Pallavi Hota

Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic about the brothers, Pandavas and kauravas. It describes the battle between them in the Kurukshetra war for the throne of Hastinapura. It is an epic tale that combines war, religion, philosophy and Hindu history. Following is a story from “The Mahabharata.” Once Durvasa Muni, the ancient Rishi, who was known for granting boons to people who pleased him, visited the house of&nbsp;Duryodhana, the enemy cousin of Maharaja Yudhisthira. Duryodhana was&nbsp;intelligent enough to satisfy the brahmana by all means, and the&nbsp;great rishi wanted to give some blessings to Duryodhana. Duryodhana knew his mystic powers, and he also knew that the mystic brahmana, if&nbsp;dissatisfied, could cause some havoc. When the rishi asked Duryodhana, Duryodhana wished that he should visit the house of Maharaja Yudhisthira, who was the eldest and chief among all his cousins. He requested the rishi to go to Yudhisthira after he had finished his meals with his Queen, Draupadi. Duryodhana knew that after Draupadi’s dinner, it would be impossible for Maharaja Yudhisthira to receive such a large number of brahmana guests, and thus the rishi would be annoyed and would create some trouble for his cousin Maharaja Yudhisthira. That was the plan of Duryodhana. Durvasa Muni agreed to this proposal, and he approached the King in exile, according to the plan of Duryodhana, after the King and Draupadi had finished their meals. On his arrival at the door of Maharaja Yudhisthira, he was at once well received, and the King requested him to finish his noontime religious rites in the river, for by that time the foodstuff would be prepared. Durvasa Muni, along with his large number of disciples, went to take a bath in the river. Maharaja Yudhisthira was in great anxiety about the guests. If Draupadi had not taken her meals, food could have been served to any number of guests, but the rishi, by the plan of Duryodhana, reached there after Draupadi had finished her meals.Draupadi was thinking of Lord Krishna in that difficult situation. Lord Krishna arrived at the scene and asked Draupadi to give whatever food she might have in her stock. Draupadi apologised to Lord Krishna and told Him that the mysterious dish which she had received from the sun-god could supply any amount of food if she herself had not eaten. But on that particular day, she had already taken her meals.The Lord, however, asked Draupadi to bring up the cooking pots to see if there was any&nbsp;particle of food left, and on Draupadi doing so, the Lord found a few particles of vegetables sticking to the pot. The Lord at once picked it up and ate it. After doing so, the Lord asked Draupadi to call for her guests, the company of Durvasa. Bhima was sent to call them from the river. Bhima said, “Why are you delaying, sirs? Come on, the food is ready for you.” But the brahmanas, because of Lord Krisha’s accepting a little particle of food, felt sumptuously fed, even while they were in the water. They thought that since Maharaja Yudhisthira must have prepared many valuable dishes for them and since they were not hungry and could not eat, the King would feel very sorry, so it was better not to go there. Thus they decided to go away.

This is a story of Krishna and Draupadi.

Durvasa Muni and cooking pot of Draupadi

Shina Utavani

Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated all over India but the people of Maharashtra celebrate it with the most zeal. It is believed that Goddess Parvati created Ganesha from dirt off her body while having a bath. Then, Parvati set Ganesha out of the door to guard while she finished her bath. Shiva returned and Ganesh did not know him so he stopped him from entering. Shiva too did not know Ganesha. He got angry and used his Trishul and threw it towards Ganesha. The trishul went through the neck of Ganesha and his head fell down. When Parvati returned, she was shocked to see this. She became very angry. Shiva promised that Ganesha would live again.&nbsp; Shiva directed every God to go in search of the head of a dead person. The only head they could find was of an elephant. Shiva fixed the elephant’s head on the child and Ganesha came back to life.&nbsp; Lord Ganesha is considered as the symbol of wisdom, good fortune, and luck. Ganesh Chaturthi marks the birth of Lord Ganesha. It is a ten-day-long festival and people celebrate by bringing an idol of Lord Ganesha in their homes. After ten days, the idol is immersed in the water and the day is called Ganesh Visarjan.&nbsp; The festival is loved by everyone. People celebrate it with great love and enthusiasm. The festival not only involves prayers but also includes activities like dancing on dhols, and singing.&nbsp;

This is a story of Ganesh, Ganesh Chathurthi, Parvati and Shiva.

