King Bhartirhari

Introduction
- King Bhartirhari was the elder brother of King Vikramaditya.
- After father King Gandharvasena, King Bhartirhari accepted the throne.
- King Bhartirhari was highly aligned with religion and values.
- And he wrote ‘niti shataka’ for all the citizens to behave well.

Marriage
- King Bhartirhari was married to 3 queens.
- Last one was pingala who was extremely beautiful.
- King Bhartirhari was so much captivated by her beauty that he would even miss out his
religious duties. (like Bharat)
- And he wrote a great poetry called ‘Sringara Shataka’ describing beauty of Pingala.

Sage Gorakhanath
- One day sage Girakhanath arrived in Ujjain.
- King received him well and served him to his satisfaction.
- Please with his services, Gorakhanath offered him a fruit, which had the power to stop oldage
and retain one’s beauty.

King’s dilemma
- On receiving the fruit, King thought that why does he need youthful beauty.
- Since he liked the beauty of Pingala, he offered the fruit to Pingala for her beauty to retain.

- Pingala offered that fruit to a Head Police Officer whom she liked.
- Head Police Officer offered that fruit to a prostitute Lakha.

- Prostitute Lakha thought that she doesn’t want to continue her sinful life by remaining young.
- Better give this fruit to King Bhartirhari, under whose rule all the citizens are so well protected
and happy.
- Prostitute Lakha offered that fruit to the King very respectfully.

- On receiving the fruit, King got shocked and got to know the whole story.
- He understood that Pingala to whom he was offering so much love, was cheating her.

Detachment
- Cheating of Pingala made King Bhartirhari fully detached from worldly pleasures.
- He gave the kingdom to King Vikramaditya, and came to this cave for austerities, under the
direction of sage Gorakhanath.

- He performed austerities for 12yrs in this cave.

- And he wrote ‘vairagya shataka’ being in that cave.

Indra’s fear
- On seeing the deep austerity of Bhartirhari, Indra became fearful
- Thus to destroy Bhartirhari, he dropped a huge stone over Bhartirhari
- Bhartirhari blocked that boulder with his hand, and continued austerities.
- thus, we find the impression of Bhartirhari’s hand on stone…

Test of his austerities

- King Bhartirhari had 365 cooks, for king’s family & his guests.
- One cook would get opportunity only once in a year to cook.
- And they would cook extremely well, which king liked very much.
- Now Bhartirhari was begging food from people and eating.

- One day, Gorakhanath commented to his disciples, “See, Bhartirhari inspite being king has
conquered over lust, anger, greed etc.”

Conquering Anger & Lust

- Bhartirhari would go daily in forest to collect dry woods for cooking.
- Bhartirhari went to forest with bare feet, collected dry woods, and carried the whole load over
his head.
- While he was carrying, another disciple hit him strongly that he felt pain and the whole load
fell down on ground along with him.
- Bhartirhari got up with pain, lifted the whole load again, without any complaint, trace of anger
on his face.
- Gorakhanath > See, he has conquered anger.

- Then one day, Gorakhanath created a palace on his path returning from forest.
- Bhartirhari saw the big palace with so many princess, but was not distracted, continued on his
services to guru.

Absorption
- Then, Gorakhanath ordered Bhartirhari to go to desert bare feet for one month.
- Bhartirhari reached the desert of Rajesthan walking.
- walking over the hot sand day after day.

- Gorakhanath created a tree in the desert with thick shade.

- Bhartirhari walking stepped over the cool shade, immediately lifted his feet as if he had
touched the fire.

- then he found thorny bushes all over on the ground

- Bhartirhari walked and felt too much pain, but continued to walk.
- He was absorned in serving his guru.

- Bhartirhari was feeling highly thirsty, but no water was there.

- that time Bhartirhari saw a green tree and a water pot underneath.
- But Bhartirhari didn’t budged and continued on hot sand.

Gratitude
- Gorakhanath appeared there, and blessed Bhartirhari.
- Gorakhanath asked him to accept some benediction
- Bhaartirhari denied, “Your pleasure is everything for me. This is all I need.”