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.
