Untold stories of the RAMAYANA

Introduction

2007-03-01T03:14:00.001-08:00

There are innumerable Vaikuntha planets, and in each planetthere is a predominating deity who is an expansion of Visnu. He hasthree expansions, and then there are the quadruple expansions, andthen there are servants and devotees. In this way the Vaikunthaplanets are full of activity. The top of Vaikuntha, before onereaches Goloka, the gateway to Goloka is Ayodhya. In Ayodhya is LordSri Ramacandra, and Laksmana, Bharata, Satrughna, Sumantra, Dasaratha,Kausalya, all these characters we find in Ramayana are eternalcitizens of this Ayodhya. And from this planet Lord Ramacandraexpands into His Rama-avatar, through milk ocean Visnu, KsirodakasayiVisnu. In every Treta-yuga there is Rama-avatar. One may think, "Ohthat must be boring. Every time the same activity." But it is neverboring. How many times have we heard these Ramayana stories, butstill when someone is reading Ramayana, everyone comes. To hear isnot boring, so to experience it can't be boring at all. That is theproof. Ramayana has been heard generations and generations. In allcountries. In Indonesia they have their Ramayana. In Malaysia theyhave their Ramayana. In Thailand, even in Jamaica and Africa. Justa little bit different for every culture. Indonesian Ravana is a bigcrocodile, and they carry him on sticks. In Bangkok, Thailand allthe roads are names Rama 1, Rama 2, Rama 5 etc. So the purpose ofthe avatar is described in Brahma-samhita: lilayatena bhuvananijayaty ajasram / govindam adi-purusam tam aham bhajami. The livingentities have forgotten their relation with Krsna. And they havebeen conquered by maya, illusory energy. Krsna bahirmukha haya bhogavancha kori / nikata stha maya tare japatiya dhare. The conditioned soul has been caught by maya. The Lord comes to reconquer them. That is the mission of the avatar incarnation of the Lord.

Chapter 1: Dasaratha`s desire for a child

2007-03-01T03:13:00.000-08:00

Ramacandra appeared in the Iksvaku dynasty. He is known as IksvakuKuladhana. Kula means "dynasty" and dhana means "property" or"valuable jewel." So he is the jewel of the Iksvaku dynasty.Dasaratha was known as such because he could fight in ten directionssimultaneously. Dasaratha was such a great fighter that sometimesIndra would summon for him when there was a fight with the demons.So Dasaratha would go to the heavenly planets and fight with thedemons. And these demons were so expert with maya, they wouldcreate darkness, expand into various forms etc. So Dasaratha wouldfight in ten directions, and when you looked at his ratha, hischariot, it would look as though there were ten kings and tenchariots fighting simultaneously. Dasa means "ten" and ratha means"chariot". That is how he got the name Dasaratha. So Dasaratha wasfamous for fighting for demigods and righteous kings. And hemarried Kausalya. From Kausalya, only one daughter was born. Shewas named Shanti, or "peace." But Dasaratha had no peace, becausehe only had one daughter, and that daughter would only get marriedand go to another dynasty. The Vedic system is that when a womanmarries, she belongs to the husband's gotra or family line. So ifShanti married to another dynasty, she would belong to it. Whatabout the Iksvaku dynasty? Dasaratha was so worried. Then hemarried Sumitra. At least Kausalya had a daughter, but Sumitra hadno child. Then Dasaratha was getting old. He gave up the idea ofproducing dynasties. As he was getting older he saw that some lesspowerful kings were doing small yajnas, so he did big yajnas. Theywere trying to get their name known, because once Dasaratha diedKosala would be broken. The kingdom of Kosala started all the wayfrom what they now call the Dalai lama's line. From up in thenorth, in Tibet, all the way down to the river Godavari in AndhraPradesh. So this was Kosala, practically it was the whole of India,not the democratic India but the Vedic India. So he was very worriedthat this kingdom will be broken to pieces and some small-timers willbecome emperors. Then Vasistha advised him to go to Kaikeya. Thiskingdom was right on the border of Afghanistan. They now call it theSind region. Kaikeyi was the only daughter of the king of Kaikeya.The king's name was also Kaikeya. And when Dasaratha came formarriage negotiation, Kaikeya told him, "You have two queens, andthey both have no children. Now you will marry my daughter, but whatwill happen to her if the other wives have children?" Dasarathareplied, "I don't think they will have children because they have hadnone up to now. I am also getting old. They're not going to get anychild. Only Kaikeyi will get a child." So Kaikeya said, "That's allright, but you must give this in writing." There is a system in theksatriya marriage known as kanya-sulka. Sulka means "will". Whenyou accept a virgin in marriage, you must give in writing whatproperties she will enjoy as your wife if you are a ksatriya. Thisis kanya-sulka, the "will of dowry." So Dasaratha wrote kanya-sulka.He said, "Whoever is born to Kaikeyi will enjoy