva, rajas and tamas. Sadgurum-twam. Sat is truth. Sat-gurum, trueguru. Satgurum-twam namaami I bow. That's the last part of that invocation to Brahma.Sat is used a lot in our yogic path. Sat Sangha is the, it s usually translated as companyof like-minded individuals, but sat means truth, sangha means fellowship. It's a fellowshipof people that are in search of the truth, not a truth, but the truth. The truth is asynonym for God. Okay, Aum Tat Sat is Aum, Holy Ghost, the heavenly vibration, creativevibration, Tat, the Christ Consciousness, Sat, the truth.

Sat chit ananda, the 50thanniversary of Ananda, bliss. What kind of Ananda is it? Sat, true or ever existing becausetruth is infinite, ever existing, timeless, chit, ever new, ananda, joy, ever existing,ever new joy so the word sat, satya, truth is a proxy, a moniker, a synonym for God,and Swamiji writes in the, in the Yoga Sutras, it says that satya-pratishthaayaam, it's chapter2, verse thirty.., sutra number 36.

satya-pratishthaayam kriyaa-phala-ashritatvam. It means satya-pratishtha,he that is established in Truth; kriya means action; phala means fruit: the fruits of theaction . Aashritatvam means take refuge . He that is established in truth, the fruits ofyour actions take refuge in Him. The way Swamiji translates it is quite extraordinary, sayshe that's established in truth, the objective reality changes to conform to his word. SoSwamiji calls it dynamic truth, not a mere statement of fact.

You see, truth has a compellingpower of its own. It's called satyagraha. Satyagraha. It's the famous movement thatMahatma Gandhi founded, and it's often translated as civil disobedience, but if you, if you,if you pick apart the Sanskrit, then satya means truth, agraha means compulsion. Thoseof you Indians here that know Hindi, agraha is a word that we use commonly in Hindi andin other Indian languages. It means compelling. So as Master called Mahatma Gandhi the tiny,100-pound saint, he was the indomitable wall that repelled the mighty British Empire. Whatwas his weapon? It was the compelling power of truth, and that's why Gandhi called thismovement a Satyagraha.

That's where the name comes from. Now, when he was a teenager, MahatmaGandhi saw a play, a dramatization of the story of Satya Harishchandra, the one thatI'm about to tell you, and he said, I obsessed over it day and night, because he was stunnedby the power of truth that the story contained, and that formed the germ of his idea for civildisobedience which since then has changed the course of the world. So it's, it's a storythat's as timeless as it's timely. It's influenced people across the centuries, even you know,one of, India has two primary exports, and then I'm not talking software.

The two primaryexports from India are yoga and Bollywood; isn t that true? The very first moving picturein India, you know what that was? That was Satya Harishchandra 1929 for those of youthat know. Durga Kote famously played it in a Marathi movie. That's what it was. So thisis a, and then, then that spawned Bollywood in irony, if there ever was one. It s a reallydeep story.

Just sit back, like I said, feel the story, and kind of get into the bhav ofit. All stories begin in the same way; there s no difference in every story. We alwayssay, a long, long time ago, there was a great king, Unknown 10:47and this was a long time ago. How long ago? This was an age it s called Treta Yuga, theage of magnetism, when the thinnest of the veils separated God from human beings. Youcould see God everywhere in the smile of children and the sweetness of honey, in the heartsof men and in the ruling of kings, God was just right there separated by the thinnestof the illusions. And in that age, the entire Earth was ruled by a king named Harishchandra.I will tell you a few complicated Indian names; there's only five of them, okay? They arecomplicated.

I don't have any mnemonics for you to remember them. You just have to kindof, I'll keep repeating them until you know. Harishchandra is the first one. He's, he'sa great king. He was as virtuous as he was wise. He was as strong as he was handsome.He was merciless, ruthless and powerful when protecting the weak and the infirm and theold. He was compassionate and caring when dispensing justice. Among scholars and wisemen, he was humble, and among children, he was playful. His wife Shaivya was as virtuousas Harishchandra was.

Unknown 12:08Excuse me. [Microphone being adjusted.] Unknown 12:25So if you want to know what the whispered conversation was about, all the cordless micsare in use, so we have to use this mic. So he's now, we re talking about Harischandras wife, Shaivya. She, too, was as virtuous as he was, and as handsome as he was, shewas as beautiful. They had a child, Rohita, the prince. Although he was just a young boy,the mark of greatness was already upon him, and so it was that Harischandra, the lordemperor of the earth and Shaivya, the queen, and the prince ruled the earth righteously.It was a time because of the harmony of their rule, there were no famines, diseases or untimelydeath.

