SOMAKA SACRIFICED HIS SON JANTU IN FIRE

King Somaka along with his priest gets punished in hell 

'Bali pratha' or 'Sacrificial system' Of animals is followed in a few locations that are associated with Devi Shakti. Many Puranas forbid animal sacrifice apart from Aswamedha yajna or horse sacrifice rituals carried out by kings. Purushamedha (or Naramedha) is recognized as human sacrifice, closely associated with the Ashvamedha which is rare nowadays. These Signify make up for sin and whole surrender, devotion, and commitment to God. (I strictly accept as true with No god or goddess asks for the slaying of animals and homicide of human beings and even if we do such acts in this Kali era it would provide us with no benefits in return. Only chanting with devotion is the way to reach god.) Coming back to this post, here I will give an explanation about The sacrificial incident of a toddler that was once done by King Somaka where he slaughtered his son Jantu and later sacrificed him in the Yajna fire. It used to be one of the tales of brilliant kings that was once noted to Pandavas by Sage Lomasa throughout their pilgrimage.

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There was once a Religious king named Somaka who had a hundred lovely wives. Unfortunately, he had no children. He reached his old age and one of his better halves gave birth to a son who was named Jantu. All his Other wives being childless Loved Jantu very much like their very own son. They always used to sit around him ignoring other activities. One day an ant bit near the belly of Jantu. He began crying out of pain. Seeing Jantu crying, they removed the ant from his body and also started crying which as a result made a Horrible Resounding noise there.

That time King Somaka alongside his ministers were sitting with his priest in his court, they heard the terrifying voices and got here to know about the incident from their guard. King consoled his queens and went back to the court. There He blamed his luck and his attempts for having only one son and said being childless would have been better than that. Moreover, he grieved on marrying a hundred women who regardless of their best efforts couldn't turn out to be mothers. Since the king alongside his wives was becoming old, he felt sorrow on seeing all his better halves dedicating their lives to Jantu solely and hence he sought a solution.

His priest told him, "King! I can help you in having a hundred sons from all your wives however I must caution you that the task will be very difficult." King desperately agreed to it intending to have sons. The priest talked about a yajna that he would perform and in the havan fire the king had to sacrifice his very own son Jantu. 

He also stated to the king, "Your hundred other halves after inhaling the smoke of sacrificed Jantu's body fats, will conceive and give birth to mighty sons and Jantu will again be born to his mother while having  a golden sign of greatness on his right rib." King agreed to the priest barring any hesitation.

King Somaka made all the arrangements for the great Yajna. His other halves were mourning for Jantu at that time and did not wish to give him to the king. The priest forcefully took Jantu, slaughtered him into pieces, and sacrificed him in the havan. That very moment all the Queens inhaled the smoke of Jantu's burnt body parts and lost their senses. They all conceived and later gave birth to a hundred sons. Jantu was born to his mother as cited earlier via the priest. He additionally had the sign and he used to be the strongest and most generous out of all.

Some days after the Demise of the priest, the king also left his body. In the Yamaloka, he noticed his priest was getting burnt in the fire of hell or Naraka. King became conscious of the reason behind it from the priest that he used to be getting punished for performing the sacrificial yajna of imparting King Somaka's son to the fire. After listening to this from the priest, the king requested Dharmaraja or Yama to free the priest and let him be punished Instead of the Yajna act seeing that, it was once intended for the king only.

Dharmaraja mentioned to the king, "King! You earned  Punyaloka or heaven for your saintly works and there is no reason for you to be in Hell." King insisted to Dharma, "Dharmaraja! Whatever precise deeds earned by me, used to be carried out by the priest also therefore in the scenario of the sin, we both deserve to be punished equally too." King Somaka didn't desire to depart his priest or guru in such a situation as a result Dharma agreed. King shared the sins with the priest, later they both were released from hell and went to the Punyaloka together.

Ref: Mahabharata book

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