The rule under Rama's regime was on full swing. The subjects were loving it. Rama used to even control his neighbours who were torturing their subjects. This used to give neighbouring kingdoms peace as well. Shatrughna was his commander in chief and used to take care of all the army matters.His chief exploit was the killing of Lavanasura, the demon King of Mathura, who was a nephew of Ravana, the King of Lanka who was slain by Rama.
Lavanasura was the son of Madhu, the pious demon-king after whom the city of Mathura was named. Madhu's wife and Lavanusara's mother was Kumbhini, a sister of Ravana. Lavanasura was the holder of the divine Trishula (Trident) of Lord Shiva, and nobody was able to kill him or prevent him from committing sinful activities.
Shatrughna begged Rama and his elder brothers to allow him the opportunity to serve them by killing Lavnasura. Shatrughna killed the great demon with an arrow imbibed with the power of Vishnu. Lakshmana used to take care of the administrative affairs, while Bharatha was Rama's advisor on decision making stuff.
A legend by Rishi Agastya in the epic states that Vishnu in a previous age had been cursed by a rishi, whose wife had been killed by Vishnu for sheltering his enemies escaping from battle. The Rishi condemns Vishnu to be denied for a long age, the companionship of his soul mate, just as Vishnu, by an inadvertent display of anger, had deprived the rishi of his loving wife. Thus Rama, Vishnu's incarnation, must live the rest of his life without Sita.
So, once, it is reported to him that some subjects of his in Ayodhya believe that Sita is unchaste due to her long captivity in Ravana's city. The Agni pariksha fails to convince these few critics, but Rama, by his understanding of the dharma of a king, decides to banish Sita. Rama adhered strictly to his duty both as a king and a husband. These conflicted when society thought that Sita was unfit to become queen. But Rama had to send away Sita since his duty of king came first. Rama banishes his wife Sita, even as she is pregnant, asking Lakshmana to deliver her safely to Rishi Valmiki's ashram.
In the original Valmiki Ramayana, Valmiki wrote that Rama was nothing more than an ideal human being. However, Brahminical reshaping and interpolation of the Ramayana eventually presented Rama as a supreme deity. The first stage includes the composition of books 2 - 6 sometime in the fifth century BCE and their oral transmission up to and including the fourth century BCE. Rama is presented as an essentially human hero. The second stage extends from the third century BCE to the first century CE, during which time those five books were reworked and expanded. This period brings greater status for the king. For most of this period, Rama is viewed as an ethical human. The third stage extends from the first to the third century CE, bringing with it the addition of book 1 (‘The book of childhood’) and the somewhat later book 7 (epilogue). This stage is marked by the presentation of Rama as an avatar of Vishnu. This stage also produced a pronounced emphasis on Varna- Dharma: Sambuka, the Sudra ascetic, is killed by Rama in order to bring a Brahmin boy back to life.
Valmiki was going to the river Ganga for his daily ablutions. A disciple by the name Bharadwaja was carrying his clothes. On the way, they came across the Tamasa Stream. Looking at the stream, Valmiki said to his disciple, "Look, how clear is this water, like the mind of a good man! I will bathe here today." When he was looking for a suitable place to step into the stream, he heard sweet chirping of birds. Looking up, he saw two birds flying together. Valmiki felt very pleased on seeing the happy bird couple. Suddenly, one of the birds fell down hit by an arrow; it was the male bird. Seeing the wounded one, its mate screamed in agony. Valmiki's heart melted at this pitiful sight. He looked around to find out who had shot the bird. He saw a hunter with a bow and arrows, nearby. The hunter had shot the bird for food. Valmiki became very angry. His lips opened and he uttered the following words:
mAnishAda pratishTAtum samagah ssAshvatIssamAh
yat krouncha mithunAdEkam sokam avadhIm kAma mOhitam
"You who have killed one of the birds engaged in the act of love,
thus, may you not yourself live long!"
This was the first shloka in Sanskrit literature. Later Valmiki composed entire Ramayana due to the blessings of Lord Brahma in the same meter that issued forth from him as a sloka. Thus this sloka is revered as the "first sloka" in Hindu literature. Valmiki is revered as the first poet, or Adi Kavi, and the Ramayana, the first kavya.
Now, Sita gives birth to a pair of twins in the ashram of sage Valmiki and names them Lava and Kusha. Born in the Forest after Sita had been banished from Ayodhya, they were educated and trained in military skills and were under the care of Sage Valmiki. They are made experts in the Valmiki Ramayana without even knowing that Sita is their mother and Rama their father. They even recite the Ramayana in Ayodhya and become the apple of the people's eyes there. But then, at some juncture, they develop a hatred for Rama because he banished his own wife, listening to the comments of a washerman subject of his.
So, at this juncture,Rama decides to perform the Ashwamedha, but it was not possible without his consort. So he makes a golden statue of Sita, and with a lot of pain and missing Sita, he starts the yagna. Then the Ashva is let loose. Lava and Kusha capture the Ashva. They refuse to give it back. Shatrughna first comes to get it with him. But, he is injured and comprehensively defeated by them.
Then, an enraged Lakshmana comes leading a part of the army to fight them. Looking at them, he is reminded of himself and Rama, during the Tadaka and Maricha, Subahu days. He fights them, but isn't able to give an answer to their arrows. He is beaten comprehensively.
Then, Bharatha asks Rama if he should go. Rama says that if they could defeat Lakshmana, they must not be ordinary kids. So he decides to come next.
When he does, he is surprised considering they were the kids who sang the Valmiki Ramayana with such elan. But the army realises that only Rama could match them arrow to arrow, and it is a strong fight. By then, the friends of the kids lead Hanuman to their mother. When Anjaneya realises they are Sita's sons, he is shocked at the prospect of father fighting sons. He immediately leads Sita to the war field where Rama drops his weapons at the sight of Sita and starts weeping. There Sita tells them all the truth. Now, Rama asks her to undergo another Agni Pariksha for her to come as completely chaste back into Ayodhya. This time, the earth splits, and Bhooma Devi, mother earth, and the mother of Sita, tells that she is scared to allow her daughter to undergo the risky Agni Pariksha a second time and that she knows that she is chaste, and takes her into the ground with her, thus ending the advent of Mahalakshmi as Sita.
Then, Rama takes his sons with him and trains them in all political disciplines.
At one point of time, Rama had to discuss with Vashishta and thus asks Lakshmana to guard the room. Then comes sage Durvasa. When he is not allowed in by Lakshmana, he curses Lakshmana that he'll die early and leaves the place.
Then, Lakshmana with the blessings of his brother goes to a yogic trance and as such attains samadhi, to join the serpent, Adi Seshan.
Rama, after fulfilling all his duties, makes Lava the king of the Northern part of the kingdom, centred at Lahore, whereas Kusha is made the king of the Southern part of the kingdom, centred at Kasur. Following this, he goes into the river Sarayu, and attains jala samadhi. Many other trusted followers of his, like Sugriva, Bharatha, Shatrughna and others attain Samadhi with him. Shunning the heavens, Hanuman however, requested to remain on earth as long as Rama's name was venerated by people. Rama accorded Hanuman that desire, and granted that his image would be installed at various public places, so he could listen to people chanting Rama's name. He is one of the chiranjeevis in Hinduism.
And till Hanuman is here, so shall stay lord Rama's holy name.
SHRI RAM, JAYA RAM, JAYA JAYA RAM!!
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
The siege on Lanka.
With the given information through Hanuman, Rama proceeded towards Lanka. When he reaches the ocean, he is unable to cross the ocean due to the ocean being in spate. Rama stayed praying to Sagara, the sea god for a few days. But it was of no avail. Then Rama got angry and brewing with anger, got ready to leave an astra at the sea. By then, the sea god Sagara came out of the sea to beg Rama's pardon. Then he gave Rama a way to cross the river. He said any stone will float on the sea if it had Rama's name written on it. Then the vanaras write Rama's name on a number of stones and let them float on the sea. Then, they could easily cross the sea to reach Lanka. After reaching Lanka, Rama sends Angada as a messenger to Ravana asking him for no war and peace. But Ravana wasn't ready and was wanted to fight it out with the Vanara army. Here, at this juncture, due to Vibhishana's differences with Ravana and because he was against the act of kidnapping Sita, Ravana exiled him from Lanka. His mother, Kaikesi, advised him to go and serve Shri Rama, who was at that time assembling an army to conquer Ravana and recover Sita. Lord Rama accepted Vibhishana's service and anointed him the Lord of Lanka after Ravana's death.
In the Lanka War, Vibhishana's knowledge of the secrets of Lanka were invaluable to Shri Rama. Vibhishana freely divulged many secrets that became key to the success of Rama's attack, including revealing the secret path to the temple of Mata Nikumbala, the family deity of the Pulatsya Clan. Because of this, however, Vibhishana is also is known as a traitor.
Now, with Vibhishana by his side, Rama starts the war and pays the Lankan soldiers back in their own coin. Large parts of them are rioted. Here, Ravana wakes Kumbhakarna up from his sleep. But Ravana had been warned by Brahma that if Kumbhakarna had been woken up from sleep, he wouldn't be able to perform to his best strengths. But in his losing methods, he couldn't think of any other way out. The Kumbhakarna when walking out stamped plenty of vanaras to death. Though he was noble enough to oppose his brother, he wasn't strong enough to go to the enemy. He fought hence for his brother. But then a well-aimed arrow at his navel finished him.
Ravana then turned to his son, Indrajit/Meghnad. He was well versed in maya techniques.Indrajit had access to all of the divine weapons like the Brahmastra. Indrajit even bound Rama and Lakshmana under the Nagpash (Serpent spell). The King of eagles Garuda subsequently freed Rama and Lakshmana from the Nagpash. He was fighting Lakshmana one on one, and he injured Lakshmana when he shot at him in an invisible position.
Lakshmana was felled and needed to cared to immediately.Hanuman is sent to fetch the Sanjivani, a powerful life-restoring herb from the Dronagiri mountain in the Himalayas to revive him. Ravana realises that if Lakshmana dies, a distraught Rama would probably give up, and so has his uncle Kalnaimi tempt Hanuman away with luxury. However, Hanuman is tipped off by a crocodile (actually a celestial being under a curse) and kills the Rakshasa. When he is unable to find the specific herb before nightfall, Hanuman again displays his might by lifting the entire Dronagiri mountain and bringing it to the battlefield in Lanka, thus helping others find the herb to revive Lakshmana. An emotional Rama hugs Hanuman, declaring him as dear to him as his own beloved brother Bharat.
Indrajit was unbeatable in war due to the yajna (also spelled yagna) he carried out before any battle, and could only be killed by disrupting this yajna. So Lakshmana planned to disrupt his yajna, and when he did, an enraged Indrajit came and attacked Lakshmana. Here, Lakshmana fought to his best and killed Indrajit.
With this done, Rama thinks Ravana was the last barrier to cross. But then Vibhishana warned him about Mahiravana, king of the Underworld ruled by the rakshasas by Ravana and Demon King Maya. Hanuman creates a fortress with his tail and Vibhishana goes in rounds around the fortress. On one such round, Vibhishana comes back much earlier, and wants to enter the fortress. But again he emerges from another round of his. This shocks Hanuman who realizes the Vibhishana who had gone in was none other than Mahiravana in disguise.
Rama and Lakshmana are captured by the rakshasa, Mahiravana (and his brother Ahiravana) thus, a powerful practitioner of black magic and the dark arts, who holds them captive in his palace in Patalpuri or Patala (the nether world). Searching for them, Hanuman reaches Patala whose gates are guarded by a very young creature called Makardhwaja (known also as Makar-Dhwaja or Magar Dhwaja), part fish and part Vanara.
The story of Makardhwaja's birth is that although Hanuman remained celibate all his life, Makardhwaja was his son; when Hanuman had extinguished his burning tail in the ocean, unknown to him, a drop of his sweat had fallen in as well. Swallowing this sweat droplet, a fish then becomes pregnant. This is discovered when the fish is brought to Mahiravana's kitchen for cooking. Mahiravana raises the child, entrusting him to guard Patalpuri's gates. Hanuman is unaware of this. Although Makardhwaja knows his father is Hanuman, he had never seen him. So, when Hanuman introduces himself to Makardhwaja, he seeks Hanuman's blessings, but decides to fight him as part of his duty as guardian of the gates. Hanuman subdues him and ties him up before entering Patalpuri to rescue Rama and Lakshmana.
