Untold Stories from Ramayan- part 7

BIRTH AND YOUTH OF HANUMAN

Hanuman is originally the son of Vayu, the air god. And he is also an expansion of Lord Siva. All the demigods were helping Lord Ramacandra in his battle. Lord Siva was thinking, "I must also help him." So long before Lord Ramacandra incarnated, Lord Siva had a pastime. Once Siva and Parvati were playing in Kailash, and they saw a monkey. Lord Siva, by looking at this monkey, he also took the form of a monkey. Parvati also took the form of a monkey, and they played. During that time, Lord Siva gave Parvati a conception. Then immediately she became Parvati again and said, "I'm not going to give birth to a monkey." So Siva said, "Well you have a conception so now you have to give birth to it." Parvati said, "No no, when you gave the conception you were a monkey, so my son will become a monkey. Already I have an elephant, that is enough. I can't have this." So Siva said, "All right then, I will make some arrangement." Siva then called Vayu, and Vayu came there. Once before Siva had given a conception and Agni had carried it, and Agni had said that he would never do it again.

So Vayu came, and Siva said, "Vayu, you have not done anything to me up till now, so please do this for me. Take this conception and look after it." Vayu said, "But you are the most hot person, and I am going to be carrying this around when I am supposed to be cooling everything. The wind will be hot." Siva said, "You make some arrangement." So Vayu was carrying this conception wondering what to do, and then he saw the sapta-rishis going somewhere. He went before them and asked, "This is a conception from Lord Siva. This has to be preserved until the Supreme Lord incarnates as Ramacandra. That is a long time away, but it has to be kept. Please make some arrangement." The sapta-rishis said, "Oh we will make some arrangement." So they went to origin of the Mandakini river and they took a leaf which was made of metal, and put the conception there. In this way it was preserved, and Vayu was supposed to come and see that nothing happened to it. And then Brhaspati, the spiritual master of the devas, he had a maidservant in his house, and she was supposed to bring flowers for worshipping Salagram. One day when she went to get flowers, she saw some gandharvas having conjugal pastimes, and she was very attracted. So instead of collecting flowers, she came back early and Brhaspati was sitting on a deerskin in his ashrama.

Suddenly this lady jumped on him and began covering him with kisses. Brhaspati had not expected this, because he was doing puja, and he said, "What is this? You are behaving like a monkey! Therefore become a monkey!" When she became a monkey she cried, "I'm very sorry. Some ignorance came in my mind, and I have insulted you. But you have made me a monkey, so when will I again become normal?" Brhaspati said, "Why have I cursed you like this? I did not lose my temper." Then he thought for a while, and said, "Oh, I know. There is some arrangement. So now you must go to Kishkinda, and you get married to a great monkey warrior king. His name is Ketari, and you become his wife. There is a big plan for you." She came down, and she met Ketari who was jumping for some fruits, and she appeared on top of the tree. Then they had some talk, and they got married. When she was in the body of a monkey she was known as Anjana. They were living for a long time, but they were having no children. Ketari went on performing austerities to please Lord Indra so that he could get a son. He wanted a very powerful son, so he was doing meditation. While he was doing meditation, Vayu came, and somehow or other, in his invisible form, he managed to give the conception to Anjana. Anjana felt someone holding her, and she said, "Who is this person? You must come before me otherwise I will curse you." So then Vayu came before her and said, "Your curse will be gone only when you deliver a strong person, and I am giving you that person. So close your eyes and take this conception. Then deliver your baby and you can return to the heavenly planets. You do not want this?" And then she remembered all her previous activities.

She took that conception, and what was this conception? It was originally conceived by Lord Siva, carried by Vayu for so long, and Vayu gave it to her, so it was Vayu's son and it was Siva's angsha, or expansion. And then Anjaneya was born. As soon as he was born he grew into a sixteen year old boy. That was the potency of Lord Siva. So then Anjana immediately rose up to go to the heavens, and Anjaneya caught hold of her cloth and said, "Wait a minute, where are you going? You gave birth to me, and now you are leaving? What will I eat?" She was looking around, and it was sunset so she said, "Any fruit which is as red and as ripe as the sun planet, you can eat it." Then she left, and he was very hungry. He thought and then said, "Why as red as sun and as ripe as sun? Why not just eat sun?" So he jumped up, and straight away went to the sun planet and jumped on the chariot of Lord Suryadeva. He was extending his hands, and he took the whole sun planet and reduced it to a small ball and put it in his mouth. Just then he looked and saw Rahu coming. "I am going to eat the sun," Rahu said. Rahu always says this but he only ever half eats it.

