The Story of King Bharata
When Sage Vishvāmitra was busy creating his own universe; Indra, the King of heaven could not tolerate that. So he sent a beautiful heavenly dancer, Menakā, to disturb him from his work. She succeeded and bore sage Vishvāmitra’s daughter, Shakuntalā. She was raised in the hermitage of sage Kanava after Menakā left for heaven. One day a King named Dushyanta wandered in the hermitage of sage Kanava.
There he met and fell in love with Shakuntalā, whom he secretly married in the hermitage. Afterwards, she gave birth to a baby boy named Bharata. He was very handsome and strong, even during his childhood. Bharata looked like the son of a Deva. When he was only six years old, he used to play in the jungle by tying up baby wild animals, such as tigers, lions, and elephants. Bharata became the king after Dushyanta. Bharata was the greatest king of the land. Even today we also call India BhārataVarsha, the land of King Bharata. He had nine sons, but none of them seemed fit to rule after him, so he adopted a qualified child, who took over the kingdom after Bharata.
Thus, King Bharata laid the foundation of democracy. There have been several other rulers by the name of Bharata such as Bharata, the younger brother of Lord Rāma and Mahārāja Bharata. Here is a story of Mahārāja Bharata: A devotee named Mahārāja Bharata, the son of a saintly King Rishabha Deva, also ruled over our entire planet. He ruled for many years but eventually renounced everything to take up spiritual life of an ascetic. Although he was able to give up his opulent kingdom, he became attached to a baby deer. Once when the deer was absent, Mahārāja Bharata was so disturbed that he began to search for it. While searching and lamenting the deer’s absence, Mahārāja Bharata fell down and died.
Because his mind was fully absorbed thinking of the deer at the time of his death, he naturally took his next birth from the womb of a deer. This is the theory of transmigration of the soul, which we believe. Some western philosophers believe in reincarnation. The reincarnation theory is based on the assumption that a human soul takes birth only as humans, not as animals. The theory of transmigration seems more universal than the theory of reincarnation.