Ganesh Chaturthi

Mahabharata is an ancient Indian epic about the brothers, Pandavas and kauravas. It describes the battle between them in the Kurukshetra war for the throne of Hastinapura. It is an epic tale that combines war, religion, philosophy and Hindu history. Following is a story from ìThe Mahabharata.There are some devotees who want to show off. For hours they meditate, for hours they chant, for hours they repeat the name of Lord Krishna. They look down upon others who do not spend so much time meditating and chanting. Arjuna happened to be one of these. Bhima, one of the five Pandava brothers, was the strongest in the family. Bhima never prayed to any god. He used to eat and he used to fight. He was a voracious eater and at the same time a great fighter.Arjuna used to pray to Lord Shiva. For two hours, Arjuna used to collect hundreds of flowers and offer them to Lord Shiva one by one. Each time while offering the flowers he used to utter the name of Lord Shiva. On the other hand, Bhima would put his fingers on his forehead and concentrate for a couple of minutes before each meal. Then he would eat voraciously. This was his meditation. Poor Arjuna would spend hours gathering flowers, but Arjuna's pride could not escape Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna took Arjuna for a walk. As they were walking, they saw a man drawing a cart. The cart was loaded with flowers. All kinds of flowers. Arjuna asked the man, ìWhat are you doing with these flowers? And where are you going?î The man had no time to respond to Arjuna. Sri Krishna said, ìArjuna, let us follow him.î When the man reached his destination, there were many more carts of flowers. ìWhat are you going to do with all these thousands and millions of flowers?î, Arjuna inquired. ìI have no time to speak to you. I am now in serious concentration, said the man. The man continues, ìI can speak only to one person on earth, and that is Bhima, the second Pandava. He is the greatest spiritual seeker. When he meditates before his meals just for a minute or two, saying O mighty Lord Shiva, thousands of flowers are offered by him to Lord Shiva. His concentration is the most intense. His meditation is the most sincere. Arjuna only throws flowers at Lord Shiva. He just shows off.îThis made Arjuna realise that it's not the time or the resources one offers to the Lords but the dedication which matters the most.

This is a story of Arjun and Bheem.

Bheema's power of concentration and dedication

Yesha Desai

Once upon a time, there lived a big rat in the jungle. He was very wise and powerful and headed a large group of rats. A crafty wolf also lived in that jungle and intended to catch the entire group of rats.One day, a bright idea struck him. He went near the place where the rats lived and waited for them to come out. As soon as he saw the rats coming out of their hole, he stood on his hind legs and opened his mouth wide. The rats were surprised to see the wolf standing in this strange posture.Out of curiosity, the chief of the rats asked the wolf, “Wolf, why are you standing on your hind legs?” The cunning wolf made a long face and answered, “Dear friend, I am lame since birth. It hurts me to put my front legs on the ground. That is why I do not have any other option but to stand like this and suffer.”“And why is your mouth open?” asked the chief of the rats. “Since I cannot walk or move, I survive only on air. I keep my mouth open to take in as much of air as I can. I think I have been punished for my previous karmas. I must have done some wrongful act in the past life because of which I am suffering like this in the present birth. I now intend to spend the rest of my life only in meditation.” said the wolf gloomily.The rats felt very sorry for the wolf. They decided to visit the wolf everyday and spend some time with the hapless animal. The wolf also kept them entertained with his sermons. Each time, as the rats left, the wolf used to catch and eat the last one. Then he quickly wiped his lips, and acted as if nothing had happened. Soon, the number of the rats in the group started to decline and this also came to the notice of the chief of rats. He evaluated the situation carefully and came to the conclusion that perhaps it was an act of the wolf. He, however, did not have any proof.The next day when the rats went to meet the wolf, the chief of the rats instructed all the others to stay ahead of him while leaving. The chief of the rats kept himself towards the last and as he had rightly anticipated, the cunning wolf pounced at him. But the chief of the rats was prepared for the attack and he swiftly got away from the wolf’s clutches.“So, this is the food you eat! You took advantage of our innocence and belied our faith. You deserve to be punished!” said the chief of the rats angrily. He sprung at the wolf’s throat and bit him to death. This is how the treacherous wolf met his end. Moral:Treachery and trickstery does not reap good results.

