{"collection":"Hinduism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/hin/db/bk07ch20.htm","path":"hin/db/bk07ch20.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk07ch20.htm","text":"THE SEVENTH BOOK\nChapter XX\nOn the earnestness of Haris\u2019chandra to pay off the Daksin\u00e2\n1-4. Haris\u2019chandra said :-- \u201cO Muni! I will not take my food until I pay you your Daksin\u00e2 in gold; know this to be my resolve; therefore O One of good vows! Discard all your anxieties for Daksin\u00e2. I am the King of the Solar dynasty; especially since the time I have completed my R\u00e2jas\u00fbya Sacrifice, I give to everyman whatever he desires. So, O Lord! How can it be possible that I will not give what I have voluntarily promised myself? O Best of Dv\u00eejas! I will certainly pay off your debt. I must give you the gold as you desire; be calm and patient; but you will have to wait one month; and on getting the money I will pay it off to you.\u201d\n5-8. Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra said :-- \u201cO King! Kingdom, treasury and strength are the three sources of income; but you are now deprived of all these. Whence, now, do you expect to get gold? O King! Vain are your hopes to get money; what am I to do now? You are now wealthless and how can I, out of greed, give you trouble? O King! Better say \u2018I will not be able to give you Daksin\u00e2,\u2019 and I will then quit my strong expectation and go away as I like. And you, too, can think that you have no gold, so how can you give money and so you can go wherever you like with your wife and son.\u201d\n9-20. Vy\u00e2sa said :-- O King! Hearing these words of the Muni, at his time of departure, the King said :-- \u201cO Br\u00e2hmana! Be patient and I will certainly give you your Daksin\u00e2. O Dv\u00eeja! My wife, son and I myself are all healthy; so selling these, I will give you the money; there is no doubt in this. O Lord! Kindly enquire whether there is anyone who can purchase us and I will agree to become the slave with my wife and son. O Muni! You can sell all of us and the price you get, you can take two and a half loads of gold out of that and be pleased.\u201d Thus saying, the King went to Benares where S\u2019ankara was staying with his dear consort Um\u00e2. The King saw the beautiful city, the sight of which makes one\u2019s heart dance with more joy and he said that he had become blessed. Then he went to the banks of the Bh\u00e2girath\u00ee and bathed\nin the Ganges and offered peace-offerings (Tarpan) to the Devas and the Pitris and completing the worship of his Ista Deva (his own Deity) looked around where he would go. The King entering into the beautiful city of Benares began to think that no human being is protecting this city but S\u2019iva Himself is protecting it. So if he lives there, he would not be living in a city which has been given away by him to Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra. The King, then, distressed much with pain and trouble and being very much bewildered, began to journey on foot with his wife and son and entered into the city and placed his confidence. At this moment he saw the Muni Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra, wanting Daksin\u00e2 and humbly bowed down and spoke with folded palms :-- \u201cO Muni! My dear wife, my son and I myself are living here; you can take any of us and have your work done; or say what other work we will have to do for you.\u201d\n21. Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra said :-- \u201cYou promised that you would pay Daksin\u00e2 at the end of one month; and today that one month is completed; if you remember, then give me the Daksin\u00e2.\u201d\n22. The King said :-- \u201cO Br\u00e2hmana! You are wise and are endowed with the power of tapas (asceticism); as yet one month is not complete; still half a day is remaining; wait till then; and no longer.\u201d\n23-27. Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra said :-- \u201cO King! Let it be. I will come again and if you do not give me then, I will curse you. Thus saying Vis\u2019v\u00e2mitra went away. The King then thought within himself how be would pay him back what he had promised. There is no influential friend of mine in this Benares city who can help me with money; where then can I get the requisite money. I am a Ksattriya. Pratigraha (begging or accepting any gift) is forbidden to me and how can I beg or accept any gift! According to the code of Dharma, the offering of sacrifices (on one\u2019s own behalf), studying, and giving are the three duties ordained to a King. And if I die not paying a Br\u00e2hmin\u2019s Daksin\u00e2, I will be polluted with the sin of stealing a Br\u00e2hmin\u2019s property and I will then be born a worm or will became a Preta. So to sell myself (and pay off the debts) is better than this.\u201d\n28-33. S\u00fbta said :-- O Risis! When the King was thus thinking humbly with his face bent downwards, and in a distracted state of mind, his wife spoke to him with tears in her eyes and in a voice, choked with feelings :-- \u201cO King! Discard all cares and keep your own Dharma, Truth. He who is divorced from Truth is forsaken like a Preta. O Best of all men! To keep one\u2019s Truth is one\u2019s Dharma; there is no other Dharma superior to it; so the sages declare. He whose\nwords turn out false, his Agnihotra, study, and gifts and all action, become fruitless. Truth is very much praised in the Dharma S\u2019\u00e2stra and this Truth raises up and saves the virtuous souls. Similarly falsehood, no doubt, drags a vicious man to hell. The King Yay\u00e2ti performed the Horse sacrifice, and the R\u00e2jas\u00fbya sacrifice and went to Heavens but once he spoke falsely and so he was dislodged from the Heavens.\u201d\n34. The King said :-- \u201cO Thou, going like an elephant! I have my son who will multiply my line; speak out what Thou wishest to say.\u201d\n35. The Queen said :-- \u201cO King! The wives are meant for sons (your having me has been fulfilled as there is your son). So sell me for the money value and give the Daksin\u00e2 to the Br\u00e2hmin. Let you not deviate from the Truth.\u201d\n36-45. Vy\u00e2sa spoke :-- Hearing this, the King fainted. Afterward regaining consciousness, he wept with a grievous heart. O gentle One! What you have uttered just now has caused me much pain; am I such a Sinner as to forget entirely all your conversations and your sweet smiles! Alas! O Sweet-smiling One! You ought not to speak such words. O Fair One! How have you been able to utter these harsh words not fit to be spoken! Speaking thus, the King became impatient at the idea of selling his wife and fainted and fell to the ground. Seeing him fainted and lying flat on the ground, the Queen became grievously hurt and spoke with great compassion. O King! Whose evil have you done that you have fallen into this calamity? Alas! He who is accustomed to sleep in a room adorned with carpets is today like a humble man, sleeping on the ground! The King who gave crores and crores of golden mohurs to the Br\u00e2hmins, that same King, my husband is lying now on the ground! Alas! What a painful thing! O Fate! What has this King done to you that You have thrown this Indra and Upendra like King in this dire calamity! Thus saying, the beautiful queen (of good hips) very much grieved by the sight of her husband\u2019s pain fell down unconscious on the ground. Then the boy prince, seeing father and mother both senseless, lying on the ground, became very much troubled, and, becoming hungry, cried, \u201cO Father! O Father! I am very hungry; give me food to eat; O Mother! O Mother! My tongue is being parched; give me food to eat,\u201d and the boy began to weep repeatedly.\nHere ends the Twentieth Chapter of the Seventh Book on the earnestness of Haris\u2019chandra to pay off the Daksin\u00e2 in the Mah\u00e2pur\u00e2nam S'r\u00ee Mad Dev\u00ee Bh\u00e2gavatam of 18,000 verses, by Maharsi Veda Vy\u00e2sa.","title":"The Devi Bhagavatam: The Seventh Book: Chapter 20","type":"page"}