Ramayana-Balakanda-Dasarathaplans for progeny and the incarnation

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3.DASARATHA AND PLAN FOR PROGENY- COUNSEL OF THE DEVAS

Dasaratha ruled the kingdom from Ayodhya. He was a vedavit, scholar

of vedas, loved by his subjects and so valiant that Devendra sought

his help in fighting against the asuras. He was athiratha, capable

of fighting with 10000 rathis, warriors in chariots. Since he had

all people in his control by his good qualities he is called

rajarshi.He was equal to Kubera and Indra in riches and power. Thus

Valmiki describes Dasaratha. 'Thaam pureem cha mahaathejaa raajaa

dasaratho mahaan shashaasa shamithaamithrah nakshathraaneeva

chandramaah. ' He was as pleasing to all as the moon is to the stars.

Dasaratha, besides his eight ministers , also had sages like

Vasishta and Vamadeva to advise him and lived his life accrding to

dharma, thus qualifying himself to become the father of Rama , the

embodiment of dharma. Dasaratha had everything but one, that is a

progeny. He consulted the sages and his ministers and decided to do

Asvamedha yaga and the sages and brahmins blessed him that he will

get sons through the sacrifice, 'sarvathaa praapsyase puthraan , you

will get sons' because a man is not called putravaan having only one

son, 'ekaputrah na putravaan.'

Dasaratha made arrangements for horse sacrifice, asvamedha,

which was, in those days, a grand affair and only chakravarthis could

afford to do it. A horse well decorated and laden with riches is

sent to all countries with an army and whoever reveres it are

supposed to accept the sovereignty of its owner and those who resist

its course are conquered. When the preparations were in progress

Sumanthra , who was the charioteer and the minister of Dasaratha,

told him to call Rsysrnga and make him conduct the sacrifice.

Sumanthra said he had known this from the sages who were told by

Sanatkumara that Dasaratha will be getting sons through this act.

Rsyasrnga was a munikumara , the son of Vibhaandaka whom his

father brought up with care without any sensual desire touching him.

Hence he was a pure soul. The king of Anga, whose land was suffering

with draught, was told to bring Rsyasrnga whose padasparsa will bring

rain.. He sent young girls to entice him in his father's absence and

he was brought to Angadesa and there was abundant rain. The king gave

his daughter Shantha to him in marriage.

Hearing about Rsyasringa Dasaratha went himself to Angadesa

and requested Rsyasringa to come to Ayodhya. It is said that Shantha

was actually the daughter of Dasaratha and was given in adoption to

Romapaada, king of Angadesa..Rsyasringa accepted the invitation and

came to Ayodhya. Dasaratha performed the Asvamedha yaga with all the

rshis and brahmanas and asked Rsyasrnga to perform putrakameshtiyaga

for him to get sons and Rsyasrnga agreed..

The devas who assembled ready to receive the havirbhaga of

the sacrifice to be performed, entreated Brahma to do something to

destroy Ravana who was tormenting the world and devas , arrogant with

the power of his boons from Brahma that he will be indestructible by

devas , gandharvas, yakshas, dhaanavaas and raakshasaaas. Brahma

reassured them that he never included human beings in his boon and

that fact should be utilised now

In the meanwhile the Lord Narayana Himself came there in

anticipation of their prayer in His earnestness in dushtanigraha and

sishata paripalana.Govindarajar comments beautifully the sloka that

mentions the arrival of the Lord which we will see later, along with

the lovely verse from Kamban about the same.

 

4.THE INCARNATION

 

'Ethasmin anthare vishnuh upayaatho mahaadhyuthih

shankachakragadhaapaanih peethavaasa jagatpathih

vinatheyassamaaruhya bhaskarsthoyadham yatha

Ethasnin anthare- during that time, which implies that the

Lord was waiting for this moment to fulfil His vow of

saadhusamrakshanam, dhushkrthvinaasanam and dharmasamrkshanam

under the pretext of granting the prayerof the devas for protection

from Ravana as well as that of Dasaratha for progeny. The Lord never

waits for the prapanna to come to Him but hastens to give refuge by

arriving Himself, with the same haste He showed inthe case of

Gajendra and Prahladha. This shows His soulabhya easy accessibility

due to His being sarvavyapi.