This is a classic story from Jataka tales.This is a story of rat and wolf.Moral(s) of the story: betrayal

The tricky wolfs and the rats

Ravina Sewani

Once there were two brothers who were great friends and always played together. However, one day they had a huge argument about one of their toys. In the end, they decided that from then on they would only be allowed to play with their own individual toys.They had so many toys and things that they agreed to spend the next day sorting out which toy belonged to whom. So the next day each brother got to work, making a pile of his own things. When they had finished doing the big toys it was time to sort the little stuff. However, they had already taken so long that it was time for bed, so they left the small toys for the next day. The same thing happened the next day, because they had started dividing up parts of the house.Day after day it was the same story. They were spending their whole time deciding what, among all kinds of things, belonged to either one of them.Anything would set them off: seeing an animal, a tree, or even a stone. In the end, they had accumulated two complete mountains of stuff which had to be kept out in front of the house.As the years passed, nothing changed: every morning they would meet up to argue about which things belonged to whom. They were getting older, and everyone now knew them as "the grumpy old men". No one had ever seen them smile.That was, until one morning they went out and found that their two mountains of stuff had been totally mixed up together. Someone had been there, mixing their things up! After all that time and effort they had spent to separate everything!Furious, the brothers tried to find who had done it. Soon they found a pair of children playing on the other side of the mountains of stuff. They were happily playing together, picking everything up, careless of whether they were mixing it all together. They looked really happy, enjoying themselves to the max.Seeing the children so happy, the two grumpy old brothers realised how foolish they had been for so many years. They had given up playing with anything, instead spending their whole lives arguing over what was theirs to play with. How sad they felt, for spending their lives in anger. At the same time, though, they were happy to have finally realised their foolishness.They spent that day, and the rest of their days, playing together with those two children, mixing everything up, and sharing it all. People even stopped calling them the grumpy old men. Now people called them the 'Big Kids'. Moral:Sharing is caring. It’s not worth to waste time fighting over things. We should learn to share and cherish others’ company.

This is a story of brothers.Moral(s) of the story: sharing

The Angry Brothers	

Ali Momin

El’s mother puts her hyperactive little girl with a lot of struggle. “One more story, Ma!” She whines. But this time her mother sternly looks at her. “No, El. We will read more stories tomorrow. Go to sleep now.” El frowns but does as she is told. El snuggles into the covers and goes to sleep. She wakes up to the sound of birds chirping. Like every morning she wants to dig deeper into her bed and not wake up but this time she can smell the cakes and sweets everywhere.&nbsp; El immediately jolts out of her bed as she realises this and looks around only to realise that she was not in her bed. She is not even in her room! El was a brave girl so she didn’t immediately panic. She looked around her to see green, sprawling meadows with flowers and wild plants littered around. As she went closer she realised that they were not little flowers, they were pastries! Her mouth watered as she saw tiny cakes of different colours. There were little candies and chocolates hanging from trees. Rainbow coloured water flows in streams and the wind in her hair smelled of sweets. El looked around bewildered. “Is this real?” She pinched herself. A small melodic sound of someone laughing filled the air. She looked around to find a small blue pixie. El pinched herself again. “Oh God, are you real?” The pixie laughed again. “Yes, dear El. I am very real.”El narrowed her eyes, “How do you know my name?” “I know everything.” The pixie answered coyly. “The question that you should be asking is why are you here.” “Why am I here?” El parrotted.&nbsp; “You are here to get whatever you want and take it home. El’s eyes widened. “What?” “Yes. You heard correct.” El was amazed. She immediately began looking around and gathering treats. When she was done, the pixie finally spoke. “You can take this all, dear, and then some more but on one condition only.” “What?” El asked. “Only if you listen to your mother.” El eagerly agreed. The pixie promised to get her even more treats.&nbsp; That was when El woke up with a jolt. She was disappointed that this was all just a dream.&nbsp; But then she looked around her and there were baskets of cakes and chocolates and sweets and ice-creams. El was amazed.&nbsp;She rushed out of her room to tell her mother about what happened.&nbsp;

