Ramayan - Nector

Valmiki Muni, he wanted this great scripture, to be chanted in the great cities of the world. So his two most intimate and pious disciples, he taught them Ramayana and they were so virtuous that by hearing once they learnt it by memory and they were just asked to chant the Ramayana to the benefit of all living beings. Their names were Kusa and Lava, they happened to be two sons of Lord Ramacandra and Sita who from their time of birth, lived in hermitage of Valmiki Muni, after Sita devi was banished to the forest. So Kusa and Lava came to Ayodhya and to the holy land of Ayodhya they began to chant the beautiful glories of Ramayana. Of coarse although they had the identical bodily characteristics like their Father ‘ Sri Ramachandra’ they could not be recognized because they were living like sadhus; wearing the barks of trees with matted heads and Lord Sri Rama, when He heard His pastimes being narrated, He invited Kusa and Lava into His palace court and invited all His ministers and all of the towns people to hear it attentively to the beautiful stories of Sri Rama. And the narration of Ramayana begins by Kusa and lava narrating these pastimes to Rama Himself. It describes that in the holy city of Ayodhya, which is situated of the bank of the river Sarayu, there was a king by the name Dasratha. He was the king of the province of…And a great descendant of Maharaja Iksvaku of the Solar dynasty. King Dasarath was a very pious and religious King. He was in true sense a Raja-Risi. He was simultaneously a saint and a king. He was a pure devotee of God and everyone in his kingdom was fairly satisfied because he was teaching the people to live in peace & harmony, perfectly in pure love of God. The kingdom of Ayodhya, because of the piety of this great king was flourishing with prosperity. There was no poverty. There was great opulence. The roads were beautiful and clean, scented with sandalwood and fragrant oils & the houses were made of marbles and bedecked with jewels. And all the people were dressed in beautiful colored clothing and everyone was constantly singing the glories of Lord Hari. Dasratha Maharaja, he had 350 queens. We are talking about the age of Treta, where men lived 10’s and 1000’s of years. And great kings, they were allowed to protect and care of as many women as they could keep satisfied. So you can imagine how great king Dasratha was! That he could keep 350 queens simultaneously satisfied. How many of you husbands can keep your one wife fully satisfied? Raise your hands if you can do that. I will not ask you to raise, if you cannot do that, we can understand, “how great and glorious these are our fathers. You are our guide”. The king was! He was a maharathi. In battle, he could destroy 1000’s of men at a time. One day he approached his ministers and he explained to them as well as great Saints and sages that he was feeling great great distress in his heart because although he was growing very very old, he had not yet had a single son, because some one must continue the dynasty. So he said that, ‘with all my wealth and with all my strength, although I have conquered all the world, I am king of earth and although all my subjects love me like their father; still my heart is empty because I have no son. He said, “ I desire to perform a sacrifice to Lord Vishnu, in order to have a male son.” At that time his Guru, Vasista Muni, he said, “My dear king I will make the arrangements for the sacrifice” And then his very faithful and loyal minister Sumantra took him aside. He said, “So many years ago the great Sage Sanak Kumara, he gave you a benediction. He told you that you will have one daughter and that you should name her ‘Santa’ And that you should marry her to the great sage R’sya’sringa. And this same sage R’sya’sringa, he would perform a sacrifice to Vishnu and from that you would have four illustrious and glorious sons. So my feeling is that you should go and find R’sya’aringa. What happened is, after he has this beautiful daughter Santa, there was a king whose name was Romapada. He was the king of the Anga dynasty and he had no children. So Dasaratha was feeling very much for him. So he gave him his only daughter. And she grew up as the princess of Maharaja Romapada. And Maharaja Romapada, under Dasaratha’s directions got her married to R’sya’sringa. So Dasaratha Maharaja went to that place and there was a warm friendship and after one week, he brought R’sya’sringa back to Ayodhya. And then in the presence of all the great saints and sages and all the friends of Dasarath, he began to exclaim his great distress. And R’sya’sringa, he replied, “ My dear King,” he said,” I will perform an Asvamedha yajna to Lord Hari and I promise you that the Supreme Lord Himself will appear in four forms as your sons.” So then he began to perform the sacrifice and when it was time to offer oblations, to the various Demigods, all the demigods appeared on the scene headed by Lord Brahma. And they all partook up their share of the sacrifice. At that time all the demigods approached Brahmaji, they took the opportunity and with folded hands and tears in their eyes they began to explain Brahmaji, “ The great Raksasa, the blood sucking demons Ravana, he is completely causing havoc throughout entire universe. He is killing innocent people, sucking