Maharaja Shivi was born in the Puru dynasty and was the king of the Ushinar country. He was a great philanthropist and pious. Any petitioner who reached his door never returned empty-handed. King Shivi had great affection for the creatures. There was an atmosphere of happiness, peace, and affection in his kingdom. Discussions of his philanthropy and sacrifice were famous from earth to heaven.
When the gods told Indra and Agni Dev about the fame of King Shivi, they could not believe it. To find out the truth of this fact, he decided to take the test of Ushinresh Shivi. And then Indra took the form of an eagle and Agni took the form of a pigeon and then both of them flew to the kingdom of King Shivi.
At that time King Shivi was busy performing the rituals of a Yagya. Then, taking the form of a pigeon, Agni fell in the lap of the Maharaja while praying. The pigeon said to the king in the language of a trembling man, “Sir, protect me, I have come under your shelter.”
In a short time, Indra, taking the form of an eagle, also came there and said to King Shivi, “Rajan, you are undoubtedly a godly and benevolent king. That’s why you have no enemy on this earth. What are you doing being so great? Distraught with hunger, I was wandering in search of food. That’s when I found this bird, so you cannot take it in your shelter. This is wrongdoing. Please give me my food back.”
Hearing the eagle, the pigeon trembling with fear said, “Your religion is to protect the life of the refugee, sir, and I have come under your shelter, so it is your religion to protect me. This wicked will kill me, so don’t listen to it.”
After listening to both of them, King Shiva said, “O eagle, this pigeon has come to my shelter to save its life, so it is my refugee. How can I renounce a refugee who has taken refuge in me? Those who do not protect the refugee out of fear, jealousy, shame, or malice, are condemned in the whole world and they incur a sin like murder. That’s why I cannot hand over to you this weak creature that is afraid of death. In return, you can ask me whatever you want to satisfy your hunger. I am ready to give you that desired thing.”
The eagle replied, “Sir, I am suffering from hunger at this time and my children are also dependent on me for food. If I remain hungry, my children will also die of hunger. There is a possibility of killing many creatures by saving one of your pigeons. Therefore, whatever is possible for me to eat, give it to me by weighing it on a scale equal to the weight of this pigeon so that my hunger can be quenched. King Shiva said, “O eagle, I can sacrifice everything to save the life of this little creature. So tell me what food should I give you to eat?”
The eagle immediately replied, “Rajan, now my hunger can be satisfied only by eating fresh meat instead of pigeon. Therefore, if you have this much affection for this pigeon, then weigh your meat exactly and give it to me.
After listening to the eagle, the king immediately ordered the scales and after placing the pigeon in one of its pans, started cutting the meat of his side in the other pan. But soon a strange thing happened. The king had put a lot of his meat in the pan, but even then the pigeon’s pan remained the same without moving.
A lot of time passed like this and when the king saw that even after keeping a lot of meat in the pan, the pigeon’s pan did not even move, then sitting in the pan himself, he said to the eagle, “O eagle, take this, I am sitting in front of you for your food. am. Now eat my whole body and satisfy your hunger. Seeing this, flowers started raining from the sky as soon as King Shiva said this, the king started thinking that what could be the reason for this. And then both those birds appeared in their real form as Indra and Agni.
Indra said, “O king, I have not seen a religious and sacrificing king like you anywhere. I am Indra who was talking to you as an eagle and this fire god had assumed the form of a pigeon. Both of us had come to test your religion and sacrifice. O king, such human beings are rare in the world who lay down their lives for the benefit of others. This story of your charity will continue to be heard for ages. May you be well Saying this Agni and Indra left for heaven. After this, King Shivi completed his yajna and continued to do charity for the people while ruling the earth for years.
From this sacrifice story of King Shivi, we get the same lesson that just as a man makes every effort to protect his life, similarly we should not hold back from laying down our lives to protect the lives of animals. Animals also love their lives as much as human beings.