Upon entering Patala, Hanuman discovers that to kill Mahiravana, he must simutaneously extinguish five lamps burning in different directions. Hanuman assumes the Panchamukha or five-faced form of Sri Varaha facing north, Sri Narasimha facing south, Sri Garuda facing west, Sri Hayagriva facing the sky and his own facing the east, and blows out the lamps. Thus killing rakshasas, Hanuman rescues Rama and Lakshmana. Afterwards, Rama asks Hanuman to crown Makardhwaja king of Patalpuri.
Hanuman continues to play an indispensable role in the war.
With Mahiravana dead, Ravana himself comes out for battle. Here, the first Ravana is defeated easily and Rama sends him back home and asks him to come to fight the next day. The next day, he comes with a new vengeance, and fights amazingly. Rama first says the Adithya Hrudayam, and after the prayers to the Sun god, he gets back to fight mode. With every head of Ravana he cuts, another head keeps appearing. That's when Vibhishana tells Rama that Ravana's life was in his naval and not his head like normal people. Then Rama hits his naval, and with it has his target killed.
Next, he crowns Vibhishana the king of Lanka.After Rama slays Ravana and wins the war, Sita wants to come before him in the state which over a year's imprisonment had reduced her to, Rama arranges for Sita to be bathed and given beautiful garments before they are re-united. But even as Sita comes before him in great excitement and happiness, Rama does not look at her, staring fixedly at the ground. He tells her that he had fought the war only to avenge the dishonour that Ravana had inflicted on Rama, and now Sita was free to go where she pleased. At this sudden turn of events, all the vanaras, rakshasas, Sugriva, Hanuman and Lakshmana are deeply shocked.[25]
Sita begs Lakshmana to build her a pyre upon which she could end her life, as she could not live without Rama. At this point, Lakshmana is angered at Rama for the first time in his life, but following Rama's nod, he builds a pyre for Sita. At the great shock and sorrow of the watchers, Sita walks into the flames. But to their greater shock and wonder, she is completely unharmed. Instead, she glows radiantly from the centre of the pyre. Immediately Rama runs to Sita and embraces her. He had never doubted her purity for a second, but, as he explains to a dazzled Sita, the people of the world would not have accepted or honoured her as a queen or a woman if she had not passed this Agni pariksha before the eyes of millions, where Agni would destroy the impure and sinful, but not touch the pure and innocent.
With this, Vibhishana gives Rama the pushpaka to fly and reach Ayodhya. On the way, they plan to visit the places where they spent their 14 years. So they reach Rameshwaram first.Upon the advice of Rishis (sages), Rama along with Sita and Lakshmana, installed and worshipped the Sivalinga here to expiate the sin of Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin) (Ravana was a Brahmin the great grandson of Brahma). Rama fixed an auspicious time for the installation and sent Anjaneya to Mount Kailas to bring a lingam. As Anjaneya could not return in time, Sita herself made a linga of sand. When Anjaneya returned with a linga from Mount Kailas the rituals had been over. To comfort the disappointed Anjaneya, Rama had Anjaneya’s lingam (Visvalingam) also installed by the side of Ramalinga, and ordained that rituals be performed first to the Visvalingam.
Following this they visited the various other places where they lived, before reaching Ayodhya.
When the war ends, Rama's 14-year exile has almost elapsed. Rama then remembers Bharata's vow to immolate himself if Rama does not return to rule Ayodhya immediately, on completion of the stipulated period. Realising that it would be a little later than the last day of the 14 years when he would reach Ayodhya, Rama is anxious to prevent Bharata from giving up his life. Once again, Hanuman comes to the rescue – he speeds to Ayodhya to inform Bharata that Rama is on his way back.
When Rama re-enters Ayodhya, the whole public in the city were enthralled. All of them made Rama the king, and of course the queen was Sita. The public were overjoyed with the prospect of their beloved Rama ruling them.
All of the vanaras, Sugriva, Vibhishana, Hanuman, and the others were all there.
Shortly after he is crowned Emperor upon his return to Ayodhya, Rama decides to ceremoniously reward all his well-wishers. At a grand ceremony in his court, all his friends and allies take turns being honoured at the throne. Hanuman too goes up, but without desiring a reward. Seeing Hanuman come up to him, an emotionally overwhelmed Rama embraces him warmly, declaring that he could never adequately honour or repay Hanuman for the help and services he received from the noble Vanara. Sita, however, insists that Hanuman deserved honour more than anyone else, and asks him to seek a gift. Upon Hanuman's request, Sita gives him a necklace of precious stones adorning her neck. When he receives it, Hanuman immediately takes it apart, and peers into each stone. Taken aback, many of those present demand to know why he was destroying the precious gift. Hanuman answers that he was looking into the stones to make sure that Rama and Sita are in them, because if they are not, the necklace is of no value to him. At this, a few mock Hanuman, saying his reverence and love for Rama and Sita could not possibly be as deep as he was portraying. In response, Hanuman tears his chest open, and everyone is stunned to see Rama and Sita literally in his heart.
After the victory of Rama over Ravana, Hanuman went to the Himalayas to continue his worship of the Lord. There he scripted a version of the Ramayana on the Himalayan mountains using his nails, recording every detail of Rama's deeds. When Maharishi Valmiki visited him to show him his own version of the Ramayana, he also saw Lord Hanuman's version and became very disappointed.
When Hanuman asked him the cause of his sorrow, he said that his version, which he had created very laboriously was no match for the splendour of Hanuman's, and would therefore, go ignored. At this, Hanuman took those rocks on one shoulder and Valmiki on the other, and went to the sea. There he threw his own version into the sea, as an offering to Rama. This version, called the Hanumad Ramayana, has been unavailable since then.
With every day, people started loving the rule. Rama's rule got the tag Rama Rajya, which was since referred to a perfect rule of a kingdom. The people loved the life under Rama. Sita got to live with her husband for a long time, happily. It was an ideal life. It looked like a happy ending, happily ever after, but was it??
Ramayan, abhi bhi baaki hai mere bhai!!
In the Lanka War, Vibhishana's knowledge of the secrets of Lanka were invaluable to Shri Rama. Vibhishana freely divulged many secrets that became key to the success of Rama's attack, including revealing the secret path to the temple of Mata Nikumbala, the family deity of the Pulatsya Clan. Because of this, however, Vibhishana is also is known as a traitor.
Now, with Vibhishana by his side, Rama starts the war and pays the Lankan soldiers back in their own coin. Large parts of them are rioted. Here, Ravana wakes Kumbhakarna up from his sleep. But Ravana had been warned by Brahma that if Kumbhakarna had been woken up from sleep, he wouldn't be able to perform to his best strengths. But in his losing methods, he couldn't think of any other way out. The Kumbhakarna when walking out stamped plenty of vanaras to death. Though he was noble enough to oppose his brother, he wasn't strong enough to go to the enemy. He fought hence for his brother. But then a well-aimed arrow at his navel finished him.
Ravana then turned to his son, Indrajit/Meghnad. He was well versed in maya techniques.Indrajit had access to all of the divine weapons like the Brahmastra. Indrajit even bound Rama and Lakshmana under the Nagpash (Serpent spell). The King of eagles Garuda subsequently freed Rama and Lakshmana from the Nagpash. He was fighting Lakshmana one on one, and he injured Lakshmana when he shot at him in an invisible position.
Lakshmana was felled and needed to cared to immediately.Hanuman is sent to fetch the Sanjivani, a powerful life-restoring herb from the Dronagiri mountain in the Himalayas to revive him. Ravana realises that if Lakshmana dies, a distraught Rama would probably give up, and so has his uncle Kalnaimi tempt Hanuman away with luxury. However, Hanuman is tipped off by a crocodile (actually a celestial being under a curse) and kills the Rakshasa. When he is unable to find the specific herb before nightfall, Hanuman again displays his might by lifting the entire Dronagiri mountain and bringing it to the battlefield in Lanka, thus helping others find the herb to revive Lakshmana. An emotional Rama hugs Hanuman, declaring him as dear to him as his own beloved brother Bharat.
Indrajit was unbeatable in war due to the yajna (also spelled yagna) he carried out before any battle, and could only be killed by disrupting this yajna. So Lakshmana planned to disrupt his yajna, and when he did, an enraged Indrajit came and attacked Lakshmana. Here, Lakshmana fought to his best and killed Indrajit.
With this done, Rama thinks Ravana was the last barrier to cross. But then Vibhishana warned him about Mahiravana, king of the Underworld ruled by the rakshasas by Ravana and Demon King Maya. Hanuman creates a fortress with his tail and Vibhishana goes in rounds around the fortress. On one such round, Vibhishana comes back much earlier, and wants to enter the fortress. But again he emerges from another round of his. This shocks Hanuman who realizes the Vibhishana who had gone in was none other than Mahiravana in disguise.
Rama and Lakshmana are captured by the rakshasa, Mahiravana (and his brother Ahiravana) thus, a powerful practitioner of black magic and the dark arts, who holds them captive in his palace in Patalpuri or Patala (the nether world). Searching for them, Hanuman reaches Patala whose gates are guarded by a very young creature called Makardhwaja (known also as Makar-Dhwaja or Magar Dhwaja), part fish and part Vanara.
The story of Makardhwaja's birth is that although Hanuman remained celibate all his life, Makardhwaja was his son; when Hanuman had extinguished his burning tail in the ocean, unknown to him, a drop of his sweat had fallen in as well. Swallowing this sweat droplet, a fish then becomes pregnant. This is discovered when the fish is brought to Mahiravana's kitchen for cooking. Mahiravana raises the child, entrusting him to guard Patalpuri's gates. Hanuman is unaware of this. Although Makardhwaja knows his father is Hanuman, he had never seen him. So, when Hanuman introduces himself to Makardhwaja, he seeks Hanuman's blessings, but decides to fight him as part of his duty as guardian of the gates. Hanuman subdues him and ties him up before entering Patalpuri to rescue Rama and Lakshmana.
Upon entering Patala, Hanuman discovers that to kill Mahiravana, he must simutaneously extinguish five lamps burning in different directions. Hanuman assumes the Panchamukha or five-faced form of Sri Varaha facing north, Sri Narasimha facing south, Sri Garuda facing west, Sri Hayagriva facing the sky and his own facing the east, and blows out the lamps. Thus killing rakshasas, Hanuman rescues Rama and Lakshmana. Afterwards, Rama asks Hanuman to crown Makardhwaja king of Patalpuri.
Hanuman continues to play an indispensable role in the war.
With Mahiravana dead, Ravana himself comes out for battle. Here, the first Ravana is defeated easily and Rama sends him back home and asks him to come to fight the next day. The next day, he comes with a new vengeance, and fights amazingly. Rama first says the Adithya Hrudayam, and after the prayers to the Sun god, he gets back to fight mode. With every head of Ravana he cuts, another head keeps appearing. That's when Vibhishana tells Rama that Ravana's life was in his naval and not his head like normal people. Then Rama hits his naval, and with it has his target killed.
Next, he crowns Vibhishana the king of Lanka.After Rama slays Ravana and wins the war, Sita wants to come before him in the state which over a year's imprisonment had reduced her to, Rama arranges for Sita to be bathed and given beautiful garments before they are re-united. But even as Sita comes before him in great excitement and happiness, Rama does not look at her, staring fixedly at the ground. He tells her that he had fought the war only to avenge the dishonour that Ravana had inflicted on Rama, and now Sita was free to go where she pleased. At this sudden turn of events, all the vanaras, rakshasas, Sugriva, Hanuman and Lakshmana are deeply shocked.[25]
Sita begs Lakshmana to build her a pyre upon which she could end her life, as she could not live without Rama. At this point, Lakshmana is angered at Rama for the first time in his life, but following Rama's nod, he builds a pyre for Sita. At the great shock and sorrow of the watchers, Sita walks into the flames. But to their greater shock and wonder, she is completely unharmed. Instead, she glows radiantly from the centre of the pyre. Immediately Rama runs to Sita and embraces her. He had never doubted her purity for a second, but, as he explains to a dazzled Sita, the people of the world would not have accepted or honoured her as a queen or a woman if she had not passed this Agni pariksha before the eyes of millions, where Agni would destroy the impure and sinful, but not touch the pure and innocent.
