The King Sukant

The story of the Glory and beauty of chanting the name of the Lord.

Once upon a time, the King Sukant of Kaiwart State was going to Sumeru Mountain where a big assembly of many saints and sages was going to take place. He was going there to take the benefit of grace and blessings of these saints and to bow down to them.  

On the way of his journey there, he happens to come across a great Indian Saint Naradmuni who was chanting the name of his Lord “Narayan, Narayan”. 

He asked him, “King Sukant, where are you going?” 

Sukant, being a pious and devoted King said “I am off to Sumeru Mountain, to pay homage to great saints and sages who are going to have an assembly there.” 

Naradmuni said “Oh great, that’s very good, go-go and also bow down to all the sages who you meet there”

King Sukant says “of course I will do so, as I have been taught by you

As he got ready to go ahead, Saint Naradmuni gave him a call again and said – “before you leave, listen to one more thing”

King Sukant asked, “what would you like to say, oh respected saint” 

Saint Naradmuni replied “when you are there, bow down to all the saints, but don’t touch the feet of Sage Vishwamitra”

King Sukant, shocked, responded “Why so, oh dear saint?”

Naradmuni answered “Just because I said so.” 

A stunned and confused King Sukant asked Naradmuniagain, “But why oh dear saint?”

Naradmuni gives in, and shares with King Sukant that Sage Vishwamitra was also a king in his past life, and belongs to the Kshatriya clan, just like King Sukant. And thus, king Sukant does not need to bow down to him.

Though confused by this explanation, King Sukantobliges, agrees, nods and sets out on his way to Sumeru Mountain for the gathering.  

Once he reaches the assembly, one by one King Sukantpays homage to all the Saints as per his earlier agreement, he does not bow down to Sage Vishwamitra. 

Sage Vishwamitra observes this, and feels insulted in the presence of so many people. The greatest disrespect – being insulted in a public assembly. 

The assembly finishes and King Sukant heads on his way home, and Sage Vishwamitra goes straight to Ayodhya – where Lord Ram lives. 

It’s afternoon as Sage Vishwamitra reaches Ayodhya, and Lord Ram is resting, while his brother Laxman was guarding the door.  

Sage Vishwamitra says to Laxman “Where is Lord Ram? I need to meet him right now” 

Laxman replies, “What’s the matter? You give me the order, and I will fuflill it, as Lord Ram is sleeping right now”.  

Sage Vishwamitra, annoyed, responds “When the King sleeps than this only happens”.

Laxman, concerned asks again “Oh holy saint, please tell me what happened?” 

Hearing all the noise, King Ram wakes up as he realizes it’s the voice of his Master and Teacher. He comes out, pays his respect to Sage Vishwamitra and asks “Tell me Master, what happened?”

Sage Vishwamitra in an annoying voice said “you sleep, why do you care? Public humiliation is happening, saints and sages are being insulted. It’s not personal, it’s about the humiliation of the sacred tradition of Saints.”

“Who was so irreverent?” asked Lord Ram.  

Sage Vishwamitra said “I have been insulted personally!” 

Lord Ram questioned “Who did that?”

Vishawamitra asked “What will you do by knowing?”

Lord Ram replied “I take this oath by bowing to your feet that the head which does not bow to your feet, will be cut. Tomorrow morning with my own hands, I shall kill him” 

Sage Vishwamitra agreed, “yes you are right. Irreverent people should be punished. It’s the right decision”. 

Back in his own Kingdom, King Sukant came to know that Lord Ram has taken the vow of killing him. He was nervous and scared, because he did not know who would save him, if Lord Ram had taken a vow to kill him. He started to look for Saint Naradmuni.

In the past, King Sukant had met Saint Naradmunispontaneously, and now though he was trying hard to look for him – he just couldn’t find him. So in panic, he started to cry. 

When Naradmuni heard his cry, being the comical sainthe is, he appeared, chanting “Narayan, Narayan”. 

Seeing him, King Sukant bow down to his feet.  

Naradmuni then asked him “King Sukant, is all well?” 

He replied “Oh dear Saint, what is all well? I am going to die soon.” 