People glorified God through their lives and satisfied their karmas appropriately.One day, Harischandra is out, outside of his capital city, there's a great dark forest,and he's out, he's chasing a wild boar through the forest. The wild boar had come into thevillages and was terrorizing the villagers, so he was out there trying to get rid of thescourge. It's evening time, as dusk, the shadows are a little longer.

The forest seems a littledarker and slightly scarier. There was an evening mist which makes everything look etherealin the soft light of the dusk, and he's galloping away chasing the boar when suddenly Harishchandrahears a cry of a woman in distress. Save me, it says, Help me. Please don't let them killme. And Harischandra abandons his search for the boar and then gallops towards the sourceof the sound. It seems to be coming from a thicket over on this side, and then he movesinto the thicket, gallops a little faster, expertly going through the underbrush andthe thick copse of trees.

The sound gets stronger and stronger, so he knows that he's in theright direction, and then he emerges out into a clearing. It s a misty, grassy clearing,and the sound is even louder, and what does he see? There's no woman there, but yet thescreams are coming. All he sees is a gigantic rock and sitting on the rock is a yogi. He'ssitting in full lotus pose, padmasana, and he has his thumb and forefinger together ingyana mudra, mudra of wisdom. His spine is erect. He s scantily clad. Long, flowing beardsand matted locks. His eyes are half open, half closed. His fingernails are so Unknown 15:00long that it's obvious that the yogi is sitting completely unmoving, motionless for a decade.Help me.

Please don't let them kill me. The sound is coming from inside his body. Unthinking,Harishchandra gallops his horse towards the rock, leaps from the horse in an expert boundand strides up nimbly up on the rock, stands next to Vishwa--stands next to the yogi andis ready to do the unthinkable. He's ready to disturb a rishi, a yogi in deep meditation.That is never done. A yogi in meditation is as holy as the sunset or the sunrise. 

Youwatch it and you'll be sanctified by it; you never disturb it. Unknown 15:51But overcome by Unknown 15:52delusion and unable to tolerate the screams, Harishchandra is about to do that. You see,unbeknownst to him, the yogi is none other than the great Rishi Vishwamitra, the friendof the universe. A decade he, he was, he was a God-realized being and it was through himGod used him as a channel to gift to humanity the greatest of all mantras, the Gayatri mantra,so he's well known, and about a decade ago, it was the Divine will that Vishwamitra meditatein this very forest clearing and subdue the evil spirits that had inhabited that partof the forest for ages. So after ten years of meditation, drawing his concentration inward,increasing his energy by leaps and bounds using his magnetism, Vishwamitra had drawnthe evil spirits back into his spine.

The gigantic inner conflict was taking place,and the evil spirits are just about to be subdued, just about to be subdued and theywere making the noise, Help me. Please don't let them kill me. Harishchandra, not knowingany of this, is ready to do the unthinkable. He stands over Vishwamitra and then shakeshim from his meditation, and as soon as he does that, a decade's worth of concentrationis broken. His spine is demagnetized, and the evil spirits happily escape into the forest.

Their evil presence is felt immediately. Harishchandra feels it. The moment he shook Vishwamitra,he feels that something's changed. There is evil in the air. He knows he committed anunpardonable sin. Vishwamitra opens his eyes; they are blazing with anger. Who dares disturbmy meditation. More importantly, who dare stand as an obstacle when I am doing the willof God? Such is his anger that his emaciated frame is radiating power and vitality. Hisanger, the power of the universe, is ready to be harnessed and ready to burn Harishchandrainto ashes right that moment, and Harishchandra is shaking with fear. He s a great, virtuousking, but who can stand in front of the power of God himself? Nobody can. Like leave stuckin a windstorm, Harishchandra is shaking, and he falls at Vishwamitra s feet, holdsthe feet and says, My Lord, please forgive me. I was only doing my duty. What am I todo? I am a kshatriya, a warrior, a king, protector of the weak. When I hear the screams of awoman, I have to go protect her. Please forgive me, Lord. I was overcome by delusion. Witha visible effort of will that's unfathomable, Vishwamitra calms himself down. His blazingeyes regain their divine calmness. Harishchandra, too, has recovered, and then Vishwamitra looksat Harishchandra and says, You have committed an unpardonable sin. Ignorance cannot be anexcuse for it. Tell me, Harishchandra, what are you going to do to repent for your sin?Harishchandra looks at him calmly. Anything I have, my Lord, anything is yours to take.Vishwamitra says, Take caution in what you're promising. Really? Is it anything that I have?And Harishchandra says, Yes, my Lord.