So then Anjaneya said, "Oh you are going to eat the sun? Well I have already eaten the sun and now I will eat you also." So then he swallowed Rahu. Indradeva had been sitting in his seat discussing politics, but suddenly everything had become dark. Agni was there, so due to his light he could see. He asked Agni, "Why is this? Why is there no light?" Agni replied, "Somebody has taken the sun away." "What? Somebody has taken the sun away?" Agni said, "Why are you wondering who has taken it? Just use your shabda-viddhi." Shabda-viddhi means that just by hearing the sound you shoot your weapon. So he threw his vajra. While throwing it he was already jumping on his white elephant, Airavata, and he was coming. Anjaneya looked this way and that and he saw that everything was dark, and then he saw this white elephant coming. "Oh, I will eat that also," and then he jumped on Airavata. While he was jumping on Airavata, the vajra came, and hit Anjaneya on his teeth. Anjaneya quickly caught hold of it. Indra turned around and saw Anjaneya holding the vajra, and he thought, "This must be some big Visnu avatar. I'd better keep quiet. Out of living entities, only Indra can hold this thunderbolt, so he must be some incarnation with a tail." So Indra went back. Now Anjaneya had the sun, Rahu and this vajra weapon, and he went back to his place in Kishkinda to eat it. He sat down looking at this vajra, and thought, "Should I bite it or chew it?" At that time everyone went to Brahma and asked him, "What is happening in this universe? Rahu is gone, sun is gone." Brahma said, "Don't worry. This is the potency of Lord Siva, and this person is a great devotee of Lord Rama." Brahma lives for a long time, and so many Ramayanas are happening. So he knows that it is almost the same every time, but the pastime is a little different in each kalpa. So he said, "This is Hanuman. All of us have to go there and touch his feet and beg him. If you do that you will get the sun, otherwise no sun."

So all the demigods came, thirty three crores of them. They all came there with folded hands. "Please Anjaneya, open your mouth." He was upset because Indra's vajra had hit him on his teeth. "You have already broken my jaw. If I open my mouth you will just break my other jaw." So then Brahma said, "My dear boy, I will give you anything you like. You can live as long as I live." Anjaneya was not satisfied. Then Agni came forward and said, "Fire will not burn you." Still he was not satisfied, so Indra came forward. "You are already holding my Vajra, so what benediction can I give you? But I tell you this, you will become the most famous, as famous as me." Still not satisfied. Then Vayu came. "You will be as fast as me." He smiled a little bit. One by one they all came and offered benedictions, and after everyone came and offered benedictions, still Anjaneya was not satisfied. Brahma said, "Don't worry, I will use my mystic powers." And he read Anjaneya's mind. Anjaneya was thinking "Why is there no fruit in this world?" Brhaspati came to know of his desire and he came forward and said, "Anjaneya, I will give you all the fruits in this world, and I will give you the knowledge of Ayurveda by which you will know all the fruits, all the plants, and all the trees. Any plant in the creation, you will know it, and what is the use of it you will know, and what is the medicinal effect of it you will also know. This is my benediction to you." Then Dhanvantari spoke, "I will be at your command. You put any medicine on anyone and they will come alive."

So Anjaneya opened his mouth, and the Sun-god was there, and the demigods were very much satisfied. So then Brahma called him "Hanuman." Hanuman means one who has got some kind of a defect in his teeth. That is the meaning of Hanuman. Hanuman is also known as Vajranga, which means the same thing. Vajra means teeth and anga means missing one part. One other name for him is Marut-suta, the son of the wind god. He is known as Anjaneya, the son of Anjana. And lastly he is known as Mahavira, or a great king. These are some different names of Hanuman. And then Brahma gave him a diamond necklace, and told him, "This is the highest benediction you can get. You will be the eternal servant of the eternal Lord, and only the eternal Lord will be able to recognize this necklace. That means you will be recognized by him, and he will be recognized by you as the one who recognized the necklace." When Ramacandra asked the beggar, "What kind of a beggar are you? You have a wonderful necklace on your neck." So Hanuman immediately recognized, that this is my worshippable Lord. And he immediately surrendered to Him. In this way he went to Sugriva, and Hanuman had so many other exploits too, when he was a small boy. After the sun-swallowing pastime there were so many other pastimes. He used to take elephants and tigers and play with them. One day he caught hold of a very wise elephant. He was holding it by the tusk, and he was also holding a tiger by the tail, and swinging them around. They were making some sound. This was Hanuman's fun. And then he saw an ashrama. The sage who lived here had never gotten angry in his life. He was known for his sense control. Hanuman thought to himself, "Now we will test his sense control." So he put the tiger and the elephant tied up together in front of his ashrama. This was early in the morning, during the brahma-muhurta time. 

So the rishi slowly opened the door and took his lota for taking bath. And then he looked out and saw this tiger, so he closed the door quickly. Up to that time he had constipation, but when he saw this tiger suddenly he felt nature calling. So he had to go out. But what could he do? There was a tiger outside his door. He looked out the door again, and this time he saw the elephant as well, so he quickly shut the door again. He had to pass. But how could he pass inside? He had to go out of the window, and there was a tree outside of the window, and he looked up and saw Hanuman at the top of the tree. "So you are the cause of this mischief. Come here!" Hanuman thought, "He's becoming angry. I must go." So he came down, and he became small and entered the window. The rishi gave Hanuman a curse that limited his strength. "Why did you curse me like this?" Hanuman asked. "This is only good for you. You are having your strength controlled so you can use it only for the Lord's service. And when the service is coming, the Lord will arrange for someone to remind you."