their blood. He is destroying the sacrifice of the Brahmanas. He is harassing the demigods, exploiting their property. In this way the whole universe is in great anxiety and he is so powerful because you have given him the benediction that no one can defeat him. So Brahmaji, please do something.” At that time Lord Brahma  began to think  what has to be done. And he began to pray to Lord Vishnu. And just at that time, from behind the clouds a most beautiful and effulgent sight was beheld by everyone in the assembly house of Maharaja Dasaratha. There is shining like millions of suns, Lord Narayana descending on His bird carrier Garuda. And Lord Brahma began to pray, “ Lord Narayana this demon raksasa Ravana is causing so much distress. You are the only one who can annihilate him”. And Lord Vishnu explained that, “ I will soon come. I will appear as the 4 sons of Dasaratha and Ravana will be killed.” And after confirming the fulfillment of their desires, Lord Narayana again ascended to Vaikuntha and disappeared. And then Lord Brahma, tene brahma hrida adi kavaye …. after receiving the information from Krishna within his heart, he explained that, “All You Demigods, Vishnu wants you to help him in this great battle against Ravana. So you should all expand yourselves and take birth as monkeys in the jungles of Kishkinda. And you should expand yourself with all the power and all the strength you have now. And very soon the supreme Lord Hari will come and together He will relieve the earth of the burden of Ravana and his raksasa dynasty.” At that time all the demigods left. They all returned to their abode and they all began making their plan. First the King of Heaven, Indra, he expanded himself and begot a child. His name was Bali. Bali possessed all the strength and potency of his father, Indra. And then the sun god, Visvasvan, he begot the most illustrious and faithful Sugriva who is equal to him on all respects and Kuvera the great treasurer of the demigods, he begot the great monkey child Gandhamadana. And Agni, he expanded himself as Susens, Brihaspati expanded himself as Nala and the Asvini Kumaras expanded himself, the two of them as Mayinda and Davida. In this way these monkeys were very powerful. They could lift mountains. They could make the earth tremble by their footsteps. At the end of the sacrifice, R’sya’sringa took the mahaprasad and told King Dasaratha that, “Give this to your wives and whoever drinks it, Lord Narayana will become their son”. So first Dasaratha divided this prasad half. He gave the first half to his principle wife Kaushalya and she drank it. And then he took the other half and divided that in half and gave half to Sumitra and he took the other half and divided it into half and gave half to Kaikeya and gave the other half again to Sumitra. Very soon, after drinking the mahaprasad, all the three mothers became pregnant. This is the transcendental nature of the appearance of the Lord. He does not have to come to this world through the same medium that we do. Rama was born from the union of his mother eating mahaprasad. And one year after the sacrifice, on the most auspicious time when all the constellations were in perfect order, the supreme Personality of Godhead appeared as the son of Kaushalya in His most beautiful form of Sri Rama. And then Bharat was born of Kaikeyi and Laksmana was born of Sumitra and his brother was Satrugana and these 4 children were none other than the 4 expansions of Vasudeva, Sankarsana, Pradumnya and Anirudha. They were all Vaikuntha murtis of Sri Hari. It is described that, they were so beautiful. All auspicious signs decorated all of them. But of all of them Rama was the most beautiful. His eyes were like lotus flowers and His every limb was delicate and soft. But at the same time powerful and strong. His arms extended to His knees. It is described that on His feet and on His arms were the signs of the conch, the disc, the lotus flower and the club. And Vasista Muni performed the name giving ceremony. And when these beautiful sons appeared as the princes of Dasaratha, there was great celebration throughout the city of Ayodhya for years and years and years. Everyone was waiting for Dasaratha’s child to be born. So Dasaratha Maharaj, he was giving away tens and thousands of beautiful cows with golden ornaments, golden hoods and golden horns to the Brahmanas. He was giving mountains of grains, beautiful jewels, silks in charity to the vaishnavas. He was preparing sumptuous wonderful prasad and delivering it to all living beings. In this way there was a celebration and all the inhabitants of Ayodhya, they were singing and dancing. It was a festival that no one had ever seen. All celebrating the beautiful appearance of Sri Rama. Actually this is the way we should all celebrate the appearance of Sri Rama. The residents of Ayodhya, it is described that they were singing, they were dancing, they were just joyful eating nice prasad, distributing nice prasad, giving gifts, receiving gifts. Because everyone’s mind was fully immersed fully in the beautiful form of this child Sri Rama, they completely forgot the miseries of material existence. As They began to grow older, it is described They began to learn how to walk and the three mothers, Sumitra, Kaikeyi and Kaushalya, their love knew no bounds. And