my kingdom, even ifmy other wives produce children later." This kanya-sulka was knownto three people. Of course, now we all know it, but at that timeonly three people knew it. Vasistha knew it, Dasaratha knew it, andKaikeya knew it. It was kept a secret, because otherwise they wouldblame Dasaratha, "What is this? He is giving the kingdom to ayounger woman." So this kanya-sulka was kept secret. But at thetime of the marriage, due to great attachment, Kaikeya told hisdaughter this secret, that whoever is your son will rule thiskingdom. Kaikeyi kept this at heart. Once Vasistha advisedDasaratha to perform asvamedha-yajna. He was telling him, "If youperform asvamedha-yajna, then all the demigods will personally cometo accept the oblations." There are two kinds of offering oblationsto the yajna. One is that Agni will take the oblations and offer itto the different destinations. Another is that the devas willpersonally come in the sacrificial arena. They will stand in thesky holding their hands open, and when you offer in their name inthe fire then the harvest will get up from the fire and go intotheir hands. And they will eat it right there in front ofeveryone,. These types of sacrifices are considered first-class,because the devas have come in person. So Dasaratha should performasvamedha, and all the devas will come. And then Dasaratha willtell them, "You have your kingdom only because of my fighting. Sowhy don't you continue my dynasty and give me blessings that I canget some son?" That was the plan. There was a big arrangement forasvamedha-yajna, and wherever Dasaratha's horse went, no-oneobjected. Asvamedha-yajna means that you have to select a horsewith certain lakshanas or qualities. The ears have to be a certainway, the nose a certain way. There has to be a black part behindthe tail. The hooves have to be a certain shape, 35 degrees bent.There is a whole description in karma-khanda. So you have to findout that horse, and after finding it you have to tie a golden leafon his head. There it will be written, "This horse belongs to KingDasaratha. He will perform asvamedha-yajna, so everyone shoulddonate liberally. And whoever stops this horse will have to meetthe army of King Dasaratha." So this horse will go around the wholeworld, and if any king dares to stop the horse there will be onearmy which is following about 100 metres behind the horse. Theywill have to meet that army. This army would consist of the bestfighters in the army, all the generals, and if one can defeat thatthen more army would be sent. In this way the challenger would haveto fight and prove that he is the emperor. So asvamedha-yajna wasalready started, and then when the yajna was going on, Sumantra (theminister of Dasaratha) came to Dasaratha and said, "I remember oneincident when Sanat-kumara came to our assembly, when you were aprince." At that time Dasaratha was not married, and Sanat-kumarawas visiting Dasaratha's father, Aja. Sanat-kumara made somepredictions. "Maharaja Dasaratha will become very famous throughoutthe three worlds, and he will perform a putra-kamesti yajna, asacrifice for getting a son. So in this sacrifice, theyajna-purusha, the personification of fire, will come there and givehim some sweet rice. And out of this sweet rice Dasaratha will getthe Supreme Lord as his sons." This was predicted by Sanat-kumara.At that time Dasaratha was just an unmarried prince, a brahmacari.So Sumantra was a very old man and he suddenly remembered this. Hecame to Dasaratha and said, "You are doing asvamedha for getting ason, but Sanat-kumara told you that you should do putra-kamesti." Sothen there was confusion over which yajna should be performed. InTreta-yuga everything was yajna. For material benefits, forspiritual realization, for anything tretayam yajato makhaih. Makhameans "yajna". Now Dasaratha got confused. So he went to Vasistha'shouse and prostrated himself before him. "Guru maharaja, we havespent 60% of the treasury, and now we come to know that this is notthe proper yajna, that there is another yajna. How am I supposed todo this?" So then Vasistha said, "Oh yes, I remember too now.Sanat-kumara said this. It is not a very expensive yajna, but thepurohit, the priest who performs the yajna must be a very specialperson. That is the difficulty. That person must have not seen awoman until the time of his marriage. He should not have even knownwhat a woman is. Such a great personality must perform the yajna.Then only can the putra-kamesti be performed with the purnahoti andwe will get a son." Then Dasaratha said, "You must tell me wherethis person is." Vasistha was a walking encyclopedia, because he hadbeen there three lifetimes with the same remembrance. There isno-one in this world who knows better than Vasistha. So Vasisthasaid, "Yes, there is a person like that." Das aratha said, "Who isthis person? He has never seen a woman or known what a woman isuntil marriage? At least he must have known about his mother! Whatkind of a person is he, that he has never heard of a woman yet he hastaken birth?"

