Srimad Ramayana Tathva Deepika # 89 (Ba:la Ka:nda)

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Srimathe Ramanujayanamaha!

Sri Jeeyar Thiruvadigale Saranam!!

 

The ruler of this kingdom was Dasaratha. ‘Dasa’ means ten and the king who had

no obstruction to his chariot in all the ten directions is Dasaratha. The four

directions, the four corners, top and bottom - together are the ten directions.

In which ever direction he rode his chariot, he had no opposition. So he was

called Dasaratha. To confirm his eligibility to have Sri Rama as his son, his

greatness as a ruler is described first. All the required qualities for a

competent ruler are notified here.

 

1. For any king following the tenets of dharma in administering his kingdom is

his duty – and to know ‘what is dharma’ he should know vedas. Dharma is what

Veda expounds. For his own practice and to guide and encourage his subjects

to practise dharma, a king should know the ‘dharmaswarupa’ and for this he

should know the Vedas.

 

2. A king should have ‘sarva sangraha’ – should have the capacity to get all

his people to his side. He should win over the courageous with his valour, the

scholars with his scholarship, the people with his concern and his subordinates

with his benevolence. Thus he should be able to have all the sections of society

together and earn their cooperation and only then can be a good ruler.

 

3. He should be able to foresee – be able to guess the good or bad that is to

happen well in advance. This is an essential factor to safeguard his kingdom and

his people from serious dangers. Not only that, a king has to utilize his

opportunity of ruling the kingdom not just for enjoying the luxurious life in

this world but also for achieving an elevated position in the paraloka.

 

(In the next posting...)

 

Jai Srimannarayana!

Ramanujamma Mudumbai, Ramanuja Dasi...