So then Hanuman said, "I will never tie an elephant to a tiger any more. And I will certainly not put it in front of your ashrama. I'll put it somewhere else." So then he came back, and he did not play for a whole week. Ketari was asking, "Hanuman, how come there have been no complaints from anyone for a whole week? Have you become a good boy?" Hanuman said, "I don't want to give trouble to anyone." Then they heard a sound, a very nice sound. Ketari said, "What is this? It is Narada Muni coming!" Hanuman asked, "Who is this person?" Ketari replied, "He is a very great soul. He doesn't need any introduction. You just go to him and you will find out the greatness of this man."Immediately Hanuman jumped up and Narada was just on his way past their place, going to see some rishi, so Hanuman jumped in his way and paid pranams. "Narada Muni, I heard that you are a very great person, so you must bless me. Without blessing me, you are not allowed to go." Narada said, "What blessing do you want?" Hanuman said, "Already the demigods have given me so many blessings. I cannot think of anything else, so you think of a blessing, and you give it to me." Narada thought, "What blessing does Hanuman not have?" And so he said, "You will become expert in music." That was the only benediction left to give. So Hanuman got that benediction, and Narada Muni said, "So I have given you the benediction, and now I am going." Hanuman said, "One minute, one minute." "What do you want?" Narada asked. "How will I know that I am the most expert in music?" Hanuman inquired. "My father told me that you are the most expert in music, so you must do me a favour today. Give me the benediction that I will be more expert than you."

So Narada said, "All right, I will sit somewhere and listen to you." "Shall I start singing?" Hanuman asked. "Yes." Narada Muni put his vina on a rock, and he sat down on the ground. So Hanuman selected that tune which would melt the rock, and he began to sing it. The rock melted, and the vina was in the liquid. He was singing and singing, and the vina was floating in the liquid rock. Narada was closing his eyes and enjoying, and he said, "All right Hanuman, you are the best musician. You can stop singing now." Hanuman said, "You open your eyes and tell me if I should I stop singing." Narada said, "How do you mean?" Hanuman replied, "You open your eyes." So Narada opened his eyes and looked around. He didn't notice the vina floating in the stone water. "Yes, you can stop singing." So then Hanuman stopped singing, and the liquid stone became rock, and the vina got stuck. Narada said, "I am going," and he took his vina, but it wouldn't move. "What did you do, Hanuman?" Hanuman said, "I only sung a song. You told me to sing a song, and you also gave me the ability. Now you are complaining. I have been a good boy for a whole week." Narada said, "One week of doing nothing means that before that week you did too much." And then Hanuman told him all about what he had done, swallowing the sun etc, and Narada became very pleased.Then he said, "Now whatever it was, you please sing the tune again, so I can get my vina." Hanuman said, "Well, I don't know...." Narada Muni said, "Please do it!" "No I won't," Hanuman said, and he jumped up and ran inside the palace. Narada Muni came in there and called out, "Hey Hanuman, come and get my vina out! I have to go." Just then Ketari came out, and when he saw Narada Muni he touched his feet. "What is my son doing, he is giving you some trouble?" Narada said, "Oh no, no trouble, just that he got my vina stuck in the rock." Ketari said, "Oh no, he has started his mischief again. Hanuman, get Narada's vina out of the rock!" And then Hanuman said, "I want Narada Muni's feet to touch every room in this palace, that’s why I was doing this. Now he has touched all the rooms, and I will release his vina. The dust from his lotus feet is so rare that what is the use of just having it in one part of our kingdom? We should have it all over." Narada said, "You are already blessed, because you are Lord Rama's eternal servant." So Hanuman went and sung for Narada, who quickly took his vina and left.

Untold Stories of Ramanyan - part 4

Childhood of Lord Rama

Now Lord Rama took His advent on the earth planet, and he was growing up. He was learning archery in the ashrama of Vasistha. When the first lesson started, Vasistha told Dasaratha, "I don't want you to be here when your son is learning archery." Dasaratha said, "It is the tradition that the king sits there and watches the son, how he holds the bow." Vasistha said, "Yes, but it is not the tradition that you produce children from sweet rice." So Dasaratha went back, and the education started in confidence. When Lord Rama, Laksmana, Satrughna, and Bharata were sitting, Vasistha got up from his seat and circumambulated them. That is why he got Dasaratha out, otherwise there would be confusion. And then Vasistha said, "You always do this. Whenever you take an incarnation, You select a rishi to become Your guru. And he has to teach You this knowledge of which You are the source.