Dasaratha Maharaja, sharing that love, he was fully satisfied 24 hours a day simply seeing the beautiful form of Rama. Indeed every inhabitant of Ayodhya shared the same love for Rama. As He grew older He became most learned in the Vedas, the most expert archer, the most expert charioteer and the whole city was only waiting when He will be coronated as King. It is described that when Sri Ramachandra was 16 years old, the great sage Vishvamitra Muni came to the Kingdom of Ayodhya. Vishvamitra Muni was living in the jungles. He had no material possessions. He was a hermit. He was a beggar. Maharaja Dasaratha was the king of the world. But when Vishvamitra Muni came to the Kingdom, Dasaratha greeted him with great humility and devotion. He got up from his throne and put Vishvamitra on his throne. Then he washed his feet and worshipped his feet. You see this is the secret that makes great kings great. The great kings understood that the greatest kings are this who have renounced all attachments to this material world. You see the crown of the king is considered insignificant to the opulence of the robes of the renunciate because the opulence of the renunciate is the greatest opulence. One who conquers all the land is not as great as the man who conquers all of his senses.. So one who has conquered his senses, he is considered grtaetest. That’s why a king is called maharaj but a renunciate is also called Maharaj., great king. But there are different kinds of kings, one who wears the crown and who either wears the bark of the tree or a simple dress of a renunciate. But of the two Maharajs, the qualification of the king Maharaj is that he bows down and worships before the renunciates as the menial, who have given their lives in the service of God. So Maharaj Dasaratha, he understood that the real treasure of his whole Kingdom and of his whole life was completely dependent on the blessings of the great souls. Sometimes people think that those in the renounced orders are crazy. But Maharaj Dasaratha was not thinking that about Vishvamitra Muni that, “ Why don’t you have a job?” In fact Maharaj Dasaratha was just waiting of the day when he will give up his job and be like that. But he knew that it was more difficult to do that than maintain his job as the king of the world, the hard job; so he worshipped Vishvamitra. This is the glory of a Grihasta, is that he humbles himself before those who have sacrificed every thing in the service of the Lord..   So Dasaratha Maharaj said to Vishvamitra Muni, “ I want to offer you everything in my kingdom, whatever you like is yours” Now you have to be very careful when you say like that. He said, “ I will offer you anything you like. Whatever you like is yours; after all I am the representative of God. I am the King. I can fulfill any desire you have” Vishvamitra Muni looked at Dasaratha Maharaj. He said, “Yes, you are king and I know that you are true to your word. In the forest where we are performing our sacrifice, there are two very very powerful asuras, rakshasas who are constantly spoiling our spiritual activities by contaminating the sacrificial arena. Their names are Marica and Subahu. I want to take Lord Rama, your son into the forest because it is only He who can destroy these Demons”. My God !!! When Dasaratha heard this he was stunned, “ how can you ask this? Who are these demons?….. I  will take care of them. I am a Maharathi. I will lead my armies. I will take one of the divisions of soldiers. We will destroy the soldiers. But leave Rama at home. What is the problem? Let me do it. But Rama is just a young child. He is hardly 16 years old He is not very experienced at fighting. He is still learning His lessons in school. He has a very frail and young body. How can he fight these asuras?”     Vishvamitra said, “ they are the associates of Ravana.” And when Dasaratha heard it, he became very afraid, “No one can touch Ravana or his associates. They are very powerful. Even I cannot stand up against them. Even Indra cannot standup against them’ he said, “Take my whole kingdom, take my everything but not Rama. I cannot bear separation from him I cannot give you this.” Upon hearing this Vishvamitra became very angry. He became so angry that the earth began to tremble. He said,” Dasaratha Maharaj, if you relinquish truth, if you go back on your words, all your piety and your entire kingdom and the entire fame of your dynasty will be finished today. I will leave this place and along with me, will be the end of everything in your life.” At that time Vasista Muni told King Dasaratha, “This Vishvamitra is very powerful. If you do not want to offend him, give him your son. Your son is the Supreme Personality of Godhead. No one        going to defeat Him and even if you think he will, if He is under the care of Vishvamitra Muni, he can destroy all the raksasas single handedly. He is the most powerful of all sages. The only reason that he is asking for your son is, he wants your son to be glorified.” So on the advice of Vasista, Dasaratha said, “All right Please take care of Him” And then Vishwamitra Muni took Rama into the forest. As they were wandering through the forests, they came into a jungle and this jungle was very very mysterious. There was practically no life in this jungle except fearful beasts and vultures. And