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Raajaa Shibi is not a witness to Raamaayan or Mahaabhaarat, but he is mentioned in Mahaabhaarat when Yudhishthir goes on his Teerth Yaatraa during his sixth year of exile and he comes to the banks of the River Saraswatee where the incident of hawk and dove took place with Raajaa Shibi.

He was a righteous king. For kings like Shibi , life never meant anything, only Dharm was everything. He was a great justice and to fulfill his promises. Once Dharm Raaj (Yam Raaj, the Devtaa of Death) and Dev Raaj Indra decided to test the strength of his character and his righteousness.

Once Shibi was sitting in his court, that a dove came flying with great speed and fell in his laps and said - "O king, Please save me. I am in your shelter." The king had vowed to protect anyone who came in his shelter. In the mean time a hawk came following him and said to the king - "O king, This is my prey, so give it to me." The dove tried to hide himself in the laps of the king. The king said to the dove - "Don't fear from this hawk. You are in my shelter, he cannot touch even your one feather."

So the king said to the hawk - "I am sorry, I cannot give this bird to you, because he is in my shelter." The hawk said - "But this is my prey. I was hungry and I wanted to kill him and eat him, so please release him so that I can eat him." Raajaa considered hawk's demand genuine. Now what should he do? If he gives the dove to hawk, his vow is broken, and if he doesn't give the dove to eagle, he snatches the hawk's food. 

Raajaa followed the justice and found a way so that the dove is also saved, his vow is also not broken and the hawk also gets his food. He said to the hawk - "This dove is your food. If I give you this much meat to eat, would you leave him alone?" The hawk said - "Yes, I need my food, nothing else." Raajaa asked his servants to kill some animal and bring his meat for the hawk. But eagle said - "I wouldn't accept that food for myself which is brought to me after killing an animal specially for my food. This was my prey that is why I want to eat him but otherwise I do not want to kill anybody for my food."

Now Raajaa was in a great dilemma, how he should satisfy this hawk? He thought and thought and came to a conclusion that a pound or two flesh of his own body wouldn't hurt much to him and this eagle will also be satisfied, so he asked the eagle - "Would you be satisfied if I give you my own flesh?" The hawk said - "Yes, But there is a condition for this." "What?" The hawk said - "If even a single tear drops from your eye, I will not accept that flesh as my food." Raajaa agreed.

He got a knife and a balance to weight the flesh. On one side he put the dove and on the other side he started putting his flesh cut from the knife. He started from his right thigh. The dove always weighed heavier than his flesh, even if he was adding more to the second pane. He had kept almost his whole right leg on the second pane but the dove was still heavier than his flesh.

At this juncture a drop of a tear came into his left eye. The hawk noticed it and said - "I cannot accept this food given to me in distress. The tear in your eye shows that you are not happy, so give me my prey back to me." Raajaa said smiling - "Look hawk, This tear is not for grief, but for joy that my left body will also be used to keep my promise. If only the right part of my body could satisfy your requirement, then the left part of my body would have been denied with the opportunity to serve you. That is why this tear in my left eye is of joy not of grief." And he started again putting his flesh on the scale. Even after cutting his both legs and both arms he could not provide the flesh equal to the dove. So he sat himself on the scale to equal the weight. As he sat on the scale, sky showered flowers and  the hawk and the dove got disappeared and there stood Dharm Raaj and Dev Raaj Indra to bless him

This ultimate sacrifice of Raajaa Shibi is unparallel in our Hindu history. Dharm Raaj and Indra granted him several Var and he ruled for many more years to come.

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