Chapter 2: Story of Risyasringa

2007-03-01T03:12:00.000-08:00

So then Vasistha told the story of Rsayasrnga. Srnga means"horns" or "a person possessing horns." Rsa means "deer," soRsayasrnga means "a human possessing horns." He is a human beingwith deer horns who performs yajna and speaks Sanskrit. Vasisthasaid, "I will tell you the story of Rsayasrnga. Long ago, KashyapaMuni produced a son while meditating on the sunlight. While he wasmeditating on the sunlight, suddenly he thought of a personality.When he thought of a personality, that person would come intoexistence. And he would come out of his mind. Kashyapa wasPrajapati, "progenitor." And this person was known as Vibondaka. Assoon as Vibondaka came out of Kashyapa's mind, he went to the deepestforests in Madhya Pradesh which is now very famous as Chandal Valley.All the dacoits are there. That is where Vibondaka went, and heperformed ugra-tapasa, very severe austerities. He was onlyperforming tapasa for self-realization, but Indra was worried. Indrahas a special secretary for this department. He gives him a list ofpeople who are performing austerities, because he is so worried thatthey may become the opposition and may even try to usurp his ownseat. So when he heard the name Vibondaka he asked, "What kind oftapasa is he doing?" The secretary mentioned to him, "He isperforming such huge austerities that if he were to ever get angry,this whole universe would be burnt to ashes. And if he ever thinksof anything, it will automatically come to him without his having toperform any sacrifice. This is the potency of his tapovalam." Indrasaid, "Then he is my candidate. I will have to work on him." Hethought of all the damsels on his planet, and he decided, "These areno good." So then he went to Satyaloka, Brahma's planet. InSatyaloka there are damsels who are self-realized souls. They danceonly for the pleasure of the deity that Brahma keeps for worship.Indra, for his political purpose, wanted to pollute these damsels.So he went to Brahma, but he couldn't spend much time there becauseif you are too long in Brahma's planet by the time you return yourtime will be over, So Indra said, "Give me the best damsel, quickly!I have to go!" So Brahma said, "All right, take this one." Therewas one lady called Harsha, because she was always smiling. Harshacame with Indra, and even while flying with Harsha, Indra couldunderstand that he was so greedy and lusty, and this woman was sosaintly and serene, always meditating on the Absolute Truth. He wasthinking, "What happens if I send her and they both become self-realized?" Indra wanted something wrong to happen. So he fell atthe feet of Harsha, and said, "Please, protect my seat." Harshasaid, "I don't think that this Vibondaka desires to enjoy anything."Because she was sitting in Satyaloka she could see Vibondaka and whattype of austerity he was doing. So she said, "You are unnecessarilysending me there, and I may even get burnt by his anger. But becauseBrahma has told then I am coming with you. Vibondaka has no suchmaterial desires. He won't even look at me. I don't know how I'mgoing to attract him and make him fall." Indra said, "I don't knowwhat you will do, but at least get it confirmed from him that he hasno desire to become Indra. Then my position is safe." So Harshasaid, "All right, I will do it. Whatever is given to me as a missionI will accomplish." So Harsha came to that valley, and Vibondaka wascoming from the Ganges and going to his ashrama. So she came and satthere, and chanted mantras. There are different ways of making peoplefall down. Whatever is your weak spot, that can be used.Vibondaka's weak spot was mantras and meditation, so she startedchanting mantras. Vibondaka was so absorbed, and then suddenly heheard this clear pronunciation of Vedic mantras, clearer thananything else he had ever heard anywhere in the three planets. Heturned back and looked at her, and immediately she fell at his feet.She said, "Only for the prayer of getting tras. Vedic mantras whichare chanted should not go in vain. Somebody must give abenediction, and I don't want this benediction from anyone else, noteven from Brahma. I only want It from you. If you don't acceptthis request, then I will perform austerities and I will leave mybody. And brahma-hatya will come to you." In this way sheblackmailed him. So Vibondaka said, "What is this? I am justtrying to peacefully think of God. Why is this trouble