Kaveri

King kavera performed tapasya because he wished to help people. Pleased with him, Shiva appeared and blessed him with a daughter who would fulfil his wish. He named her Kaveri and married her to Sage Agastya. A demon, named Shoorapadma, wanted to trouble people so he prevented rain from reaching the earth. Kaveri prayed to the gods to help the people. One day, Sage Agastya went to a lake for a bath. Since he could not leave Kaveri alone in the ashram, he turned her into water and put her in his kamandala, the http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...ges/kaveri.jpgutensil for carrying holy water. As he entered the lake, he left the kamandala on the bank. Meanwhile, Ganesha took the form of a crow and overturned the kamadala. The water was released and Kaveri became a river. She helped the suffering people by providing them with water.

King Satyapal's Wisdom

Betal narrated the story of King Satyapal to Vikram. When Satyapal ascended the throne of Chandadesh, the Bhil tribes were fighting for independence from Chandadesh. The country was poor and was under threat from Prachand Verma, a neighbouring King. Satyapal went to his ministers, who suggested that he should marry Prachand's daughter. Satyapal refused because Prachand's daughter considered him a weak king .
One day, he met Kirtisena, the princes of the Bhils. Following her http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...als_wisdom.jpgadvice, Satyapal banished his corrupt ministers and became prosperous again. Then, he met the Bhil king and asked for Kritisena's hand in marriage. Having gained the faith of the Bhils, he now attacked Prachand and vanquished him.
Betal asked Vikram "Was Satyapal's strategy right ? " Vikram replied "It was perfect because Satyapal put his house in order first before facing his enemies ."

The Real Husband

As Vikram carried Betal, Betal began another story. Inder and his wife Indu were very religious. Once Indu's brother Sunder visited them. All three went to goddess Durga's temple. First Sunder entered the temple. On seeing the idol of Durga he was so overcome by devotion that he decided to sacrifice himself. He cut his head off in front of the idol. Then Inder entered the temple and saw his brother-in-law's dead body. He was also gripped by a sense of self-sacrificehttp://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...al_husband.jpg and cut his head off. Finally, Indu entered the temple and saw the two dead bodies. She became vary sad . She wept aloud and prayed to Durga to give her the same husband and brother in her next life.
As Indu prepared to give up her life, Durga appeared and said that she was pleased with their devotion and would bring the two men back to life. Then she asked Indu to join the two heads with the respective bodies . When Durga put life into the bodies, Indu realised that she had mixed up the heads. Now , Inder's body had Sunder's head, and Sunder's body had Inder's head. Betal asked Vikram, "Who was Indu's real husband?" Vikram replied, "The head is the most important part of the body. A person has all his thoughts and memories in his head. The man with Inder's head had all the memories of Indu as a wife. So he was her real husband."
Betal was very happy to hear Vikram's answer but he flew away saying that Vikram had broken his promise by speaking.

Rudraksha

A demon named Tripura performed a long and difficult tapasya and was granted a boon by Brahma. This boon made him very powerful and he conquered heaven. When the gods were driven out of heaven, They were helpless and went to Brahma for help. Brahma did know how to solve the problem and sent them to Shiva. Shiva http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa.../rudraksha.jpgdecided to help the gods and went to fight with Tripura. He killed him with an arrow. But while he was fighting a few drops of perspiration from his body fell on earth. Rudraksha plants grew in the places whrere the drops fell.
The seed of the Rudraksha plant has a lot of religious significance . It is believed that counting the rudraksha beads while chanting Shiva's mantra cleanses a person of sin.

Sage Agastya and the Demons

IIvala and Vatapi were two demon brothers who hated all Brahmins. They thought of a devious plan by which they killed many Brahmins. The first one could take any form, and the second knew the secret of bringing the dead to life.
One day, they decided to kill the great sage, Agastya. They planned that IIvala would turn into a goat and Vatapi would kill it and offer ithttp://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...the_demons.jpg to Agastya to eat. Then using his powers he would bring him back to life. IIvala would tear Agastya's stomach to come out, killing Agastya. Sage Agastya came to know of the wicked plan and decided to teach the two brothers a lesson. When Vatapi invited him to eat the meat, he decided to teach them a lesson. Agastya ate the goat meat, but before the demon could bring his brother back to life, he digested the meat , killing IIvala.

Sakhubai's Devotion

Sakhubai was born into a very poor family of Pandharpur. She was a great devotee of Panduranga Vittala, which is another name of Krishna.
She was married into a rich family but her in-laws were very cruel. http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...s/sakhubai.jpgThey beat her up, gave her leftover food to eat, and took away all her jewellery.
Sakhubai bore all the pain and asked Vittala to give her strength. She dearly wished to see him. Vittala gave her a vision that would help her to see him.
One day, Vittala in the guise of a woman told Sakhubai to go to Panharpur to see the Lord. He took the place of Sakhubai in her house and worked tirelessly. Meanwhile, Sakhubai forgot everything in her devotion to God. She breathed her last while praying. Seeing her devotion Krishna brought her back to life. When Sakhubai came back and narrated the truth to her in-laws they repented misbehaving with her.

