User:Tinpisa/Shravan Kumar

Shravan Kumar is a famous character in the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana. The epic Ramayana depicts the duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king. Shravan Kumar's character is that of an ideal son. The root cause of the troubles in Ramayana was the curse given by the parents of Shravan Kumar to Dasharatha who accidently killed Shravan in the jungle.

Story
The story of Shravan Kumar is detailed in the epic Ramayana by Valmiki and Tulsi Das.

He was born to poor and blind parents, but they had brought him up remarkably well. He was strong, honest, of a good character, devoted to God and bore sincere love and respect for his parents. Everyday he worked hard to make his parents comfortable and happy. Shravan Kumar's parents wanted to go on a pilgrimage. In those days the means of transport were scarce and costly, and Shravan Kumar could not afford to hire them. He, therefore, decided to place his parents into two baskets and carry the baskets on his strong shoulders. He took a strong bamboo-stick, at its two ends he tied two baskets with strong ropes, and placed his father in one of the baskets and his mother in the other. Carrying this bamboo stick with a basket at either end on his shoulders, Shravan started the pilgrimage on foot. After having visited a few places of pilgrimage, they reached the banks of the sacred river Sarayu. Pleased with the beautiful scenery around. he decided to take a little rest there, with his parents. Shravan then placed the baskets in the shade of a tree. And after describing the beauties of the scene to his blind parents, he told them that he wanted to take a dip in the river Sharayu- The bath was sure to re-fresh him. His parents asked Sharavan to take his bath leisurely: they also asked him to fetch them a pitcher of water from the river, for they were feeling thirsty. Shravan went to the river and had his dip. To fetch drinking water for his parents, he started filling a pitcher of water. As the pitcher was getting filled, there was that peculiar bubbling sound caused by the air escaping from within.

Dasharatha, the king of Ayodhaya, was hunting in the forest, at that precise time. Hearing the bubbling sound, the King thought that it was caused by a deer drinking water from the river. Dasharatha stood silent for a while and only with the bubbling sound to guide him carefully took aim and shot his arrow. The arrow hit the target with precision, but the King was astonished to hear the pain-stricken screams of a human being instead of the painful cry of a dying deer. Shravan had become the target of the King's arrow. Injured fatally, he lay in a pool of blood. The King came to the spot and saw the ghastly mistake he had committed. He repented his hasty action, but it was too late. He then placed Shravan's head on his lap, and tried to elicit some information about him. Shravan Kumar told him that he would be dying in a few minutes, but he felt sorry for his blind parents, who were resting in the shade of the tree, waiting for him to quench their thirst. He, therefore, requested the King to attend to his old, blind parents. Soon Shravan breathed his last.

Now the King had to perform the duties of Shravan. He lifted the pitcher and brought it to Shravan's parents and raised it up to the lips of the blind old man. The King did not utter a single word for fear of revealing the stark reality. But the parents would not take water till they heard the familiar voice of their beloved son. So they asked:

"O dear son, why do you not speak today? Are you angry with us because you have to toil so much to serve us?"

At last King Dasharatha had to tell them all that had happened. The parents were unable to bear the grief as their beloved son was no more. They told Dasharatha that they could not live in this world with-out their son. They cursed the King that he, too would meet his death caused by the sorrow of separation from his son just as had happened to them. Shortly afterwards both the parents passed away.

Many years passed, and Dasharatha had four sons, but he doted on the eldest, Rama. In due course. Dasharatha began preparing to crown Rama as the King of Ayodhya so that he could retire to live a peaceful life praying to God. Now Dashratha had given two boons in the past to his wife Kaikeyi, Rama's step-mother. She insisted that the King grant her the boons before crowning Rama. The King hesitated, but had to concede in the end. She demanded that Rama be sent to the forest in exile for fourteen years and her son Bharat be crowned as the king of Ayodhya. The shock of the thought of fourteen years' separation from his son, Rama was so great that Dashratha instantly collapsed and died. And thus the curse of Shravan Kumar's parents came true.