coming?" Sohe looked at her and said, "I am Vibondaka, and I have no interestin this world. I don't know why I was even sent here, but Kashyapaproduced me. I am just trying to go away from here. What is this,giving you a son? You can't get a son from anywhere else? Youmention any other person, and I will command him to give you a son.If you want a son from Brahma, I will request him. If you want ason from my father Kashyapa, I will request him. Why me, in thewhole creation?" So she said, "No, only you. You are the onlyperson who should give me a son." And then he said, "No this is notpossible. I am not going to do it. If you have been even beenthinking about me like that, that is bad for me." And then he said,"Here is the potency from my body. You can arrange for getting ason." And he dropped some semen and left. Harsha then understoodthat Indra had nothing to fear, so her mission was fulfilled. Butthis shukla coming out of the body of Vibondaka, was there burningthe whole world. She was now responsible for it, she had to directit somewhere. She did not want to hold it and produce a son,because that was only a trick she was using. But when she looked upshe saw a very transcendental deer moving around there. Soimmediately by her potency, she put the semen in the body of thedeer, and the deer conceived a child. Since it was the conceptionof a rishi, it did not stay for more than a night. The nextmorning, the deer delivered a baby. It had a human form, but withdeer horns. This was Rsayasrnga. So this deer ran to the ashrama ofVibondaka and started crying. Vibondaka saw this and thought, "Whyare these things happening to me? Some lady wants a son, and now adeer is crying in my ashrama." So Vibondaka asked the deer, "What iswrong? Who is giving you trouble?" The deer started walking awayand Vibondaka followed. The deer brought him to where Rsayasrngawas, and Vibondaka saw this shining young baby with deer horns. Hethought, "Oh, this is my son. If nobody wants him, then I will takecare of him." Then Vibondaka thought, "Now I know why I was senthere, for some reason. Kashyapa did not conceive me for nothing. Iam supposed to conceive this son, and God knows what he is going toconceive." So Vibondaka brought him to the ashrama and gave himmilk. He taught him Vedas and Upanishads and philosophy. There wasno woman in that forest, which was yojanas wide. There was not evenany tigresses, only tigers. So Rsayasrnga had no idea of women. Hegrew up, and for everything he was depending on his father. He wouldask his father, "Father, can I take this book and read?" And if hisfather said yes, then he would do it. He would ask, "Father, shouldI brush my teeth?" And if the father said yes, he would brush histeeth. He was so dependent on his father. He would always walkeverywhere holding his father's hand. In this way Rsayasrnga grew upto be the most innocent person in the creation. Lord Ramacandra hadto appear, and if he was to appear then the yajna-purusha has to givethe khir, and if that khir is to come, then the yajna has to beperformed by someone who has never seen a woman. Lord Ramacandra'sadvent was not that easy. This whole story is already in VisnuPurana. In this way Rsayasrnga was growing up, never hearing of anywoman. Dasaratha, when his daughter was born to Kausalya, he wasthinking, "What shall I do with this daughter?" Then one day, fromAngadesha, the country of Anga, Dasaratha's friend Romapada (whichmeans "hair y feet") was hankering for a child too. He had somesons, but he had no daughter. This is the material world. He whohas daughters, he is hankering for a son. And he who has sons ishankering for a daughter. And he who has no children, they arehoping for children, and those who have children are thinking "How toget rid of them," and they send them to Gurukula. So Romapada cameto Dasaratha and said, "You are my very good friend, and you have nosons. You always think, `What is the use of a daughter?' And I wanta daughter, so why don't you give her to me?" And Dasaratha said,"All right, you can have her." So he gave Shanti in adoption to theking of Angadesha known as Romapada. Romapada brought Shanti to hiskingdom. And whether it way the girl's misfortune or the king'smisfortune, the second day was the day the rainy season was supposedto start but there was no rain. The whole rainy season went by andthere was no rain. The second rainy season also went by with norain. A big famine came