Mahaadhyuthih means great brilliance. As Sanjaya says in

the Gita when the Lord appeared in His visvarupa that the brilliance

of Him would have been equal only if a thousand suns have risen

simultaneously,such was the appearance of the Lord to the devas.

shankachakragadhaapaanih- He appeared with all His

divyaayudha in order to reassure devas.

But His brilliance was not fierce like the Sun at noon but pleasant

to look at like the rising Sun, bhaaskarah thoyadham, because he is

described as peethavaasa and thapthahaatakakeyurah , wearing His

peethambara and adorned with His divyaabharana.

Here let us see how Kamban describes the Lord when He

appeared before the devas.

karumugil thaamaraikkaadu pootthu, needu irusudar irupuratthu

Endhi,Endhu alartthiruvOdumpoliyaOr sembonkunrinmel varuvapola,

kaluzanmel vandhu thonrinaan.

Kamban in his inimitablestyle describes the Lord thus:

He is of the hue of a dark cloud and His hands,feet and eyes are like

lotuses. The shanka and chakra shine like fire on both sides He

appeared with .Mahalaksmi on Garudawho is of golden colour like a

rain bearing cloud on the peak of a golden hill. Kamban sees

thaamaraikkaadu, forest of lotuses on the form of the Lord which is

like a karumugil . The picture presented is one of wonder . A golden

hill, on the top of which is a dark cloud accompanied by lightening

which is a natural scenic sllendour but the element of wonder

consists in the cloud being endowed with a forest of lotuses, which

speaks volumes of the poetic genius of Kamban. The forest of lotuses

refers to the hands,feet and the eyes of the Lord being lotus-like as

Peyazvar puts it in mudhal thiruvandhdadhi, 'kannum kamalam kamalame

kaitthalamum mannalandha paadhamum matravaiye.'

when the Lord appeared before the devas they entreated him

to manifest Himself as the son of Dasaratha who was doing

putrakameshti yaga .' Thasya bhaaryaasu thisrushu hrisri

kirthyupamaasu cha vishno putrathvamaagacchakrthvaathmaanam

chathurvidham. ' They told Him about Ravana who was tormenting

them all. Since Ravana acquired boon from Brahma that he should not

meet his death from any being but humans , the Lord should manifest

as a human being.Ravana gave a long list of beings fromwhom he should

have ne fear but left out humanas not considering them worthy of

mention.

The Lord promised the devas that he will kill Ravana and

instructed them to be born as vanaras. He willed to manifest with His

full form with the disc, conch and sesha and hence became the four

sons of Dasaratha.Rama was the manifestationof Narayana,while

Lakshmana was of sesha,Bharatha and satrugnaof shanka and chakra.

Kamaban here describes the decision of the Lord to appear

fourfold as ''vaLaiyodu thigiriyum vadavaitheedharaviLai tharu

kaduvudai virikoL paayalum ilaiyargal ena adi parava Egi naam vaLai

madhil ayoddhi varudhum enranan.' The lrd said that He will appear

on earth as the son of Dasaratha with sankha, chakra, and sesha as

His younger brothers.

In the meanwhile Dasaratha finished the putrakameshti yaga

successfully with the grace of Rsyasringa and a purusha rose from the

sacrificial fire and gave Dasaratha pot of paayasam, sweet gruel,

and instructed him to give it to his wives so that he will get four

sons through them. The joy of Dasaratha, who was pining for one son

and now got the promise of four , is described by Valmiki

as 'babhoova paramapreethah praapya vittham iva adhanah.' He felt

like a poor man who had received a treasure.

How the paayasam was divided among the three

queens ,Kousalya, Kaikeyi and Sumitra is described in detail by

Valmiki. Dasaratha gave half of what was in the vessel to Kousalya,

she being the pattamahishi.crowned queen, and gave half of what was

remaning to Sumitra,as per seniority. Then he gave half of what

remained, that is 1/8th to Kaikeyi and the remaining 1/8th was

given to Sumitra again. So Kousalya had 1/2 of the contents, Sumitra

had 1/4+1/8 and Kaikeyi1/8.