So please excuse me if I commit some offence." One day Rama and Laksmana saw a girl walking one day with a huge nose ring. In India the women wear big nose rings, sometimes so big that when they go on the bus the woman's son can hold it. So she had this huge nose ring, and she was walking with a water-pot. Laksmana looked at it and he laughed. He said, "Look at that nose ring! It's so big." Lord Rama said to him, "Vasistha is looking away, so let us do some pastime." So they looked around and they saw an arrow. They took that arrow, but they had not been taught yet how to do archery. "I will make this small," Laksmana said, and he shot the arrow. While the girl was walking, the arrow came next to her nose and started pouring some sort of mystical substance on the nose ring, which became so small that it got stuck on her nose and she couldn't breathe.

Then she dropped the water-pot, and she was trying to breathe but she can only breath in one nostril and she was very confused, so she began to call, "Help! Help!" Laksmana said, "Oh no, now Vasistha will hear and we will have a problem." Lord Rama said, "Don't worry," and he shot another arrow. That arrow made it big enough that she could breathe. So she turned around and said, "What is this you are doing to me?" Laksmana replied, "Oh, we made your nose ring small, but it was too small so then we made it big." "You made it big and then small?" she asked. "I don't believe it." "Oh, you don't believe it?" Laksmana asked, "So then we will take it off." Laksmana then shot another arrow  which took the nose ring out of her nose, and all this was happening without touching her face. And then the nose ring was flying in the sky, and she began to cry out, "My nose ring! My nose ring!" Very quickly Rama fired another arrow and put the nose ring back in the nose. These were some of the childhood pastimes of Lord Rama. All these childhood pastimes are all archery and bows and arrows. Anyway, Rama was growing up and one day a rishi came, Visvamitra Muni. He came in the entrance of the palace, and he said to the messenger, "Where is that Dasaratha? You tell him that Kaushika is here." He is known as Kaushika because he is coming in the dynasty of Kusha. Kusha and Kushanabha were great kings.
In the Bhagavatam you read about them. So Kaushika was known for his anger. If he gets angry, he would curse and  he will use all his tapovalam, all the strength of his austerity simply to place some obstacle. On one occasion he was sitting doing his meditation, and a bird passed stool on him. It's natural for a bird to pass stool, and it's natural for a rishi to sit under a tree. But stool on the head was not natural, and Visvamitra was very upset. He looked at the bird and burnt it. In burning that bird he used 50 years worth of tapovalam, because that bird had a long lifetime and he reduced it and suppressed it by his tapovalam, so now he lost the strength of that austerity. Then he got up and said, "This situation will make me remember that incident always, so now I will go to another tree." Then he would perform more austerity for another thousand years, and he was spending his whole life like this. So Dasaratha looked at Vasistha and said, "Kaushika is here. What am I supposed to do? I don't know what wrong I did, why he came to my palace, because he only goes to curse people or kill a demon or something." Vasistha said, "First of all, you must go from here to the messenger,and tell him to say that `The whole kingdom is yours. I am just taking two minutes to walk to the entrance. Please don't lose your temper'." So the messenger went back to Visvamitra and said, "King Dasaratha said that the whole kingdom is yours. He will take only two minutes to walk here. He wants you to be peaceful and take this nice asana." Visvamitra said, "I don't want any asana! Where is the king! Bring him here!" By the time Dasaratha got there, he fell at his feet and said, "What do you want? If you want the whole Kosala then please take it." "What?" the rishi asked. "I am not into kingdoms. I had a kingdom too."

He was a great prince, a ksatriya, and by some arrangement of the Lord he had become a Brahmin. "I do not want your kingdom," he said. "I have come here to ask something, and you must tell me that you will give it." Dasaratha was thinking, "I wonder what it could be that he wants? Maybe my head. I don't mind giving him that, but please don't let him ask for Rama."Visvamitra said, "What are you thinking? You are trying to save something."Dasaratha said, "No no, you just ask and I will give it." So then Visvamitra said, "I want Rama and Laksmana." Dasaratha immediately fainted. When he woke up, Visvamitra said, "See! You fainted, this means that you don't want to give. And you lied to me! I am rishi and you lied to me that you will give everything, and now you won't give. I'm not going to take them away forever; I only need them for a small purpose. I am doing a yajna, and someone is passing stool and urine on it. I want these children to come and play there, and then these demons will go away." "What? Demons?" And then Dasaratha fainted again. He couldn't bear his being taken to demons, so he said, "I will come. I will defeat them!" Visvamitra said, "Don't you think I can defeat them? I could easily defeat them, but I want Lord Rama and nothing else. What do you say?" "All right," Dasaratha said. "But please take good care of my son, and also teach Him something since you know so many things." Visvamitra said, "I know what I will do with Rama, and he is coming with me. Now." Dasaratha said, "But you have come a long way, you should rest a while in my palace.""I don't stay in palaces," Visvamitra said. "Where is Rama and Laksmana? Give them to me." So he took Rama and Laksmana and he left. They were walking, and as they were crossing so many rivers and going through so many different forests, Visvamitra was telling them stories, and Rama and Laksmana became so happy because there was no class and no study, this was like a complete vacation for them.

