In the old ancient India, there was a mischievous, popular king named Uparichara. Uparichara was born into a life of enormous wealth and privileges: he didn't have siblings and was destined to become the king of Chedi.
Uparichara didn't care about his future because he was destined to the crown, so he lived a life of sex, binge drinking, smoking medicinal drugs for recreation, and all sorts of indulgence until the age of 33. Another reason why he was so much into lust and indulgence was because of stress of being an important public figure. As a prince, he was expected to appear moral and exemplary to his people. Uparichara desperately wanted to become the king, but his father lived a long life: Uparichara's 88-year-old father who was his predecessor didn't want to turn over the crown to his son because he believed he failed his son's upbringing and moral character education.
One night in his dream, Uparichara saw frowned-faced gods and angels. Uparichara asked the group of gods and angels, "Why is my father not turning over his crown? Does he hate me?"
The gods and angels replied in union, "No, your father doesn't hate you. But he isn't willing to turn over his crown unless you convert yourself to asceticism."
Tired of waiting 33 years for the crown, Uparichara decided to turn himself into asceticism. Uparichara stopped having lustful activities with women in his palace, binge drinking, and smoking medicinal drugs for recreation. Uparichara even lost a lot of weight through healthy diet and exercised to be physically fit as the king.
As a result of his commitment to asceticism for two years, Uparichara's disgruntled father became finally satisfied with his son's sincere effort and decided to turn his crown over to his son.
Uparichara was happy to be crowned as the new king.
The real problem came after Uparichara became the king of Chedi. The gods and angels, who advised Uparichara to become the king, now regretted their decision to tell Uparichara about the mind of his father.
As the new king of Chedi, Uparichara limited gods' and angels' access to his kingdom. Although gods and angels were spiritually superior to Uparichara, they needed royal permission from the king of Chedi to directly access and communicate with the people.
Unlike under his predecessor reign, gods and angels could now only visit Chedi once a year to give spiritual blessings to the people.
So the gods and angels decided to curse the arrogant Uparichara. They decided to trick him. One night, gods and angels appeared in Uparichara's dream and told me, "O My Dear New King... Aren't you always curious to see what it's like to be in heaven with us?"
Deeply confused and suspicious, Uparichara asked the gods and angels, "Are you trying to take away my life and take me to your spiritual world? I'm young and I still want to live. I like my new job as the king."
Then the gods and angels comforted Uparichara, "No, it's just for a tour! Don't be scared, we're not taking you to our world yet. You can always come back, and we'll even provide you a beautiful and magnificent crystal chariot for your ride to our world!"
So Uparichara decided to try the tour. On his way to the spiritual world, he decided to pee in his crystal chariot. The pee contained semen inside and it spilled into the water in his kingdom.
Uparichara's clone was born in the water. The gods and angels approached the clone in the water and bribed his loyalty to them. They promised the crown of Chedi to the new-born clone if he decided to commit loyalty and obedience to the gods and angels.
The clone decided to commit his loyalty to the gods. The gods and angels gave the king's garment, sword, and gently placed the golden crown onto his head.
The people of Chedi now thought the clone was their new king. Deeply saddened by watching what was going on in the ground, the real Uparichara just decided to stay in the spiritual world for eternity with the gods and angels.
Uparichara didn't care about his future because he was destined to the crown, so he lived a life of sex, binge drinking, smoking medicinal drugs for recreation, and all sorts of indulgence until the age of 33. Another reason why he was so much into lust and indulgence was because of stress of being an important public figure. As a prince, he was expected to appear moral and exemplary to his people. Uparichara desperately wanted to become the king, but his father lived a long life: Uparichara's 88-year-old father who was his predecessor didn't want to turn over the crown to his son because he believed he failed his son's upbringing and moral character education.
One night in his dream, Uparichara saw frowned-faced gods and angels. Uparichara asked the group of gods and angels, "Why is my father not turning over his crown? Does he hate me?"
The gods and angels replied in union, "No, your father doesn't hate you. But he isn't willing to turn over his crown unless you convert yourself to asceticism."