All right. I will remember this, and one of thesedays, I'll come and claim something from you, and then Vishwamitra goes back to his meditation.Harishchandra goes back to his kingdom. A month passes, and Harishchandra s court isin full session. He's the ruler of the entire earth, so his large ceremonial court hallon either side are representatives from vassal states from across the earth, and there arescholars, administrators, artisans, painters, singers, thousands of people, and Vishwamitrais sitting there conducting the business of the state. He's deeply engrossed into it,and while he's doing that, in strides the majestic, emaciated, blazing form of Vishwamitra.As Harishchandra is holding court, in a loud voice Vishwamitra demands, O King, I havecome to accept my gift. For a moment Harishchandra is stunned because he's deep in the midstof administering the earth, and then he hurriedly gets up, recognizes who it is, and then honorsVishwamitra the way it's supposed to, brings him up on the dias, has a throne of equalheight next to him. He says, What can I give you, my Lord, and Vishwamitra says, Remember,you promised that you will give me anything that you are able to give? Yes, my lord. Isaid so effulgent one. Happily, I'll give it to you. Unknown 20:48And Vishwamitra says, Hear this. This is my demand, and this shall absolve you of theunpardonable sin that you committed. You shall give me the entire earth with its lands, flowingrivers, trees, forests, ocean deeps and vast fruitful plains. They shall all belong tome. All the animals, the singing birds, all of your citizens, they are now under my dominion.Very calmly, completely unmoved, Harishchandra says, Yes, my lord, it is all yours, becausehe is Harishchandra, the truthful. He serves the truth and nothing else. Vishwamitra isnot done. He says, There is more. He says, I want all of your palaces, your chariots,elephants, horses, armies and arms. Yes, my lord. All of your gold coins, jewelry, wealth.They are all mine. Yes, sir. Great Rishi, they're all yours. He's not done yet. Yourwardrobe, all the clothes that you wear, the fine silks and the bracelets, the rings, necklacesof not only you, but of Queen, Shaivya and the Prince, Rohita. They are all mine. Yes,my lord, but what shall we wear? Only the coarsest of linens to cover your modesty andrough hewn slippers to walk in the forest. Yes, my lord. It's all yours. He's not doneyet. What else is left to give? What else can a man give? He can give all of his pastgood karma, can he, can he not? It's called punya in Sanskrit. So Vishwamitra says, Youshall give to me all of your past good karma. He will be bereft of the fruits of every gooddeed, good thought, every charitable work that you did throughout all of your lifetimes.They shall be mine. Harishchandra is stunned for a moment.

Such a gift has never been demanded,but it shall be given for, after all, is he not Harishchandra, the truthful? He says,Yes, sir. That, too, shall be yours. Now how are gifts given back in those days? You justdidn't write a check and say, Here you go. That wasn't how it was done. You see, givinga gift was a way of refining your own consciousness, so it had a ritual. The ritual was that youwould first honor the person that you're gifting to because that's the person that's helpingyou purify your ego, and then you take a bit of holy water in your hands, invoke into itthe essence of the gift that you are about to give, imbue it with the power and energyof that gift and offer that holy water to the person that's taking the gift. It's calledarghya. That's the name in Sanskrit. Even today if you go to Rishikesh next time youare in India, you go to Rishikesh Haridwar, Kashi, any of the holy rivers go there atsunrise, and you will see people giving arghya to the sun and saying, Aum swaha. That means,I offer myself to you, life-giving sun. They are, they are gifting themselves to sun; that'swhat it means. That then the third part of the ritual is something called dakshina. Dakshinameans so you just don't give a gift. You give a little sub-gift, a little supplementarygift with the main gift. It s as if say you're giving a donation, you write a check and thenyou give a flower or a few fruits, and then you offer the check. Have you seen that? That'sdakshina, or every gift has to be given with dakshina, so Harishchandra says, snaps hisfingers. A great golden ball is brought, and he washes Vishwamitra s feet with the holywater of the Ganges River, and then he takes a water pot, places water on it, holds itto his spiritual eye, imagines all of his possessions over which he held dominion untiljust now. He imagines his wife's, his child's possessions. He imagines all the good karmathat he has done over all the lifetimes, such was his grace that he could recall his lifetimesat that single moment. He imbues the holy water with all of that, offers it as arghyato Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra receives the water, drinks it, and they, that's how the transferwas complete.

