Today we are celebrating RakhaBandhan ( Pronounciation: rak.shuh.ban.dan) Let’s trace back story of origin of this festival of Sister -Brother relationship.
As per Vishnu Purana, Asura King Bali, being the grandson of Prahalad, was a great devotee of Lord Vishnu. With his great devotion, receiving boons and through his skills, King Bali was conquering every god and ruling the whole world. While King Bali performed the Ashwamedha Yagya to win over the Swarg lok as well, Indra, the King of the Devas, got highly insecure about his position, fearful of losing it all, and sought help from Narayana himself.
Lord Vishnu then descended in the form of a dwarf Brahmin, a sage, the 5th Avatar of Vishnu, Vamana.
King Bali was known to be a generous King, and Vamana used it to his advantage. Shukracharya (Guru of the Asuras), being the sharp and intelligent personality that he is, he gauged something was off the moment he laid his eyes on Vamana, he warned King Bali.
Vamana asked for “Teen Pada Bhoomi” i.e. “3 foot land” or land how much one can cover in 3 steps. King Bali was not one to deny requests or go back on his words, especially when the request is such a harmless one for a wealthy King. So moving ahead, King Bali granted the wish of the sage. King Bali granted the wish of the sage and soon Vamana took a gigantic form. He took 2 steps and covered the whole universe and all 8 directions, awaiting to take the 3rd one.
King Bali, having lost everything he didn’t know what to do. But turns out in spite of losing all his kingdom, he retained wisdom and humility. He bowed down and offered his head to the hermit and asked him to take the 3rd step. Vamana after doing so, felt really impressed and granted Bali Raja a boon.
Long story short, Raja Bali was granted the boon of being the king of Patala loka and he in return asked Bhagwan Vishnu to become his Dwarpal (gatekeeper) and protect his kingdom. Bhagwan agreed and so he went with Raja Bali resulting in the loneliness of Lakshmi in Vaikunth.
She became restless after a point and on the advice of Narad descended down in the guise of a Brahmin woman in search of her husband who left a little while ago to run some errand. She told King Bali that she had nowhere to go or no place to stay, and can she stay in his kingdom for some time. Mahabali (another name for King Bali) welcomed her with open arms and dutifully protected her like his own.
Soon as the sage woman started living there, the kingdom bloomed and prosperity was seen everywhere. King Bali being happy about this granted her a boon and she asked for the Dwarpal of his kingdom, and that it was he who was her husband. Upon hearing this King Bali realized that the woman standing in front of him was no ordinary and that she was Goddess Lakshmi herself.
A man of his words had to grant the boon but he was concerned who will protect his kingdom now? Lakshmi then tied a sacred thread around King Bali’s wrist, energized it with a mantra and declared that this thread will act as his protection from here on and that he needn’t worry. Even today,the hindus, at the time of getting tied a Mauli or Kalava (sacred thread) from a Purohit (priest) on their wrist hear this Shloka from the Purohit’s mouth.
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