Rama, He said, “ What is happening? Why is everything like this?” Vishvamitra told him that there was a great female raksasi of the name Tadaka. She was the mother of Marica. He said, “At one time this forest was a great holy place, where great saints and sages would come and perform sacrifice. But she has simply come and she has destroyed everything. She eats everything in sight. She loves the taste of blood. She absolutely horrified everyone with her deep-formed features and her ghastly roar. Rama you should kill this demon.” So Rama took His bow and He just pulled the string and it made such a loud noise that all the raksasas who were the associates of Tadaka became very afraid. She became outraged, “who has come?” and she began screaming and roaring and she came into the forest and attacked Rama and Laxmana. They were covered with dust, a cloud of dust. And then she began to shower stones and rocks upon them and she was screaming in loud sound. At that time Rama took His bow and He cut off her two arms. She was even more angry & she went up into the sky and Laxman cut off her nose and her ears. And she began to shower all sorts of abominable things, showering them with rocks and stones. In this way she was so angered, at last she plunged at Rama with the speed of Indra’s thunderbolt and Ramachandra took His celebrated bow and shot an arrow into her breast & she feel down screaming and in a moment she died. And everyone was very happy. Then the forest became an auspicious place and they took rest that night. The next morning they came to the hermitage of Vishvamitra and they began to perform a sacrifice and Rama and Laxman stayed up day and night with Vishvamitra awaiting for Marica and Subahu to come. They stayed up for 6 days and on the 6th day, the final day, all of a sudden the sky became very dark and they heard screaming sound. And Marici and Subahu, very very powerful raksasas came down into the sacrificial arena & began to throw stool and pus, urine and bloody human mutilated torsos all over the sacrificial arena. Rama took His arrow and He shot it into Marica and it was so powerful that it threw him 800 miles in the middle of the ocean. Then He took another arrow and it pierced Subahu’s heart and he died instantly. And then He took another arrow of Vayu & it scattered all other raksasas to flee for their lives. Thus Vishvamitra was very pleased. And then Rama approached Vishvamitra Muni, who was now His guru and He said, “Is there any other service I can render for you?” In the evening Rama would massage the legs of His spiritual master along with Laxman. They would go out and collect wood for their spiritual master to perform his sacrifices. Indeed they would perform the most menial and insignificant services. And every day they would inquire with great humility from Vishvamitra Muni to instruct them on the goal of life & the science of the Vedas. Some people ask, “Do we really need a guru?” Ramachandra appeared how to show every human being how he must live. Do you think jagat guru bhagvan Sri Ramachandra needs a guru? He is the knower of past, present and future. He is the author of the Vedas, He is the goal of the Vedas. But just to show us; whoever you are, however you are, you must humble yourself & submit yourself to your spiritual master. Some people say, “I do not need a guru. I know Krishna”. Even Krishna, He will not even say that. Even Krishna accepts guru. So the supreme Lord, Who is the enjoyer of all sacrifices bhaogtaram yagya tapasam sarva loka maheshwaram, Who is the proprietor of everything, Who is the master of all living beings, to set the example for us, every day and every night, He would massage His guru’s lotus feet. He would inquire submissively from him and His goal was simply to please his spiritual master. So Vishvamitra being very pleased, you see when the guru is very pleased with the disciple, the guru shares his life with the disciple. So Vishvamitra began to take Rama and Laxmana on a pilgrimage to forest. And one day they came to a very very ancient city of Mithila. When they saw the beauty of the city, they were struck with wonder. How clean and how fragrant were the flowers and how beautiful and charming were the gardens in the forest and how peaceful and pure hearted were all the residents. Vishvamitra Muni began to explain that; “This is the great king Janak who rules over this holy land of Mithila”. He explained that, “In this city there is the mighty bow of Lord Shankara and people have been coming for years and years from all over the universe to try to lift this bow and bend it, because whoever does this, attains the most beautiful Goddess of fortune, Sitadevi as their wife in marriage. Now let us come into this city of Mithila and see the beauty of the place.” It is described that as they came into the kingdom, when word came that Vishvamitra Muni has arrived, King Janaka and all his ministers with great devotion worshipped his lotus feet and took them into their palace. After some time, Rama & Laxman with the permission of their guru began to wander to see the beauty of the great city. They came into a particular garden, which was the garden of Sita. In that garden, there was a temple of Goddess Parvati and Sitadevi would daily pray to her and worship. When Sita’s friends saw the beauty of Lord