That was, that's the contract, and then whatever little is left, he sprinklesit on his crown chakra and then it was done. And just like that, Harishchandra, the kingemperor, becomes destitute. Shaivya, the empress, the queen, has nothing except the coarsestof linens to wear, and the little boy has to suffer hunger and strife for the rest ofhis life. Unknown 25:43But yet satyagraha, the compelling power of the truth is such that, devoid of all of hispossessions, with Shaivya and Rohita, they all come.

The little boy s in the middle andthe father and mother are on either side. They stride down from the great throne room.Instead of being diminished by the loss, it somehow seems that their stature is enhancedby their sacrifice. As they stride down, the great palace somehow seems to have shrunk,so big is their aura. With held, head held high, shoulders squared, the royal familystrides down, opens the palace doors, and goes out into the royal boulevard. Word hasspread already. Lining on either side of the royal boulevard are all the citizens of thecapital city of the earth. They are crying. It's like losing their parents. Some of themare writhing on the floor because so great is their sorrow.

They're pulling on the clothesof Harishchandra and saying, Why are you leaving us? Who are we without you? You've made usorphans. Harishchandra, too, feels grief, and, and the citizens cannot hold themselvesback when they see Shaivya, the Queen, walk out in coarse linen, and they think, The Queenand the prince, they always came in palanquins and behind them was an entourage of elephantsand servants and in front of them were horsemen and warriors, and here she is, walking.

Ourqueen, our mother. They, too, Harishchandra and his wife are grief stricken, but the powerof the truth upholds them and then they walk resolutely. They come to the city gates, andas the gatekeepers are about to open the city, they hear the voice of Vishwamitra, the yogiand the sage, he who speaks with the voice of God. They hear his voice and says, O King,have you not forgotten something? Harishchandra turns back. What have I forgotten, Lord? Igave you everything I had. You have forgotten the dakshina. Where is the smaller gift thatyou are supposed to give me? Sir, I have nothing. I have, you saw me. I've given you everythingother than the clothes on my back. I have nothing. What can I give you? I'm happy togive you the clothes I have. I can, I'm happy to give you the coarse, rough-hewn slippersthat I'm wearing. I have nothing else to give. Unknown 28:17Vishwamitra says, Unknown 28:19How can you give a great gift like that without a commensurate equivalent dakshina to go withit. I hereby fix the dakshina to be 1,000 gold coins. If you don't give it to me, youwill be known forever as Harishchandra, the untruthful, Harishchandra that broke his word.Dharmic man that he is, Harishchandra knows that Vishwamitra is right. It is his rightto demand the dakshina; that's what the dharma says. He says, Oh effulgent one, please giveme one month. I will somehow find the dakshina and then give it to you. Okay, go with God.Fare thee well. May you not be disturbed by robbers or bandits on your way.

Vishwamitrablesses him and sends him off. Harishchandra goes into the forest. Along, arduous journey. Who knows how many days it took, but eventually they come outof the forest, and by now they are dusty. They're emaciated. Half the time they've beenhungry, and they've only been foraging and eating whatever they could get. Brave thoughthe king was, warrior though he was, what can he do without any weapons? They are emaciated,dust-covered, and they emerge into the celestial city of Kashi, Benares. It is said that whenBrahma, the creator, created the earth, he also created Kashi. You see, every city inthe world exists to celebrate life.

Kashi is special. It's created by Shiva, the destroyer,and it celebrates death. In a regular city, you have granaries. You have palaces, youhave marriage halls and you have schools, and then that's how it should be because itperpetuates and celebrates life. In Kashi you have are cremation grounds and templesdedicated to Lord Shiva, and that's it. It's the only city; it's called the Eternal City,and it celebrates death. It gives an opportunity for everybody to come there to renounce everythingthey have and embrace death with open arms and thereby feel the presence of God behindthe vicissitudes, behind the finiteness of life.

They feel the infinite presence of God,only by boldly embracing the death. In Kashi corpses, they don't put makeup on corpsesand tell them or hold them up for viewing. They take the corpse just the way it was whenit died, embrace the death and burn it in a, in a funeral pyre. It happens even today.It's been happening for thousands and thousands of years. The city is filled with the chantof the great five- Unknown 31:17syllable mantra, Aum Namah Shivaya, and as Harischandra emerges from the forest to therising sun, he hears the chant of Aum Namah Shivaya. All around him, resonant. Let us,too, chant with Harischandra this great five-syllable chant. [Chants] Unknown 33:15He walks into the celestial city, the city of the dead, Kashi, into the chant of AumNamah Shivaya. As he gazes at the rising sun, he suddenly sees a little ball of light thatdetaches itself from the orb of the sun. He's seeing it across the Ganges River. The ballof light detaches itself, raises towards him in the sky, becoming brighter and brighter,almost overwhelmingly, blindingly bright, and then lands in front of him, and the diffuseform arranges itself, coalesces into Vishwamitra. The sage, the yogi Vishwamitra says, Harishchandra,where is my dakshina? Today is your thirty days. Thirty days are up, and Harishchandrasays, O, effulgent one, we've been in the forest all these days.

