For the Appearance Day of Lord Rama Rama was now victorious and thus won the hand of Sita devi, the daughter of Janaka Maharaja. She put a garland on His neck, He also garlanded Her, and Their marriage was performed. Maharaja Dasaratha came from his kingdom in Ayodhya with his other sons to attend the function, and his three sons also got married there. After that, the newly married couples returned to Ayodhya, all looking very beautiful. By the order of Rama, the monkeys led by Nal and Nil made a bridge to Sri Lanka. They brought mountains and large stones. They wrote Rama's name on them, threw them in the water, and the stones floated. When half the bridge was completed Rama began to think, "What a powerful name this is! The monkeys are writing My name on the stones and throwing them in the water – and the stones are floating! I should also take a stone and throw it in the water, and I should see if it floats or sinks." When Sita was presented to Rama, He said, "I will not take Sita with Me. I am a ksatriya king. I did not come here to take Sita back. I came to destroy all of Lanka because Ravana kidnapped Her, but because She was in the house of Ravana I cannot accept Her." He ordered Laksmana to build a fire in order to test Her chastity. Sita prayed, "O Agnideva, O demigod of fire, I will enter the fire, and if I am pure I'll not be burned." She entered the fire and Agnideva came out with Her and said, "She is pure." The Air-god, the demigod of air, then appeared and said, "I am everywhere. I know Sita is pure." Rama then sent Sita into exile, although She was pregnant at that time. She went to the asrama of Valmiki, where She gave birth to two sons named Lav and Kush. Her sons were very strong and powerful. A golden statue of Sita was then made and installed, seated on Rama's left, and Rama began to perform the sacrifice. In the morning He arranged for the performance of the fire-sacrifice, and at midday there was hari-katha and recitation of scriptures like the Puranas. Laksmana became very ashamed and said, "I want to present you these gifts from Rama." They said, "What will we do with these? Please keep them. In the asrama we eat fruits and wear the bark of trees made into cloth. Return these and tell Rama we don't want them." This made Rama still more impressed. Sita came the next day with Her two sons. All were weeping and lamenting for Sita when they saw Her, and they were discussing amongst themselves that Lav and Kush were the sons of Rama. They said, "The boys are just as beautiful as Rama. The only difference between them and their father is that they are younger." They all went to the river bank, took bath, and all assumed four-armed Visnu forms. All the inhabitants went to Ayodhya with the four brothers, in the realm beyond this world. Sri Srimad Bhaktivedanta Narayana Gosvami Maharaja
"Chant Hare Krishna and be happy"
RAMA-NAVAMI
Bangkok, Thailand: April 11, 2003 [Dear Readers,
Please accept our humble obeisances.
April 15 (in India) is the divine appearance day of Lord Ramacandra. Please accept this lecture given by Srila Gurudeva in Thailand, in 2003:Listen] Do you know the history of Ramayana? Maharaja Dasaratha had three hundred-sixty queens, but no sons. One day he went hunting, and in the evening he met a friend of his who was also a king. That king had a very beautiful daughter named Kaikeyi, and he engaged her in serving Maharaja Dasaratha, who was very pleased with both her services and beauty.
Maharaja Dasaratha requested his friend, "Please give me your daughter in marriage." The king replied, "My daughter is very precious to me. Only if you promise that the son born from her womb will become king after you, will I give her to you in marriage." Maharaja Dasaratha began to laugh and said, "I have so many queens, but no sons. Therefore, I would be very happy if the son born by her becomes the next king." The king then arranged for their marriage, after which they returned to Ayodhya.
Many years passed, and still no son was born from any queen. The sage Vasistha told Maharaja Dasaratha, "There is no son in your destiny. However, if you perform a sacrifice called putresthi-yajna, a son may come." A fire sacrifice for begetting a son was then performed by a very great sage named Srngi Rsi. Agnideva, the demigod of fire, soon appeared from that fire with some very delicious sweet-rice in his hand. He told the king, "If you give this to any of your principal queens, she will at once become pregnant and soon have a son." King Dasaratha became very happy, and gave half the sweet-rice to Kausalya and half to Kaikeyi. The two queens saw that Sumitra had nothing, so they each divided their parts in half and gave that half to Sumitra. Kaikeyi, Kausalya and Sumitra thus gave birth to four beautiful sons - Rama, Laksmana, Bharata and Satrughna.
Later, when the boys became about five years of age, they were sent to the Gurukula of Vasistha Muni. After a few years in Gurukula they became very expert in all subjects, and then they returned home. After some time, a saint named Visvamitra Muni came to the palace and requested Maharaja Dasaratha, "Please give me Rama and Laksmana. I want to take them to my asrama, because there are many demons disturbing me and the other sages our performances of sacrifices for the world's welfare."
Maharaja Dasaratha replied, "They cannot go with you. I will go instead, with all my soldiers. Rama and Laksmana are just young boys. How will it be possible for Them to guard your sacrifices?" Visvamitra replied, "You will not be able to help in the matter, but your sons, Rama and Laksmana, are qualified to guard and kill all the demons." Maharaja Dasaratha was still not ready to give Them, but his guru, Vasistha Rsi, told him, "You should give your sons to Visvamitra at once. This will benefit you, Rama and Laksmana. They are very fortunate to have the opportunity to be with Visvamitra; later on you will realize this.
