Adhyatma Ramayanam Day 5. Ayodhyakandam Contd.

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Ramayanam Kilippaattu Day 5 രാമായണമാസം - ദിവസം  5

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Adhyatma Ramayanam Day 5.   Ayodhyakandam Contd.

Trek to the Forest

Rama went to bid farewell to Dasaratha at Kaikeyi’s palace where he was still lying down delirious and distraught. Rama told Mother Kaikeyi: “Mother, do not worry, Lakshmana, Sita, and I are starting right away. I wanted to get permission from my father, that is all.”  Kaikeyi was happy to hear it. Her wishes are getting fulfilled without any resistance from Rama. She brought some rough clothes made from tree bark to wear in the forest.  Rama and Lakshmana abandoned their royal dresses and wore them instead.  Sita was a bit perplexed as to how to wear these strange clothes and looked at Rama. He took it and draped it around Sita on top of her royal garments. People of Ayodhya could not bear this site and even sage Vasishta lost his temper. “Oh! Wicked lady! You wanted Rama to go to the forest, but why are you giving this rough cloth made from tree bark to Sita? Sita is accompanying her husband only because she is so devoted to him. Let her go with all her royal garments and ornaments.”

Dasaratha got up and asked Sumanthra to bring a chariot to take the three to the forest. Embracing them, Dasaratha wept and murmured Rama’s name again and again. As soon as the chariot arrived, Rama took Sita’s hand and helped her enter it.  Lakshmana followed carrying his bow and arrows and Sumanthra drove the chariot away from Ayodhya. As they went away, king Dasaratha collapsed on the floor again. Women and children of Ayodhya wailed at the scene of the three leaving the palace. “How would we bear the fact that Rama will not be here for fourteen years?”, so saying some of them started running behind the chariot. King Dasaratha woke up and asked his attendants to take him to Kausalya’s palace.

Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita reached the banks of river Tamasa. They had some water to drink earlier in the morning but nothing to eat for the whole day. In the night, Rama went to sleep under a tree along with Sita, and Lakshmana kept vigil carrying his bow and arrow, talking to Sumanthra. A big crowd of people from Ayodhya also reached there by then and they insisted that Rama return to Ayodhya the next day, or else, they will also follow them to the forest. They decided to talk to Rama in the morning. Knowing the trouble, Rama told Sumanthra to get the chariot ready before dawn. “They are all tired and sleeping now. In the morning they will insist that I return, and I do not want to deal with those people who love me. None of them were awake when the chariot drove away. When they woke up, they realized that Rama had left. Disappointed, they returned to the city, but they never forgot Rama and hoped that their favorite prince will return soon. 

Rama, along with Lakshmana and Sita reached the banks of river Ganga and rested there for the night.  Here also, Rama and Sita went to sleep under a tree and Lakshmana kept his vigil. 

Meeting with Guha, the Boatman

Guha was excited to know about the arrival of Rama. He got ready lots of fruits and flowers and brought them to Rama and prostrated before him. Rama lifted him and embraced him with love. Rama asked about his welfare. With folded hands, Guha replied: “Oh! Lord, my life is worthwhile just being able to see you in person. As you know, you are entering our kingdom of Nishadha which is under Ayodhya’s command. So, this is your country, and I am your servant. Please take over and govern this country as its king. Please make my home auspicious by your visit.”

Rama replied: “I am so happy to see you and I respect your offer. That is so kind of you, but I need to spend fourteen years in the forest, not in a palace or a house. I am not to enter in or eat from other homes. You keep good care of this country of yours. Just to avoid your disappointment of not accepting anything from you, I would like you to bring me some sap-milk of the banyan tree to tie up our hair.” Guha got the sap-milk and they tied up their hair. Then the couple slept on a bed made by Lakshmana of leaves and grass. Sita had some water to drink. Lakshmana stood there as a guard and Guha joined him for the night. Guha could not bear the sight of the prince and the queen sleeping under a tree as if they are homeless. He told Lakshmana: “How can I bear this? The mighty prince of Ayodhya is sleeping like a homeless man under a tree and the beautiful queen is devoid of any royal facilities. How come king Dasaratha ordered this ordeal for Rama! Indeed, queen Kaikeyi’s mind was influenced by the wicked maid Manthara!” 

Hearing Guha’s laments, Lakshmana advised him: “Do not despair for us. Chant Rama’s name and think about him all time. Good and bad experiences are coming to us based on our karma. Karma follows us from the previous births and there are no practical ways to transfer or donate our pleasure and pain to others. Only Ignorant people think that destiny is behind our good and bad experiences. When you do something, you feel the ownership of that action and your ego gets bloated. This feeling binds you and karma follows you. There are no alternatives to experiencing the consequences of your karma. You cannot share it with others, nor can you get rid of them. Human life is a mix of positive and negative experiences, creating a depository of sins and virtues to carry on through this life and beyond. Even for the Devas and Asuras, there is no escape from the clutches of karma. In the world, pleasure is followed by pain and vice versa. No one will continue to be in sorrow all the time or in happiness. We need not go after worldly enjoyments out of the way, but we must not deny such experiences either. You must enjoy the world when you can, without getting entangled in them. We experience sorrowful and delightful incidents throughout our life alternatively, and sometimes they are mixed up in time as well. This applies to all, without an exception.  Knowing this truth, knowledgeable people face life courageously and without getting attached to these experiences whether they are to our liking or not. A Wiseman treats good and bad with equanimity.” As Lakshmana completed his advice, it was almost the sunrise. Rama got up and finished his routine ablutions and Pooja.