Technically, the dayis not over until dusk, so please give me until dusk. I will give you your 1,000 goldcoins. Vishwamitra looks at him sternly, says, I will be back. Now Harishchandra is desperate.He goes to the market square, and then he stands on a tall platform. This is where allbusiness is conducted in the city of the dead, and then he says, I am ready to work. I'mvery capable. I'm very qualified in many, many, many skills. Please somebody gives mework. He says, I am a warrior. I know swordsmanship. I am an archer,and they look at him, his matted locks. He is dust covered. He's wearing coarse linen,and he s stooped and they laugh at him What kind of a warrior are you? You cannot evenkill a mosquito, they say, and then this goes on for a little bit. Nobody buys him. Harishchandragets even more desperate. By now it's noon; the harsh noonday sun of central India isbeating down on him; he's getting desperate, and he says, I will sell myself. I will servewhomever my master is, whomever buys me, I will serve him for the rest of my life. Willsomebody not buy me? Nobody buys him. Nobody comes forward. Harischandra is now desperate.He's dejected. He's hungry.

He's aware that his wife and child are hungry, too. What doeshe do? Harischandra, the truthful, the virtuous king emperor of the earth, gives up and says,I'm done. He comes down the platform, goes to his wife, Shaivya, and says, My beloved,I cannot give the dakshina. There is no way I can get 1,000 gold coins. When Vishwamitracomes in the evening, I will admit my defeat, but don't worry, I'll make sure that his curseonly falls on me. After all, your only mistake was to be married to a wretch like me. Nothingwill happen to you. Now Shaivya who s normally very gentle, soft-spoken and compassionate,her face hardens, and she looks at him, and in a strong voice, she says, Forsake yourgrief, O king. Forsake your weakness. What are you saying? A man that doesn't stick tohis word is worse than the vilest of criminals. He will rot in purgatory for eternity. Afterhaving committed acts of charity and piety all your life, why do you want to give itall up and lose your place in the heavens just because of a moment of weakness. Shesays, I have only one desire, that my husband be celebrated as Harishchandra, the truthful,not as Harishchandra, the liar. And this stuns Harishchandra back, and he sees what his goalin life should be and then Shaivya is about to say something, something else, but thenshe breaks down and starts weeping.

She's unable to say it. Now Harischandra, his momentarydelusion is gone, so he holds his wife's face in both of his hands, and he says, What isit, my beloved? What do you want to tell me? Whatever it is, you are my better half. Youkeep me dharmic. Please tell me. Whatever that is, I ll listen to you. She says, MyLord, I have been so lucky to be married to you. Every desire of mine has been fulfilled.I've been so blessed, and I have born you a great virtuous son. I have only one moredesire, and that is to see that Harishchandra is celebrated as being committed to truth.Will you please, and now her voice cracks as she says, she says, Will you please sellme. I can be a maid for the rest of my life. There are many rich Brahmins in the city ofthe dead. They ll need my services. I can take care of somebody s household. Unknown 38:17Harishchandra is grief stricken. He doesn't know what to do. What, what can he do? Butthat is the way of the truth. That is the power of the truth.