about. So the king went to the astrologerand asked him, "Why is there famine in my kingdom? Is it due to thisdaughter? Everyone is saying it is due to her." They found out thatduring some yajna that had been performed by Romapada he had cheateda Brahmin. He first promised him, "I will give you this much amountof diamonds," but while he was counting the diamonds to be given asdakshina, he found one diamond which was very valuable, and hethought, "What is the Brahmin going to do with this?" So he took itout, and put a bigger diamond in its place, which was less valuable.When he gave the bag of diamonds to the Brahmin, the Brahmin touchedthe bag and said, "You cheated me! You removed one of these diamondsand put a bigger diamond to cheat me." It was inside the bag, andthe king was thinking, "How does he know this?" The Brahmin said, "Iam a Brahmin, so I know this. You are cheating, so all the Brahminswill leave this country." So he formed a big union and all theBrahmins wa lked out of the country. No more Brahmins means no moreyajna, and it was Treta-yuga, so no yajna means no food. The kingwas wondering what to do, so slowly from here and there he collectedsome Brahmins from other countries, and he brought them onimmigration, so they couldn't stay long. These Brahmins were comingand going, and in this way he was running his kingdom. Now faminehad come due to this curse, and the fact that all the Brahmins hadleft his country. So the astrologer said, "So to solve this problem,you have to bring all the Brahmins back." Romapada said, "But theseBrahmins have formed a union. They won't come back." "They willcome back if you bring one person here." Romapada asked, "Who isthat?" "There is one rishi. He has never seen a woman. And hedoesn't even know what is a woman. That person must come, and hemust marry your daughter. If that rishi stays in your kingdom, thenthe Brahmins will not stay anywhere else. They will come here,because he is such a learned person. To see him, they will come.And after they come, they will stay." So now he had to get thisRsayasrnga, and he was thinking "How to get him?" So he asked thisto his ministers, and they said, "Rsayasrnga is not an easy object,his father is Vibondaka. If Vibondaka gets angry he will burn theuniverse to ashes. If you try to get his son he will get angry, andthen there is no necessity of yajna or rain, because the wholeuniverse will be burnt, and you will also be burnt." "So what todo?" Romapada asked. "You have to use some trick," his ministersreplied. Then they advised him, "You must go and consult the societygirls, the famous prostitutes of the country." So then Romapada madean announcement, "Special interview with the prostitutes of thecountry." They all came, and they were thinking it had something todo with dance or music, or something like that. But when they heardthat they had to bring Rsayasrnga, then they ran away becauseeverybody knew this person. However, one lady came up, and she said,"For the benefit of my country, I will sacrifice myself. I will try;if he comes, that's good. Then the kingdom will be happy. If hedoesn't come, only a prostitute will be killed. What's the problem?I don't care, I will go." Romapada asked, "What do want in return?""I don't want anything, let the country be happy." "What help do youneed?" Romapada asked. "Your treasury, whenever I go, must open.And if I want anything from any department, they must say yes,because you must know I am sacrificing my life." So the king gaveher a special green card. Anywhere she goes, anything she wants shewould get. She made a boat which was four miles long and twomiles wide. On top of the boat she made an ashrama. This boat wastotally covered with trees and bushes, flower gardens, lakes anddeer. All kinds of things she put in there. And thousands of peoplewere rowing the boat, but you couldn't see anything, it was allcovered by bushes. There were pathways, small mountains, waterfalls,everything was created. It looked like a island, but it was moving.No-one knew what it was. They all though it was the gandharvas whohave come. It was a special ashrama, no men. Only women were there.No tigers, only tigresses. It was filled up with women. They allhad rudrakshas, tulasi-malas, jasmine flowers tied up in their hair,and they were all praying, doing meditation and chanting mantras.This boat was floating so nicely down the river, and somehow or otherthey got it into Madhya