This is a story of cake, ice cream, chocolate and a fairy.

The land of cake!

One day the Emperor asked Birbal, “Birbal, is it possible for any man to be the “noblest” and the “lowest” together?”Birbal said, “Yes, Jahanpanah!”Akbar then asked Birbal to bring any one such man before him.Birbal went out and soon returned with a beggar. Presenting the poor beggar to the Emperor, he said, “This is the lowest among all of your subjects, Jahanpanah”Akbar asked, “Well, you may be right, Birbal. But, I don’t see that how he can be the noblest?”“Today this lowest subject of yours has been given the honor of having an audience with you, the greatest of all Mughal kings. This is what makes him the noblest among the beggars, Jahanpanah!”Emperor Akbar was full of Birbal’s praise on putting this so aptly before him and rewarded him handsomely. Moral:Our creativity and imaginative responses can get us a long way.

This is a classic story from Akbar Birbal.Moral(s) of the story: wisdom

The Noblest beggar

In a forest, there lived a bear. The bear was very greedy. He always wanted something bigger. He was never satisfied with what he had. One day, the bear was very hungry and he wanted to eat something. He decided to go out to search for food.The day was very beautiful and bright. The sun was shining and everything looked bright and pretty. The bear decided to eat fish to enjoy the bright sunny day. So, he went to a river to catch fish. The river was filled with fishes and the bear was very happy to see that. He decided to eat lots of fish.The bear prepared himself for the hunt. He looked at the fish and waited for the chance. The bear looking at the opportunity tried to catch a fish. As soon as he grabbed a fish, he was very happy. But when he saw the fish, he became sad. he said, “This fish is very small. I will wait for the bigger fish.” The bear threw the fish back in the water.He again started hunting for the fish. He waited for his chance. He swung his arm in the water and grabbed another fish. After looking at the second fish he again said, “Oh no! This is very small. I need a bigger one.” He again threw the fish back in the water.He continued doing the same again and again. Every time the fish he grabbed was too small for him and every time he would throw the fish back in the water. He wanted to eat a bigger fish. In the end, he was very tired and had nothing to eat because he had thrown every fish back in the river. Moral:Many small things make up for one big thing. Never let go of what you have in hand for what you don’t have yet.

This is a story of bear, fish and river.Moral(s) of story: greediness

The Foolish Bear

A Fox, swimming across a river, was barely able to reach the bank, where he lay bruised and exhausted from his struggle with the swift current. Soon a swarm of blood-sucking flies settled on him; but he lay quietly, still too weak to run away from them.A Hedgehog happened by. “Let me drive the flies away,” he said kindly.“No, no!” exclaimed the Fox, “do not disturb them! They have taken all they can hold. If you drive them away, another greedy swarm will come and take the little blood I have left.” Moral:It is better to tolerate a lesser evil than to risk a greater one in removing it.

This is a story fo Aesop fables, fox, hedgehog and river.Moral(s) of the story: tolerance

shoes stories

Kids moral stories help in improving their imagination & relate to real-world life. Here are age-specific bedtime stories for children by renowned storytellers.