This incident went viral on social media.
This is also reminiscent of the Golden Mongoose story in the Mahabharatham.
In today's English language, the word: Mogul means an important, wealth & powerful person (eg: realty-mogul, media-mogul). The word comes from the Mughals, who ruled a portion of India a few centuries back. India was the richest country in the world back then, which attracted traders, imperialists & colonizers. (Source: Macro-economic historian Angus Maddison's Contours of the world economy). The wealth would get concentrated with the ruler and consequently, each Mughal ruler was the richest person in the world. This lent the meaning to today's English word, Mogul. Even today, we find a human tendency that the powerful tend to accumulate wealth.
Travelers to ancient India noted a different phenomenon in amazement.
Hieun Tsang visited the court of Harshavardhana of Kanauj. He noted that every few years, Harsha would perform a Rajasuya Yajna & donate the entire wealth of the kingdom collected through taxation. He expressed amazement and was effusive in praise of the Indian kings.
There are references to Jayachandra, the father to Samyogitha who would marry Prithviraj Chauhan, performing the Rajasuya Yajna.
In the Mahabharatham, Yudhishtira (युधिष्ठिर) performs the Rajasuya Yagna after the great war. He donates the entire wealth of the kingdom. He is praised by everyone for his generosity. At the end of the Yajna, a strange mongoose arrives. The mongoose is golden in half of its body. It rolls over in the remains of the offerings. Then, the mongoose surprises everyone with its gift of speech. It disdainfully comments that there was nothing praiseworthy about this Yajna and that it was a mockery and a show.
Yudhishtira is anguished. He had just donated his entire wealth. The assembled people question the mongoose as to its strange body & behavior. The mongoose narrates its story.
There was once a poor old Brahmana living with his wife, son & daughter-in-law. They were ascetic Yogis interested in pursuit of the ultimate truth and didn't bother about material possessions. Consequently, they were in poverty, leading a hand-to-mouth existence. In this situation, a great famine struck the land. The family starved for days. The old man managed to get a little rice. The rice was cooked and divided into four portions. At this point, a traveler knocked on their door.
अतिथिदेवो भव (Athithi Devo Bhava) was a concept in ancient India where the guest was treated like divinity. Travelers to India have praised the extraordinary generosity of its people.
The old man invited the guest into his home. After the guest freshened himself up, he revealed that he had been traveling without food for days. The old man immediately offered him his food. The guest ate it & still looked hungry.
The wife comes forward to offer her food. The husband is distraught. It was his responsibility to feed her. The wife insists & offers her food.
The guest still looked hungry. The son offers his food next. The parents ask him to reconsider. A young age is not an age for starvation & sacrifice. But the son insists.
The guest still looked hungry. The daughter-in-law now comes forward. The others plead with her not to, saying that she was married into the home & that they had an obligation towards her. The daughter-in-law insists. The guest now looked sated.
Suddenly, the house enveloped in a great light & guest transformed into a Deva. Other Devas revealed themselves and proclaimed this the greatest Yajna. The entire family reached the highest states.
The mongoose rolled on the remnants of the food & half of its body turned gleaming gold. It got the gift of speech & long life. The mongoose laments that it had since been going to multiple yajnas to turn its remaining body golden, including the current one by Yudhishtira, but to no avail.
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