That's what truth demandsof him, so he reluctantly agrees, goes back on the platform and asks if there are anybuyers for his wife and son, and a Brahmin comes Unknown 38:38he says, I will pay you 500 Unknown 38:40gold coins for your wife and 250 for your son. And so it was the king emperor of thehub and the earth, being committed to truth, was forced to sell his wife and his son intoeternal servitude into the house of a Brahmin. But now, remember, I said truth has its owncompelling power. That compelling power forms a shield around him, and even though he'sforced to do these things and even though Shaivya is forced to commit herself into servitude,the power of the truth keeps them calm, peaceful. They see beyond the trajectory of whatever'shappening right now, and so even in this most grief-stricken moment, they are calm. Theylook at each other one last time, eyes brimming with tears, heart swimming in an ocean ofgrief. With this one last look, they have the communication of a lifetime and then theyturn away from each other. Shaivya and Rohita walk behind the Brahmin into their new lifeof servitude. Without even looking, Harishchandra holds the bag of 750 gold coins. Vishwamitraappears, takes it. By now it's 3 p.m., and he says, Three more hours. You owe me 250gold coins more, and he vanishes. Now Harischandra goes back onto the platform. He's filled witha new resolve. He hears the words of his wife, that the man who lies is the vilest of thevile, is worse than the worst criminal. He says, I shall never lie. I shall stick tomy word, so he goes back on the platform, and he says, Somebody please buy me. I promiseyou I will serve you to the best of my ability for the rest of my natural life. I will evenlive as long as I can, so that you shall not be deprived of my services. This is my promiseto you. By now a great crowd has gathered because they've seen this strange Unknown 40.43man claiming to be a warrior, claiming to know all kinds of things, yet looking likean emaciated buffoon, and at the same time they have seen him sell his wife, so theyare enjoying his misery. Schadenfreude it is called. So a large crowd has gathered.Harischandra asks one more time. It is almost dusk, and then from behind the crowd comesa harsh, frightful, grating voice and the voice says, I will by you, and the crowd cleavesas if moved apart by an invisible force, and from in between the crowd comes a frightful-lookinggiant of a man. He s huge, over seven feet tall, has a big belly, rotting teeth, foulsmelling. He has a garland of bones around his neck, and he has a skull in his hand.He has a blanket draped over his shoulder infested with bugs and insects, and the crowis flying around him frenzied, making crow-like noises. The crowd whispers, Pravira, it saysand Pravira says one more time in his frightening voice, I will buy you. In the city of thedead, even death is not feared as much as Pravira is. UnknownHe Unknownis the keeper of the crematorium grounds, of all the crematorium grounds in the celestialcity of Kashi. He has the horrible job of collecting a bag of rice and a little moneyfrom the weeping relatives of dead people as they come to get themselves cremated, andpeople adorn dead bodies with, with a fine piece of clothing as a mark of respect. Justbefore lighting them on fire, Pro has the vile job of taking that cloth and keepingit for himself. The crowd, the crowd wants nothing to do with it. In his ears, Harischandrahears a voice. In his left ear Harishchandra hears the voice of Vishwamitra. Vishwamitra,using his yogic powers, is speaking as his inner voice. Vishwamitra says, My son, Harishchandra,don't do this. The fact that you are even thinking about doing this is enough of yourcommitment of a demonstration of your commitment to truth. I absolve you from the other 250gold coins that you're about to give me. Spending one minute with Pravira will give you suchbad karma that you will burn in purgatory for hundreds of years. Don't do this. In hisright ear, Harishchandra hears the voice of his wife. All that a man has is his word.If he's known as a liar, he's worse than the vilest of criminals. So speaking with thevoice of his heart, replying to the voice in his left ear, Harishchandra says, No, sir.I didn't give you my word. I gave my word to the universe.

It's dynamic truth. Truthis not fact. I cannot withdraw it merely because I don't like a job. What does that make me?If it means I rot in hell for eternity, so be it. I will gladly take it before beingbranded as a liar. So boldly he strides down the platform and goes to Pravira, holds outhis hands for the 250 gold coins, takes that, holds it to the side. Vishwamitra appearsand takes his gold coin and silently blesses him, saying, Your debt is now finished andHarishchandra leans down in front of Pravira, the crematorium keeper says, I shall servethee, Lord. You are my God from this point on. Your wish is my command. The rotting pieceof blanket that Pravira had on his shoulder, which was recently draped over a dead body,he takes that blanket and drapes it over Harishchandra as a symbol of his eternal servitude.

Unknown 45.17Despite all of this, even in this most horrible of choices, Harishchandra is saying, Thoughmy sea is dark and my stars are gone, I still see the light of truth because of God's mercy.I have made thee pole star of my life, he says, and as he gets up and begins to walkbehind Pravira, the lord emperor of the earth has only one pole star which is the truthand he walks to his new duties as the keeper of a crematorium. UnknownAs he walks, he continues into the crematorium, and Pravira shows him his hut, and he says,This is where you reside from now on, and your job is to collect money and the bag ofrice, and from there, a sixth of it goes to the king and the rest of it, a third of itgoes to me and you can keep the rest of it, and so begins the new life of Harishchandra.But he has a pole star, and he keeps singing to himself, Unknown 46.50I have made thee pole star of my life. I have made thee pole star of my life. Chant Unknown 48.51Day after day Harishchandra sits not on his throne, not attending to the business of state,but he sits in front of the funeral pyres in the city of dead. It's not something thatruns from 9 to 6; it runs 24 hours. Death doesn't come during business hours, does it?It comes at all times. So people are streaming in day and night, and Harishchandra dutifullygoes, gets the bag of rice and the little bit of money, turns them away when they areunable to pay it because such is his job. His duty is now only to his master. That,too, is the service of truth.