With this, Vibhishana gives Rama the pushpaka to fly and reach Ayodhya. On the way, they plan to visit the places where they spent their 14 years. So they reach Rameshwaram first.Upon the advice of Rishis (sages), Rama along with Sita and Lakshmana, installed and worshipped the Sivalinga here to expiate the sin of Brahmahatya (killing of a Brahmin) (Ravana was a Brahmin the great grandson of Brahma). Rama fixed an auspicious time for the installation and sent Anjaneya to Mount Kailas to bring a lingam. As Anjaneya could not return in time, Sita herself made a linga of sand. When Anjaneya returned with a linga from Mount Kailas the rituals had been over. To comfort the disappointed Anjaneya, Rama had Anjaneya’s lingam (Visvalingam) also installed by the side of Ramalinga, and ordained that rituals be performed first to the Visvalingam.
Following this they visited the various other places where they lived, before reaching Ayodhya.
When the war ends, Rama's 14-year exile has almost elapsed. Rama then remembers Bharata's vow to immolate himself if Rama does not return to rule Ayodhya immediately, on completion of the stipulated period. Realising that it would be a little later than the last day of the 14 years when he would reach Ayodhya, Rama is anxious to prevent Bharata from giving up his life. Once again, Hanuman comes to the rescue – he speeds to Ayodhya to inform Bharata that Rama is on his way back.
When Rama re-enters Ayodhya, the whole public in the city were enthralled. All of them made Rama the king, and of course the queen was Sita. The public were overjoyed with the prospect of their beloved Rama ruling them.
All of the vanaras, Sugriva, Vibhishana, Hanuman, and the others were all there.
Shortly after he is crowned Emperor upon his return to Ayodhya, Rama decides to ceremoniously reward all his well-wishers. At a grand ceremony in his court, all his friends and allies take turns being honoured at the throne. Hanuman too goes up, but without desiring a reward. Seeing Hanuman come up to him, an emotionally overwhelmed Rama embraces him warmly, declaring that he could never adequately honour or repay Hanuman for the help and services he received from the noble Vanara. Sita, however, insists that Hanuman deserved honour more than anyone else, and asks him to seek a gift. Upon Hanuman's request, Sita gives him a necklace of precious stones adorning her neck. When he receives it, Hanuman immediately takes it apart, and peers into each stone. Taken aback, many of those present demand to know why he was destroying the precious gift. Hanuman answers that he was looking into the stones to make sure that Rama and Sita are in them, because if they are not, the necklace is of no value to him. At this, a few mock Hanuman, saying his reverence and love for Rama and Sita could not possibly be as deep as he was portraying. In response, Hanuman tears his chest open, and everyone is stunned to see Rama and Sita literally in his heart.
After the victory of Rama over Ravana, Hanuman went to the Himalayas to continue his worship of the Lord. There he scripted a version of the Ramayana on the Himalayan mountains using his nails, recording every detail of Rama's deeds. When Maharishi Valmiki visited him to show him his own version of the Ramayana, he also saw Lord Hanuman's version and became very disappointed.
When Hanuman asked him the cause of his sorrow, he said that his version, which he had created very laboriously was no match for the splendour of Hanuman's, and would therefore, go ignored. At this, Hanuman took those rocks on one shoulder and Valmiki on the other, and went to the sea. There he threw his own version into the sea, as an offering to Rama. This version, called the Hanumad Ramayana, has been unavailable since then.
With every day, people started loving the rule. Rama's rule got the tag Rama Rajya, which was since referred to a perfect rule of a kingdom. The people loved the life under Rama. Sita got to live with her husband for a long time, happily. It was an ideal life. It looked like a happy ending, happily ever after, but was it??
Ramayan, abhi bhi baaki hai mere bhai!!
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
The finding of Sita.
Hanuman with his gang went searching for Sita and he couldn't find her. In this point in time, the vanaras entered a cave and then found a yogini performing tapas there. The vanaras stood there with clasped hands waiting her to finish her penance. Once she did, they asked her if she knew about the whereabouts of Sita. She told them that they vulture Sampathi in an adjacent cave might have knowledge of the whereabouts of Sita. Then they all walked upto Sampathi.
In this context, the contribution of Jatayu's brother, Sampaati, is worth mentioning. Jatayu and Sampaati, when young, used to compete as to who could fly higher. On one such instance Jatayu flew so high that he was about to get seared by sun's flames. Sampaati saved his brother by spreading his own wings and thus shielding Jatayu from the hot flames. In the process, Sampaati himself got injured and lost his wings. As a result Sampaati lived wingless for the rest of his life.
Both Jatayu and Sampathi were sons of Aruna and nephews of Jatayu.
According to the solar mythology of Hinduism, the legend states that Vinata was one of the wives of rishi Kashyapa, and she bore him two sons, named Aruṇá and Garuda. Kashyapa was promised that her sons would be powerful if she waited for them to awake. However, her impatience to hatch them took root, and she broke one of them. From the broken egg a flash of lighting, Aruṇá, emerged sprang forth. He was as radiant and reddish as the morning sun. But, due to the premature breaking of the egg, Aruṇá was not as bright as the noon sun as he was promised to be. Aruṇá's brother, Garuda, was born regularly, and eventually became the main vehicle of Vishnu.
Aruṇá is sometimes considered a part of Surya, as he is the vision and driving force behind its path through the sky. In some stories, Aruṇá drives the chariot of Surya, while in others, he is a manifestation of Surya, serving as a sign of the coming of the Sun God.
This Sampathi met the vanaras who came upto him and asked him if he knew the whereabouts of Sita. Then he told them that he saw a woman crying for help when Ravana was kidnapping her on his Pushpaka. Sadly, due to his inability to fly, he couldn't go for help. He guessed that must have been Sita. On asking for where Ravana lived, they were told he lived in Lanka, 100 yojanas away from Bharatavarsha.
A yojana is a Vedic measure of distance used in ancient India. The exact measurement is disputed amongst scholars with distances being given between 6 to 15 km (4 and 9 miles).
Now, someone had to leap through the distance.
Now, none of the vanaras are confident to jump that far. Angada says 80 yojanas, Neel says 70, Nala says 60.
Jambavantha (also known as Jambavan or Jamvanta) is a bear in Hinduism and believe to lived from Krita Yuga to Dvapara Yuga. He is also considered King of bears and first son of Brahma, before humans were created. Jambavan was present when the churning of the ocean took place and was supposed to have circled the world seven times. Jambavan says that on his youth days he would have jumped 200, but that now he couldn't manage more than 90.
Now hopes turn to Hanuman.
Hanuman was born in Kapisthal (Currently known as Kaithal, a place in Haryana) in the Treta Yuga, to 'Anjana', a female vanara. Anjana was actually an apsara or a celestial being, named 'Punjikasthala', who, due to a curse, was born on the earth as a female vanara. The curse was to be removed upon her giving birth to an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
Along with Kesari, Anjana performed intense prayers to Shiva to beget Him as her Child. Pleased with their devotion, Shiva granted them the boon they sought.
Different stories are told as to Hanuman's birth. One is that at the time that Anjana was worshipping Lord Shiva, elsewhere, Dashrath, the king of Ayodhya, was performing the Putrakama Yagna in order to have children. As a result, he received some sacred pudding, to be shared by his three wives, leading to the births of Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. By divine ordinance, a kite snatched a fragment of that pudding, and dropped it while flying over the forest where Anjana was engaged in worship. Vayu, the Hindu deity of the wind, delivered the falling pudding to the outstretched hands of Anjana, who consumed it. Hanuman was born to her as a result.
Being Anjana's son, Hanuman is also called Anjaneya (pronounced Aanjanèya), which literally means "arising from Anjani".
Hanuman is also considered as the incaranation of Shiva or reflection of Shiva. When Ravana tried to enter the Himalayas (the abode of Shiva) Nandi stopped him and Ravana called Nandi a monkey. Nandi in return cursed Ravana: monkeys would help destroy him. In the process word monkey along with panchaksram "Om Namashivaya" hit Shiva. Shiva, to give respect to his devotee, took the form of a vanara, Hanuman.
As a child, assuming the sun to be a ripe mango, he once took flight to catch hold of it to eat. Indra, the king of devas observed this. He hurled his weapon, the Vajra (thunderbolt) at Hanuman, which struck his jaw. He fell back down to the earth and became unconscious. Upset, Vayu went into seclusion, taking the atmosphere with him. As living beings began to get asphyxiated, to pacify Vayu, Indra withdrew the effect of his thunderbolt, and the devas revived Hanuman and blessed him with multiple boons. However, a permanent mark was left on his chin (hanuhH in Sanskrit).
On ascertaining Surya, the Hindu deity of the sun to be an all-knowing teacher, Hanuman raised his body into an orbit around the sun and requested that Surya accept him as a student. But Surya refused, claiming that as he always had to be on the move in his chariot, it would be impossible for Hanuman to learn effectively. Undeterred by Surya's refusal, Hanuman enlarged his body; he placed one leg on the eastern ranges and the other on the western ranges and with his face turned toward the sun, made his request again. Pleased by his persistence, Surya accepted. Hanuman then moved (backwards, to remain facing Surya) continuously with his teacher, and learned all of the latter's knowledge. When Hanuman then requested Surya to quote his "guru-dakshina" (teacher's fee), the latter refused, saying that the pleasure of teaching one as dedicated as him was the fee in itself. But Hanuman insisted, and it was then that Surya asked him to help his (Surya's) spiritual son Sugriva. Hanuman's choice of Surya as his teacher is said to signify Surya as a Karma Saakshi, an eternal witness of all deeds.
Hanuman was mischievous in his childhood, and sometimes teased the meditating sages in the forests by snatching their personal belongings and by disturbing their well-arranged articles of worship. Finding his antics unbearable, but realising that Hanuman was but a child, (albeit invincible), the sages placed a mild curse on him. By this curse Hanuman forgot his own prowess, and recollected it only when others reminded him about it.
Then, Jambavan reminds him of his unearthly prowess. Hanuman then recollects his own powers, enlarges his body and flies across the ocean. On his way, he encounters a mountain Mandara that rises from the sea, proclaims that it owed his father a debt and asks him to rest a while before proceeding. Not wanting to waste any time, Hanuman thanks the mountain and carries on. He then encounters a sea-monster who challenges him to enter her mouth. When Hanuman outwits her mouth and coming out of her ears, she admits that it was merely a test of his courage. Finally on killing Simhika, a shadow-eater rakshasa, he reached Lanka.
On reaching Lanka, he reduces his size to an infinitesimally small size, and then looks at the beautiful city. Then he pities saying the beautiful city has to be destroyed due to Ravana's arrogance. Then, he moves into Ravana's palace. He sees the beautiful lamps glowing in the night, the beautiful chambeliers, the huge Kumbhakarna snoring, the noble Vibishana spending his nocturnal hours on the floor, and then the cruel Ravana, sleeping with a beautiful woman in his chambers. He first doubts if it is his Sita devi who has yielded to his attempts to make her his mistress, but then rubbishes such thoughts, and decides that it is Mandodari, Ravana's chief queen. Mandodari was the beautiful and pious daughter of the King of Danavas, Mayasura and the celestial dancer, Apsara Hema. She was the mother of Indrajit, who earned the name after defeating Indra, the King of the Devas.
Hanuman saw the powerful Indrajit sleeping soundly. He feels a pang of sorrow thinking about the forthcoming destruction of such warriors.
Then slowly he crawls to the Ashoka Vana. There he sees a beautiful lady in saffron, hair unkept, crying as Ravana forces her to marry him. Hanuman makes up his mind that she is Sita. Ravana tells her that if she doesn't give her approval to their alliance in another three months, she would be killed and her flesh would serve as appetizers for the flesh hungry Lankan demons.
Then, he leaves. Immediately Hanuman jumps down and then introduces himself to Sita, but she refuses to believe him and thinks of him to be an ally of Ravana. Then, he shows her a ring which Rama gave her as proof and seeing which she believes him and gives him her choodamani which she asks him to give Rama. He asks the devi to come with her. But then she rejects it saying, she has been dishonoured by being held captive and she will come back only if her husband comes back, vanquishes Ravana and takes her back.