Following the order of his guru, the king sent his two sons. Later, when the sage began his sacrifices, a lady demon along with her two sons named Marici and Bahu came and began creating great disturbances. Lord Rama took hold of his bow and arrow and shot them. The mother and one of her sons were killed, but the other son escaped and fled to the island of Lanka in the ocean. After killing several demons, Rama and Laksmana crossed the Ganges River with Visvamitra Rsi and went to Janakapura, the kingdom of King Janaka.
While in exile, Rama, Laksmana, and Sita went to Citrakuta and other places. Satrughna and Bharata had not been present in Ayodyha at the time of the exile. They were at their maternal uncle's house. When they returned to Ayodhya and found out what had happened, they went to Citrakuta and Bharata told Rama, "Please return home. I will not be king. I am your younger brother." All the inhabitants of Ayodhya had also gone there to appeal to Rama to return, but He refused. He said that He wanted to follow His father's orders. Bharata replied, "Then please give me Your sandals. They will act as Your representative. You will be the king, and until Your return I will be like a minister and manage everything for You."
Lord Ramacandra, Laksmana, and Sita then traveled to Dandakaranya forest. Ravana later went there and kidnapped Sita devi. Rama became maddened in separation from Her, calling out, "Where are you, where are you?" Ravana took Her to Lanka, to a very secret place, and practically nobody knew where he had taken Her.
Rama then made friendship with the monkeys headed by Sugriva. Sugriva assured him, "I will discover Sita devi's whereabouts." He sent his messenger, Hanuman, to find Her. Hanuman went to Lanka by jumping over the ocean – about a one hundred-mile jump. He discovered Sita and returned to Rama with the news. All the monkey soldiers then came to the ocean, but they did not know how to cross it. The presiding deity of the ocean told Rama, "In your army there are two monkeys, Nil and Nal, who know how to build bridges."
The holy name is more powerful then Lord Rama or Lord Krsna Himself. Chanting of the name will do everything. Nothing else can save you. If you want to be happy in your life, chant Hare Krsna Hare Krsna Krsna Krsna Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama Rama Rama Hare Hare. This is more powerful than Rama. Rama is very powerful, but these names are more powerful.
Lord Rama then crossed the ocean with His monkey army and killed all the demons under Ravana's leadership. He only spared Vibhisana, because Vibhisana was a devotee and favorable to Rama. Ravana and all his sons were killed.
Sita had a desire to see the rsis and maharsis – to give Her merciful darsana. In the meantime, some of the inhabitants of Ayodhya began to say that although She was not pure, Rama still took Her back. They concluded, "This is a very bad thing."
In the meantime, Rama was very distressed in separation from Sita. He was always lamenting and there was no one to console Him. Like Sita, He ate only fruits and did not sleep on a bed. Sri Rama told Visvamitra Muni, "I want to perform an asvamedha-yajna (horse-sacrifice)." Visvamita said, "You cannot do this, because You have no wife. The wife must be present in order to perform this ceremony. You should bring Sita here." Rama said, "I cannot, but I still want to perform this sacrifice." Visvamitra said, "Then you should marry another lady." Rama replied, "I cannot do this – Sita will be My only queen."
In the meantime, Valmiki told Lav and Kush, "You should sing my Ramayana there." The boys were about nine or ten years old, very beautiful and strong, and, as previously mentioned, expert at archery. It has been told that they defeated Hanuman and many other powerful personalities in archery; and even Rama once came and they defeated Him. The boys knew that Rama was a king, and they knew that His wife was Sita, but they did not know that Sita was their mother. They only knew of their mother as "Vana-devi".
Rama told Sita, "I know that You are pure; I realized it in Lanka. But I want You to give personal evidence that You are pure." Sita said, "Still,You want evidence? All right, I will quickly give You evidence." She prayed to Mother Earth, "I've come from your womb. Please open up and take Me on your lap. If I have not touched anyone in this world by mind except for Rama, then come and take Me." After She said this three times, the Earth at once divided, a beautiful golden throne came out, and upon that throne was Prthivi-devi, Mother Earth. She took Sita on Her lap and they both went back into the ground. Weeping loudly, Rama called out, "O Sita, where are You? I cannot survive without You."
हरे कृष्ण हरे कृष्ण कृष्ण कृष्ण हरे हरे || हरे राम हरे राम राम राम हरे हरे|| www.keralites.net
Posted by: prasannam n <iampresanam@yahoo.co.in>
Reply via web post | • | Reply to sender | • | Reply to group | • | Start a New Topic | • | Messages in this topic (1) |
To subscribe send a mail to Keralites-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Send your posts to Keralites@yahoogroups.com.
Send your suggestions to Keralites-owner@yahoogroups.com.
To unsubscribe send a mail to Keralites-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com.
Homepage: http://www.keralites.net
No comments:
Post a Comment