Bhagat Singh: Acts of Bravery -1

1.      In 1919, Bhagat Singh was a teenager but his heart was filled with a thought for contributing to Indian Independence. Jallianwala Bagh massacre occurred at that period of time. When he heard about it this little boy eyes were filled with tears. He decided to visit the place. He saw blood soaked people lying here and there. In addition, he saw the well people used to kill themselves from the bullets of the police. Further he saw the wall covered with peoples blood. He started crying but his courage made him control himself.

He had a bottle. He filled the bottle with blood soaked mud and returned home. He placed the bottle in the middle of the room and started to perform a ritualistic pooja. After some time her younger sister came into the room and asked him what he is doing. He told her that he is performing the last rites for the martyrs who lost their lives in the battle of freedom.

2.      The struggle of Independence was catching fire. In 1928, the britishers decided to control this act. They decided to send a delegation to India. It was named Simon commission. There was a drawback of this delegation. It had not a single Indian. People in India decided to protest against this injustice. Lala Lajpat Rai was made head to lead the protest. When the commission arrived people started shouting slogans. This angered the police party present there. They started beating the people with the sticks. Lala Lajpat Rai suffered serious injuries which lead to his death.

Bhagat Singh was present there. He witnessed the whole event. He was feeling guilty. He decided to avenge the death of Lala Ji. He along with Shivaram Rajguru, Sukhdev Thapar, Jai Gopal and Chandrashekhar Azad decided to assassinate James A. Scott who had order the latticharge. They called a meeting before the plan could be executed.  Jai Gopal task was to identify Scott and signal Bhagat Singh to fire. Bhagat Singh was very excited with his role.

Mistakenly the plan went wrong. Jai Gopal identified John P. Saunders, an Assistant Superintendent of Police as Scott. Bhagat Singh and Rajguru were curiously waiting for there turn. They didn’t waste a single minute and fired. Saunders died on the spot.

The news of assignation spread like fire in the entire city. The police started a search operation. They raided every possible place where they could be hiding but there efforts were result less. Bhagat Singh succeeded in escaping from there. Now Police was searching him madly. He decided to go to Howarh. Police guarded every entry and exit. It was not easy to escape. He decided to change his looks and boarded the train for Howarh. Finally he was successful. 

Mangal Pandey: A Hero of Indian Independence

In 1857, Mangal Pandey was a solider in 34th Regiment of the Bengal native infantry of the East India Company. He was famous for his bravery because he saved the life of his British commanding officer. He did not fear death. He was ready to fight against injustice.

Everything was going fine. Tension started with the introduction of a new rifle. At that time the British army constituted 96% of Indians.The rifle has to be loaded with a cartridge. Before loading, it has to be bitten by the mouth and the gun powder has to be poured into the rifle. They were shown the demonstration how to load the cartridge in the rifle. Some soldiers came to knew that the cartridges which held gun power were greased with either pig fat or beef tallow. Rumours started spreading. These made the soldiers in the infantry angry because for Hindus cows were a scared animal. They used to worship the cows. The British tried explaining the soldiers, and even asked them to make their own grease from vegetable oils. Now the rumours came into the ears of Mangal Pandey. He inquired about the whole situation. He found that the rumours are correct. This made him angry and violent. He decided not to compromise. He decided to revolt against this order. Some soldiers shook hands with him in this act.

The news of revolt reached into the ears of the Britishers. They ordered Lt. Baugh to investigate the situation. He tried to pacify the soldiers but the situation got out of control and Mangal Pandey fired at him. He was safe but the bullet killed his horse. Due to his disrespect against a senior officer he was arrested and put in the jail but somehow he escaped. This resulted in a revolt. However it was crushed by the two units called from Rangoon. Mangal Pandey tried to commit suicide but was captured alive. He was again put in the jail.

The Britishers were in a shock due the effect of the revolt. They decided to hang Mangal Pandey. On 8^th April, 1857 he was hanged till death.

In 1984 the Indian government issued a postage stamp to commemorate him. A park is named 'Sahid Mangal Pandey Udyan' in the memory of Mangal Pandey where he attacked British officers and was hanged, at Barrackpore road in Barrackpore sub-divisional town in North 24 Parganas district. A play named ‘The Roti Rebellion’ is based on his life.

