The Story of Princess Asha

A long time ago, in a beautiful city called Rampur, there lived a very wise minister named Saujanya. His wife's name was Lali. She was very kind and beautiful. They were married at a young age and had been living happily together for many years.But they had a great sorrow in their hearts. Even after many years had passed, they had no children. They had an immense desire to have a little child of their own, who would support them in their old age and carry forward the family name.After much thought, Saujanya and Lali decided to go to a temple. There was a large temple of the 'Goddess of Love' there. They believed that the Goddess listens to everyone's sorrow and comes to help people in the form of whatever they need the most. For them, nothing was greater than a beloved child.Therefore, they went to that temple and stayed for many days. Every day, they lit incense and kept asking God for a child.Finally, their prayer was heard.Queen Lali gave birth to a daughter. After getting a daughter, their happiness knew no bounds. Since she was obtained through the temple's blessing, they named the daughter 'Asha'. They raised Asha with a lot of love and care. As they watched, Asha also kept becoming very beautiful and strong.When Asha became five years old, her mother Lali fell very ill. Many doctors and medicines could not cure her either. At her final hour, she called Asha close to her. Gently stroking Asha's head, she said:"My dear Asha, now your mother cannot stay with you much longer. Even after I die, you must always live as a good daughter, okay. Do not cause trouble to anyone. Perhaps your father will marry again and your new mother will come into the house. At that time, do not worry for me; instead, accept the new mother as your own mother and obey her words. Respect the elders and love the young ones. When you grow up, become a person whom everyone praises, okay."Asha listened to her mother's words carefully and promised to obey everything her mother said. There is a proverb, isn't there, 'A plant that is meant to grow has smooth leaves'. From her childhood, Asha was extremely wise and kind just as her mother had said, although it would still take her time to understand how great the pain of losing a mother is.A short time after the mother passed away, the father Saujanya married a second time to a woman named Tara. But alas! That Tara was not kind like the mother. She was of a very resentful and harsh heart. She did not love Asha at all. She would say to herself, "This is not my own child, why should I love it?"But Asha, on her part, stayed bearing every bad behavior of Tara. She always served Tara and obeyed everything she said. She never caused trouble to anyone, just as her own mother had taught her. Therefore, Tara would find no excuse at all to scold Asha.Asha was also very sharp in reading and writing. She loved singing songs and writing poems immensely. Her father had appointed the best guru to teach her music. When Asha became twelve years old, she played the veena (a musical instrument) so sweetly that the king himself summoned her to the palace.At that time, the spring festival was going on and there was a grand feast in the palace. The king ordered Asha to play the veena and her stepmother Tara to play the flute.The king sat in a high and secure place from where he could see everyone, but others could not see him easily. Even though Asha was small, she played the instrument very well. She played so beautifully that everyone was astonished.But her mother Tara, on the other hand, having not practiced well, lost her tune midway and had to let someone else play.Tara felt a lot of shame because of this matter. She became even angrier with Asha. Seeing Asha's fine art, the king also gave her many gifts. This caused even more jealousy in Tara's heart.Now, Tara also had another reason to hate Asha. Tara had a son of her own. She began to think to herself, "If this Asha were not here, only my son would get all of the father's love and property."That bad thought gradually grew so much that she made a plan to finish Asha. One day, she secretly bought poison and mixed it into a sweet sherbet. She put poison in one of two identical bottles and kept good sherbet in the other.That day was a children's festival. Asha was sitting and playing with toys with her small brother. She was making her brother laugh while telling him stories of brave warriors. Just then, Tara arrived there carrying two bottles of sherbet and some sweets."How wisely you two are playing!" Tara said, flashing a fake smile, "I have brought sweet sherbet and sweets for you."She filled the sherbet into two cups.Asha knew nothing. She took one cup herself and gave the other cup to her beloved brother.Tara had intended to give the cup with poison to Asha, but in her haste, she mistakenly gave the cup with poison to her own son. She was watching to see what would happen to Asha, but nothing happened to Asha at all. Suddenly, her small son collapsed to the floor and began to cry, saying his stomach was hurting.Terrified, Tara rushed toward her son and hurriedly dropped the sherbet