Naradmuni responded saying “What’s the big deal? This is a mortal world – death is a part of it” 

Sukant said “But I don’t want to die now" 

Naradmuni responded “Oh my child, who wants to die? But we have to die”

Sukant cried and said “oh my god, oh dear sage – god is going to kill me”

Naradmuni replied “Oh that’s good, you will be liberated then. That’s awesome.”

Sukant exclaimed “Oh Saint, you told me not to pay reverence to Vishwamitra and this death sentence is the result of that. Do something please.”

 Naradmuni says “No, now I can’t do anything”. 

Sukant agitatedly responded “Oh yes, that time you could give me free advice, but now you are saying you can’t do anything?” 

Naradmuni says “I have one solution, provided you don’t’ take my name”

He took him up the mountain in front of them, and pointed towards a cave, which was far off. He says “in that cave Anjaani maata [mother] is meditating, so you go and stand on the door of the cave and start crying. And when she comes out, you ask for help and if she promises to save you then you can be saved for sure” 

Sukant follows what is said to him and as he is crying, Anjaani Maata steps out. She asks “what is the matter?” 

Sukant says “Mother, please, please save my life. You can only save me from the curse of Sage Vishwamitra, or else he will get me killed.”

Anjaani Maata says “I promise and give you my word that your life will be saved. You have surrendered and hence you will be protected. Sit in the cave”

While he sat in the cave, Anjaani Maata walked outside. As usual, according to his daily protocol, Hanumaanjicame in the evening to meet her.  

Bowing down to her, he asked “Mother, why are you sad?”

She tells Hanumanji “Someone came to my refuge, and I have promised to save his life – will you fulfill that?”

 Hanumaaanji says “Mother’s order, of course it will be met”

Mother says “But promise me first”

Hanumaanji says “By bowing to the feet of my favourite God Lord Ram, I promise that I will protect and save his life”

Anjaani Maata then asks King Sukant to come out. Sukant comes out and Hanumaanji asks him “Who is going to kill you tomorrow?”

King Sukant, in a pleading voice says “Oh Ramji is going to kill me tomorrow”

 Anjaani Maata says “But you said Sage Vishwamitra was going to do so”

Sukant Says “oh yes, he wants me to be killed, but Ramji is going to kill me”

Hanumaanji thinks - now I am fully stuck. So then he drops King Sukant to his kingdom and comes to Ayodhya to meet Lord Ram. 

 He sees that the army is getting ready and he asks “Ramji – Respected Lord, where are you going?”

He replies that he is getting ready to kill Sukant.

Hanumaanji says “Lord, please spare his life!”

“Why? I have taken the vow to kill him” asks Lord Ram. 

Hanumaanji says “I have given the promise of saving him.”

Lord Ram says “This cannot be done, because I have taken the oath of the feet of my master to kill him”

Then Hanumaanji says “That I have taken the oath of the feet of my favourite God to protect him”

 So then Ramji says “Great, you save him, but I am going to kill him” 

Hearing this Hanumanji immediately goes to King Sukant and asks him to come along with him. King Sukant asks “Where?” 

Hanumanji is amused and says “Because of you I have lost my location, now what location do I tell you?”

He took him to a forest, and started to wonder what do I do now? And then it clicked. – that more than the Glory of the god himself, there is power in reciting and chanting his name - “Ram se bada ram ka naam, ram se bada ram ka naam, ram se bada ram ka naam." 

Then he told King Sukant – “chant the name of Lord Ram again and again. I have this unwavering great conviction that chanting the name of the Lord is the greatest Protective Shield”

Mantra Jaap Mam Dridh Vishwaas – so then Hanumanjistarted to sing and chant the name of the Lord with utmost faith – “Jai Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram”. And Sukant also started to repeat the same, in chorus with him. 

But Sukant, being so scaed, leaving the chant in between asked “Hanumanji, will I be saved?”

Hanumanji said “If you have a firm belief, you will be saved” and continued chanting, as Sukant followed. 

In between the chant, Hanumaanji started to cry and so did Sukant. But there was a difference. 

Hanumaanji started to cry, because of his deep surrender to the Lord. But Sukant was crying because of his fear that maybe he will die, such a big army and God himself is there to kill him – how would he be saved? What would the chanting of this name made of two syllables do?