Guha asked his servants to bring a boat. He wanted to take the guests across the river Ganga by himself.  Rama held Sita’s hand and entered the boat and Lakshmana joined with his bow and arrows. Sita Devi started chanting a hymn praising Mother Ganga. “Mother Ganga, our prostration to you! please take care of us as you do for so many millions of people. When we return after the exile, we will do the poojas appropriately.”

They reached the other shore and Guha insisted that he be allowed to join them and serve them in the forest. “If you do not allow me to serve you, I would be forced to kill myself.” Rama pacified him: “I promise at will see you hereafter fourteen years later. Until then you must look after the Nishadha kingdom.” Rama embraced him and bid farewell. Guha prostrated again and they disappeared into the deep forest. 

Entering the Ashram of Sage Bharadwaja

That evening Rama and Lakshmana hunted and got hold of a deer and killed it to eat. When the sun rose that morning, they started walking forward and reached a banyan tree near the Ashram of Sage Bharadwaja. There they saw Brahmachari walking by, and Rama called him and said: “Oh! Brahmachari, please tell your guru Bharadwaja that Dasaratha’s son Rama and wife are here with his brother.” As soon as sage Bharadwaja heard the news from the Brahmachari, he hurried to welcome Rama with some fruits and flowers. They exchanged pleasantries and prostrated each other. “Oh! Rama, please make my Ashram pious by touching your feet inside. The meeting with you today is a long-awaited one for me. I know the background of your avatar and I realize you have an important purpose to serve. I know how you ended up taking up a life as a human being and how you got banished from your country. I know also that you know everything that I know. So, there is no need to repeat them here. Please bless us. Your presence is indeed a blessing!” They spent the night there in Satsang, discussing spiritual philosophy. 

Rama’s Meeting with Sage Valmiki

In the morning they started their trek to Chitrakooda Hill, for which the sage had sent two Brahmacharis to show them the route. There they reached the Ashram of Valmiki. The place was an ideal one for sages to perform their penance peacefully. Even the wild animals were behaving amicably. Trees were bearing fruits all the time. Plants are in full bloom with fragrant flowers. Sage Valmiki was elated to see Rama. He gave a respectful welcome to the three and served them fruits and flowers, along with sweet water to drink. Rama narrated to him the reason for his exile. “You are a spiritual master, and I am sure you know what transpired in my life. Please be kind enough to tell us the best places suitable for us to stay safe. I am sure that the land where the sages reside, is an ideal abode for pious people.”

Valmiki said: “The whole world resides in you, and you are omnipresent. But you asked me to tell you specific abodes for you to stay with your consort Sita and I must tell you about them out of my reverence. You take your abode where people live happily with equanimity, without harming any living beings. You may also take an abode in the hearts of people who meditate upon you all the time.  You take an abode where people do not see any duality anywhere and are unattached to physical pleasure and pain. You take an abode where people do not have any likes and dislikes towards anything. You take an abode where people treat a piece of gold and a piece of coal to be of the same value. You take abode where people live happily, surrendering everything unto you, even their mind. You take an abode where people have no vacillations borne out of the six enemies (Kama, Krodha, Moha, Lobha, Mada, and Matsarya). They know that these are affecting only their bodies and not their spiritual essence, Atman.  You take abode in the minds of those who realize you as the Brahman, the ultimate reality. You can live along with Sita, as an indweller wherever your name is sung, and virtues are extolled.”  

Story of Valmiki

Valmiki continued: “Oh Lord, how do I expound your virtues? No one can fully explain your greatness in words. Indeed, it was your compassion that made me into a learned sage. My name was Ratnakara, an uneducated villager who did unspoken indiscretions in life. Although I was born in a Brahmin family, I never behaved like one. I lived a life of lust, with a low caste lady and produced several children.  I killed several animals for no reason. I even quarreled and looted wealth from Brahmanas and noble people. Once I saw the seven divine sages – Sapta Rishis- and decided to steal their clothes. They were brilliant like the mid-day sun and took pity on me. They asked me: “Oh! foolish man, why are you doing this?” I told them: “I am doing this to feed my wife and children. They are waiting for me to bring food and other things for survival. I loot things from all those who pass my way. Now it is your turn to give whatever you have.”

