हरिश्चन्द्रो हि धर्मार्थी सेहे चाण्डालदासताम्

न त्यजेत् धर्ममर्यादामपि क्लेशदशां श्रितः।

हरिश्चन्द्रो हि धर्मार्थी सेहे चाण्डालदासताम्॥१३

क्षेमेन्द्रकविप्रणिते चारुचर्यायाम्॥

na tyajet dharmamaryādāmapi kleśadaśāṁ śritaḥ|

hariścandro hi dharmārthī sehe cāṇḍāladāsatām||13

ksemendrakavipraṇite cārucaryāyām||

A reallly great instruction from Kshemendra in chaarucharya

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One should not give or flout the rules and dictates of dharma or righteousness even if he has been driven to a state of utter penury and physical and mental difficulties and is facing impossible challenges..

Take the case of King Harishchandra.. To maintain dharma, he took up the menial job of assisting a Chandaala in managing a cremation ground.. ( and faced impossible challenges even in that job)

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The story of King Harischandra is known to every Indian. He was a very upright person, living the live of absolute honesty, keeping his family and his subjects happy.

But sage Visvamitra got a fanciful idea that it should be proved that the kings uprightness was brittle and would break and crumble if tested under tough situations.

The sage asked for some financial help for conducting a yajna and then managed to drain the coffers of the king by secret manifpulation.. So when the time came the king did not have cash in his treasury to fulfill his promis

Driven to penury, the king gave up the kingdom in favour of the sage Visvamitra and adjourned to the city of Varanasi, with his wife Chandramati and young son Rohita.

Fate played cruel to him even there. Just ot eke out a livelihood, the king had taken the employment as a sevant to a Chandala attending to the cremations of dead bodies in a burial ground.

Chandramathi has simultaneouly taken up the employment as a servant maid in some household..

As luck would have it, a venomous snake bit Rohita while he was playing, and the young prince passed away.. The erstwhile queen took the body of the child for cremation to the burial ground where Harishchandra was working.. The lady did not have any money or moneys worth left with her, and she pleaded to the man, who had changed so much in appearance that his wife could not recognise him, to help her to cremate the body of the boy.. But Harischandra would not agree to allow such cremation unless the fee due to his master, the Chandaala was paid..

Even when the lady was crying and explaining about her abject poverty, the erstwhile king saw the mangalyasootra tied to her neck... The mangalyasootra was costly enough to pay the bill. But then it was again a play of fate.. When Harischandra tied the Mangalyasootra around the neck of Chandramati, there was a divine blessing that only Harishandra would ever see the holy insignia of their marriage..

Chandramathi recognised her husband and Harischandra realised that the dead child was his own son, Prince Rohita.

Still he did not agree to break the rules of his duty.

At this stage, the Divine beings intervened, and the fortunes of Harischandra, and his glory were restored..

(The story is found in many puranas and many texts, and there are ever so many versions.. with minor changes in names of the character, and also in the presentation of the incidents.. But the basic theme is the steadfast adherence of the King to Truth and righteousness.)

Harischandra is a personage that is worth emulating..

We believe that challenges and sufferings visit us to enable us to atone for our bad karmas, and we should face them and negotiate them through the path of righteousness ever.. if we break the rules and deviate from the path of dharma, the burden of bad karma would continue to increase and accumulate, and we would never overcome the evil effects thereof..