And there Hanumaanji was saying that I have infinite faith in chanting the name of the God - Mantra Jaap Mam Dridh Vishwaas. 

Ramji reached the Kingdom of Sukant, and looks for him. People say he is not there. Ramji asks “where is he?”. The people said they do not known, but he went away with a monkey.

Ramji understands that it was Hanumanji and tells Laxman to find out, where he is. 

Laxman says “Lord, how do I know about his whereabouts? He knows about yours and you know about his. 

Lord Ram says “OK, let’s go to that forest”, where he assumed Hanumaanji to be.

When he reaches the forest, he sees that Hanumaanji is chanting and has hidden King Sukant behind him. The moment Sukant sees the soldiers, bows, arrows and members of Ramji’s army, he forgets all his chanting and starts to cry profusely. 

Hanumaanji says keep on chanting Ram, Ram and keep confidence and faith in that, but he can’t and then Hanumaanji hides him in his tail. 

Raamji keeps shooting arrows at him, but because of the shield of the chant of the God’s name, none of the arrows pierce through.

Ramji starts to feel helpless, and he wonders ‘What do I do now?

Laxmanji feels that Hanumaanji is troubling Lord Ram as Sukant was guarded by the wheel of the Ram Chant. Seeing Hanuman standing apart, he shoots an arrow at Hanumaanji. The arrow strikes at the heart of Hanumaanji and there Lord Ram faints. 

Laxmanji feels – oh what is this drama? Has Hanumaanji used some weapon at Ramji sneakily?

When he walks closer to the Lord Ram and Hanumaanji– he realizes the whole story of love. It dawns on him that in Hanumaanji’s heart only the Lord Ram abides, and so when the arrow pierces his heart, Lord Ram faints. 

There is so much devotion to his Lord that there is nothing but Ramji in Hanuman’s heart. 

After a while, when Ramji gains consciousness, he sees Hanumaanji’s chest bleeding and that was a sight he was not able to bear. 

Being so touched and with compassion, he embraces Hanumaanji, closes his eyes, puts his hand on his head and brings him close to himself. He feels he will keep on doing this till Hanumaanji’s wound heals. 

Hanumaanji notices that the Lord is keeping his eyes closed, brings his hand on his head, retracts it and again brings it back on his head. He thought this is the right time, so from behind he pulls Sukant, puts him on his lap and the moment Lord Ram’s hand comes forward, he pushes the head of King Sukant. 

Now Ramji’s hand is on King Sukant’s head. And then Ramji feels, whose head is this? He opens his eyes and gets amused and starts to laugh when he sees his hands are on Sukant’s head. 

Hanumaanji folds his hands and with tears in his eyes says “Lord, now everything is in your hands. His death is in your hands, and you only have kept your saviourhand on his head.” 

Ramiji then says “Hanumaan, the one whom you have kept in your lap, I have to keep my hand on the head of that being. But now what do I answer to my teacher, my guru?” 

By that time Sage Vishwamitra, his guru, arrives there. Hanumanji being naughty, sheepishly points ti king Sukant that you didn’t do that in the past, but now you can go and bow down to the sage – go run and do it. 

King Sukant runs with all his might and fright, and falls down at the feet of Sage Vishwamitra. 

Vishwamitraji gets happy and tells his disciple – “Ram, forgive him. I have forgiven him. Because a Saint’s work is to transform and not to kill. I didn’t want to kill him, but just wanted to mend him and he has mended his ways, and that’s good enough.” 

Sukant felt relieved as he was saved. Then Sukant was asked in whose bad company did he learn not to bow down to a revered sage?

Sukant responded “Forigve me oh holy sage – it was in good company only, I learnt this”

“Which Saint taught you this” he was asked. 

The moment Sukant was about to take a name, Saint Naradmuni appeared chanting “Narayan, Narayan”. Naradmuni said “it was me who told him to do so”

Lord Ram says “why did you play this game?” 

Naradmuni says amusingly “Wherever I will go, people will ask me only one question, again and again – who is greater, God or the chant of God’s name? Whom I would have replied to – there were so many. So I thought let me create a drama which will convey this message simply – that more than God, there is glory in chanting the name of God. 

“Ram se bada Ram ka naam, Jay Ram, Jay Ram, Jay Jay Ram”.