You cannot pick and choose the truth that applies to you.Truth is one and eternal as it says. So he continues this job, but even then he's undisturbed.There is a calm that settles over him because he has made the ultimate sacrifice of thetruth and he faces death. He sees change in front of him day and night. There are youngchildren who died who are not supposed to die. There are people struck down in the primeof their lives, and there are old people that have lived well beyond the prime of theirlives. Day after day, he sees the impermanence of life. Because of the atmosphere and becauseof sitting in front of the funeral pyres of fire every day, his skin shrivels, his eyesbecome darker and lose their luster it seems, but there is an unearthly peace within him.It feels like God is right there. All he needs to do is close his eyes. Beyond the miasmaof death, he sees the permanence of the soul, and here it was that Harishchandra found thepeace that he was unable to find when being the emperor of earth, he was unable to findwith all of his wealth. In the city of the dead attending to the final, macabre needsof corpses. sticking to the truth above all else, satyagraha, he finds satchitananda here Unknown 51.09in the cremation ground, and so this goes on.

He loses track of time. Destiny stillnot done with this great king. So one day, it's about 3 a.m. and the crematorium doors,there s a knocking. He goes over and opens it. There is a disheveled, Unknown 51.29old-looking woman. She's discolored and absent minded. Her eyes are darting here and there.She's overcome with grief, it's obvious, and she's holding the corpse of a small childin her hands, and she says, Sir, my child has just died because he was bitten by a cobra.The venom was so potent that it killed him in minutes. I need to cremate him right awaybecause that's what the Scriptures say for him to have an astral ascension. Will younot light the funeral pyre? And Harishchandra says, Do you have the bag of rice? Do youhave the money? No, sir, I don't. Then I'm sorry for you, blessed lady, I cannot letyou. Then as he says that, he looks at the boy. Why is my heart racing, he asks himself,and there it is, unmistakable, on the boy's forehead, the birthmark of the prince of therealm. It is his son Rohita, and then he looks at the woman once again.

This disheveled,discolored, almost mad with grief woman is none other than his beautiful wife, Shaivya,and in this moment, she, too, recognizes him. They come into each other's arms, consolingeach other. Losing the child, such an unnatural thing to happen under these circumstances,helpless as they both are, and then Shaivya says, Will you not cremate your own son? Harishchandrasays, You know the answer to that. I cannot be untruthful. My master has said that I needa bag of rice and some money. Until then I cannot light the fire. You have it. He may,he makes his heart be, turn into a stone, and she knows, she knows the power of truthand his commitment to it. She too, has made the ultimate sacrifice, so she, too, has powers,inner powers that she didn't know until that moment. So reaching deep inside, she manifestsa wall of fire right in front of her, and she says, My beloved husband, yes, I understand.You cannot create the funeral pyre without me giving you a bag of rice and money. However,I have created it. Let all three of us enter into the fire and let us be reunited in theastral realm as the family that we once were. Happily Harishchandra walks with her intothe fire.

What a great solution, but in the last moment he stops. He lets go of her hand.He says, My beloved wife, I cannot do that, because he remembers his promise he made onthe platform. He said, I will live as long as I possibly can because I will serve you.So he says, I cannot do that, and the wife looks at him. She knows by now it is God thatis moving her, her celestial husband. Words are being spoken which will be rememberedfor ages to come, so she looks at him, walks into the fire along with her son. Harishchandralooks calmly on as the tongues of flame become bigger and brighter and hotter and begin toengulf the queen of the earth and the prince of the realm. And then suddenly, in an instant,the fire disappears. There is an unearthly glow in the skies, and descending from theskies in a golden chariot is Indra, the King of Gods. A thousand divine voices sing, Glorybe to Harishchandra. Glory, glory be to Shaivya. The king of gods, he's resplendent in thefinest of silks, ethereal they seem so fine they are, gem studded crown. An aura of divinelight surrounds him. So uplifting is his presence that in this cremation ground, flowers beginto bloom at his very appearance. The smell of charred corpses and burning flesh is replacedby the fragrance of roses and lilies. Indra, the King of Gods, comes down, walks up toHarishchandra and says, O King, your test is over. It was the Divine will that the godstest you, your commitment to truth because as the lower ages are coming, there is needfor a pole star for people to follow. They cannot go in and out of truth as they want,and so you were picked by Brahma himself to be tested in this way, and you passed withflying colors, Indra says. Harishchandra looks at him, says, Lord, for your test, did youhave to take the life of my innocent child? What has he done, and Indra smiles at himso dazzlingly, and Harishchandra in surprise this smile is so discordant, Unknown 56.49Even what he said that Harishchandra looks back at where Rohita s corpse was supposedto be and there instead of the corpse is the boy all healthy, and he runs up to his father,hugs his legs and Harishchandra scoops him up like a man in a desert scooping up waterand drinks in the fragrance of his son, nuzzles his neck, holds him, never to let him go.Shaivya runs up to her husband and her son. They all hold each other. The soft voice ofVishwamitra interrupts this reunion and he says, Forgive me, King, for testing you soharshly but such was the will of Brahma. I had to do it. He takes his water pot, poursthe water in it, invokes all of Harishchandra s possessions and says, Hold out your hand,King. I am going to give your dominion back to you. So what does Harishchandra say? Hesays, No, sir, effulgent one. I cannot accept it. Do you not remember the promise I madeon the platform. I am indebted.

