In the Surya dynasty there has been a famous Chakravarti emperor named Trishanku, whom sage Vishvamitra had tried to send to heaven incarnate by his yogic power. King Harishchandra was the son of the Trishanku. He was a very pious, truthful and famous giver. The people were very happy in his kingdom and there were never famines, epidemics and other troubles. The three worlds were filled with the fame of truthful king Harishchandra. Hearing his praise from the mouth of the sage Narada, the king of the gods, Indra, became jealous and prayed to the sage Vishvamitra for his test. Pleased with Indra’s prayer, the sages agreed to take the test.
The test of king Harishchandra
The great sage Vishvamitra reached Ayodhya. He took the entire kingdom as a gift from truthful King Harichandra. King Harichandra was the only king of the earth. That whole kingdom has been a gift to the sage. In those days, Kashi was a place that no human being was considered to have. He set out for Kashi with Queen Shaibya and his son Rohitasva. On his way, the sage told the king that without alms, sacrifices, chanting and austerities are all useless; So you give a thousand gold coins as alms for this very heavy donation. What was left with the king now? He asked for a month’s period for this. Vishvamitra gladly gave him a month’s time.
When the King sold his family
Truthful King Harishchandra reached Kashi and sold Shaibya and Rohitasva to a Brahmin and sold himself to a Chandal; Because there was no other solution other than this. Thus freed from the debt of the sage, King Harishchandra started working at his master’s house. Their owner was the owner of Marghat(cremation ground). He entrusted them with the task of staying in the crematorium and collecting the shrouds of the dead. In this way the king started living in the crematorium while doing his master’s work with great care.
Here Queen Shaibya would stay at the Brahmin’s house and clean his utensils, sweep the house. Rohitasav would bring flowers from the flower garden for the Brahmin’s worship. Queen Shaibya and Rohitashva’s bodies, having enjoyed royal pleasures and never having the practice of doing hard work, became so dry due to extreme hard work that it became difficult to recognize them.
The honesty of the king
Meanwhile, one day while Rohitasav was picking flowers, a black poisonous snake bit him from inside a flowerbed. Rohit’s dead body fell on the ground. When Shaibya got this news, she finished her work for her master and went to her son’s body in mourning and took it to the crematorium for cremation. The queen was about to burn her son’s dead body when Harishchandra came and asked for a shroud from her. At first the couple did not recognize each other, but due to Shaibya crying and screaming due to grief, the king recognized the queen and the son.
Here Harishchandra faced a difficult test for the third time. Shaibya did not have any cloth for the shroud of Rohitashva. But the king did not care about the queen’s pleading. No matter how sad he felt as a father, due to his son’s grief, but here he was not a father. They were the servants of the lord of Marghat and it was a sin to burn any dead body without taking his permission and without taking a shroud. The king did not deviate from his religion at all.
When the queen did not see her husband agreeing in any way, she agreed to cut her saree into two pieces and give it to him as a shroud. As soon as the queen was ready to cut the saree into two pieces, Lord Vishnu and sage Vishwamitra along with lord Brahma and other gods appeared there and said that we are very happy with your steadfastness in following your religion, all three of you should go to heaven in your body and enjoy the divine pleasures of heaven for eternity.
The love towards his people
Here Indra showered nectar on the dead body of Rohitashva and brought him back to life. Rohotasav stood up as if he had woken up from sleep. Harishchandra told all the gods that how can I move away from here unless I take permission from my master? On this Dharamraj said – ‘King! To test you, I had taken the form of Chandal. You passed your exam completely. Now you can happily go to heaven.’ On this Maharaja Harishchandra said- ‘Maharaj! Due to my separation, my people must be getting worried in Ayodhya. How can I leave them and go to heaven alone? If you are ready to send my people also to heaven with me, then I have no objection, otherwise I would rather live in hell with them than in heaven without them.’
On this Indra said- ‘Maharaj! The deeds of all of them are different, how can they all go to heaven together?’ Hearing this, Harishchandra said – ‘Because of my deeds, because of which you want to send me to heaven for eternity, distribute the fruits of those deeds equally among all of you, then along with them, the momentary happiness of heaven will also be pleasant for me. But without them I do not want to live in heaven even for eternity. Devraj became happy about this and said ‘Tathaastu’. All the gods disappeared after giving blessings and various boons to truthful king Harishchandra, Shaibya and Rohitashva. Lord Narayandev also obliged him by giving him his unwavering devotion.
Here all the residents of Ayodhya along with their wives, sons and servants went to heaven physically. Later, sage Vishwamitra re-established the city of Ayodhya and installed Kumar Rohit on the throne of Ayodhya and made him the sole ruler of the entire earth.