Then Hanuman takes her blessing and starts his vanquish on the Ashoka Vana. Then, the Lankan troops come to stop him but in vain. Akshay Kumara, a son of Ravana, comes to deal with Hanuman but is killed by the Vanara god. Then Indrajith comes to fight. Hanuman realises that he wouldn't get a better chance to meet the ten-headed Ravana and so gets voluntarily bound by Indrajith's arrows. Then, the demon troops drag Hanuman to Ravana's court where he is sitting in full splendour, the ten-headed wonder. He asks why Hanuman damaged the beautiful Ashoka Vana. He tells him the reason of his visit and also fortells the vanquishing of Lanka in the hands of Rama, if he did not yield to allowing Sita to go home to Rama. An enraged Ravana orders to burn a monkey's most valued part of the body, his tail. Vibhishana requests Ravana not to do this, telling him that a messenger shouldn't be treated in that manner. Ravana does not heed to the advice and orders for the tail to be covered with cloth and then it being set to fire. Instantaneously Hanuman enlarges in size, and the covering of the tail with cloth becomes a mammoth task. But still they manage to do it and set fire to it. As soon as this is done, Anjaneya jumps out, goes across Lanka setting all places in Lanka to fire, leaving Ashoka Vana alone as Sita devi is there, takes leave of her and reaches the ocean where he plunges his burning tail into the sea. With this relief, he jumps and reaches the shore where the Vanaras are waiting. Then, they go to Rama, and Anjaneya says, "Saw I Sita!!" He says the saw first because he doesn't want to give Rama even a moment's anxiety regarding the matter of him having met Sita or not. He gives Rama, Sita's choodamani, which on seeing, Rama breaks into tears, in remembrance of his beloved. Lakshmana consoles him, and with this, Rama gets the urge to break the next frontier called Lanka.
In this context, the contribution of Jatayu's brother, Sampaati, is worth mentioning. Jatayu and Sampaati, when young, used to compete as to who could fly higher. On one such instance Jatayu flew so high that he was about to get seared by sun's flames. Sampaati saved his brother by spreading his own wings and thus shielding Jatayu from the hot flames. In the process, Sampaati himself got injured and lost his wings. As a result Sampaati lived wingless for the rest of his life.
Both Jatayu and Sampathi were sons of Aruna and nephews of Jatayu.
According to the solar mythology of Hinduism, the legend states that Vinata was one of the wives of rishi Kashyapa, and she bore him two sons, named Aruṇá and Garuda. Kashyapa was promised that her sons would be powerful if she waited for them to awake. However, her impatience to hatch them took root, and she broke one of them. From the broken egg a flash of lighting, Aruṇá, emerged sprang forth. He was as radiant and reddish as the morning sun. But, due to the premature breaking of the egg, Aruṇá was not as bright as the noon sun as he was promised to be. Aruṇá's brother, Garuda, was born regularly, and eventually became the main vehicle of Vishnu.
Aruṇá is sometimes considered a part of Surya, as he is the vision and driving force behind its path through the sky. In some stories, Aruṇá drives the chariot of Surya, while in others, he is a manifestation of Surya, serving as a sign of the coming of the Sun God.
This Sampathi met the vanaras who came upto him and asked him if he knew the whereabouts of Sita. Then he told them that he saw a woman crying for help when Ravana was kidnapping her on his Pushpaka. Sadly, due to his inability to fly, he couldn't go for help. He guessed that must have been Sita. On asking for where Ravana lived, they were told he lived in Lanka, 100 yojanas away from Bharatavarsha.
A yojana is a Vedic measure of distance used in ancient India. The exact measurement is disputed amongst scholars with distances being given between 6 to 15 km (4 and 9 miles).
Now, someone had to leap through the distance.
Now, none of the vanaras are confident to jump that far. Angada says 80 yojanas, Neel says 70, Nala says 60.
Jambavantha (also known as Jambavan or Jamvanta) is a bear in Hinduism and believe to lived from Krita Yuga to Dvapara Yuga. He is also considered King of bears and first son of Brahma, before humans were created. Jambavan was present when the churning of the ocean took place and was supposed to have circled the world seven times. Jambavan says that on his youth days he would have jumped 200, but that now he couldn't manage more than 90.
Now hopes turn to Hanuman.
Hanuman was born in Kapisthal (Currently known as Kaithal, a place in Haryana) in the Treta Yuga, to 'Anjana', a female vanara. Anjana was actually an apsara or a celestial being, named 'Punjikasthala', who, due to a curse, was born on the earth as a female vanara. The curse was to be removed upon her giving birth to an incarnation of Lord Shiva.
Along with Kesari, Anjana performed intense prayers to Shiva to beget Him as her Child. Pleased with their devotion, Shiva granted them the boon they sought.
Different stories are told as to Hanuman's birth. One is that at the time that Anjana was worshipping Lord Shiva, elsewhere, Dashrath, the king of Ayodhya, was performing the Putrakama Yagna in order to have children. As a result, he received some sacred pudding, to be shared by his three wives, leading to the births of Lord Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Shatrughna. By divine ordinance, a kite snatched a fragment of that pudding, and dropped it while flying over the forest where Anjana was engaged in worship. Vayu, the Hindu deity of the wind, delivered the falling pudding to the outstretched hands of Anjana, who consumed it. Hanuman was born to her as a result.
Being Anjana's son, Hanuman is also called Anjaneya (pronounced Aanjanèya), which literally means "arising from Anjani".
Hanuman is also considered as the incaranation of Shiva or reflection of Shiva. When Ravana tried to enter the Himalayas (the abode of Shiva) Nandi stopped him and Ravana called Nandi a monkey. Nandi in return cursed Ravana: monkeys would help destroy him. In the process word monkey along with panchaksram "Om Namashivaya" hit Shiva. Shiva, to give respect to his devotee, took the form of a vanara, Hanuman.
As a child, assuming the sun to be a ripe mango, he once took flight to catch hold of it to eat. Indra, the king of devas observed this. He hurled his weapon, the Vajra (thunderbolt) at Hanuman, which struck his jaw. He fell back down to the earth and became unconscious. Upset, Vayu went into seclusion, taking the atmosphere with him. As living beings began to get asphyxiated, to pacify Vayu, Indra withdrew the effect of his thunderbolt, and the devas revived Hanuman and blessed him with multiple boons. However, a permanent mark was left on his chin (hanuhH in Sanskrit).
On ascertaining Surya, the Hindu deity of the sun to be an all-knowing teacher, Hanuman raised his body into an orbit around the sun and requested that Surya accept him as a student. But Surya refused, claiming that as he always had to be on the move in his chariot, it would be impossible for Hanuman to learn effectively. Undeterred by Surya's refusal, Hanuman enlarged his body; he placed one leg on the eastern ranges and the other on the western ranges and with his face turned toward the sun, made his request again. Pleased by his persistence, Surya accepted. Hanuman then moved (backwards, to remain facing Surya) continuously with his teacher, and learned all of the latter's knowledge. When Hanuman then requested Surya to quote his "guru-dakshina" (teacher's fee), the latter refused, saying that the pleasure of teaching one as dedicated as him was the fee in itself. But Hanuman insisted, and it was then that Surya asked him to help his (Surya's) spiritual son Sugriva. Hanuman's choice of Surya as his teacher is said to signify Surya as a Karma Saakshi, an eternal witness of all deeds.
Hanuman was mischievous in his childhood, and sometimes teased the meditating sages in the forests by snatching their personal belongings and by disturbing their well-arranged articles of worship. Finding his antics unbearable, but realising that Hanuman was but a child, (albeit invincible), the sages placed a mild curse on him. By this curse Hanuman forgot his own prowess, and recollected it only when others reminded him about it.
Then, Jambavan reminds him of his unearthly prowess. Hanuman then recollects his own powers, enlarges his body and flies across the ocean. On his way, he encounters a mountain Mandara that rises from the sea, proclaims that it owed his father a debt and asks him to rest a while before proceeding. Not wanting to waste any time, Hanuman thanks the mountain and carries on. He then encounters a sea-monster who challenges him to enter her mouth. When Hanuman outwits her mouth and coming out of her ears, she admits that it was merely a test of his courage. Finally on killing Simhika, a shadow-eater rakshasa, he reached Lanka.
On reaching Lanka, he reduces his size to an infinitesimally small size, and then looks at the beautiful city. Then he pities saying the beautiful city has to be destroyed due to Ravana's arrogance. Then, he moves into Ravana's palace. He sees the beautiful lamps glowing in the night, the beautiful chambeliers, the huge Kumbhakarna snoring, the noble Vibishana spending his nocturnal hours on the floor, and then the cruel Ravana, sleeping with a beautiful woman in his chambers. He first doubts if it is his Sita devi who has yielded to his attempts to make her his mistress, but then rubbishes such thoughts, and decides that it is Mandodari, Ravana's chief queen. Mandodari was the beautiful and pious daughter of the King of Danavas, Mayasura and the celestial dancer, Apsara Hema. She was the mother of Indrajit, who earned the name after defeating Indra, the King of the Devas.
Hanuman saw the powerful Indrajit sleeping soundly. He feels a pang of sorrow thinking about the forthcoming destruction of such warriors.
Then slowly he crawls to the Ashoka Vana. There he sees a beautiful lady in saffron, hair unkept, crying as Ravana forces her to marry him. Hanuman makes up his mind that she is Sita. Ravana tells her that if she doesn't give her approval to their alliance in another three months, she would be killed and her flesh would serve as appetizers for the flesh hungry Lankan demons.
Then, he leaves. Immediately Hanuman jumps down and then introduces himself to Sita, but she refuses to believe him and thinks of him to be an ally of Ravana. Then, he shows her a ring which Rama gave her as proof and seeing which she believes him and gives him her choodamani which she asks him to give Rama. He asks the devi to come with her. But then she rejects it saying, she has been dishonoured by being held captive and she will come back only if her husband comes back, vanquishes Ravana and takes her back.
Then Hanuman takes her blessing and starts his vanquish on the Ashoka Vana. Then, the Lankan troops come to stop him but in vain. Akshay Kumara, a son of Ravana, comes to deal with Hanuman but is killed by the Vanara god. Then Indrajith comes to fight. Hanuman realises that he wouldn't get a better chance to meet the ten-headed Ravana and so gets voluntarily bound by Indrajith's arrows. Then, the demon troops drag Hanuman to Ravana's court where he is sitting in full splendour, the ten-headed wonder. He asks why Hanuman damaged the beautiful Ashoka Vana. He tells him the reason of his visit and also fortells the vanquishing of Lanka in the hands of Rama, if he did not yield to allowing Sita to go home to Rama. An enraged Ravana orders to burn a monkey's most valued part of the body, his tail. Vibhishana requests Ravana not to do this, telling him that a messenger shouldn't be treated in that manner. Ravana does not heed to the advice and orders for the tail to be covered with cloth and then it being set to fire. Instantaneously Hanuman enlarges in size, and the covering of the tail with cloth becomes a mammoth task. But still they manage to do it and set fire to it. As soon as this is done, Anjaneya jumps out, goes across Lanka setting all places in Lanka to fire, leaving Ashoka Vana alone as Sita devi is there, takes leave of her and reaches the ocean where he plunges his burning tail into the sea. With this relief, he jumps and reaches the shore where the Vanaras are waiting. Then, they go to Rama, and Anjaneya says, "Saw I Sita!!" He says the saw first because he doesn't want to give Rama even a moment's anxiety regarding the matter of him having met Sita or not. He gives Rama, Sita's choodamani, which on seeing, Rama breaks into tears, in remembrance of his beloved. Lakshmana consoles him, and with this, Rama gets the urge to break the next frontier called Lanka.
Monday, 16 June 2008
The kidnapping of Sita, and the redeeming of Kishkinda.