Tired of waiting 33 years for the crown, Uparichara decided to turn himself into asceticism. Uparichara stopped having lustful activities with women in his palace, binge drinking, and smoking medicinal drugs for recreation. Uparichara even lost a lot of weight through healthy diet and exercised to be physically fit as the king.
As a result of his commitment to asceticism for two years, Uparichara's disgruntled father became finally satisfied with his son's sincere effort and decided to turn his crown over to his son.
Uparichara was happy to be crowned as the new king.
The real problem came after Uparichara became the king of Chedi. The gods and angels, who advised Uparichara to become the king, now regretted their decision to tell Uparichara about the mind of his father.
As the new king of Chedi, Uparichara limited gods' and angels' access to his kingdom. Although gods and angels were spiritually superior to Uparichara, they needed royal permission from the king of Chedi to directly access and communicate with the people.
Unlike under his predecessor reign, gods and angels could now only visit Chedi once a year to give spiritual blessings to the people.
So the gods and angels decided to curse the arrogant Uparichara. They decided to trick him. One night, gods and angels appeared in Uparichara's dream and told me, "O My Dear New King... Aren't you always curious to see what it's like to be in heaven with us?"
Deeply confused and suspicious, Uparichara asked the gods and angels, "Are you trying to take away my life and take me to your spiritual world? I'm young and I still want to live. I like my new job as the king."
Then the gods and angels comforted Uparichara, "No, it's just for a tour! Don't be scared, we're not taking you to our world yet. You can always come back, and we'll even provide you a beautiful and magnificent crystal chariot for your ride to our world!"
So Uparichara decided to try the tour. On his way to the spiritual world, he decided to pee in his crystal chariot. The pee contained semen inside and it spilled into the water in his kingdom.
Uparichara's clone was born in the water. The gods and angels approached the clone in the water and bribed his loyalty to them. They promised the crown of Chedi to the new-born clone if he decided to commit loyalty and obedience to the gods and angels.
The clone decided to commit his loyalty to the gods. The gods and angels gave the king's garment, sword, and gently placed the golden crown onto his head.
The people of Chedi now thought the clone was their new king. Deeply saddened by watching what was going on in the ground, the real Uparichara just decided to stay in the spiritual world for eternity with the gods and angels.
Arjuna statue in Bali. Source: Arjuna statue
Bibliography:
The Mahabharata, A Summary by John Mandeville Macfie (1921).
Author's Note: I created this story of Uparichara in PDE Mahabharata in my own version of the story. Original content may be different from my re-created story, so you are advised to visit the website in my bibliography for the original content of the story.
Hey Peter!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your story about Uparichara. I think you did a good job on providing enough details and the story was easy to read. I wandered why Uparichara limited the access of the gods and angels. Elaborating on that could add more to your story. Overall, you did a good job so keep up the good work!
Hey Peter! Honestly, I'm a sucker for stories centered on the trope for the guy that can't get his life together and then finally does, although in this story, it's not clear if he did or not! I think one detail you could add if you revised this story would be to explain how Uparichara felt about being relieved of his duty to be king. I personally would display him as celebrating his job getting taken by the clone, but another route would be making him sulk in defeat.
ReplyDeleteHey Peter! I really like the layout for your blog and how you had breaks to transition between things that took place. I did notice that at one point when Uparaichara was having a dream about the gods and angels coming to him you used “me” instead of “him”. I’m curious as to how the kingdom turned out while under rule of his clone and how he liked being in the other world with the gods?
ReplyDeleteHey Peter,
ReplyDeleteI really liked reading your story of Uparichara and also the way you break your story up while spacing it. This keeps it clean and easier to read too. You have enough detail too in your story which makes it easier to imagine and get really into the story. Keep up the with the good work. Looking forward to reading more.
Hey Peter,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very good story and well-written. I like how you didn't stack your paragraphs and space it out so that it would be easier on the eyes. It would be great for the readers if you were to add an author's note, so that we could get some background information on this story! Also, you could maybe list the changes you made from the original story.