In the first story of the reading, a king had no children and, as a result, everyone (including his court) believed him to be evil. Apparently, childlessness was considered a bad omen. One day he heard the sweeper talk about how he eats early because if he sweeps and sees the king's face, he has a bad breakfast. The king went to his rooms and cried, until a holy ascetic came and predicted he would have many children if the king promised to give him one of them. Unfortunately, the son that was given to him was the one that the third wife gave birth to (Sankata-Narayan, which means he who was born in a conch shell). The ascetic took the son and told him to stay in the forest but not go South. The Prince decided to go south anyway and a beautiful woman he found there told him that the ascetic was going to use him as a sacrifice. So, he created a diversion and cut the ascetic's head off. He returned to his mother.
Vishnu and a Conch Shell: Pinterest
The other story that I liked was about Indra, the god of heaven. A Brahman was in the middle of blessing him, but Indra threw flowers at him, so the Brahman changed his mind and cursed Indra instead. Indra had been turned into a cat, and Sachi, his wife, was unaware of this. She tried to find the Brahman who had cursed Indra, but when she found him, he said that the curse could not be reversed. Thus, he would have to stay a cat in the house of a huntsman for 12 years. However Sachi started to worship the goddess Kalika and so the goddess felt bad for her and told Sachi that she could make the 12 years less terrible by letting Sachi and the cat sleep through the remaining years. They both woke up after the time was up and lived happily ever after.
In the last story, a Brahman is traveling. While he's hitchhiking through some land, a guy stops him and tell him that he wouldn't have to rely on charity if he started worshiping Satya Pir. The Brahman is used to worshiping Narayan. So the Brahman did the sacrifice as instructed and suddenly became rich.
Bibliography: D.N. Neogi. Sacred Tales of India. Link to Reading Guide.
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