The life at Panchavati was moving on smoothly when one fine day, a demoness by name Surpanakha came upto them. Surpanakha was Ravana's younger sister, who he loved very dearly. Now, this Surpanakha saw Rama at Panchavati and was attracted by him. She approached him in the guise of a beautiful lady and asked him to marry her. Rama jovially said that he had his wife and did not have to marry now, while his younger brother was alone and she could try asking him out. She turned to Lakshmana and found him equally handsome. So, she took the chance of asking him if he would marry her. Then, he also jovially said that his brother was more handsome and but for Sita, he would be ready to marry her. Then, Surpanakha attacks Sita to get Rama for herself. In a fit of rage, Lakshmana takes an arrow, and disfigures her face. Surpanakha then goes and complains to her cousin brothers Khara and Dushana. Khara and Dushana come to defeat Rama and Lakshmana, but only in vain. Both of them are vanquished with some real ease by the Raghu kula brothers.
This news reaches Ravana. Ravana was the lord of Lanka. It was actually the land of his older brother Kubera, but he urpsed it from him because he just loved the beautiful land. His mother was a rakshasi who acted as a nymph and got married to Vishravas, the rishi. So, the rishi cursed her that the children who were born to them will be of a demonous nature. Then on her begging forgiveness, he modified the curse, saying that the children will have a demonous intent with a decreasing level in order of birth, with the last son being a purely Sattvic person. They had children in the order: Ravana, Surpanakha, the huge Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana. When Ravana and Kumbhakarna were once performing penance, pleased with their efforts, lord Brahma appeared before Kumbhakarna and asked him what he wanted. The devas fearing he will ask something destructive given his huge figure, requested Saraswathi devi to make him say something extremely stupid. So, the devi played on his tongue to make him say that he wanted to sleep for 6 months a year. So, Kumbhakarna used to sleep half the year. Now, this Ravana now wanted to take revenge on Rama for what had happened to Surpanakha, Khara and Dushana. He knew that if they had defeated Khara and Dushana, it wouldn't be easy to fight and win him on the battlefield and so something had to be done by hook or by crook.
He called for his uncle Maricha, and asked him to disguise as a golden deer and lure Rama away, while he will kidnap Sita, who he knew was extremely beautiful and he wanted as his queen. Maricha, who had previous experience of Rama, was initially not willing to support Ravana in this idea, but he had no way out as Ravana told him that he'd be killed if he didn't come.
Without a way out, Maricha transformed into the beautiful golden deer. Sita liked it and in a childlike innocence, she wanted it. Rama went after it and hunted it down, when it died forming Maricha, and shouting, "Lakshmana, save me!" in the voice of Rama. Then Sita asked Lakshmana to go to rescue Rama, but Lakshmana told her that he didn't need help, as he was too strong to ask for any, and it must be the act of some demon to get him away from there. Then she claimed that Lakshmana desired her, and that's why he wasn't going to the help of his brother and trying to stay back there. Without any other option, he drew a line around the ashram called the Lakshman Rekha which no one could get through without Lakshmana's permission. Now, he left searching for Rama. In the meanwhile, Ravana comes in the guise of a sage, and tries to come in. When he realises he is unable to do it, he asks for some bhiksha and asks Sita to give it to him. When she tries to give it from inside, he calls her outside. Then when she steps outside, he carries her and elopes in his airplane, the Pushpak. As Sita cries for help, Jatayu, a vulture king and an aide of Dasharatha notices this and hence goes and gives Ravana a fierce fight. But Ravana uses a sword to first cut both his wings, and then a cut across his heart. Then, he falls to the ground dying, and Ravana successfully elopes with Sita.
In the meanwhile Rama, who is unable to find Sita in the ashram, is heartbroken. He finds Jatayu lying near the ashram, and asks him about what happened. Jatayu tells him that he saw someone kidnapping Sita, and he fought him but in vain. Saying this, he breathed his last. Rama performed Jatayu's last rites like he would do those of his father.
Following this, he went to search for Sita. On the way, he found this demon called Kadamba with a mouth in his stomach who came to eat Rama. Rama destroyed him with one Astra. Then, he proceeded when a old man. The old man asked Rama if he was a person of Vaali. Then Rama told him all details and why he was there. On this information, the old man transformed into a monkey and introduced himself as Hanuman, and took the two of them on his shoulders to his monkey king, Sugriva. Then Sugriva told him about his story.The vanara Vali (Sanskrit: वाली) was king of Kishkindha, a son of Indra and the elder brother of Sugriva.He was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who came before him lost half his/her strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy. Once Ravana called Vali for a fight when vali was doing his regular shiva puja. He took Ravana in his tail and took around all worlds. Humbled, Ravana called for a truce.
Vali had been known as a good and pious vanara-king, but had been too outraged to listen to his brother Sugriva after his brother had sealed the entrance to a cave in which Vali was fighting a rakshasa. Sugriva had mistaken the blood flowing out of the cave to be his brother's, blocked the entrance to the cave with a boulder and left for Kishkindha, assuming that his brother was dead. When Vali had emerged victorious over the rakshasa, he had found that the entrance to the cave was blocked (not a problem for his strength), and had then discovered Sugriva ruling in his place.Sugriva tried to explain the situation to Vali, but Vali would not listen. Vali banished Sugriva from the kingdom, and held the latter's wife captive in his own palace. Sugriva fled into the forest, where he met Hanuman, who later became a trusted lieutenant of his. Now, Rama and Sugriva understood each other's problems and decided that they would help each other to solve their problems. First Vali had to be slayed. So, Rama arranged a combat between Sugriva and Vali which would act as a trap for Vali as Rama would shoot at him. But the two vanara brothers looked identical to an extent that Rama couldn't distinguish between the two. So midway through the fight Rama garlanded Sugriva to distinguish between the two. Now he easily shot Vali from the back. Now, when Vali fell to the ground, he asked him a question saying that the biggest mistake he had made was having kept Sugriva's wife with him, but he being a monkey didn't have to be bound by human laws. Then Rama replied saying, if he had the intellectual ability to ask such a question, he was intellectually a human, and hence had to be bound by human laws. Without any possibile escapism, Vali admitted his mistake and died with Rama's hands chastising him. Rama asked Lakshmana to make Sugriva the king of Kishkintha as he couldn't come inside a palace till the 14 years of exile were over. So all the festivities of the coronation were over, and it was 6 months up. But the vanaras seemed to have forgotten the promise they had made to Rama to retrieve Sita. Then, Lakshmana went to Sugriva and in a fit of rage, asked him if he had gone to the cheap monkey characterestics of not keeping up promises. Then, an extremely guilty Sugriva made preparations to search for Sita. Following this, he sent his various armies to various parts of the world to search for Sita. His most strong army was that headed by Jambavan, and Hanuman which went towards the south. The search was soon on...
This news reaches Ravana. Ravana was the lord of Lanka. It was actually the land of his older brother Kubera, but he urpsed it from him because he just loved the beautiful land. His mother was a rakshasi who acted as a nymph and got married to Vishravas, the rishi. So, the rishi cursed her that the children who were born to them will be of a demonous nature. Then on her begging forgiveness, he modified the curse, saying that the children will have a demonous intent with a decreasing level in order of birth, with the last son being a purely Sattvic person. They had children in the order: Ravana, Surpanakha, the huge Kumbhakarna and Vibhishana. When Ravana and Kumbhakarna were once performing penance, pleased with their efforts, lord Brahma appeared before Kumbhakarna and asked him what he wanted. The devas fearing he will ask something destructive given his huge figure, requested Saraswathi devi to make him say something extremely stupid. So, the devi played on his tongue to make him say that he wanted to sleep for 6 months a year. So, Kumbhakarna used to sleep half the year. Now, this Ravana now wanted to take revenge on Rama for what had happened to Surpanakha, Khara and Dushana. He knew that if they had defeated Khara and Dushana, it wouldn't be easy to fight and win him on the battlefield and so something had to be done by hook or by crook.
He called for his uncle Maricha, and asked him to disguise as a golden deer and lure Rama away, while he will kidnap Sita, who he knew was extremely beautiful and he wanted as his queen. Maricha, who had previous experience of Rama, was initially not willing to support Ravana in this idea, but he had no way out as Ravana told him that he'd be killed if he didn't come.
Without a way out, Maricha transformed into the beautiful golden deer. Sita liked it and in a childlike innocence, she wanted it. Rama went after it and hunted it down, when it died forming Maricha, and shouting, "Lakshmana, save me!" in the voice of Rama. Then Sita asked Lakshmana to go to rescue Rama, but Lakshmana told her that he didn't need help, as he was too strong to ask for any, and it must be the act of some demon to get him away from there. Then she claimed that Lakshmana desired her, and that's why he wasn't going to the help of his brother and trying to stay back there. Without any other option, he drew a line around the ashram called the Lakshman Rekha which no one could get through without Lakshmana's permission. Now, he left searching for Rama. In the meanwhile, Ravana comes in the guise of a sage, and tries to come in. When he realises he is unable to do it, he asks for some bhiksha and asks Sita to give it to him. When she tries to give it from inside, he calls her outside. Then when she steps outside, he carries her and elopes in his airplane, the Pushpak. As Sita cries for help, Jatayu, a vulture king and an aide of Dasharatha notices this and hence goes and gives Ravana a fierce fight. But Ravana uses a sword to first cut both his wings, and then a cut across his heart. Then, he falls to the ground dying, and Ravana successfully elopes with Sita.
In the meanwhile Rama, who is unable to find Sita in the ashram, is heartbroken. He finds Jatayu lying near the ashram, and asks him about what happened. Jatayu tells him that he saw someone kidnapping Sita, and he fought him but in vain. Saying this, he breathed his last. Rama performed Jatayu's last rites like he would do those of his father.
Following this, he went to search for Sita. On the way, he found this demon called Kadamba with a mouth in his stomach who came to eat Rama. Rama destroyed him with one Astra. Then, he proceeded when a old man. The old man asked Rama if he was a person of Vaali. Then Rama told him all details and why he was there. On this information, the old man transformed into a monkey and introduced himself as Hanuman, and took the two of them on his shoulders to his monkey king, Sugriva. Then Sugriva told him about his story.The vanara Vali (Sanskrit: वाली) was king of Kishkindha, a son of Indra and the elder brother of Sugriva.He was famous for the boon that he had received, according to which anyone who came before him lost half his/her strength to Vali, thereby making Vali invulnerable to any enemy. Once Ravana called Vali for a fight when vali was doing his regular shiva puja. He took Ravana in his tail and took around all worlds. Humbled, Ravana called for a truce.
Vali had been known as a good and pious vanara-king, but had been too outraged to listen to his brother Sugriva after his brother had sealed the entrance to a cave in which Vali was fighting a rakshasa. Sugriva had mistaken the blood flowing out of the cave to be his brother's, blocked the entrance to the cave with a boulder and left for Kishkindha, assuming that his brother was dead. When Vali had emerged victorious over the rakshasa, he had found that the entrance to the cave was blocked (not a problem for his strength), and had then discovered Sugriva ruling in his place.Sugriva tried to explain the situation to Vali, but Vali would not listen. Vali banished Sugriva from the kingdom, and held the latter's wife captive in his own palace. Sugriva fled into the forest, where he met Hanuman, who later became a trusted lieutenant of his. Now, Rama and Sugriva understood each other's problems and decided that they would help each other to solve their problems. First Vali had to be slayed. So, Rama arranged a combat between Sugriva and Vali which would act as a trap for Vali as Rama would shoot at him. But the two vanara brothers looked identical to an extent that Rama couldn't distinguish between the two. So midway through the fight Rama garlanded Sugriva to distinguish between the two. Now he easily shot Vali from the back. Now, when Vali fell to the ground, he asked him a question saying that the biggest mistake he had made was having kept Sugriva's wife with him, but he being a monkey didn't have to be bound by human laws. Then Rama replied saying, if he had the intellectual ability to ask such a question, he was intellectually a human, and hence had to be bound by human laws. Without any possibile escapism, Vali admitted his mistake and died with Rama's hands chastising him. Rama asked Lakshmana to make Sugriva the king of Kishkintha as he couldn't come inside a palace till the 14 years of exile were over. So all the festivities of the coronation were over, and it was 6 months up. But the vanaras seemed to have forgotten the promise they had made to Rama to retrieve Sita. Then, Lakshmana went to Sugriva and in a fit of rage, asked him if he had gone to the cheap monkey characterestics of not keeping up promises. Then, an extremely guilty Sugriva made preparations to search for Sita. Following this, he sent his various armies to various parts of the world to search for Sita. His most strong army was that headed by Jambavan, and Hanuman which went towards the south. The search was soon on...
