Golden Goose

This story happened long, long ago, when Banaras was ruled by King Bahuputtaka. He had a queen named Khema. Bahuputtaka means 'father of many sons'.

Queen Khema had a dream one night, in which a beautiful golden goose spoke with great wisdom, almost as if he was a sage. She wanted her husband to find a bird just like the one that she had seen in her dream.

King Bahuputtaka asked all his ministers to find out where they could find such a bird. The King found out that such a did exist but was extremely rare and difficult to find. The ministers advised him to build a beautiful lake on the outskirts of Benaras to attract this bird.

To the north of Banaras, on Mount Cittakuta, there lived about ninety thousand wild geese led by King Dhataratta, a beautiful golden goose. King Dhataratta got to hear of this new, exquisite lake that was surrounded by flowers and trees and had lovely water lilies and lotuses floating on the surface, where corn was scattered on a daily basis in order to attract the birds.

King Dhataratta took the whole flock down south towards Benaras to this new lake.

Unknown to King Dhataratta, the King Bahuputta had placed a hunter at the lake to capture any golden goose that happened to pass by.

The hunter had set up snares, and they knew that the leader would definitely be the first to alight. As expected, the whole flock came flying down in one mighty swoop and it was King Dhataratta's foot that touched the water first. He was instantly ensnared and could not escape. All the other geese fluttered in panic and honked in distress. But none had the courage to try to free their king. The rest of the flock flew back to Mount Cittacuta for safety; all except one, that is - Sumukha.

King Dhataratta urged Sumukha to fly back to Mount Cittacuta as he could do nothing to save himself, leave alone his King. But Sumukha replied that he would never desert his master in the face of danger and would either try to save him or die trying to do so.

The hunter asked King Dhataratta how he had not noticed the trap. King Dhataratta replied, "When one's time is up it is no use to struggle against fate. One must accept fate." The hunter then turned to Sumukha and asked him why he had not fled with the other birds. Sumukha answered that this was his King, best friend and master and that he could never desert him even at the cost of his own life. Hearing this the hunter realised that these were a couple of rare birds of great nobility, and were he to harm them, the gods would certainly punish him. Besides, he did not much care for his own King's reward and decided to do the right thing and set them free. He told Sumukha that as he was ready to die for his King he would set them both free to fly wherever they may.

He then set loose the foot of the golden goose and washed the wound clean. And when he made an attempt to fix the dislocated muscle... lo behold..... the foot was miraculously whole again as if it had never been hurt. Sumukha greatly blessed the hunter for his act of compassion and his King asked whether he had set the trap for himself or at someone else's command. The hunter answered that he had done it on the orders of his own King. He then went on to narrate to them the whole story about the queen's dream and her wish to see this rare golden goose.

On hearing this, the golden goose decided to go and meet the monarch, as he knew that the hunter would receive his reward. He had also heard about the wisdom and goodness of King Bahuputtaka and thought that if he appeared out of his own free will, the monarch might allow him and his flock to come visit the lake. He therefore asked the hunter to take him to his King. The hunter advised him against it because he was worried that his monarch might imprison these two lovely creatures.

But the golden goose explained that just as they had been able to soften a hunter's heart it should not be too difficult to do the same to a great and noble King. He asked him to do his duty and leave the rest to him.

So the hunter set out to go to the palace accompanied by these two noble, gorgeous creatures. Needless to say that the King and Queen were absolutely delighted to see these two beautiful birds. The King set them on a golden perch and fed them himself, with honey, grain and sweetened milk. Then he spent the whole night discussing kingship and all its duties with this King of Geese. The golden goose did his best to offer good advice and encouragement in accordance with his wisdom.

In the morning he thanked the King and Queen for their hospitality and friendship and flew back to his flock accompanied by his faithful friend and chief captain Sumukha.