They were swimming here and swimming there, and Visvamitra was such a nice teacher that he would swim with them and play with them, tell them far-out stories of demons and goblins and ghosts. They were so happy. In the evening time at sunset, Visvamitra told them, "Now you do your sandhya, and then you sit here and listen to these mantras. I'm going to teach you some great, powerful mantras. One is known as Bala, strength. Another is known as Adibala, great strength. You may need them for these demons. So Rama and Laksmana sat down and listened to Bala and Adibala, and then they massaged the teacher, Visvamitra. Visvamitra took rest. The next day Visvamitra woke them up and they reached the ashrama of Visvamitra and they began a yajna. Then came this demon, a very famous demon called Marica. Marica was a great magician. Whenever he would come, then you would see that trees would be falling, the rivers would be flying up in the sky, and stars would be falling. The animals would also go crazy, the birds would scream, and the rishis would die as Marica' s breakfast was saintly persons only. For lunch he ate something else like ksatriyas or kings, but breakfast was sages. He was a cannibal, human eater. So Marica was coming there, and with him was Dusana. His very name is the same as his character. Dusana means "all bad things." His father named him like that, so it must have been a good family. Dusana and Marica were flying in space and were coming. So Rama and Laksmana were sitting there and Visvamitra was the head priest, he was offering ghee into the fire. He looked at Rama to signal that the demons were coming. Rama looked at Laksmana and said, "So Laksmana, what are you going to do?"

Laksmana said, "Yes, we will do something." So he took several arrows and shot them into the sky. They went up into the sky about three or four miles, and then from each arrow came a million arrows, and all together they formed a huge wheel of arrows, and this wheel started circling on top of the fire. So Marica and Dusana came and all that they saw was a wheel and some spokes. "Where is the fire?" Dusana said, "I told you I wanted to pass water three hours ago and you said I should wait till we got here. I have been holding it in, and I can't see the fire. What are you doing to me? Let me go pass somewhere." "No no," Marica said, "Visvamitra's fire, that is where we should pass." "But I can't see the fire, I only see this wheel." Then Marica said, "This must be the trick of these Brahmins. Let me come closer and see." So he came closer, and as he came close he got stuck with one of the spokes of the wheel, and he was thrown miles away. While he was already thrown, Lord Rama took one blade of grass, and he threw it at Marica. It got stuck on his back and carried him to the ocean. He fell in the ocean, and after that he never touched the Indian land again. He opened an ashrama and became a babaji somewhere in Sri Lanka, and didn't even go back to see his family. That was what happened to Marica, and Dusana was k illed. All this killing was done by grass. Then the yajna was over and Visvamitra came to Lord Rama and he said, "What a great, wonderful thing you did! I saw Marica flying away and falling into the ocean." Then Visvamitra said, "There's only one small question I want to ask You.""What?" Lord Rama replied. "What about Bala and Adibala and all those mantras I gave You?" Lord Rama said, "That is for an emergency, then we will use these ones. Grass is sufficient for these demons." Then Visvamitra said a famous verse, that for a mighty person even grass becomes an astra. Lord Rama is so mighty, He's the source of all Bala. So why should He take Bala and Adibala? In this way He finished the demons.

Untold story from Ramayana - Part 3

CHAPTER  2: STORYOF RSAYASRNGA (cont'd)

When Vibondaka left, the demigods made arrangements and got him involved in so many other things so that Rsayasrnga was left by himself. Rsayasrnga went to the river to take water for the yajna, and he saw this moving ashrama. He'd never been anywhere, but he'd studied a lot of shastra, and he'd never heard of anything like this before. And whenever the description came of women, Vibondaka would never explain it. He would never read such parts. In this way he was kept brainwashed to be a brahmacari. He looked at this ashrama, "This is so nice." And then he saw some figures in there. "What kind of rishis are these? This is a different type of rishi." He became very eager. "Anyway, if they are in the area, they must visit my father's ashrama." And they did come. They just made sure that Vibondaka was not around, and then three of the great saintly people walked out of the boat. And then they came, raising their hands and calling "Rsayasrnga! Rsayasrnga!" Usually when the rishis came they called for Vibondaka. So he saw these rishis coming, and he went and addressed them. And after addressing them he was asking, "Where are you coming from? Which planet? What mantras do you chant? How come by the touch of your bodies all my hairs are standing on end? Why am I having suchromancha?" They were smiling at each other, and they said, "We are rishis from another place, it is eight yojanas from here.