The exile.
The whole of Kosala is in great delight with a noble king, his good wives, godly princes and their wives, and a great life for the citizens. At this juncture of time, Dasharatha decides to crown Rama the Yuvraj (crown prince) or the heir apparent to the Solar race's throne. The whole city is overjoyed at the announcement of the crown prince going to be declared the next day.
The whole kingdom is in a trance of extreme happiness. So are the queens Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra for their dear Rama. This is when the nurse of Kaikeyi, Mantra comes into action. She comes up to Kaikeyi and sets in her an insecurity regarding her son Bharatha. She, at first tries to dismiss Mantra's ideas as ones due to her hatred for Rama, but then slowly yields to her ideas. Then she devises a plan to prevent Dasharatha from crowning Rama as heir apparent.
Kaikeyi was Dasharatha's favourite wife and he used to take her with him for battles. Once, Dasharatha swooned due to some astra used at him, following which Kaikeyi fights and then nurses her husband. Dasharatha is pleased by this behaviour of hers, and then grants her two boons which she wants. Kaikeyi decides to use them later. Now, she decides to ask for the two boons.
When Dasharatha enters her private chamber, she was found lying on the bed, angry, and her hair put wide open, at the time of twilight. A woman's hair being left open at the time of twilight is said to be a sign of inauspiciousness, and Dasharatha is alarmed. He asks her for the reason, and she replies saying she wants her two boons now. Dasharatha agrees to grant them to her now. Then she puts forth her requests. Her first boon is that she wants Rama to be exiled to the forests for 14 years, and the second boon is that the second-born Bharatha should be made the heir apparent. Dasharatha is shocked. He couldn't refuse it as boons couldn't be refused. He develops an instant hatred towards Kaikeyi. He immediately moves to Kaushalya's chamber in tears. He calls for Rama and tells him what happens. The noble Rama decides to move because he didn't want his father's words to go wrong. Dasaratha loved and cherished Rama dearly, and was in personal turmoil. Completely estranged now from his younger wife, he abhors the prospect of separation from Rama. But Rama realizes that the king must not break a solemn promise at any time, and neither should a son disobey his father's command. Sita joins her husband in exile despite his discouraging her, as it is her duty and out of love for Rama that she must be at his side at all times. His brother Lakshmana initially is furious at Dasharatha and proceeds to kill him in spite of Dasharatha being his father. But Rama stops him and advises him saying what he is doing wasn't right according to Dharma. Then he volunteers to follow his brother into exile. Though Rama does not encourage this, he is unwilling to listen and takes leave of his wife Urmila asking her to take care of his mother Sumitra. She comforts her husband saying she would take absolute care of everything that needed to be done.
Rama, Lakshmana and Sita get dressed in deerskin and move for exile. Unable to bear the news of the exile, the whole of Ayodhya follows the trio. Dasharatha starts crying the name Rama once he makes an exit from the city. This leads to extreme gloom to him and Kaushalya. Then, he tells her he understands why he is suffering this disaster of a situation.
Many years ago, the king was a avid hunter. He was absolutely in love with the sport. He once went to hunt down deers. There he heard some sound near the pond, and being a class act with the bow, he shot an arrow presuming the sound was that of a deer. Then, he went up to check what his game was, only to find a young man on his death bed. The man's name was Shravan Kumar. He had come on a pilgrimage with his old blind parents. The parents had wanted some water and hence the son had come to collect some from the pond. He requested the king to give his parents the water and breathed his last. Then, the king with tears in his eyes gave the blind parents some water to drink, and then introduced himself to them, telling them the whole story. The parents were overcome with a huge amount of grief and they cursed Dasharatha saying, just as they did not have their beloved son by their side at this old age due to him, he will have to face the same difficulty with him being separated from his son in his last days, and they breathed their last.
Dasharatha remembered this incident and narrated it to Kaushalya. He realised that his end was near and he breathed his last that very night.
In the meanwhile, that night when everyone from Ayodhya was sleeping in the forest, Rama with Lakshmana and Sita, sleathily escaped after informing the charioteer Sumantra, asking him to take them home. They had to cross the Yamuna which was in spate, and the forest chieftain called Guhan helped them cross the river, and gave them fruits, nuts and what else he could afford to eat. Highly impressed, Rama considered him one of his closest associates and gave him a position in his heart, as high as that of his other three brothers.
Bharatha and Shatrughna, who were at Bharatha's uncle's place in Kekaya were called immediately. When he came home and saw the whole of Ayodhya in gloom, he could not make anything out of it. When he went and asked his mother, she told him what had happened. Then Bharatha got furious at her, and told her that he was immediately going to restore the throne to his brother Rama. He left at once for the forests. When Bharatha met Rama, he had an emotional outburst, with which he gave Rama a hug and cried, asking for him to forgive his mother. Rama in his humble best said that it was his duty to listen to Kaikeyi and he was nobody to forgive her. Then Bharatha tells him that he wants to kill Kaikeyi. But then Rama again advises him to give his mother the respect she deserves. Then, he asks Rama if he could accompany him as part of the exile. But, Rama tells him that his duty to lead the nation is extremely important and hence he should lead it till he returns to Ayodhya. Then Bharatha says he would be unable to rule his brother's land and hence he asks for Rama's sandals. He takes Rama's sandles on his head, to a place it on a throne in the place called Nandigram in the outskirts of Ayodhya, and he ruled the nation on the sandal's behalf from this place after completing his father's last rites. In fact, he decided he would go to Ayodhya only after Rama came in there. It is said that after Rama, he was the symbol of dharma and idealism. A few commentators, however, deem Bharata to be even greater than Lord Rama himself in virtue.Vasishtha proclaims that no one had better learnt dharma than Bharata,and for this piety he forms an essential part of the conception of perfect manhood, of the Seventh Avatara of Vishnu.
Then, Rama travels extensively, among the forests and visits many temples, which gain further significance due to his arrival. He then stays in the hermitage of sage Bharadwaja for a few years where the sage suggests he makes Chitrakuta the abode of his exile. Then, Rama moves to Chitrakuta where he spends eleven and a half years of his exile. Then one fine day, he decides to visit lord Tryambakeshwar of Nashik. Then, when he visits the place, he sets up a hermitage in Panchavati in the outskirts of Nashik, and lives a peaceful life there for a couple of years.
The whole kingdom is in a trance of extreme happiness. So are the queens Kausalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra for their dear Rama. This is when the nurse of Kaikeyi, Mantra comes into action. She comes up to Kaikeyi and sets in her an insecurity regarding her son Bharatha. She, at first tries to dismiss Mantra's ideas as ones due to her hatred for Rama, but then slowly yields to her ideas. Then she devises a plan to prevent Dasharatha from crowning Rama as heir apparent.
Kaikeyi was Dasharatha's favourite wife and he used to take her with him for battles. Once, Dasharatha swooned due to some astra used at him, following which Kaikeyi fights and then nurses her husband. Dasharatha is pleased by this behaviour of hers, and then grants her two boons which she wants. Kaikeyi decides to use them later. Now, she decides to ask for the two boons.
When Dasharatha enters her private chamber, she was found lying on the bed, angry, and her hair put wide open, at the time of twilight. A woman's hair being left open at the time of twilight is said to be a sign of inauspiciousness, and Dasharatha is alarmed. He asks her for the reason, and she replies saying she wants her two boons now. Dasharatha agrees to grant them to her now. Then she puts forth her requests. Her first boon is that she wants Rama to be exiled to the forests for 14 years, and the second boon is that the second-born Bharatha should be made the heir apparent. Dasharatha is shocked. He couldn't refuse it as boons couldn't be refused. He develops an instant hatred towards Kaikeyi. He immediately moves to Kaushalya's chamber in tears. He calls for Rama and tells him what happens. The noble Rama decides to move because he didn't want his father's words to go wrong. Dasaratha loved and cherished Rama dearly, and was in personal turmoil. Completely estranged now from his younger wife, he abhors the prospect of separation from Rama. But Rama realizes that the king must not break a solemn promise at any time, and neither should a son disobey his father's command. Sita joins her husband in exile despite his discouraging her, as it is her duty and out of love for Rama that she must be at his side at all times. His brother Lakshmana initially is furious at Dasharatha and proceeds to kill him in spite of Dasharatha being his father. But Rama stops him and advises him saying what he is doing wasn't right according to Dharma. Then he volunteers to follow his brother into exile. Though Rama does not encourage this, he is unwilling to listen and takes leave of his wife Urmila asking her to take care of his mother Sumitra. She comforts her husband saying she would take absolute care of everything that needed to be done.
Rama, Lakshmana and Sita get dressed in deerskin and move for exile. Unable to bear the news of the exile, the whole of Ayodhya follows the trio. Dasharatha starts crying the name Rama once he makes an exit from the city. This leads to extreme gloom to him and Kaushalya. Then, he tells her he understands why he is suffering this disaster of a situation.
Many years ago, the king was a avid hunter. He was absolutely in love with the sport. He once went to hunt down deers. There he heard some sound near the pond, and being a class act with the bow, he shot an arrow presuming the sound was that of a deer. Then, he went up to check what his game was, only to find a young man on his death bed. The man's name was Shravan Kumar. He had come on a pilgrimage with his old blind parents. The parents had wanted some water and hence the son had come to collect some from the pond. He requested the king to give his parents the water and breathed his last. Then, the king with tears in his eyes gave the blind parents some water to drink, and then introduced himself to them, telling them the whole story. The parents were overcome with a huge amount of grief and they cursed Dasharatha saying, just as they did not have their beloved son by their side at this old age due to him, he will have to face the same difficulty with him being separated from his son in his last days, and they breathed their last.
Dasharatha remembered this incident and narrated it to Kaushalya. He realised that his end was near and he breathed his last that very night.
In the meanwhile, that night when everyone from Ayodhya was sleeping in the forest, Rama with Lakshmana and Sita, sleathily escaped after informing the charioteer Sumantra, asking him to take them home. They had to cross the Yamuna which was in spate, and the forest chieftain called Guhan helped them cross the river, and gave them fruits, nuts and what else he could afford to eat. Highly impressed, Rama considered him one of his closest associates and gave him a position in his heart, as high as that of his other three brothers.
Bharatha and Shatrughna, who were at Bharatha's uncle's place in Kekaya were called immediately. When he came home and saw the whole of Ayodhya in gloom, he could not make anything out of it. When he went and asked his mother, she told him what had happened. Then Bharatha got furious at her, and told her that he was immediately going to restore the throne to his brother Rama. He left at once for the forests. When Bharatha met Rama, he had an emotional outburst, with which he gave Rama a hug and cried, asking for him to forgive his mother. Rama in his humble best said that it was his duty to listen to Kaikeyi and he was nobody to forgive her. Then Bharatha tells him that he wants to kill Kaikeyi. But then Rama again advises him to give his mother the respect she deserves. Then, he asks Rama if he could accompany him as part of the exile. But, Rama tells him that his duty to lead the nation is extremely important and hence he should lead it till he returns to Ayodhya. Then Bharatha says he would be unable to rule his brother's land and hence he asks for Rama's sandals. He takes Rama's sandles on his head, to a place it on a throne in the place called Nandigram in the outskirts of Ayodhya, and he ruled the nation on the sandal's behalf from this place after completing his father's last rites. In fact, he decided he would go to Ayodhya only after Rama came in there. It is said that after Rama, he was the symbol of dharma and idealism. A few commentators, however, deem Bharata to be even greater than Lord Rama himself in virtue.Vasishtha proclaims that no one had better learnt dharma than Bharata,and for this piety he forms an essential part of the conception of perfect manhood, of the Seventh Avatara of Vishnu.
Then, Rama travels extensively, among the forests and visits many temples, which gain further significance due to his arrival. He then stays in the hermitage of sage Bharadwaja for a few years where the sage suggests he makes Chitrakuta the abode of his exile. Then, Rama moves to Chitrakuta where he spends eleven and a half years of his exile. Then one fine day, he decides to visit lord Tryambakeshwar of Nashik. Then, when he visits the place, he sets up a hermitage in Panchavati in the outskirts of Nashik, and lives a peaceful life there for a couple of years.