According to this it would appear as though Rama was half

Vishnu while Lakshmana1/4th and Bharatha and Satrugna 1/8 each. But

Rajaji in his book on Ramayana says that such calculations are

meaningless because it is impossible to measure the infinite

arithmetically. Sruti tells us that even a fraction of the

SupremeBeing is whole and complete by itself.' Om

poornamadhfpoornamidham poornaath poornam udachyathe poornasya

poornam aadhaaya poornameva avasishyathe.' That is whole;.this is

whole;what has come out of the whole is also whole. When the whole is

taken out of the whole, the whole still remains whole.

It sounds mind boggling! Not really .Let us examine this. We

know that the Lord is everywhere. Does it mean that He fragments

himself and is present in all beings? No. He is present everywhere

in His complete form only..For example it is not possible to cut the

AkAsa into parts because it is one whole.But the space inside the pot

is seen as ghatAkAsa while the space outside is mahAkAsa. But both

are the same and forms one whole. Similarly the Brahman being one

whole is present everywhere as one.whole..

Rama was born to Kausalya which Valmiki describes as '

prodhyamaane jagannaathamsarvaloka namaskrtham kausalyaa ajanayath

raamam sarvalakshanasamyutham ' The Lord of the universe,

worshipped by all the worlds was born to Kausalya with all the

saamudrikaa lakshanaas. Kaikeyi had Bharatha whose birth syar pushya

was next to that of Rama, namely punarvasu and Lakshmana was born to

Sumithra along with Sathrugna, having aaslesha, which is known as

saarpa , of the sarpa as he is seshaamsa.

Dasratha performed the rituals of namakarana, naming ceremony after

giving gifts to all. 'jyeshtam raamam mahaathmaanam bharatham

kaikayeesutham soumithrim lakshmanam ithi sathrugnam aparam thatha'.

The names are explained by Sri Govindaraja swami as follows:'ramanthe

gunairasmin ithi raamah,' all love him,ramanthe, who is endowed with

his innumerable lovable qualities,,mahaathmaanam.Therefore he is

named Raama...Bharatathawas named so as he was going to bear the

burden of the kingdom, 'bharatha ithi raajyasya bharanaath' Lakshmana

was lakshmisampannah possessor of the wealth of service ,

kaimkarayalakshmi and hence named so. Sathrugna means destroyer of

enemies, lnternal and external.. Vasishta who had the knowledge of

past, present and future named the princes thus.

Of the four Raama was extolled as 'theshaam kethuriva sreshto

Raamo rathikarafpithuh babhoova bhooyo bhoothaanaam svambhooriva

sammmathah.' He was the kethu, the banner of the clan and most dear

to his fathe and later to he people of Ayodhya. All thefour of them

became well versed in the vedas and vedangas and valiant and

protective, kind and wise. Raama was described as sathyaparaakrama,

infallible in his adherence to sathya, glorious and loved by all.He

was proficient in battle and bowmanship , above all intent on serving

his father.

Raama and Lakshmana were inseparable in eating or playing or

in sleep from childn hood.. Valmiki describes Lakshmana as being

another life breath, praana, outside the body for Raama, 'bahih

praana ivaaparah.' Lakshmana being seshaamsa naturally inseparable

from Purushotthama and follows Him everywhere. Satrugna was to

bharatha as lakshmana was to Raama.

After the birth the proficiency of the princes in the

kshathriya dharma is described and the epic deals next with the plan

of their father for their marriage. The chilhood of Raama is skipped

in both Valmiki and Kamaban and it was left to Tualsidas and later to

Thyagaraja to enjoy Raama as a child. Valmiki now says, ' Atha raajaa

dasarathah theshaam dhaarakriyaam prathi chinthayaamaasa dharmaathmaa

sopaadhyaayahsabhaandhavah.' Dasartha being dharmaathmaa, started

thinking about the marriage of his sons along with his guru and

relatives. The word dharmaathmaa implies that he is anxious to get

everything done at the right time and age according to the

injunctions of dharmasasthra. As soon as he thought about the

marriage Visvamithra, who was going tobe instrumental in that arrived

at the gate.