Pradesh. So as they reached Vibondaka'sashrama, Vibondaka went out to help a sage who had gotten stuck inthe mouth of an elephant. He was calling, "Save me! Save me!" Andno-one heard him, only Vibondaka. So he told Rsayasrnga, "You mustperform the yajna three times daily. Don't worry about cleaning theashrama, because it's too big for you. Just perform the yajna till Iget back." When Vibondaka left, the demigods made arrangements andgot him involved in so many other things so that Rsayasrnga was leftby hi mself. Rsayasrnga went to the river to take water for theyajna, and he saw this moving ashrama. He'd never been anywhere, buthe'd studied a lot of shastra, and he'd never heard of anything likethis before. And whenever the description came of women, Vibondakawould never explain it. He would never read such parts. In this wayhe was kept brainwashed to be a brahmacari. He looked at thisashrama, "This is so nice." And then he saw some figures in there."What kind of rishis are these? This is a different type of rishi."He became very eager. "Anyway, if they are in the area, they mustvisit my father's ashrama." And they did come. They just made surethat Vibondaka was not around, and then three of the great saintlypeople walked out of the boat. And then they came, raising theirhands and calling "Rsayasrnga! Rsayasrnga!" Usually when the rishiscame they called for Vibondaka. So he saw these rishis coming, andhe went and addressed them. And after addressing them he was asking,"Where are you coming from? Which planet? What mantras do youchant? How come by the touch of your bodies all my hairs arestanding on end? Why am I having such romancha?" They were smilingat each other, and they said, "We are rishis from another place, itis eight yojanas from here. It is an island, and no human beingscome there. We are born with perfection. We came to see yourfather. We know that you are very learned, so in our moving ashrama,we want you to come and stay for a few days." Rsayasrnga said, "Iwould be very happy to do that, but my father is not here. I don'teven brush my teeth unless my father tells me to. So how will I goaway from here, and who will perform the yajna three times daily?"One lady said, "I will do it, I am expert in this line." And she satdown. Somehow Rsayasrnga fell pray for this. These were saintlypeople, so why shouldn't they do yajna? And they looked different,very attractive. He couldn't understand what the tejas was that wascoming from that bod y and attracting him. He didn't know it waslust. This was never explained to him. So he left that lady theredoing yajna, and they had a flower ladder from the ashrama up to thebank of the river. This ashrama was filled with saintly people, sosomehow they engaged him in listening to music, and dancing and somany other things, and slowly they came to Angadesha. In Angadeshathere was big reception arranged for Rsayasrnga, brahmacariincarnate. There was purna-kumbha and there was mantras andBrahmins. The Brahmins all came to know that Rsayasrnga was coming,and they came and waited there. He was worshipped like anything. Hesaw more saintly people were sitting there in that country, and theywere sitting with other saintly people. Then he started realizingthat something was wrong in his understanding. He asked the king,"Why have you brought me here?" But as soon as he stepped off theboat, rain came. And people were all happy, they were showeringakshada and touching his feet. All the people came and told him,"You must never leave our country. You must become the son-in-law ofour king." He didn't know what son-in-law meant. So then they hadto have special classes for him to explain how to become ason-in-law. Then he understood everything and finally he blessed theking by marrying Shanti, Dasaratha's daughter. In the meantimeVibondaka had returned to his ashrama, and saw this lady sittingthere offering ghee into the fire. He grabbed her by the hair andsaid, "Who are you? What are you doing with my fire? It's been herefor six thousand years. You came and contaminated it. What are youdoing?" She said, "I am not this body. I am spirit soul."Vibondaka said, "That's very nice, that you're not this body, but youare not supposed to do this." So then she said, "No no, Rsayasrngatold me to do this." So he said, "So come on tell me, where isRsayasrnga? What did you do to him? There was one man in this worldwho was pure, and you spoiled him too!" And then