THE POWER OF PRAYER - THE STORY OF JAI SINGH

Posted by dinesh

By Sacinandana Swami

Once there was a King named Jai Singh, who was a great devotee of the Lord. During the reign of Jai Singh the Mongols were conquering India. One by one, they attacked the small kingdoms of the country. At the same time, even between those battles there were many other conflicts. It was a time of war and instability. Jai Singh´s kingdom was very beautiful and opulent. Being desirous of that opulence the king of the neighboring kingdom tried to conquer Jai Singh´s kingdom again and again. But whenever he met Jai Singh´s army he found it to be undefeatable. Also the Mongols tried to defeat Jai Singh many times, but they too were unsuccessful. In this way Jai Singh, who always personally led his army in battle, stayed true to his name, "victory to the lion".

One day the neighboring king thought to himself, "If I cannot conquer him by fair means, I have to employ unfair means." Thus he sent his spies to find out about Jai Singh´s habits. The spies soon returned with this message: Every morning Jai Singh personally worships his deity, Shri Radha Raman. He starts punctually at 8 a.m. and finishes the worship by 9 a.m. No one was to disturb him during that time. So the neighboring king decided to attack at this time. In this way, one morning, exactly one minute past eight he started his surprise attack.

Jai Singh was before Radha Raman. He prayed, "My Lord I have given a vow to worship you. I cannot go and defend my people now." There was a loud knock at the door. The prime minister´s voice shouted from outside, "King you have to lead your army! I brought a qualified priest with me, he can do the worship!" Jai Singh answered, "Yes, but you know that I have given this vow to Radha Raman that I will always worship him personally." "We are lost", said the distraught minister, who then went to the king´s mother for help. She came to jai Singh and said to him "My son what do you think the Lord appreciates more? - If you protect his devotees or if you dress him in a doti! As your mother I order you - lead your army!" Jai Singh said "No mother, I´ve given a promise to Radha Raman." "Is this all you have to say to your mother? Our soldier will be slaughtered. Some of the women will be violated and all the citizens will be made slaves." "I cannot break my promise," was Jai Singh´s final word. The mother said, "So be it, then we women of this palace will all burn our bodies to ashes so that the enemy will not lay his hand on us!" the king prayed, "My dear Lord, please protect me. Please protect my people. My Lord, I have said no to my mother because I want to be true to my promise to you. Now you are the only one that can save us."

At this moment something wonderful happened. Jai Singh had a war horse which was extremely powerful and almost as big as an elephant. Jai Singh was the only person who could ride it. Suddenly the servants at the barn of the king´s horses saw a warrior running up to the barn with great speed and force. He wore the armor of the king, his covered and he yelled, "Make the horse ready!!!" The warrior had a sward in both of his hands and immediately began cutting himself through the army of the enemy. However, everyone who encountered the warrior became supremely blissful, even when they fell to the ground by his sword. Jai Singh´s army enthusiastically shouted again and again, "Jai Singh ki jay! All glories to Jai Singh!"

Meanwhile Jai Singh sat before Radha Raman, continuing his prayer for protection while he dressed the deity. When he wanted to give earrings to the Lord he saw that there was only one although he was sure that he had brought two. At that time the enemy´s army was slain. Soon the prime minister found Jai Singh in the temple and started to praise him for fighting the battle single-handedly. "I was not fighting at all", said the surprised Jai Singh. "I was doing my puja (worship) here." - When the minister finally took him to his war horse to show him that it was exhausted from the battle, Jai Singh understood: Radha Raman had fought the battle. Later, Jai Singh found the missing earring of Radha Raman on the battle grounds and built a temple at that place. The earring is still being worshiped there today.

This is the power of prayer. The king prayed with sincerity for the Lord´s protection and the Lord took care of everything.