It is an island, and no human beings come there. We are born with perfection. We came to see your father. We know that you are very learned, so in our moving ashrama, we want you to come and stay for a few days." Rsayasrnga said, "I would be very happy to do that, but my father is not here. I don't even brush my teeth unless my father tells me to. So how will I go away from here, and who will perform the yajna three times daily?" One lady said, "I will do it, I am expert in this line." And she sat down. Somehow Rsayasrnga fell prey for this. These were saintly people, so why shouldn't they do yajna? And they looked different, very attractive. He couldn't understand what the tejas was that was coming from that body and attracting him. He didn't know it was lust. This was never explained to him. So he left that lady there doing yajna, and they had a flower ladder from the ashrama up to the bank of the river. This ashrama was filled with saintly people, so somehow they engaged him in listening to music, and dancing and so many other things, and slowly they came to Angadesha. In Angadesha there was big reception arranged for Rsayasrnga, brahmacari incarnate. There was purna-kumbha and there was mantras and Brahmins. The Brahmins all came to know that Rsayasrnga was coming, and they came and waited there. He was worshipped like anything.

He saw more saintly people were sitting there in that country, and they were sitting with other saintly people. Then he started realizing that something was wrong in his understanding. He asked the king, "Why have you brought me here?" But as soon as he stepped off the boat, rain came. And people were all happy, they were showering akshada and touching his feet. All the people came and told him, "You must never leave our country. You must become the son-in-law of our king." He didn't know what son in-law meant. So then they had to have special classes for him to explain how to become a son-in-law. Then he understood everything and finally he blessed the king by marrying Shanti, Dasaratha's daughter. In the meantime Vibondaka had returned to his ashrama, and saw this lady sitting there offering ghee into the fire. He grabbed her by the hair and said, "Who are you? What are you doing with my fire? It's been here for six thousand years. You came and contaminated it. What are you doing?"She said, "I am not this body. I am spirit soul." Vibondaka said, "That's very nice, that you're not this body, but you are not supposed to do this." So then she said, "No no, Rsayasrnga told me to do this." So he said, "So come on tell me, where is Rsayasrnga? What did you do to him? There was one man in this world who was pure, and you spoiled him too!" And then the lady said, "What could we do, this was a nationalistic service. We are serving the nation. In the service of our nation we have done something so we will go to heavenly planet." So then Vibondaka said, "I'm going to curse that king, that Angadesha Raja! He's getting rain, but I will see that he gets nothing anymore. The lady fell at his feet and said, "At least do the curse there. Then he will know you are cursing him.

Don't do the curse from here." "All right," he said. He was so angry, but Romapada was so clever, he was arranging for many Brahmins chanting mantras, glorifying Vibondaka, showing pictures of Kashyapa Muni just to attract him. But Vibondaka came and said, "Where is the king? Bring him here!" Romapada came and begged, "Please don't curse me! Already there are enough curses! All that I have done is that I have made your son the king of this country." So then something dawned on Vibondaka. "My so has become the king of this country. Now he has become the king, he has to protect the citizens. If I curse, then the blame is on him because he couldn't protect his citizens." So then he called his son, "Rsayasrnga, come here." Rsayasrnga came, and Vibondaka said, "All right, as soon as one son is born, you must be back in the ashrama. You understand?" This was the time when Dasaratha was told, by Vasistha Muni, the story. And Vasistha said, "If you personally go, then Rsayasrnga may come." So Dasaratha started, with all his paraphernalia, his seven akshauhini-shainyas, and arrived in Angadesha. Romapada was thinking "What is this? Suddenly Dasaratha is coming with his army. He is going to fight with me or what?" So he came with a white flag. "There is no question that your army can even stay in my country. Your army is so big that they can only just stand inside my country, not much more. Why are you coming with seven akshauhini-shainyas?" Dasaratha said, "No, I am just coming to request Rsayasrnga to come and perform a yajna for me." Romapada said, "I don't know. I don't know how long the yajna will be. I'm not going to play any more tricks, because already Vibondaka has told him, `One son and you are back in the ashrama'." Dasaratha said, "I will fall at his feet. He has protected your kingdom, why will he not save my country too? Why will he not do it?" So Dasaratha went there, paid his pranams, and he cried and told Rsayasrnga, "I have no hope. I will jump in the fire of asvamedha instead of the horse, if you don't come." So then Rsayasrnga calculated, "How many days are left?" It was 28 days more before the delivery. "That's all right. In 24 days I will come and do putra-kamesti."