the lady said,"What could we do, this was a nationalistic se rvice. We are servingthe nation. In the service of our nation we have done something sowe will go to heavenly planet." So then Vibondaka said, "I'm goingto curse that king, that Angadesha Raja! He's getting rain, but Iwill see that he gets nothing any more." The lady fell at his feetand said, "At least do the curse there. Then he will know you arecursing him. Don't do the curse from here." "All right," he said.He was so angry, but Romapada was so clever, he was arranging formany Brahmins chanting mantras, glorifying Vibondaka, showingpictures of Kashyapa Muni just to attract him. But Vibondaka cameand said, "Where is the king? Bring him here!" Romapada came andbegged, "Please don't curse me! Already there are enough curses!All that I have done is that I have made your son the king of thiscountry." So then something dawned on Vibondaka. "My son has becomethe king of this country. Now he has become the king, he has toprotect the citizens. If I curse, then the blame is on him becausehe couldn't protect his citizens." So then he called his son,"Rsayasrnga, come here." Rsayasrnga came, and Vibondaka said, "Allright, as soon as one son is born, you must be back in the ashrama.You understand?" This was the time when Dasaratha was told, byVasistha Muni, the story. And Vasistha said, "If you personally go,then Rsayasrnga may come." So Dasaratha started, with all hisparaphernalia, his seven akshauhini-shainyas, and arrived inAngadesha. Romapada was thinking, "What is this? Suddenly Dasarathais coming with his army. He is going to fight with me or what?" Sohe came with a white flag. "There is no question that your army caneven stay in my country. Your army is so big that they can only juststand inside my country, not much more. Why are you coming withseven akshauhini-shainyas?" Dasaratha said, "No, I am just coming torequest Rsayasrnga to come and perform a yajna for me." Romapadasaid, "I don't know. I don't know how long the yajna will be. I'm not going to play any more tricks, becausealready Vibondaka has told him, `One son and you are back in theashrama'." Dasaratha said, "I will fall at his feet. He hasprotected your kingdom, why will he not save my country too? Whywill he not do it?" So Dasaratha went there, paid his pranams, andhe cried and told Rsayasrnga, "I have no hope. I will jump in thefire of asvamedha instead of the horse, if you don't come." So thenRsayasrnga calculated, "How many days are left?" It was 28 days morebefore the delivery. "That's all right. In 24 days I will come anddo putra-kamesti." So he came, and right next to the asvamedha-yajnahe created another fire from that, and he quickly startedputra-kamesti. And when he was finishing with the purnahoti, theyajna-purusha came, a dark, black figure which was three miles tall.He had a huge big pot in his hand. He was holding Narayana in it, soit was no small affair. He said to Dasaratha, "Please give thissweet rice to your queens." Dasaratha was looking at the size of thepot, and he was thinking, "If I give this to my queens, then therewill be no more queens." It was a huge big pot. Dasaratha askedVasistha, "How is this possible? How can they eat this much sweetrice?" So then Vasistha said, "You ask Rsayasrnga, he will tellyou." Rsayasrnga asked the yajna-purusha, "Why are you giving such abig pot to these human beings that they can't even hold it?" Theyajna-purusha said, "The personality who is coming is so powerful,that you can't reduce him smaller than this." Then Rsayasrnga closedhis eyes and said, "Ah! Bigger than the biggest, and smaller thatthe smallest. He is in this pot. You give it to me." So he tookthe pot, and it became small. By the request of Rsayasrnga the Lordreduced His aishvarya, and the pot became small. He gave it toDasaratha and said, "All right, I have two days to get to my ashrama.In between I have to take care of the delivery." So Dasaratha tookthe sweet rice. He gave half of it to Kausalya. The remainder hesplit in two, one for Sumitra and one to Kaikeyi. After Kaikeyidrank it, there was still some left, so that was also given toSumitra. In this way the Lord came as Lord Ramacandra in Kausalya'swomb. He came as Laksmana and Satrughna in Sumitra's womb, and hecame as Bharata in Kaikeyi's womb. Vasudeva came as Ramacandra,Sankarsana came as Laksmana. The Sudarshan disc came as Bharata, andthe Pancajanya conchshell came as Satrughna.

