A Real Story - How Maheswaris came to be known.

June 12, 2008

Dear Friends,

Today is Jyeshta Maas Shukla Paksha Navami.

This day carries a great ignificance for the Maheswaris all over the world. Today is also known as Mahesh Navami.

Your Moderator ( Myself ) is also a Maheshwari

If anyone has the time to read a ancient Real story then here goes-

Once upon a time, king, Raja Khandelsen was the ruler ofKahandelgram, a part of Rajasthan, India. He was blessed with twobeautiful queens, Rani Suryakuvar and Rani Indrakuvar. However, theking did not have any children, thus no one to carry his name orkingdom. He performed many pujas, yagnas and much charity to helpthe poor, but no avail. Finally, one day he shared his sorrow withhis spiritual advisor, Maharishi Yagyavalk. Maharishi Yagyavalk toldhim that he was cursed from his previous life and this was thereason he was still childless.Then the Maharishi explained to the king "In your previous life, youearned your living through killing and selling of animals flesh.Once, you aimed your bow and arrow at a pregnant deer and killedher. As she died in pain, she placed a curse upon you saying, "Youshall be childless!" However, you felt guilty from this act, andwent to Pushkar where you took bath in the pious pond, to wash offyour sins. This religious act helped you become a king in this life.To recover from this past curse, there is one solution that I shallexplain to you. Not too far from here in Bhashkar state, there is aPipal tree, under which a Shivling is buried. You should get thisShivling out and make a beautiful temple for Lord Shiva, in whichthis Shivling must be embellished with respect and devotion." Theking did exactly as he was told, in addition he recited the " Om,Namah Sivaya" shloka for two years. With this pious and religiousact, Lord Shiva became happy and the king was blessed with a son,whom he named Sujansen.Once the prince Sujansen was born, the spiritual advisor made hisKundali, to chart out his graha and nakhshatra. He shared the grahaposition findings with King Khandelsen and said "Your son will behandsome, masculine, and powerful; however due to an unforeseenincident he will suffer from sorrow for a short while, but that willeventually result in a happy ending."The Prince Sujansen was married to princess Chadravati, a daughterof King Yudhaveer. After this marriage, the King Khandelsen handedover the kingdom to his son Sujansen, and moved to the forest forhis retirement. One day King Sujansen went into the forest to huntwith his seventy-two soldiers as part of his routine. As the Kingand his soldiers were hunting, they got lost and became hungry.Soon, they sensed an aroma, as if someone was cooking good food, andthey followed this aroma and reached a place where six rishis wereperforming yagna for Lord Shiva.Due to extreme hunger, the king andsoldiers started eating prasad, drinking water from the nearby pondthat was reserved for the yagna puja, and also started washing theirstained bows and arrows in it. This broke the rishis' concentration,and they cursed king and his seventy-two soldiers to turn intostones.Back in the kingdom, the queen and other 72 wives of soldiers werewaiting for their husbands to return for months, and finally QueenChandravati went to see Maharishi Jabali. The Rishi Jabali explainedthe situation in its entirety and suggested that she and all other72 wives of soldiers should go to the temple near the pond andworship Lord Shiva for their husbands' life.At this time, in Kailashparvath, in the Himaliyas Lord Shiva and hisbeautiful wife Parvati were residing. Lord Shiva told Parvati thathe needs to visit Earth, some of his worshipers were performingygana and he needs go and show his satisfaction towards thesuccessful completion of yagna. Parvati, loves her husband dearly,and did not like to part from her husband. This time Parvatiinsisted that she also goes with Shiva to Earth. Lord Shiva said toParvati, "Dear, you are very kind hearted, you will not be able tobear the pains of the people living on Earth. As always, you willask me to take away all of their sorrows, so it is better you stayhere till my return to Kailashparvath". Mata Parvati insisted andsaid, "No, I must go with you". After a while, Lord Shiva said, "Asyou wish!" and they both started their journey to Earth where therishis were performing the yagna.As Lord Shiva and Mata Parvati, reached the site, Parvati Mata sawthe queen and all other wives were crying for their husbands' stonefigures. Lord Shiva explained the situation to Mata Parvati. Mataimmediately said to Lord Shiva "You must give these husbands anotherlife, because when I can not live without you even for a fraction ofa second, how can you expect me to leave this place while thesewives are so sorrowful in life without their husbands." Lord Shivasaid "This is what I was afraid of when you decided to join me forthis journey; in any case I must do so".At this point, Lord Shiva brought king and other seventy-twosoldiers back to life, and told king Sujansen "Because you haveperformed sinful activities, taking away lives of God's creatures,and have misused your power, you have suffered from this incident.From now on, since I am giving all of you a second life, you will beknown after my name as "Mahesh-waris". You will also stop your roleof Kshatriya and play a new role of Vaishya, Vaishya Dharam , whichis a role of non-violence. Sujansen to compensate for your violenttendency, from now on you will make living through donations fromyour other seventy-two Vaishaya brothers and you will perform thetask of documenting their family trees".At once, all came to life as if they were awakening from a longsleep. However, they were hesitant to accept their wives, since theystill belonged to the Kshatriya caste. At this point, Parvati Matasaid, "All of you take four parikramas around me, whoever are wifeand husband; their gathbandhan will be joined auto-magically". Atthis, everyone did so, and they re-joined as husbands and wives. Dueto this, four feras (parikramas) are done outside, during theMaheshwari weddings, as a reminder of our origin. Lord Shiva gavethis blessing to the new seventy-two Vaishyas on the 9 th day ofJyesth, Shukla Paksh in the year 9 of Yudhisthira Sanvat. On thisday, newlywed brides and grooms are appointed to do Lord Shiva andMata Parvati's puja so that they can also be blessed with childrenand live a happy and joyous life eternally.While the seventy-two soldiers were bathing in the pond, their bowsand arrows were melted, and after this the pond was named "Loh-Garl". Due to the incident in this story, new seventy-two Maheshwarikhanp (Last) names were created. After this, additional fiveKshatriya last names were also added to the original seventy-twolast names.Khandela town is about 10 miles away from Phulera junction of Jaipur district. Loh-Garl area still has a water bath, which is 20-25 milesaway from the Ringus junction, near the mountains. Birla, one ofIndia's most prestigious families has established a sanatorium nearthe Didwana of Nagour distict.Bhaskar.

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