Namasthe- Seetha Devi

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

This is a story from Devi Bhgavatham:

 

King Kushadwajan and his wife Maalaavathi lost all their wealth and fortune. So they decided to do severe penance to please Mahalakshmi. Finally Mahalakshami appeared and promised them that she would be born as their daughter. They patiently waited continuously praying Mahalkshmi with Veda manthras and in one auspicious moment, a small girl was born from King Kushdwaja's mouth. With the birth of that baby, Kushadwaja got back all his wealth and fortune. Because she was born as a result of their chanting of auspicious vedamanthraas, they named her Vedavathi.

 

Vedavathi was the personification all goodness and beauty and she desired to get Mahavishnu as her husband. Once an asura or demon called Shambhu came to Kushadwaja's palace and happened to see beautiful Vedavathi. Shambhu fell for her beauty and requested Kushdwaja to give her in marriage. Kushdwaja flatly refused the request and the angry demon immediately killed him. Vedavathi who saw her beloved father being murdered by this asura, burnt him to death with the fire of anger and sorrow from her eyes.

After that she went to the forest to do severe penance. During this time, demon King Ravana was passing through the same forest after winning over the three worlds. He was very arrogant and proud of his success and he saw beautiful Vedavathi performing penance. Ravana requested Vedavathi to become his wife and Vedavathi refused. Ravana tried to snatch her with force and Vedavathi burnt her body which became impure by Ravana's touch in the forest fire she created. Before jumping into the fire, she cursed Ravana: " in my next janma, I will marry Mahavishnu's incarnation as Rama and and my husband Sree Ramachandra Prabhu will kill you " .

Ravana was very upset and took the ashes of Vedavathi in a golden pot and took it with him to Lanka. Since then there were several ill omens in Lanka and Ravana was worried. Once Narada Muni told Ravana to discard the pot containing Vedavathi's ashes somewhere outside Lanka to bring back peace and harmony in Lanka. So Ravana discarded it in the sea and ocean current took it to Bhaaratha. Some fishermen saw this and they took and hid it in a forest nearby a river. They forgot where they hid the pot and it remained there undisturbed.

During this time Janaka Maharaja of Mithila chose this same river bank to do Yaagam. When he was ploughing the yaaga bhoomi as part of the rituals, he saw this golden pot and to his surprise, he heard the cry of a small baby from this pot. He opened the pot and saw a beautiful girl inside. She took her out and named her Seetha because she was found in the " sitha " or ploughing channel of the yaagabhoomi. Seetha Devi later married Sree Rama Bhagavaan and became the cause of Ravana's death.

Regards and prayers

Savitri.