Samudra Manthan

The great sage, Durvasa Muni, once offered a garland to Indra, who ignored it and put it on the tusk of his elephant, Airawat, which trampled it. Seeing Indra's disregard, the revered sage became furious. He cursed Indra saying that he and the other gods would lose all their powers. In due course, Indra and the other gods began losing all battles against the demons, and the demons led by Bali took control of the universe.
Seeing no other means, the helpless Indra rushed to Vishnu for help.
Vishnu had a plan. He said that to get back their powers the gods http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...ra_manthan.jpgwould have to churn the oceans and bring out the magical nectar-amrita. Only after consuming it could they regain their powers. This great churning is known as samudra manthan. But as the gods were powerless now, they sought the help of the demons to accomplish this huge task.
The gods and demons got together for the the herculean task. The huge mountain, Mandara, was used as the pole to stir the waters. But as the pole entered the water it kept sliding into depths of the ocean. To stop this, Vishnu quickly transformed himself into a tortoise and placed the mountain on his back. This image of Vishnu as the tortoise was his second avatar called 'Kurma.'
Once the pole was balanced, it was tied to the gigantic snake, Vasuki, and the gods and demons started pulling it from either side. As the churning began and the massive waves whirled, an extremely poisonous drink called halahal came out. The gods became scared because this blue drink could destroy creation.
They all got together and prayed to the powerful Shiva to help him them. Shiva appeared before all and gulped the entire poison. But, he did not swallow it. He kept the poison in his throat. Since then, Shiva's throat became blue, and he became known as Neelkantha or the blue-throated one.
The churning continued and poured forth a number of gifts and treasures. They included Kamdhenu, the wish-fulfilling cow; the goddess of wealth, Laxmi; the wish-fulfilling tree, Kalpavriksha; and finally, came Dhanvantari carrying the pot of amrita and a book of medicine called Ayurveda. Once the amrita was out, the demons forcefully took it away. Two demons, Rahu and Ketu, disguised themselves as gods and drank the amrita. The sun and moon gods recognised it to be a trick and complained to Vishnu, who in turn, severed their heads with his Sudarshan Chakra. As the divine nectar did not get time to reach below the throat, the heads remained immortal, but the body below died. This helps Rahu and Ketu take revenge on the Sun and Moon by devouring them every year during solar and lunar eclipse.
A great war between the gods and demons followed. Finally, Vishnu disguised as the enchanting Mohini tricked the demons and recovered the nectar.
While fleeing the clutches of the demons, Vishnu gave the amrita to his winged charioteer, Garuda. But the demons caught up and a tussle followed. During this tussle few drops of the drink fell at Ujjain, Nasik, Allahabad, and Haridwar.
The drops are said to have purified the land and it is here that every year devotees come to wash away theit sins in the famous assembly called Kumbh Mela.
Once Garuda got back and the Gods drank the nectar, they became immortal. But as some demons had managed to taste a few drops of the drink, they too became immortal and to this day the fight between good and evil continues.

Saraswati saves the world

Once Shiva saw the world filled with evil. He decided to clean it and opened his third eye from which came a great fire.http://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa..._the_world.jpg Saraswati took the form of a river and absorbed the fire. She took it into the sea where it formed a fire-spitting creature called Badavagni. Saraswati declared, "As long as man is wise, the animal will remain here, but if man becomes corrupt, this beast will destroy the world."

Sati

Daksha. Brahmas's son, had a beautiful daughter named Sati who loved Shiva and wanted to marry him. Daksha considered himself to be greater than Shiva and forbade her. But Shiva and Satihttp://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...ges/tandav.jpg married without his consent .
One day, at a ceremony, Shiva did not stand up to pay his respect to Daksha. Insulted, Daksha vowed to take revenge.
Daksha arranged for a yajna and invited all the gods expect Shiva. Sati was very hurt and went to meet her father at the ceremony. Daksha insulted Shiva in front of everyone. Unable to bear this, Sati threw herself into the sacrificial fire and died.
The enraged Shiva began performing the tandav or the dance of destruction, to destroy the entire universe. Brahma appeared and begged Shiva for forgiveness. Shiva relented but cursed Daksha that he would bear a goat's head forever.
Sati was later reborn as Parvati.

Saturn

A brahmin named Haridas once heard a voice that said, "I will trouble your king for seven and half hours." Haridas washttp://www.kidsgen.com/fables_and_fa...es/haridas.jpg frightened and told his wife what he had heard. She knew that it was the voice of Saturn, so she said, "You must protect the king and take the trouble on yourself." When Haridas heard the voice again, he offered to take the trouble on yourself." Saturn agreed and said, "Your period of trouble starts now."
One day, Haridas went to the river to pray. He found two watermelons, Which he took home. Meanwhile, the two princes were found to be missing. When the soldiers came looking for them, Saturn made Haridas's watermelons look like the heads of the princes. The king ordered Haridas to be hanged. But just before he could be hanged, his period of trouble was over. The princes returned safely and Haridas was saved .