The sages told me to check with the family whether they would be willing to take share in the sins I have been accumulating to support them. The sages assured me that they will wait for me until I come back with an answer. I went and asked my wife and children. They were very clear about it. “When you do something bad, you incur the sin and how can we take share in that? Fruits of karmas are to be experienced only by those who do those karmas.” Hearing this from the family, I was awestruck. I returned to the sages. They were waiting to hear my answer. The sages were kind to me, and they made me realize the workings of karma. I threw away my arrows and other weapons. I prostrated before them and asked for forgiveness. Great ones are always ready to give refuge to the ones who approach them. Also, meeting good people – Satsang- is auspicious. They decided to advise me despite being unworthy of the same. They chanted the name Rama in various ways that my limited mind might be able to comprehend. They asked me to chant ‘mara, mara, mara’ continuously. I kept doing so with ultimate concentration for the next one thousand years. Eventually, the chanting had become Rama, Rama, Rama. I did not move from where I sat, and unbeknownst to me, an anthill started forming around my body. Suddenly I could hear the commotion of several sages gathering around me. They asked me to get out of the anthill and I came out. As I came out of Valmika, they named me Valmiki. They treated me like a sage and were blessed with the knowledge of Brahman. It was due to the prowess of Rama’s name I became a sage. Now I have the great fortune to see you along with Sita Devi and prince Lakshmana.  

I will show you the ideal place for you to reside near Chitrakooda by the river Ganga.” The sage made a hermitage there with two chambers. Valmiki served them and the divine couple enjoyed their stay. Lakshmana continued to keep his vigil as instructed by his mother.

Dasratha’s Demise

When the minister Sumanthra returned to Ayodhya, the grief-stricken king asked the details of Rama’s whereabouts in the forest.  “How is Sita? How is my son Lakshmana? Did they send any messages to me? As I am facing death, I do not have my children near me. Alas! my life is so pathetic.” Sumanthra narrated the details of the ride to the forest and the service rendered by Guha, the Nishadha king. “Rama told me to tell you not to worry about them. He wanted to convey his respect to you, the mothers, and the elders in the palace. With a shy face, shedding tears, Sita Devi asked me to convey her respect to you and the mothers to accept her prostrations. As king, Guha took them across river Ganga, and I was motionless for a while and then returned.”

Mother Kausalya could not contain her grief. She started wailing “If your favorite wife Kaikeyi wanted to redeem the two boons, it could have been done any time. If you wanted to give her the country, that is understandable. But why did you send my son to the forest in exile? Oh! God! what sins could I have done in my past lives to face a situation like this in this life?” Hearing such words from the most pious Kausalya, the king said: “your words are excruciating like putting a burning piece of coal on my wounds. I am going to die out of grief and please do not make my journey even harder. I am destined to die of sorrow, linked to my son, for sure. I was cursed by a sage at the time of his death and that would not go futile. Once I was on my hunting trip in the middle of the night carrying my bow and arrows. I was tired by then and it was getting dark when I heard the noise of elephants gulping water at a nearby stream. I shot an arrow in the direction of the noise and hit somewhere. Suddenly I heard a human cry and realized that the arrow hit the wrong target.  I ran there and found a boy in pain. Unfortunately, it was not the sound of an elephant drinking water; it was the sound of a pot being filled by the boy from a nearby hermitage. He had gone there to bring drinking water for his parents who are blind. I prostrated before him, told him that I am the king, and begged for forgiveness as it was a genuine mistake.  He was kind and solaced me saying that everything is happening as ordained by karma and I will not incur the huge sin of killing a brahmana as he is a Vaishya. However, his parents were waiting for drinking water, and he asked me to serve them with water. Before leaving the body, he asked me to pull out the arrow and he breathed his last. I went to the hermitage and met with the blind couple. They were worried waiting for the son to return and were concerned. I went and prostrated before them and told them that I am not their son, but king Dasaratha. I confessed what happened and begged for their forgiveness. They wanted me to take them to the riverbank where their son’s body was lying. I carried them to the riverbank, and they touched the body to ensure it was their son.  The sage asked me to make a funeral pyre and I did it in a hurry. To my surprise, the parents also jumped into the pyre. 

Now it is time for me to leave the body just as the sage did, grieving for his son. Ha Rama! Ha, Sita! Ha Lakshmana!” Thus, chanting their names Dasaratha took his last breath.

Bharatha’s Arrival in Ayodhya

Ayodhya was immersed in grief and the sound of ladies wailing could be heard from far. Sage Vasishta asked the attendants to put the king’s body in an oil bath so that it will not deteriorate until the king in waiting, Bharatha’s return from his uncle’s palace. He sent messengers to the kingdom of Kekaya to bring back Bharatha and Shathrughna. They went and talked to Yudhajith and got permission to bring the princes back. They were not told about their father’s passing, but they knew something was not proper. “Could it be some mishap at the palace? Is it that someone fell ill suddenly?” As they entered the city, they noticed that the whole country is seen as gloomy and lackluster, which is unheard of in Ayodhya. They reached the palace of Kaikeyi, and she embraced Bharatha and asked about her mother, brother, and the Kekaya kingdom. Bharatha was impatient and asked: “tell me, mother, how is my father? I am pained at not seeing you all for long. I thought he would be with you as he used to spend most of his time here in your palace.”

Kaikeyi was quick to reply: “My son, do not you worry a thing. I made sure that whatever is rightfully yours will be coming to you. Your illustrious father passed away amassing fame as a great king.” Hearing the news of Dasaratha’s death, Bharatha fell on the floor and started weeping uncontrollably.