I am in servitude to Pravira, the cremation groundskeeper, andmy wife and son are in servitude to the Brahmin. Just because I did this there's no clausein there which says you serve me until you become a king. I have to serve them. I don'twant my kingdom. The heavens are stunned, and Pravira walks up to him except he's nolonger this horrifying, scary man. He is the God of Dharma. God of Dharma is the divineaccountant. He's the one that s patiently taking note of all of your good and bad deeds,and he says, I am the God of Dharma, and therefore, I have erased your servitude to me. And theBrahmin, too, is one of the devas. I have erased your wife and son s servitude due them.Accept the kingdom, and this was the final test, and because of this final test, youhave now achieved something that no man has achieved before and perhaps no one else willever will. You have earned the right, the weight of your karma, good karma is so greatthat you have now earned the right to ascend into the heavens in your mortal frame. Come;the golden chariot awaits you, and the gods are singing, Glory be to Harishchandra. Glorybe to Shaivya. UnknownSuch a commitment to truth has never been seen before. Harishchandra says, No, no, sir.I can't do this. Interesting. No, the test is really over. There is, there is reallyno, no more tricks to this. This, this is what Brahma asked us to do. We re done. Really,come to heaven. UnknownHarishchandra s commitment to truth is so great that it's even transcended the moralityof astral beings, says, I cannot do that. When I was born here, into this earth, intothis incarnation, my job, my dharma, my karma was to take care of my subjects. I was meantto protect the weak and Unknownto dispense justice and rule my kingdom justly and compassionately. I cannot, if I ascendto heaven, who will take care of my kingdom, and he said, You said I have this great karma,and you said Shaivya and Rohita have this great karma to ascend into the heavens. Helooks at the God of Dharma, the divine accountant, and he says, Do you not have the power todistribute my good karma among all the citizens of earth? Everybody is stunned. Even the godsare unable to comprehend the extraordinary morality that is implied in this. It trulyis the gospel for a new age, they say. They feel the presence of Brahman himself, laudingHarishchandra s commitment to truth, and so Indra says, Tathastu, so be it.

Your goodkarma is distributed among the citizens of the earth, and the earth will be prosperousand dharmic like never before. And so it was at Harishchandra goes back to his kingdom,rules his kingdom for many hundreds of years, and then attains liberation, and the Kingof Gods declares that there has never been seen one as truthful as Harishchandra. Fromnow on, for as long as the sun and the moon exist, you shall be known as Satya Harishchandra,Harishchandra the truthful. It is Unknown 1:02.03not enough to pick and choose your truth. You have to commit to truth with such single-mindedfocus that the Lord eventually becomes yours. Declare to the Lord, I am Thine, Lord. Lord,I am Thine. Be thou mine. I will commit to truth. And so it was that for thousands ofyears, Harishchandra s story has been recalled in satsang, as in gatherings just like this,and may we, too, like Harishchandra be blessed by the gift of truth. Let us all concludethe story with this wonderful chant declaring our fealty to truth, our allegiance to God:Lord I am Thine, I am Thine I am Thine, Lord, I am Thine, I am Thine. Be Thou mine. Oh,be Thou mine. Be Thou mine. Oh, be Thou mine. I am Thine, I am Thine. Aum, shanti, shanti,shanti, amen. Thank you, everybody, for coming, for listening. That s a wonderful satsangthis afternoon. Thank you, Badri, for the musical accompaniment.