Making the right choice

Sai R Vaidyanathan

India, the largest democracy, unveils its biggest fair today — the General Election. It is vital that all of us should vote as our freedom fighters made immense sacrifices to get us the right to elect our representatives.

While we vote for our rulers nowadays, most of our leaders were determined hereditarily in earlier times. But the scriptures also mention special cases. Here are some of those.

Blinking of the eye

Once King Ikshvaku’s son Nimi was planning to perform a sacrifice. So he asked sage Vashisht to be the priest. But as Vashisht was busy, he told Nimi to wait.

On this, Nimi appointed another priest and began the sacrifice. When Vashisht returned, he cursed Nimi, “May you lose your physical form.”

Nimi thought that from then on, he would stay in the eyes of people. Hence, the time taken to blink one’s eyes is called ‘nimish’ after Nimi.

But Nimi’s decision to stay body-less created a problem for the state. So the sages decided to bring forth a king. When they churned the body of Nimi, a boy emerged.

For taking birth (janam) from a body-less (vi-deh) king by churning (manthan), he was called Janak, his capital Mithila and his kingdom Videh.

All his descendants bore Janak as their surname. The Janak who ascended the throne 19 generations later was childless. He was told to make a furrow (sita) with a plough (seer). When he did so, his plough got stuck. The area was dug up and a casket with a baby girl in it was found. The king adopted the divine girl and named her Sita. The king became known as Seerdhwaj Janak.

Matters of the heart

Israel’s judge Samuel once told King Saul to fight the Amalekites, but Saul spared the Amalekite ruler. Angered, Samuel informed Saul that God would choose another man to lead Israel.

Then, God led Samuel to the town of Bethlehem to choose a new king from Jesse’s family. Each of Jesse’s older sons were impressive, but God instructed Samuel to judge people not by their external appearances but, rather, by their hearts.

So, Samuel anointed Jesse’s youngest son David as king and God gave divine power to David. After Saul’s death, David became King of Israel.

Saved from a storm

Eighth Guru Harkrishan passed away at the age of eight in far-off Delhi. Word went around that his successor was at Baba Bakala. As the followers went searching, as many as 22 aspirants had styled themselves as the guru. The devotees were bewildered. Among them was trader Bhai Makhan Shah. His ship had been caught in a storm when he remembered the guru for help. He pledged to offer 500 gold ‘mohurs’ to the guru. Immediately, the storm subsided.

On reaching Baba Bakala, he couldn’t identify the real guru. So he went about offering just two ‘mohurs’ to each one of them.

When he reached Guru Tegh Bahadur and did the same, the guru said, “I thought you had pledged 500 ‘mohurs’.” Elated, Bhai Makhan Shah declared, “I have found the True Guru.”

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