Ramachandra, they were immediately struck with wonder. “How can any one be as beautiful as Him? He is the perfect match for our Sitadevi” So they went and got Sita. “We want to show you something. Come here.” And Sita, She looked through the bushes. When She saw the beautiful form of Rama, immediately the eternal love between the Lord and His eternal consort was awakened within Her heart. And then Sri Rama when He saw the beauty of Sita, that unlimited, infinite divine love awakened within His heart. And when they looked at one another, Sita being very shy immediately looked towards His lotus feet and fixed Her eyes on His lotus feet. And through Her eyes She engraved the form of His lotus feet within the core of Her heart. In this way, in the hearts of Sita and Rama, the seed of love began to grow. At that time Vishvamitra, he asked Janaka, “Where is this great bow, tell us about it.” Rama had joined them at that time with Laxman and Janaka said that, “At one time, Lord Shiva, He gave as a gift; this great bow to the demigods. And they gave it to my fore fathers. This bow is so powerful that no man has ever been to even lift it. But I have made a vow.” He said, “One day when I was watching my beautiful little daughter, Sita cleaning, She lifted this bow, She dusted under it and put it back. How is it possible? Even the greatest demigods, the greatest raksasas, the greatest kings cannot lift it. And my little daughter lifted it. So I vowed that it will take the man who strings this bow marry my daughter. But I think, unfortunately that my daughter will have to die a widow because there is no one on the whole universe who can lift this bow.” Vishvamitra Muni said that, “But Rama can lift this bow; you bring it.” For thousands of men had to drag this bow into the assembly and thousands of men came into the arena to see. At that time Rama, He effortlessly lifted the bow and pulled the string and the bow cracked. And when the bow broke, it made such a tumultuous and thunderous sound that all the universe began to shake. At that time the beautiful Goddess Sita, Whose heart was fixed on the lotus feet of Sri Rama, She put the garland of victory around His lotus neck. And the most beautiful and wonderful reunion of the Lord with His eternal consort brings great joy to the life of devotees. You see a devotee’s pleasure is in giving Krishna pleasure, in giving Rama pleasure. The residents of Ayodhya, the residents of Mithila and all great devotees of the Lord they are constantly in transcendental bliss because their only pleasure is in seeing the pleasure of Rama. The perfection of life is to forget, “What do I like, what do I want, what do I need” and to simply think in terms of, “What will make please Rama?” So to the extent, we give up our own selfish interest in life and make our own pleasure in pleasing Krishna, to that extent we become transcendental to all the miseries of the world. This is bhakti. Understand that the residents of Mithila and Ayodhya were not jnanis, they were not yogis. They were ordinary people. They had jobs, they were merchants, they were politicians, they were warriors, they were housewives. But they were the most fortunate and the most highly spiritually advanced. Why? Because their only pleasure in life was giving in life was giving pleasure to Sita and Rama. Of course, we will be happy to continue on the narration of Ramayana, but I think it will become very late. So one drop from the ocean of the Ramayana is all that we have time to take this evening. But the real message that we would like for everyone to understand is what is of real value in our life? To put aside all things that we consider are valuable and thrive for those things that Rama thinks is valuable. It is said that when you decorate the deity of the Lord, because you find such great satisfaction, you loose all desires to decorate your own dying body. When you cook nice food for your own fastidious senses. When you work and offer as sacrifice the fruits of your action for the pleasure of the lord, you become indifferent to your own insatiable lusty desires for lusty desires for more and more fame, more and more powe,r more and more prestige, more and more wealth. By watering the root of the tree, we become satisfied. Rama is the root. He is the root of all existence. So by hearing these transcendental pastimes of the Lord, let us understand how the Supreme Personality of Godhead, He is appearing in such a wonderful and attracting way just so that we will be attracted to please Him, to glorify Him and in the association of devotees, His message comes to life in our heart. So let us associate with devotees. Let us follow in the footsteps of the residents of Ayodhya and the residents of Mithila. 

Even if the whole world hates, if you please Rama, your life is perfect. But if the whole world glorifies you, but Lord Rama is not pleased then your life is a useless waste. By performing the sacrifice of attentively chanting the Holy name. You may say, “Why is He pleased by such a simple thing as we chanting His Holy name?” Because in Kaliyuga that is the best you can do. To please Him the way they did in other yugas, it is impossible for you today. But if you simply chant His holy names and associate with devotees, there is nothing that will please Him more than this.