This is a story about Golden holy deer Ruru. His beautiful golden-hued body was adorned with the brilliance of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. His velvety, smooth hair, sky-blue eyes, and finely carved antlers were naturally captivating. Whenever he roamed in the forest, everyone who caught a glimpse of him couldn’t help but sigh in awe.
Undoubtedly, Ruru was not an ordinary deer. His unparalleled beauty was his uniqueness. Yet, even more significant was his wisdom, he could converse with humans just like them. Ruru earlier lived in the ashram of a famous sage from whom he had knowledge of the herbs of the forest.After the death sage, fed up with the behavior of his essential successors, the Ruru left the ashram and preferred to live independently in the forest.
Now he used to help the animals of the forest with the herbs which were easily available there and was loved by everyone.Due to his past life experiences. Still, his compassion for all living beings was unparalleled, and there was no exception for humans. This compassion was Ruru’s greatest virtue.
One day, while leisurely strolling through the forest, Ruru heard someone is crying. Following the sound, he discovered a man being swept away by the current of a mountain stream. Ruru’s compassion immediately surged, prompting him to leap into the water and offer his hind legs for the drowning man to grab onto. Instead of clutching Ruru’s legs in his panic, the man found himself safely perched on Ruru’s back. Though Ruru could easily have shaken him off, he showed great restraint and carried the struggling man to the shore after overcoming several challenges.
When the rescued man tried to express his gratitude, Ruru said, ‘If you truly want to thank me, do not reveal to anyone that you have been saved by a special golden deer, for the people of your world, upon learning about my existence, would undoubtedly seek to hunt me down. Ruru bid farewell to the man and returned to his dwelling.
In due course,The queen of a nearby kingdom had a dream, who was deeply distressed by her illness, saw in her dream that her ancestral goddess revealed the cure for her illness in a golden deer that lived in the nearby forest.
She immediately implored the king to find and golden dear to her. Deeply in love with his queen and worried about her illness, the king could not ignore her prayer.
The King declared that whoever found the mythical deer,the queen had dreamed of would be rewarded with a village and ten beautiful maidens.Even though he didn’t believe in dreams.
The same man whom Ruru had saved overheard the proclamation. Knowing Ruru’s whereabouts, he hurriedly made his way to the king’s palace. Breathless, he recounted the entire story of his rescue by Ruru.
Without wasting a moment, the king and his soldiers, accompanied by the man, reached the forest and surrounded Ruru’s dwelling. Seeing the deer, the king was overjoyed and surprised, he point an arrow to wound the deer , but suddenly the deer said in the voice of a man, “O king, you should trust the talking deer but not the human who can talk.” The king stopped and asked the talking deer to explain. The deer said that this man was going to die in the river and i jumped in water for his life but for some amount of money he sold his soul and told you about me. Ruru then divulged the entire story of the man’s drowning and rescue. The king got angry at the man who broke his promise for money.
In response, the king, turning his arrow towards the man whom Ruru had saved.The deer once again talk “O king” I took it as a act of God so don’t take his life. Forgive him for sack of me. On this the king said, “O golden deer, the cure for my queen’s illness is a golden deer, this is what the goddess told her in the dream of my queen. I kept a reward to entertain the queen so that she would feel that efforts were being made to cure her illness.”
Now this man has put me in a dilemma. Because of this I have to choose between the sacred deer or the lovely but sick queen and I do not want to incur the sin of killing a pure soul like you.”
On this the deer said, it is true that I am the cure for your queen but not my meat . Let me take some herbs from this forest which will definitely cure your queen. Saying this, the deer plucked the wild herbs around him with his mouth and set out towards the palace.
The deer went ahead with the herbs in its mouth and the king and his entourage followed and reached the palace. The herbs were given to the queen and within a few days the queen recovered. The deer stayed in the palace for some time of its own free will and then happily bid farewell to the king’s palace towards the forest.