Sunday, 15 June 2008
The advent of Vishwamitra and the Swayamvara
Brahmarshi Vishvamitra ("all-friend" in Sanskrit) is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient times in India. He is also credited as the author of most of Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gayatri Mantra. The Puranas mention that only 24 Rishis since antiquity have understood the whole meaning of, and thus wielded the whole power of, the Gayatri Mantra. Sage Vishvamitra is supposed to be the first, and Sage Yajnavalkya the last.
This Vishvamitra who gained Brahmarshi status from that of a Rajarshi initially was a king of name Kaushika who had a quarrel with Vashishta over the possession of the divine cow Kamadhenu. He was rejected the custody due to the fact that he was a Kshatriya and not a Brahmarshi as Vashishta was. This kickstarted the desire in him to become Brahmarshi. He renounced his kingdom, progeny, and the throne, came into the wild forests of his kingdom to do intense penance. He was gradually promoted to the post of Rajarshi, but was denied Brahmarshi due to his falling for Menaka's lures and also cursing Rambha for trying to lure him.
Then after some intense penance of some multi-thousand years, he attains the post of Brahmarshi granted by Lord Brahma, and is accepted with open hands by Vashishta.
Once, he comes to Dasharatha and tells him about the problems he is facing while performing his everyday yagnas due to the Rakshasi by name, Tadaka.
Tadaka happened to be Ravana's maternal grandmother, wife of Sumali, mother of Kaikesi, Ravana's mother. She, supported by her two sons Maricha and Subahu, used to wreck havoc when the Rishi would be performing his yagnas.
He asks the king if he could send Rama and Lakshmana with him to protect the yagna from disruption. The king immediately refuses fearing the princes weren't old enough for facing demons. He says he would come and serve the rishi personally, but was not ready to send his children. The rishi would only have his way, and wasn't ready to compromise on the princes for the king. He became red with anger, and was ready to leave saying he didn't want to go with anything other than empty hands or what he intended to take with him. Then Vashishta told Dasharatha that if Vishvamitra was insisting so much, he would have some reason in him.
After lot of contemplation, and with tears in his eyes, Dasharatha sends his sons to serve Vishvamitra.
Vishvamitra starts his yagna and it proceeds without hindrances for the first few days. Then, one day Rama notices some piece of meat faliing towards the sacrificial fire. With some really quick reflexes, Rama dispatches it back to the skies. Then came Tadaka in her fierce form, with all sorts of meat, and weapons in her hand. She tried to cause havoc, but Rama formed a protective shield over the sacrificial fire.He was hesitant to kill her because she was a lady. But Vishvamitra told him that she is not a lady for she doesn't satisfy any criterion one should satisfy to be a woman. So it was absolutely right to use a weapon against Tadaka. With this insight, he shot an arrow right into Tadaka's heart. There fell the beast right into the ground making a huge noise.
On hearing this news, her sons Maricha and Subahu rushed to the spot. They tried attacking the brothers whose arrows they weren't able to answer. Then, Rama used the Vayu astra which sent Maricha injured, yojanas away. Subahu, who did not learn a lesson from this, further attacked Rama, only to be killed.
Following this, Vishvamitra was able to complete the yagna, following which, he was extremely pleased with Rama's and Lakshmana's service. So, he taught them the great principles of Bala and Adibala respectively, and imparted to them the Tharaka mantra.
Then one day, Vishvamitra recieves an invitation to attend the Swayamvara of Sita, the daughter of Janaka, the king of Mithila.
Sita was a foundling, discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field, and for that reason was regarded as a daughter of Bhudevi, the earth Goddess. She was found and adopted by Janaka, king of Mithila (modern-day Janakpur, Nepal) and his wife Sunayana. Upon her coming of age, a swayamwara was held to select a suitable husband for her.
The Siva Dhanush which had to be strung for Sita to select her husband was a bow which was presented to Janaka by Lord Siva himself. Only Sita had been able to string it before and hence, it was found to be quite a task to accomplish.
Now, Vishvamitra who knew these details, also knew that Rama had the capability to accomplish this task. So he decided to take Rama to Mithila. On the way, Rama was asked by the Brahmarshi to step on one particular stone. When stepped on, came a beautiful woman. She introduced herself as Ahalya, the wife of sage Gautama.
Ahalya was the beautiful wife of Sage Gautama. Indra, on one of his trips to the earth, saw her and lusted for her. So when Gautama had gone to have a bath, he came to his ashram in the guise of Gautama. He satisfied his sexual needs with Ahalya in the form of Gautama, and before he could escape, the noble Gautama was back. The sage whose tapas had given him immense powers could see through Indra's guise. He cursed Indra with constant doom from demons and his wife to become a stone forever. But then, he realised his wife wasn't to blame and she was chaste indeed. So he modified the curse, saying that she would be redeemed once Lord Vishnu in human form places his divine feet on the stone.
Now, when Rama placed his foot on the stone, Ahalya was redeemed. After her salutations, Vishvamitra proceeded with Rama and Lakshmana.
They entered Mithila city, where the people on their entry rooted for Rama to be the city's new son-in-law.
The swayamvara began, where big kings including Ravana, were unable to do anything about the bow. It couldn't be strung by anyone.
In came Rama. Sita was hoping in her heart of hearts for Rama to string it. Rama bent the bow, strung it and then broke it with a thundering noise, which broke the doubts of Rama being Janaka's son-in-law in everyone's hearts.
Janaki was his. Dasharatha was called to Mithila, and Lakshmana's wedding was arranged with Sita's sister Urmila.
Then Kushadhwaja, younger brother of Janaka, comes to Janaka with a proposal asking if he could marry off his daughters Mandavi and Shruthikirthi to Bharatha and Shatrughna respectively.
When both parties were fine with the marriages, the four marriages happened with much pomp and glory.
After that, when the groom's party were returning to Ayodhya, sage ParasuRama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself,and a hater of Kshatriyas, approached Rama asking him to break the Vishnu Dhanush if he could. Rama does it with considerable ease and hence makes ParasuRama realise that he himself is the Supreme Soul incarnate. With this, ParasuRama decides to leave the Dharma in the world to be established by Rama, and retires to do tapas.
Following this, Rama lives happily with Sita for plenty of years, where they live the life of a righteous husband-wife flawless for many years.
This Vishvamitra who gained Brahmarshi status from that of a Rajarshi initially was a king of name Kaushika who had a quarrel with Vashishta over the possession of the divine cow Kamadhenu. He was rejected the custody due to the fact that he was a Kshatriya and not a Brahmarshi as Vashishta was. This kickstarted the desire in him to become Brahmarshi. He renounced his kingdom, progeny, and the throne, came into the wild forests of his kingdom to do intense penance. He was gradually promoted to the post of Rajarshi, but was denied Brahmarshi due to his falling for Menaka's lures and also cursing Rambha for trying to lure him.
Then after some intense penance of some multi-thousand years, he attains the post of Brahmarshi granted by Lord Brahma, and is accepted with open hands by Vashishta.
Once, he comes to Dasharatha and tells him about the problems he is facing while performing his everyday yagnas due to the Rakshasi by name, Tadaka.
Tadaka happened to be Ravana's maternal grandmother, wife of Sumali, mother of Kaikesi, Ravana's mother. She, supported by her two sons Maricha and Subahu, used to wreck havoc when the Rishi would be performing his yagnas.
He asks the king if he could send Rama and Lakshmana with him to protect the yagna from disruption. The king immediately refuses fearing the princes weren't old enough for facing demons. He says he would come and serve the rishi personally, but was not ready to send his children. The rishi would only have his way, and wasn't ready to compromise on the princes for the king. He became red with anger, and was ready to leave saying he didn't want to go with anything other than empty hands or what he intended to take with him. Then Vashishta told Dasharatha that if Vishvamitra was insisting so much, he would have some reason in him.
After lot of contemplation, and with tears in his eyes, Dasharatha sends his sons to serve Vishvamitra.
Vishvamitra starts his yagna and it proceeds without hindrances for the first few days. Then, one day Rama notices some piece of meat faliing towards the sacrificial fire. With some really quick reflexes, Rama dispatches it back to the skies. Then came Tadaka in her fierce form, with all sorts of meat, and weapons in her hand. She tried to cause havoc, but Rama formed a protective shield over the sacrificial fire.He was hesitant to kill her because she was a lady. But Vishvamitra told him that she is not a lady for she doesn't satisfy any criterion one should satisfy to be a woman. So it was absolutely right to use a weapon against Tadaka. With this insight, he shot an arrow right into Tadaka's heart. There fell the beast right into the ground making a huge noise.
On hearing this news, her sons Maricha and Subahu rushed to the spot. They tried attacking the brothers whose arrows they weren't able to answer. Then, Rama used the Vayu astra which sent Maricha injured, yojanas away. Subahu, who did not learn a lesson from this, further attacked Rama, only to be killed.
Following this, Vishvamitra was able to complete the yagna, following which, he was extremely pleased with Rama's and Lakshmana's service. So, he taught them the great principles of Bala and Adibala respectively, and imparted to them the Tharaka mantra.
Then one day, Vishvamitra recieves an invitation to attend the Swayamvara of Sita, the daughter of Janaka, the king of Mithila.
Sita was a foundling, discovered in a furrow in a ploughed field, and for that reason was regarded as a daughter of Bhudevi, the earth Goddess. She was found and adopted by Janaka, king of Mithila (modern-day Janakpur, Nepal) and his wife Sunayana. Upon her coming of age, a swayamwara was held to select a suitable husband for her.
The Siva Dhanush which had to be strung for Sita to select her husband was a bow which was presented to Janaka by Lord Siva himself. Only Sita had been able to string it before and hence, it was found to be quite a task to accomplish.
Now, Vishvamitra who knew these details, also knew that Rama had the capability to accomplish this task. So he decided to take Rama to Mithila. On the way, Rama was asked by the Brahmarshi to step on one particular stone. When stepped on, came a beautiful woman. She introduced herself as Ahalya, the wife of sage Gautama.
Ahalya was the beautiful wife of Sage Gautama. Indra, on one of his trips to the earth, saw her and lusted for her. So when Gautama had gone to have a bath, he came to his ashram in the guise of Gautama. He satisfied his sexual needs with Ahalya in the form of Gautama, and before he could escape, the noble Gautama was back. The sage whose tapas had given him immense powers could see through Indra's guise. He cursed Indra with constant doom from demons and his wife to become a stone forever. But then, he realised his wife wasn't to blame and she was chaste indeed. So he modified the curse, saying that she would be redeemed once Lord Vishnu in human form places his divine feet on the stone.
Now, when Rama placed his foot on the stone, Ahalya was redeemed. After her salutations, Vishvamitra proceeded with Rama and Lakshmana.
They entered Mithila city, where the people on their entry rooted for Rama to be the city's new son-in-law.
The swayamvara began, where big kings including Ravana, were unable to do anything about the bow. It couldn't be strung by anyone.
In came Rama. Sita was hoping in her heart of hearts for Rama to string it. Rama bent the bow, strung it and then broke it with a thundering noise, which broke the doubts of Rama being Janaka's son-in-law in everyone's hearts.
Janaki was his. Dasharatha was called to Mithila, and Lakshmana's wedding was arranged with Sita's sister Urmila.
Then Kushadhwaja, younger brother of Janaka, comes to Janaka with a proposal asking if he could marry off his daughters Mandavi and Shruthikirthi to Bharatha and Shatrughna respectively.
When both parties were fine with the marriages, the four marriages happened with much pomp and glory.
After that, when the groom's party were returning to Ayodhya, sage ParasuRama, an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself,and a hater of Kshatriyas, approached Rama asking him to break the Vishnu Dhanush if he could. Rama does it with considerable ease and hence makes ParasuRama realise that he himself is the Supreme Soul incarnate. With this, ParasuRama decides to leave the Dharma in the world to be established by Rama, and retires to do tapas.
Following this, Rama lives happily with Sita for plenty of years, where they live the life of a righteous husband-wife flawless for many years.
Saturday, 14 June 2008
The birth of Rama.