He is widely regarded as a freedom fighter in modern India. He reaped the seed for getting independence from the British rule.

Lord Krishna and Yashodha

In the childhood Lord Krishna was very naughty. Everybody in the house especially Mother Yashodha was fed up with his mischief behaviour. He used to steal butter and cheese in his house and also from the neighbours. The neighbours used to complain about his deeds to Mother Yashodha. These deeds are wrong. He should stop but it has no effect. Day by day his mischiefs were increasing.

One day Krishna was stealing butter in his house. He had broken the pot and was eating the butter. At that moment Mother Yashodha came inside. She saw him stealing butter. She caught him. This made her angry. She decided to punish him. On the other Krishna tried to persuade her. He was asking for forgiveness. She was fed up with his daily mischiefs and complains of the neighbours. Today she decided to punish Sri Krishna sternly.

She dragged Krishna catching his hand and took him in the veranda. She tied him to the trunk of the tree with a rope and went away. When she was going away Krishna was pleading for forgiveness. His pleading had no effect and she went away. She loved Krishna a lot. She was also upset because she didn’t want to punish him from his heart. She remembered Krishna a lot from the moment she punish him.

After some time a Gopika come to Sri Krishna’s house. Yashodha and Gopika start chatting. After sometime the gopika asks about Sri Krishna. She tells her that today she caught him stealing butter red handed. She has punished him. She has tied him to the trunk of the tree. The gopika was a little amazed after listening to this conversation. She informed her that she saw Sri Kishna playing with the children in the neighbourhood. She didn’t believe her.

She decides to find out the truth. She asks the gopika to take her to the place where she saw her playing. She takes her to the place. Yashodha finds Sri Krishna playing with the children. She can’t believe her eyes. She decides to find out the truth. She returns to her house. She goes to the place where he has tied Sri Krishna. When she goes there she finds him tied to the trunk of the tree smiling. She is astonished. She can’t believe herself. She starts thinking how it could be possible.

After a few moments she comes to the conclusion that it is the maya of Sri Krishna. Her anger vanishes. She unties Sri Krishna. She asks Sri Krishna for apology. She tells her how she could be so harsh. She starts crying. Sri Krishna wipes his tears and sits in his lap. This is the love and affection shown by him to his lovers.

Sri Krishna and Indra

This story is associated with the holy place named Brindavan. Sri Krishna’s childhood is associated with this place.

At that time people used to worship Lord Indra. The residents thought that because of his grace Brindavan is a prosperous place. It used to rain a lot. Plenty of rain transformed this place into a heaven. When Krishna arrived, he observed that people are worshiping Lord Indra blindfold. He decided to break the myth. He explained the residents that because of Moutain Govardhan, Brindavan is a prosperous place. People believed him and stopped worshiping Indra and started worshiping Moutain Govardhan. This made Indra angry. He felt insulted. He decided to punish the villagers.

Lord Indra sent dark clouds to destroy Brindavan. Now it started raining. The whole village was flooded with water. Such heavy rains destroyed everything. People started running here and there but could not find a place for shelter. People blamed Krishna for destruction.

Krishna was calm. He told the villager not to panic. He told everybody to gather in front of Moutain Govardhan. Krishna lifted the Moutain Govardhan and told everybody to come under it. All the villagers took shelter under the mountain. They were safe from rain. Everybody was also astonished by what Krishna did right now.

This broke Lord Indra’s pride. He understood his mistake. He apologised. He ordered the clouds to disappear. It stopped raining. Everybody in the village was happy now. They started praising Krishna.

Sri Krishna and Bakasura

Kansa was the uncle of Sri Krishna. He was very wicked. He always devised plans to kill Krishna. He sent Putna to Kill Krishna but she failed. Now he was more frightened. He was not able to sleep at nights. He had nightmares about Krishna killing him. He had contacts with evil persons who had magical powers. One of them was Bakasura. He was the brother of Putna. He had magical power. Kansa called him and assigned the task of killing Sri Krishna. He also told him that Sri Krishna had killed her sister. This made him angry.

