The King Who Lost His Son

The sages told the Pandavas of King Chitraketu, who lost the one son he had longed for, and was led through his grief to the knowledge of the soul - a tale of bereavement, of the deathless self beyond all births, and of the hard road by which a grieving heart is brought to wisdom.

Chitraketu was a great and prosperous king, the lord of a vast realm, with many wives and every blessing of fortune; yet in all his happiness one sorrow gnawed at him, for he had no son to continue his line, and his longing for an heir grew into an aching grief that all his wealth and power could not ease. He felt his life empty for want of a child, and his heart was set upon a son above every other thing. So when a great sage came to his court, the king implored him to grant by his power the son for whom he so longed.