So he came, and right next to the asvamedha-yajna he created another fire from that, and he quickly started putra-kamesti. And when he was finishing with the purnahoti, the yajna-purusha came, a dark, black figure which was three miles tall. He had a huge big pot in his hand. He was holding Narayana in it, so it was no small affair. He said to Dasaratha, "Please give this sweet rice to your queens." Dasaratha was looking at the size of the pot, and he was thinking, "If I give this to my queens, then there will be no more queens." It was a huge big pot. asaratha asked Vasistha, "How is this possible? How can they eat this much sweet rice?"So then Vasistha said, "You ask Rsayasrnga, he will tell you." Rsayasrnga asked the yajna-purusha, "Why are you giving such a big pot to these human beings that they can't even hold it?" The yajna-purusha said, "The personality who is coming is so powerful, that you can't reduce him smaller than this." Then Rsayasrnga closed his eyes and said, "Ah! Bigger than the biggest, and smaller that the smallest. He is in this pot. You give it to me." So he took the pot, and it became small. By the request of Rsayasrnga the Lord reduced His aishvarya, and the pot became small. He gave it to Dasaratha and said, "All right, I have two days to get to my ashrama. In between I have to take care of the delivery." So Dasaratha took the sweet rice. He gave half of it to Kausalya. The remainder he split in two, one for Sumitra and one to Kaikeyi. After Kaikeyi drank it, there was still some left, so that was also given to Sumitra. In this way the Lord came as Lord Ramacandra in Kausalya's womb. He came as Laksmana and Satrughna in Sumitra's womb, and he came as Bharata in Kaikeyi's womb. Vasudeva came as Ramacandra, Sankarsana came as Laksmana. The Sudarshan disc came as Bharata, and the Pancajanya conchshell came as Satrughna.

Untold stories from Ramayana - Part 1

INTRODUCTION

There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and in each planet there is a predominating deity who is an expansion of Vishnu. He has three expansions, and then there are the quadruple expansions, and then there are servants and devotees. In this way the Vaikuntha planets are full of activity. The top of Vaikuntha, before one reaches Goloka, the gateway to Goloka is Ayodhya. In Ayodhya is Lord Sri Rama, and Laxmana, Bharata, Satrughna, Sumantra, Dashratha, Kaushalya, all these characters we find in Ramayana are eternal citizens of this Ayodhya. 

Shri Rama Avatar

And from this planet Lord Rama expands into His Rama-avatar, through milk ocean Vishnu, Ksirodakasayi Vishnu. In every Treta-yuga there is Rama-avatar. One may think, "Oh that must be boring. Every time the same activity." But it is never boring. How many times have we heard these Ramayana stories, but still when someone is reading Ramayana, everyone comes. To hear is not boring, so to experience it can't be boring at all. That is the proof. Ramayana has been heard generations and generations. In all countries. In Indonesia they have their Ramayana. In Malaysia they have their Ramayana. In Thailand, even in Jamaica and Africa. Just a little bit different for every culture. Indonesian Ravana is a big crocodile, and they carry him on sticks. In Bangkok, Thailand all the roads are names Rama 1, Rama 2, Rama 5 etc. So the purpose of the avatar is described in Brahma-samhita: 

 lilayatena bhuvanani jayaty ajasram 

 govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. 

The living entities have forgotten their relation with Krsna. And they have been conquered by maya, illusory energy. Krsna bahirmukha haya bhoga vancha kori / nikata stha maya tare japatiya dhare. The conditioned soul has been caught by maya. The Lord comes to reconquer them. That is the mission of the avatar incarnation of the Lord.

Dashratha's desire for a child

Rama appeared in the Iksvaku dynasty. He is known as Iksvaku Kuladhana. Kula means "dynasty" and dhana means "property" or "valuable jewel." So he is the jewel of the Iksvaku dynasty. Dashratha was known as such because he could fight in ten directions simultaneously. Dashratha was such a great fighter that sometimes Indra would summon for him when there was a fight with the demons. So Dashratha would go to the heavenly planets and fight with the demons. And these demons were so expert with maya, they would create darkness, expand into various forms etc. So Dashratha would fight in ten directions, and when you looked at his ratha, his chariot, it would look as though there were ten kings and ten chariots fighting simultaneously. Dasa means "ten" and ratha means "chariot". That is how he got the name Dashratha. So Dashratha was famous for fighting for demigods and righteous kings. And he married Kaushalya. From Kaushalya, only one daughter was born. She was named Shanti, or "peace." But Dashratha had no peace, because he only had one daughter, and that daughter would only get married and go to another dynasty. The Vedic system is that when a woman marries, she belongs to the husband's gotra or family line. So if Shanti married to another dynasty, she would belong to it. What about the Iksvaku dynasty? Dashratha was so worried. Then he married Sumitra. At least Kaushalya had a daughter, but Sumitra had no child. Then Dashratha was getting old. He gave up the idea of producing dynasties. As he was getting older he saw that some less powerful kings were doing small yajnas, so he did big yajnas.

They were trying to get their name known, because once Dashratha died Kosala would be broken. The kingdom of Kosala started all the way from what they now call the Dalai lama's line. From up in the north, in Tibet, all the way down to the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh. So this was Kosala, practically it was the whole of India, not the democratic India but the Vedic India. So he was very worried that this kingdom will be broken to pieces and some small-timers will become emperors. Then Vasistha advised him to go to Kaikeya. This kingdom was right on the border of Afghanistan. They now call it the Sind region. Kaikeyi was the only daughter of the king of Kaikeya. The king's name was also Kaikeya. And when Dashratha came for marriage negotiation, Kaikeya told him, "You have two queens, and they both have no children. Now you will marry my daughter, but what will happen to her if the other wives have children?" Dashratha replied, "I don't think they will have children because they have had none up to now.

