What can greed make us | Story of King Durjaya and his greed









During satya yuga, there lived a king named Suprateeka. Although he had two queens, yet none of them bore any son to him. During satya yuga, there lived a king named Suprateeka. Although he had two queens, yet none of them bore any son to him.



One day, Suprateeka went to meet sage Durvasa, who had his hermitage at the foothills of chitrakuta mountain and engaged himself in the sevice of Durvasa.





The sage blessed the king and prophesised that he would become a proud father of a mighty son named Durjaya. Durvasa's prophesy came true and Suprateeka's eldest queen-Vidyutprabha gave birth to a son. The child was named Durjaya.



In course of time Durjaya grew up to become a worthy successor of Suprateeka. Suprateeka decided to spend rest of his life in the service of Bhagavan, so he went to Chitrakuta mountain to do penance.



Mean while, Durjaya being an ambitious king expanded his kingdom by subjugating all the neighbouring states. He conquered numerous mighty kingdoms and vanquished almost all the prominent warrior castes like – gandharvas, kinnars, demons and even the deities.





Indra-the lord of the deities was defeated by Durjaya and was forced to retreat towards east of Sumeru mountain along with the lokpals - various Lords protecting different regions of the Universe.





The whole world went into turmoil as the fallout of Lokpal's power being snatched by Durjaya.



While Durjaya was returning to his capital along with his victorious army, he met two asuras - Vidyuta and Suvidyuta, who had disguised themselves as sages.





Both the impersonators requested Durjaya to make some alternative arrangements so that the world could function smoothly. In reality, both of them harboured wishes of having the powers of Lokpal's, so they offered their services in this regard.





Durjaya, being unaware of their real identity agreed to appoint them as Lokpal's and then proceeded towards his capital. While he was passing by the Mandarachala mountain, he saw two beautiful women.





Durjaya was surprised to find them at such a deserted place. As he stood their wondering about their identity, he saw two hermits approaching him.





Both the hermits asked Durjaya - "Who are you? What is the purpose of your arrival?



Durjaya introduced himself and told them that he was on his way to conquer the whole world. Now it was the turn of both the sages to introduce themselves -





We are the sons of Swayambhuva Manu - Hetu and Prachetu. We had successfully defeated the deities and driven them out from their abode - Sumeru mountain.





All the deities went to seek the help of Bhagavan Vishnu and were successful in getting his assurance. Bhagavan Vishnu then attacked us and vanquished our army but he spared our lives. Then onwards we became ardent devotees of the merciful Bhagavan Vishnu.



Hetu, then pointing towards one of the women said - She is my daughter – Sukeshi. The other woman you see is my brother - Prachetu's daughter and her name is Mishrakeshi.





Please accept both these beautiful ladies as your wives. Durjaya readily agreed to marry both of them as they were really very beautiful. He then returned to his capital.



Everything was going quite smoothly for Durjaya, when on one fateful day he met his downfall because of his extreme greed.The incident happened as follows –





Once, Durjaya had gone into the forest on a hunting spree, where he met a sage named Gauramukha. Gauramukha had been blessed by Bhagavan Vishnu with a divine diamond named Chintamani which was capable of fulfilling all desires. Gauramukha gave a royal treatment to Durjaya with the help of wish-fulfilling diamond.





He created an illusionary palace and offered variety delicacies to him as well as his whole army.



Durjaya wanted to have Chintamani diamond at any cost and therefore sent his minister-Virochana to persuade Gauramukha to part with that diamond. Gauramukha became furious after coming to know about the evil intention of Durjaya and told Virochana to ask Durjaya to leave at once.





But, Gauramukha knew quite well that the greedy Durjaya would not give up so easily and would definitely try to acquire Chintamani by force. So, he requested Chintamani diamond to create a huge army.



Meanwhile, Durjaya ordered his chief-commander, named Neela to bring Chintamani at any cost. Neela proceeded with a large number of soldiers. A fierce battle took place between both the armies in which Neela was killed and his army got vanquished.



Finally, Durjaya himself came forward to fight but even he was defeated. In the meantime, Hetu and Prachetu got the news that their son-in-law was in trouble.





Both of them proceeded with a huge army to help their son-in-law. But, they were no match for the might of their adversary and both of them eventually died in the ensuing battle.



Meanwhile, sage Gauramukha found Durjaya standing at the entrance of his hermitage with a small number of surviving soldiers. He sought the help of Bhagavan Vishnu, who appeared within no time. Gauramukha requested him to punish Durjaya for his evil intention.



