SIBI CHAKRAVARTHY(KING)

 Stories are not meant for entertainment alone. Stories are a form of sharing valuable lessons to everyone. There are stories, passed from several generations, from grandparents, parents and it continues. There are stories on traditions, culture, stories from epics, past kings and their kingdom. Most of the stories are said to children, to sow the seeds of moral values early in their heart and to know about the culture, kings, traditions, history and many more.

I have added an audio podcast in Tamil. This will be a bed time story for kids. Please use this to listen to the story in tamil. Sibi King Story(Tamil) Bedtime story

One such is the story of the king Sibi. This story is from the tales of Mahabharata.

Many many years ago, there lived a king named Sibi. He followed justice, truthfulness and righteousness. The god of righteousness, Dharmaraj wanted to test the king whether he follows justice with his true heart.

One day, when the king was sitting on the terrace of his palace, a dove came at a lightning speed and sat near to the king. The dove was frightened and was looking protection from the king. The Sibi raja looked at the dove, gently touched him and asked him why he was worried.

And suddenly, there came a big eagle trying to get hold of the dove. The dove cried to the king, "Oh King, I have come to your shelter. Please protect me." Now the king understood the situation and was ready to confront the eagle.

The responsibilities of a king is not only protect his people, but the trees, animals and birds also need justice and protection. The king doesn't want the eagle to eat his prey. So he asked the eagle, "Why do you want to kill the bird? Stop this and I will feed you meat from the royal kitchen. You will get your best food, so get away from the dove."  But the eagle did not agree to the king's words. The eagle said, "I do not want to be weak one leaving my prey and having my food without hunting. You are stopping me from having my food. This is indeed not right action for a king. "King had already promised the dove for shelter.  

After a few minutes of discussion, the eagle agrees to set the dove free on two conditions.

The first condition was, "I will set the dove free but I need an equal weight of flesh as the dove, from your body." Hearing this the king was pleased. Now he is able to provide the shelter to the dove and at the same time the eagle's hunger would also be taken care.

He agreed to the condition. 

Now the eagle said the second condition, "If you drop a single tear when the flesh is taken from your body, I would give back your body but will take the dove instead. I don't want to leave you crying while having my food."

The king agreed to the conditions. The weigh machine was brought. The flesh from king's right thigh was placed in the balance to weigh against the bird. But to their surprise, how much ever flesh from the king's body is placed, the dove remained heavy.

They happened to cut most of the right side body and nothing helped. Now they have to cut the flesh from the left side of the body. That moment, the king's left eye shed a tear. Noticing this, the eagle said, "O King!, I am sorry. I have to give back your body and take the dove. I see a tear in your eye. I don't want to eat your flesh."

The king replied, "That tear in the eye was not because of pain or fear of dying. But the left eye shed a drop of tear in happiness. That it was able to share the left side of the body too, along with the right side. This way am able to follow dharma, righteousness and justice in saving the bird. "

Immediately the dove and eagle disappeared, and before him stood the Dharmaraja, God of Dharma and Indra, God of heaven. They both blessed the king to heal the wounds and get his body back and praised the king for his deed. 

Moral- This action of showing justice and righteousness made the king's name and fame remain in the world for many many years. And the Gods blessed him with long life and riches as the king bowed down to them with great devotion.

[By Photo Dharma from Penang, Malaysia - 056 W, The King of Sibi, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=40153291]

Maha Katha- Mahabharata - Ethics in an epic

Karna is one among the interesting and complicated characters in Mahabharata. 

I started with this line as a story to my now 7yr old LO, a month back while telling bedtime stories. I have told about many personalities, epics, space, Bharathiyar stories and songs. None of the topic exceeds more than 2 days. Sometimes the whole epic cut short to 30 mins or 45 mins, Silapathigaram- another epic in tamil, was told in 2 days. Like every kid, my kid is fond of Hanuman, so Ramayana stories went on board for 3 days.

 I knew Mahabharata is not one of this kind, that can be finished in short. Not because this epic is so vast and has several stories interleaved with many characters. It is because Mahabharata is a story for life. The world even now, after so many thousands of years finds the problems we face and the dharma to be followed on every situation of life in Mahabharata. And everyone of us can relate to a character in Mahabharata and our day to day struggles, pain and emotions.

But I knew that was too much for kids to think or carry in their mind for days. And discussing for many days they might lose interest. So I decided to tell my kids or should I say, introduce them to the characters of Mahabharata. 

Unexpectedly, starting off with Karna, we went a little overboard for a week. What could it be, to talk about Karna for a week? 

Yes! We read, discussed and did learn more about Karna. 

My favorite characters in epics or novels usually will be a strong headed, optimistic women Characters. I mostly never fall for any heroic or stunning male. ( I think the scarlet Pimpernel is a big exception,😊 because of the way we read it or because of the lovely teacher who inspired when reading, may be.. exceptional) 

Talking about Mahabharata, no character in the epic can be termed as ‘perfect’ or the so called real optimistic character any fictional story usually has. 

Initially I thought I loved Draupadi, then it moved to Arjuna, then to Krishna and finally, not the least Karna. 

And now reading lot about Karna I give up. Yes Mahabharata is not about a flawless hero, all bad antihero and a female lead to make it a fiction. But it’s a lesson all along. And every character in the epic teaches something for life!

And the reason for this post. Having read a lot about Karna, and as I start to explore on more about other characters, I thought why not to write about it. As discussions, and as stories, you can find some articles henceforth on my blog about Mahabharata.