Lord Ganesha- 9
Once, King Rukmangad went for hunting and somehow missed his way back to the kingdom. Taken over by hunger and thirst, he roamed around for a while following tracks and trails and reached an ashram. The sage and his wife welcomed the king, offered him warmly but he landed in a fix. The wife of the sage secretly offered to have a sexual favor with him confessing that she was attracted to the handsome Rukmangad.
To say ‘no’ to a sage’s wife was a like saying ‘no’ to a mother! The king humbly said, “Mother, you are the wife of a saint. I see you as a mother. Please forgive me, I can’t fulfil this wish of yours.”
This angered the wife as her ego was hurt. She couldn’t handle rejection well and she cursed the king, “May leprosy take over you!”
The king didn’t find his way back to kingdom and strangely his body began to show symptoms of leprosy. Heart-broken, he wondered, “I have always upheld dharma. Why has this happened to me?”
King Rukmangad was indeed a pious king but he had stepped into the negative karma of someone else that is, the wife of the saint. Her ego led to suffering of a righteous king as well as accumulation of negative karma on herself. The Nature or Divine had to play out its course as every karma that we do definitely fruits at some point or the other.
Dismayed at the turn of events, Rukmangad sat under a tree and as chance would have it, Sage Narad was passing by him. He said, “Narayan! Narayan! What’s the matter, king?” The king narrated his entire story and his increasing leprosy to which Narad spoke about a temple in Vidarbha. He said, “In that Devalaya, there is a pond in front of Lord Ganesha’s murti. Go there and take a bath in that pond. It’s said that the miraculous blessings of Lord Ganesha cut off a person’s curse in that pond. Narayan! Narayan!”
The king did as was told and with time, soon his leprosy vanished and his original body shone again. This triggered a deep reverence for Lord Ganesha in him and he started doing Ganesh Shodashopchaar everyday, without fail. In his now little life, he also gave alms to the needy, fed the saints and sages and tried his best to spread love!
From his own abode, Ganesha was looking at his devotee’s discipline and effort. He finally sent his messenger or doota to bring the devotee in front of him, in his own abode!
The dutybound king when saw the brilliant messenger in front of him, he requested, “I have my parents too. Please let me take them along in Ganesha’s abode.”
The messenger showed him a way to help his parents inculcate bhakti in Lord Ganesha. Rukmangad’s parents too, with devotion, listened to Rukmangad’s advise and started yearning for the Divine. The doota finally took the trio to Ganesha’s abode.
When the Divine wills, even a curse turns into a blessing, provided we keep our karma best as per our own capability!