Dashratha's promise to father of Kaikeyi

I am also getting old. They're not going to get any child. Only Kaikeyi will get a child." So Kaikeya said, "That's all right, but you must give this in writing." There is a system in the ksatriya marriage known as kanya-sulka. Sulka means "will". When you accept a virgin in marriage, you must give in writing what properties she will enjoy as your wife if you are a ksatriya. This is kanya-sulka, the "will of dowry." So Dashratha wrote kanya-sulka. He said, "Whoever is born to Kaikeyi will enjoy my kingdom, even if my other wives produce children later." This kanya-sulka was known to three people. Of course, now we all know it, but at that time only three people knew it. Vasistha knew it,Dashratha knew it, and Kaikeya knew it. It was kept a secret, because otherwise they would blame Dashratha, "What is this? He is giving the kingdom to a younger woman." So this kanya-sulka was kept secret. But at the time of the marriage, due to great attachment, Kaikeya told his daughter this secret, that whoever is your son will rule this kingdom. Kaikeyi kept this at heart. Once Vasistha advised Dashratha to perform asvamedha-yajna. He was telling him, "If you perform asvamedha-yajna, then all the demigods will personally come to accept the oblations." There are two kinds of offering oblations to the yajna. One is that Agni will take the oblations and offer it to the different destinations. Another is that the devas will personally come in the sacrificial arena. They will stand in the sky holding their hands open, and when you offer in their name in the fire then the harvest will get up from the fire and go into their hands. And they will eat it right there in front of everyone,.

These types of sacrifices are considered first-class, because the devas have come in person. So Dashratha should perform asvamedha, and all the devas will come. And then Dashratha will tell them, "You have your kingdom only because of my fighting. So why don't you continue my dynasty and give me blessings that I can get some son?" That was the plan. There was a big arrangement for asvamedha-yajna, and wherever Dashratha's horse went, no-one objected. Asvamedha-yajna means that you have to select a horse with certain lakshanas or qualities. The ears have to be a certain way, the nose a certain way. There has to be a black part behind the tail. The hooves have to be a certain shape, 35 degrees bent. There is a whole description in karma-khanda. So you have to find out that horse, and after finding it you have to tie a golden leaf on his head. There it will be written, "This horse belongs to King Dashratha. He will perform asvamedha-yajna, so everyone should donate liberally. And whoever stops this horse will have to meet the army of King Dashratha." So this horse will go around the whole world, and if any king dares to stop the horse there will be one army which is following about 100 metres behind the horse. They will have to meet that army. This army would consist of the best fighters in the army, all the generals, and if one can defeat that then more army would be sent. In this way the challenger would have to fight and prove that he is the emperor. So asvamedha-yajna was already started, and then when the yajna was going on, Sumantra (the minister of Dashratha) came to Dashratha and said, "I remember one incident when Sanat-kumara came to our assembly, when you were a prince." At that time Dashratha was not married, and Sanat-kumara was visiting Dashratha's father, Aja.

Predictions of Sanath Kumaras

Sanath-kumara made some predictions. "Maharaja Dashratha will become very famous throughout the three worlds, and he will perform a putra-kamesti yajna, a sacrifice for getting a son. So in this sacrifice, the  yajna-purusha, the personification of fire, will come there and give him some sweet rice. And out of this sweet rice Dashratha will get the Supreme Lord as his sons." This was predicted by Sanat-kumara. At that time Dashratha was just an unmarried prince, a brahmacari. So Sumantra was a very old man and he suddenly remembered this. He came to Dashratha and said, "You are doing asvamedha for getting a son, but Sanat-kumara told you that you should do putra-kamesti." So then there was confusion over which yajna should be performed. In Treta-yuga everything was yajna. For material benefits, for spiritual realization, for anything tretayam yajato makhaih. Makha means "yajna". Now Dashratha got confused. So he went to Vasistha's house and prostrated himself before him. "Guru maharaja, we have spent 60% of the treasury, and now we come to know that this is not the proper yajna, that there is another yajna. How am I supposed to do this?" So then Vasistha said, "Oh yes, I remember too now. Sanat-kumara said this. It is not a very expensive yajna, but the purohit, the priest who performs the yajna must be a very special person. That is the difficulty. That person must have not seen a woman until the time of his marriage. He should not have even known what a woman is. Such a great personality must perform the yajna. Then only can the putra-kamesti be performed with the purnahoti and we will get a son." Then Dashratha said, "You must tell me where this person is." Vasistha was a walking encyclopedia, because he had been there three lifetimes with the same remembrance. There is no-one in this world who knows better than Vasistha. So Vasistha said, "Yes, there is a person like that." Dashratha said, "Who is this person? He has never seen a woman or known what a woman is until marriage? At least he must have known about his mother! What kind of a person is he, that he has never heard of a woman yet he has taken birth?"


Pictorial representation of Bal Kand