Everyday Krishna along with cowherd boys used to go to the banks of Yamuna River with their cattle. They used to graze there.

One day when there cattle were grazing, some of the cowherd boys saw a giant animal approaching towards them. It looked like a giant duck. All the cowherd boys became frightened with the discharge of lightning accompanied by thunder by the giant animal. They name this giant animal Bakasura. Baka means duck sura means a monster. When Bakasura approached the cowherd boys who was with Krishna they started running towards their village. 

      

Now Bakasura attached Krishna with his pointed beak. Krishna caught his beak and separated it into two parts. He got inside the mouth of the demon. The demon closed his mouth and swallowed him. Bakasura was very happy that he has killed Krishna but his happiness does not last long.

Sri Krishna started to wriggle round and round inside his stomach. In addition to that the glow from Sri Krishna body started to produce intense pain in his stomach. This made Bakasura uneasy. He was not able to keep Sri Krishna into his stomach for a long time. He spitted Sri Krishna out of his stomach.

When Bakasura failed into his attempt he tried to kill Sri Krishna by pinching him between his beaks but Sri Krishna saved himself. Again Bakasura tried to pinch him between his strong beaks. This time he was not so lucky. Sri Krishna caught his beaks and pulled them apart. Bakasura died on the spot. When this demon died all the cowherd boys who were hiding came to Sri Krishna and appreciated his bravery.

Sri Krishna and Putna

Kansa was very frightened after he heard the Krishna was born. In his dream he would see Krishna killing him. On day he called a meeting of his ministers to discuss this situation. After discussion he reached to the conclusion to kill Krishna before he turns into an adult. His minister suggested him to take the help of Putna.

Putna was a wicked witch. She was famous for killing small children by her magical powers. Kansa called her and assigned the task of killing Krishna. She assured that it was an easy task and she will succeed.

Putna started for Gokul. She didn’t have any difficulty finding Sri Krishna. A lot of people were visiting the house to greet the baby. She decided to change her form. She transformed into a beautiful lady well dressed and well mannered. Everybody present there was influenced with her beauty. Nobody thought that she is a wicked bitch who has come here to kill Sri Krishna.

Putna was very curious. She started searching for Sri Krishna. She found the Lord lying on the bed glancing the ceiling, smiling. She took the baby in her lap. She offered her breast to Sri Krishna to feed on. Putna has applied a strong poison on her breasts.  Sri Krishna started feeding. After sometime Putna started crying in pain and after a while she died. She came in the real form. Sri Krishna was playing in Putna’s lap smiling. Everybody present there was astonished.          

Janmashtami: The Birth of Lord Krishna

Kansh was the king of Mathura at that time. He had a sister named Devaki. She was going to be married to Vasudaev. Kansh was very enthusiastic about this marriage. He decided to accompany the couple to their place after the wedding.

When they were proceeding, suddenly an echo came from the sky. The echo told that Devaki’s eighth son would be responsible for Kansh’s death. This made him angry. He ordered his soldiers to put the couple in the prison. One by one he killed every child given birth by Devaki.

When Krishna was about to born Lord Vishnu came in the dream of Vasudaev. Lord Vishnu advised him to take Sri Krishna to Gokul at midnight and exchange him with Yashoda’s daughter. He also told him that all the gates would be opened and he would be set free.

At midnight, Vasudaev woke up. He was set free. He put the child in the basket. All the gated were opened. All the guards were fast asleep. He placed the basket on his head and started towards the destination. On the way there was Yamnu River. It parted into two and allowed Vasudaev to pass away. It was raining very heavily. God Naga provided Lord Krishna protection against the rain.

Vasudaev reached Yashoda’s house. He exchanged Lord Krishna with the baby girl. He returned to the prison. He was amazed to see that all the gates were opened and all the guards were fast asleep. He put the baby in the side of Yashoda. After that he went to sleep.

In the morning the child started to cry. This awaked everybody in the prison. When Kansh came to know that Devki has given birth to a child, he came into the prison. Devaki pleaded not to kill the new-born in front of Kansa but all in vain. Kansh snatched the baby from her hand. When he was about to throw the baby, the baby flew into sky and changed her form. She told that Devaki’s son is born into this world and his death is near. After that she disappeared.