bottles to the floor, erasing the evidence. People ran to call a doctor, but no one could save the child. Within an hour, that small child lost his life right in his mother's lap. Everyone felt that the child became ill because of the sherbet.In this way, Tara, who wished bad for another, punished herself. But instead of realizing her mistake, she began to hate Asha even more. She was looking for another opportunity again.When Asha became thirteen years old, she had already become a famous poetess. At that time, people respected those who wrote poems very much.Once, it rained heavily in Rampur and floods came everywhere. The water of the Bagmati River was flowing with such a loud sound that its roar made it difficult for the king to sleep and rest. The king fell very ill. He made the priests of all temples pray, but the sound of the flood did not stop.Then a rumor spread in the palace that the minister Saujanya's daughter Asha writes very good poems. Even though she was small, she was very talented. Someone said, "A long time ago, a poetess had also pleased God by reading a poem. If Asha also writes a poem for the river, could this roar stop?"This matter reached the king's ears. He immediately ordered the minister Saujanya that Asha must write a poem and calm the flood. Asha felt a lot of fear at first, but she decided to handle this big responsibility for the king.Asha wrote her poem on a beautiful piece of paper. She went to the riverbank along with her father and other people. She remembered God from her heart and lifting her poem with both hands, began to read it in a loud voice.Everyone was astonished! When she finished reading the poem, that terrifying roar of the river calmed down immediately. The water began to flow gently.Seeing this, the king also recovered quickly. The king became very happy and honored Asha by giving her the title of 'Commander Princess'. Now everyone started to respect and love her.But her stepmother Tara, on the other hand, was still not happy. Seeing Asha's honor and success, her heart was burning with jealousy deep within. She told many bad things about Asha to her husband, but Saujanya did not believe her words.Finally, one day when Saujanya was not at home, Tara called one of her old workers, Veer Bahadur. She made up a false story about Asha and said, "Take this girl far away into the forest of Chandragiri and kill her. If she stays alive, our family's honor will be gone."Veer Bahadur had to obey his mistress's words. He placed Asha in a palanquin and took her to a lonely place on the mountain. The poor Asha knew nothing, but she went there without making any protest.But Veer Bahadur knew that Princess Asha was innocent. He could not kill such a beautiful and wise girl. He decided to live in the forest itself. With the help of some villagers, he built a small hut there. He secretly called his wife there too. Those two old people took very good care of Asha.Asha also believed that one day her father would surely come searching for her.A few weeks later, the minister Saujanya returned home. Telling a lie to him, Tara said, "Asha had done a bad deed, so she ran away from home for fear of getting punished."Saujanya became very worried. Everyone in the house repeated the same thing. He searched everywhere, but found Asha nowhere.One day, to forget his worry, he went to hunt in the mountains. He reached a bit ahead of his group and arrived at a beautiful gorge in Chandragiri. There, he saw a small house and heard the sound of someone reading in a sweet voice from there.Wondering who could be reading in this lonely place, he dismounted from his horse and went toward that house. On reaching close, he saw that a beautiful girl was reading a book. Looking closely, she turned out to be his own daughter Asha! Asha also, as soon as she saw her father, could not say anything out of joy."Father! You here? Oh father!" Crying, she embraced her father. Saujanya also, stroking his daughter's head, asked what had happened.Just then, the honest Veer Bahadur came there and falling at Saujanya's feet, told the whole truth. He narrated everything about how Tara had ordered him to kill Asha and how he had saved Asha and kept her here.Hearing this, Saujanya became very angry. Leaving his hunt, he immediately returned home taking Asha along. When Tara saw Saujanya and Asha returning together, she became very afraid. After her mistake was caught, out of shame, she left the house and ran away, and never returned again.Saujanya gave a high post and reward to the honest Veer Bahadur. Veer Bahadur lived happily by Asha's side forever. Now there was no one to cause trouble to Asha. She started living happily with her father.Many years later, Asha was married to a good prince. Asha lived for many years and was remembered by everyone as the wisest and most beautiful princess. She also got an opportunity to hand over her son into her father's hands.Even today, a beautiful cloth hand-woven by her is kept in a temple. It is said that she had made the image of Lord Buddha on that cloth using thread made from a lotus flower. This itself is the token of the good Princess Asha.