This is my long time ambition, to create a blog in which I could present my version of the Ramayana, and I am thankful to Blogger, and Lord Rama for have made this possible.
So, here I go...
Kosala was a beautiful land in the heartland of the Bharatha nation, which forms modern India. It had the beautiful river of Sarayu flowing along its capital Ayodhya. Ayodhya had been named thus due to the unhappening of any war in the place. Such was the kind of significance the place held among the kings of yore. The land of Ayodhya was ruled by the kings of the solar line. The solar line or the Surya Vamsa was the dynasty which essentially was the progeny of Surya or the sun god. Surya's sun Manu, who was known for his lawful ideas and his Manushastra or Manusmrithi, was the father of Ikshvaku, the first king of the Surya Vamsa. Ikshvaku, whose name meant SUGARCANE, was the first person to implement the Manusmrithis among the people and people sugar like sweet happiness in his rule. There are so many kings who belonged to this dynasty, including the great Bhagiratha, who brought the Ganga down to earth.
There is a legend behind this story, according to which there was this king called Sagara who was performing the Ashvamedha yagna. He had 60001 sons, 60000 from his first wife, and one, Anshuman, who was lazy at war, from his second wife. Now, when the yagna is on, Lord Indra, the king of the Devas, jealous of Sagara's increasing power, steals the Ashva (horse) kept for the yagna, and hides it the cave of Sage Kapila, who is said to be an incarnation of Lord Narayana. Modern day California, is said to be this place where Kapila was doing his penance, and hence the similarity in the names. Sagara sends his 60000 sons of the first wife to search for the horse, which they find in Kapila's cave. They accuse him of being the thief and use derogatory language against, something unbefitting Kshatriya princes. Kapila is woken up from his deep meditation due to the disturbances, and looks at them in a fit of anger. But his eyes prove enough to destroy them all of them to ashes. Then Anshuman comes in search of his brothers, where he finds a huge heap of ash and the Ashva in the cave of Kapila. When he asks the sage to forgive his brothers, the sage says that it would be practically impossible to bring them back to life, but they would attain salvation only on account of their ash being dissolved in the holy Ganges of Lord Brahma's kamandalam. Then Anshuman tries to bring Ganga mata back to earth, in a desperate but futile effort, and so does his son. But his grandson Bhagiratha, being a man of great values, performs intense tapas to bring the holy river back to earth. But the great gravitational force in which the Ganges flows from the heavens to earth had the potential to destroy the earth. So, then Bhagiratha prays to Lord Shiva to help him out, heeding to which Lord Shiva captures the Ganga in his matted head locks and releases her with a controlled speed at the Gangotri region of the Himalayas. Such was the greatness of the Bhagiratha, who lived in the line of Ikshvaku.
Even five of the Jain thirthankaras are said to have been of the Solar line.
In the same line, there lived a king called Dilipa, who had an illustrious son by name Raghu, after whom the Solar line also came to known as the Raghu kula. Raghu kula had an illustrious son by name Aja, one who was unmatched in valour and wisdom, one who matches only Arjuna and Krishna in the amount of people he fought against during the swayamvara of a princess who chose him to be her husband. This Aja had a son called Dasharatha, the 63rd king of the Ikshvaku line, one who could fight ten chariots at a time. There was this king called Ravana, who was once put to shame by Dasharatha when he had accept loss to him, and as revenge, after intense tapas, he got a boon from Lord Brahma, asking for no child to be born from the loins of Dasharatha.
Dasharatha was a great ruler, with three prominent wives among many thousand. The three of them were of names Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. Dasharatha had a daughter born to Kaushalya by name Shanta. She was married of sage Rishyashringa, who was born to sage Vibhandaka and the celestial danuese Menaka. The sage, Vibhandaka was seduced once by the danuese and she gave birth to a child, but once her duties were over, she went back to Amaravati, the land of the devas, leaving her husband and child. This led to the rishi developing hatred for the women folk, and thus he raised his son abnormally, away from the eyes of women. At the time that the boy becomes a young man, the kingdom of Anga suffers from drought and famine. The king, Dasharatha, is told that this can only be alleviated by a brahmin with the powers that come from observance of perfect chastity. The only such person is Rishyasringa. He has to be brought to the city, and be persuaded to carry out the necessary ceremonies. Despite his fear of the power and anger of the boy's father, the king sends young women, and later his daughter 'Shanta', to introduce the boy into normal society. This is done, Rishyasringa uses his powers, the kingdom receives bountiful rains and Rishyasringa then marries the princess Shanta. Even the holy spot Singeri is named after Rishyasringa. Now, the king wants a male heir to the throne, but his wives don't concieve. So he approaches his kula-guru sage Vashisht, asking him what he should do. Then, Vashisht asks him to approach Rishyasringa regarding this matter, and so Dasharatha goes to meet his son-in-law, and waits for days together, waiting for him to end his tapas. Once, the tapas is over, Rishyasringa, gives him an option of performing the Putra-Kameshti yagna, where couples with progeny are gifted with children. With Rishysringa as the chief priests, and dozens of other reputed rishis, Dasharatha performs the yagna. Out of the sacrificial fire appears a Gandharva, who gives a bowl of divine kheer to the king, and asks him to give this to his wives who would then concieve soon. The king divides the kheer among Kaushalya and Kaikeyi. But both being extremely fond of Sumitra, give her a significant part of their kheers.
In due course of time, the three queens give birth to children.
Kaushalya gives birth to a dark complexioned bluish child, a symbol of divinity, one who would be the most ideal man ever born, one whom the naming experts claimed was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself, and hence named him Rama.
Kaikeyi gave birth to another slightly darkish, handsome child, one said to be the upholder of dharma, one they claimed was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu's conchshell, they named him Bharatha.
Sumitra gave birth to two children. Both fair complexioned, were said to be masters of war, and extremely faithful to Rama and Bharatha respectively, just as Sumitra was to Kaushalya and Kaikeyi, they were incarnations of Lord Vishnu's serpent coil, the great Sesha, and Lord Vishnu's chakra respectively, were named Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
All the four of them were grown as gentlemen of the first order, learning their Vedas, other scriptures, arts of ruling, and other warfare in great style by their kula-guru Vashishta, and grew up to be great human beings, and more so, greater children to their parents.
So, here I go...
Kosala was a beautiful land in the heartland of the Bharatha nation, which forms modern India. It had the beautiful river of Sarayu flowing along its capital Ayodhya. Ayodhya had been named thus due to the unhappening of any war in the place. Such was the kind of significance the place held among the kings of yore. The land of Ayodhya was ruled by the kings of the solar line. The solar line or the Surya Vamsa was the dynasty which essentially was the progeny of Surya or the sun god. Surya's sun Manu, who was known for his lawful ideas and his Manushastra or Manusmrithi, was the father of Ikshvaku, the first king of the Surya Vamsa. Ikshvaku, whose name meant SUGARCANE, was the first person to implement the Manusmrithis among the people and people sugar like sweet happiness in his rule. There are so many kings who belonged to this dynasty, including the great Bhagiratha, who brought the Ganga down to earth.
There is a legend behind this story, according to which there was this king called Sagara who was performing the Ashvamedha yagna. He had 60001 sons, 60000 from his first wife, and one, Anshuman, who was lazy at war, from his second wife. Now, when the yagna is on, Lord Indra, the king of the Devas, jealous of Sagara's increasing power, steals the Ashva (horse) kept for the yagna, and hides it the cave of Sage Kapila, who is said to be an incarnation of Lord Narayana. Modern day California, is said to be this place where Kapila was doing his penance, and hence the similarity in the names. Sagara sends his 60000 sons of the first wife to search for the horse, which they find in Kapila's cave. They accuse him of being the thief and use derogatory language against, something unbefitting Kshatriya princes. Kapila is woken up from his deep meditation due to the disturbances, and looks at them in a fit of anger. But his eyes prove enough to destroy them all of them to ashes. Then Anshuman comes in search of his brothers, where he finds a huge heap of ash and the Ashva in the cave of Kapila. When he asks the sage to forgive his brothers, the sage says that it would be practically impossible to bring them back to life, but they would attain salvation only on account of their ash being dissolved in the holy Ganges of Lord Brahma's kamandalam. Then Anshuman tries to bring Ganga mata back to earth, in a desperate but futile effort, and so does his son. But his grandson Bhagiratha, being a man of great values, performs intense tapas to bring the holy river back to earth. But the great gravitational force in which the Ganges flows from the heavens to earth had the potential to destroy the earth. So, then Bhagiratha prays to Lord Shiva to help him out, heeding to which Lord Shiva captures the Ganga in his matted head locks and releases her with a controlled speed at the Gangotri region of the Himalayas. Such was the greatness of the Bhagiratha, who lived in the line of Ikshvaku.
Even five of the Jain thirthankaras are said to have been of the Solar line.
In the same line, there lived a king called Dilipa, who had an illustrious son by name Raghu, after whom the Solar line also came to known as the Raghu kula. Raghu kula had an illustrious son by name Aja, one who was unmatched in valour and wisdom, one who matches only Arjuna and Krishna in the amount of people he fought against during the swayamvara of a princess who chose him to be her husband. This Aja had a son called Dasharatha, the 63rd king of the Ikshvaku line, one who could fight ten chariots at a time. There was this king called Ravana, who was once put to shame by Dasharatha when he had accept loss to him, and as revenge, after intense tapas, he got a boon from Lord Brahma, asking for no child to be born from the loins of Dasharatha.
Dasharatha was a great ruler, with three prominent wives among many thousand. The three of them were of names Kaushalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra. Dasharatha had a daughter born to Kaushalya by name Shanta. She was married of sage Rishyashringa, who was born to sage Vibhandaka and the celestial danuese Menaka. The sage, Vibhandaka was seduced once by the danuese and she gave birth to a child, but once her duties were over, she went back to Amaravati, the land of the devas, leaving her husband and child. This led to the rishi developing hatred for the women folk, and thus he raised his son abnormally, away from the eyes of women. At the time that the boy becomes a young man, the kingdom of Anga suffers from drought and famine. The king, Dasharatha, is told that this can only be alleviated by a brahmin with the powers that come from observance of perfect chastity. The only such person is Rishyasringa. He has to be brought to the city, and be persuaded to carry out the necessary ceremonies. Despite his fear of the power and anger of the boy's father, the king sends young women, and later his daughter 'Shanta', to introduce the boy into normal society. This is done, Rishyasringa uses his powers, the kingdom receives bountiful rains and Rishyasringa then marries the princess Shanta. Even the holy spot Singeri is named after Rishyasringa. Now, the king wants a male heir to the throne, but his wives don't concieve. So he approaches his kula-guru sage Vashisht, asking him what he should do. Then, Vashisht asks him to approach Rishyasringa regarding this matter, and so Dasharatha goes to meet his son-in-law, and waits for days together, waiting for him to end his tapas. Once, the tapas is over, Rishyasringa, gives him an option of performing the Putra-Kameshti yagna, where couples with progeny are gifted with children. With Rishysringa as the chief priests, and dozens of other reputed rishis, Dasharatha performs the yagna. Out of the sacrificial fire appears a Gandharva, who gives a bowl of divine kheer to the king, and asks him to give this to his wives who would then concieve soon. The king divides the kheer among Kaushalya and Kaikeyi. But both being extremely fond of Sumitra, give her a significant part of their kheers.
In due course of time, the three queens give birth to children.
Kaushalya gives birth to a dark complexioned bluish child, a symbol of divinity, one who would be the most ideal man ever born, one whom the naming experts claimed was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu himself, and hence named him Rama.
Kaikeyi gave birth to another slightly darkish, handsome child, one said to be the upholder of dharma, one they claimed was an incarnation of Lord Vishnu's conchshell, they named him Bharatha.
Sumitra gave birth to two children. Both fair complexioned, were said to be masters of war, and extremely faithful to Rama and Bharatha respectively, just as Sumitra was to Kaushalya and Kaikeyi, they were incarnations of Lord Vishnu's serpent coil, the great Sesha, and Lord Vishnu's chakra respectively, were named Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
All the four of them were grown as gentlemen of the first order, learning their Vedas, other scriptures, arts of ruling, and other warfare in great style by their kula-guru Vashishta, and grew up to be great human beings, and more so, greater children to their parents.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
