Satyanarayan Katha Chapter 5: King Tungadhwaj and the Cowherds' Prasad

The fifth chapter concludes the katha. A king's pride is broken, and we learn that in God's worship there is no high or low.

King Tungadhwaj

Suta ji said: "O sages, hear one more story." There was a king named Tungadhwaj, devoted to caring for his people. Once he went hunting in the forest and was returning after killing many animals. On the way, under a banyan tree, he saw cowherds worshipping Lord Satyanarayan with devotion together with their kin.

Out of pride the king neither looked at the worship, nor bowed to the Lord, nor stopped. After the worship the cowherds brought the Lord's prasad and placed it before him. But in his pride the king left the prasad and went away.

The fruit of pride

Because of the disrespect to prasad, the king's hundred sons died and all his wealth and grain were lost. The king thought: "Surely this is the result of disrespecting Lord Satyanarayan's prasad. It is He who has destroyed everything of mine."

Humility and restoration

Thinking this, the king went to the place where the cowherds had worshipped. Sitting with them, he worshipped Lord Satyanarayan with devotion and faith as prescribed and accepted the prasad. Returning to his city, he found that all his wealth and all his sons had been restored to him. By Lord Satyanarayan's grace he enjoyed every happiness in this world and at the end went to Satyapura, Vaikuntha.

The fruit of the vow

Suta ji says: whoever keeps this most rare Satyanarayan vow and hears its holy katha with devotion receives wealth and grain by the Lord's grace. The poor become rich, the imprisoned are freed, the fearful become fearless, the childless receive children, all wishes are fulfilled, and at the end they go to Vaikuntha.

The later births of the characters

At the end of the katha tradition tells what those who kept the vow attained in later births:

• Shatananda the Brahmin was reborn as Sudama, Krishna's friend, who gained the Lord's company.
• The woodcutter was reborn as Nishadraj Guha, who served Shri Ram and ferried him across the Ganga.
• King Ulkamukh was reborn as King Dasharatha of Ayodhya, in whose home Lord Shri Ram himself was born.
• The merchant Sadhu was reborn as the righteous King Moradhvaja, who gave his own son when the Lord tested him and attained liberation.
• King Tungadhwaj was reborn as Svayambhuva Manu, who inspired all with devotion to the Lord.

(For readers of Ayodhya: according to this katha, both King Dasharatha and Nishadraj Guha had kept the Satyanarayan vow in a former life.)

After the katha

When the katha is complete, the aarti of Lord Satyanarayan, "Om Jai Jagdish Hare" or "Jai Lakshmi Ramana", is sung, the conch is blown, everyone present accepts the prasad, and the host gives dakshina to the priest and receives everyone's blessings. As the katha says again and again, everyone should accept the prasad with respect, and no one should leave without taking it.

What this chapter teaches

• God is as present in the simple worship of cowherds as in a king's palace; pride of rank has no place in worship.
• On realising a mistake, going back and setting it right is wisdom; Tungadhwaj did just that.
• There is no discrimination in prasad; whatever is given with love should be accepted with respect.
• Truth, keeping one's word, humility and respect for prasad: this is the essence of the whole Satyanarayan Katha.