Chapter 3; Ramacandra`s childhood

2007-03-01T03:11:00.000-08:00

Now Lord Ramacandra took His advent on the earth planet, and he wasgrowing up. He was learning archery in the ashrama of Vasistha.When the first lesson started, Vasistha told Dasaratha, "I don't wantyou to be here when your son is learning archery." Dasaratha said,"It is the tradition that the king sits there and watches the son,how he holds the bow." Vasistha said, "Yes, but it is not thetradition that you produce children from sweet rice." So Dasarathawent back, and the education started in confidence. When Ramacandra,Laksmana, Satrughna, and Bharata were sitting, Vasistha got up fromhis seat and circumambulated them. That is why he got Dasaratha out,otherwise there would be confusion. And then Vasistha said, "Youalways do this. Whenever you take an incarnation, You select a rishito become Your guru. And he has to teach You this knowledge of whichYou are the source. So please excuse me if I commit some offence."One day Rama and Laksmana saw a girl walking one day with a huge nosering. In India the women wear big nose rings, sometimes so big thatwhen they go on the bus the woman's son can hold it. So she had thishuge nose ring, and she was walking with a water-pot. Laksmanalooked at it and he laughed. He said, "Look at that nose ring! It'sso big." Ramacandra said to him, "Vasistha is looking away, so letus do some pastime." So they looked around and they saw an arrow.They took that arrow, but they had not been taught yet how to doarchery. "I will make this small," Laksmana said, and he shot thearrow. While the girl was walking, the arrow came next to her noseand started pouring some sort of mystical substance on the nose ring,which became so small that it got stuck on her nose and she couldn'tbreathe. Then she dropped the water-pot, and she was trying tobreathe but she can only breath in one nostril and she was veryconfused, so she began to call, "Help! Help!" Laksmana said, "Ohno, now Vasistha will hear and we will have a problem." Ramacandrasaid, "Don't wo rry," and he shot another arrow. That arrow made itbig enough that she could breathe. So she turned around and said,"What is this you are doing to me?" Laksmana replied, "Oh, we madeyour nose ring small, but it was too small so then we made it big.""You made it big and then small?" she asked. "I don't believe it.""Oh, you don't believe it?" Laksmana asked, "So then we will take itoff." Laksmana then shot another arrow which took the nose ring outof her nose, and all this was happening without touching her face.And then the nose ring was flying in the sky, and she began to cryout, "My nose ring! My nose ring!" Very quickly Rama fired anotherarrow and put the nose ring back in the nose. These were some of thechildhood pastimes of Ramacandra. All these childhood pastimes areall archery and bows and arrows. Anyway, Rama was growing up and oneday a rishi came, Visvamitra Muni. He came in the entrance of thepalace, and he said to the messenger, "Where is that Dasaratha? Youtell him that Kaushika is here." He is known as Kaushika because heis coming in the dynasty of Kusha. Kusha and Kushanabha were greatkings. In the Bhagavatam you read about them. So Kaushika was knownfor his anger. If he gets angry, he would curse and he will use allhis tapovalam, all the strength of his austerity simply to place someobstacle. On one occasion he was sitting doing his meditation, and abird passed stool on him. It's natural for a bird to pass stool, andit's natural for a rishi to sit under a tree. But stool on the headwas not natural, and Visvamitra was very upset. He looked at thebird and burnt it. In burning that bird he used 50 years worth oftapovalam, because that bird had a long lifetime and he reduced itand suppressed it by his tapovalam, so now he lost the strength ofthat austerity. Then he got up and said, "This situation will makeme remember that incident always, so now I will go to another tree."Then he would perform more austerity for another thousand y ears, andhe was spending his whole life like this. So Dasaratha looked atVasistha and said, "Kaushika is here. What am I supposed to do? Idon't know what wrong I did, why he came to my palace, because heonly goes to curse people or kill a demon or something." Vasisthasaid, "First of all, you must go from here to the messenger, and tellhim to say that `The whole kingdom is yours. I am just taking twominutes to walk to the entrance. Please don't lose your temper'."So the messenger went back to Visvamitra and said, "King Dasarathasaid that the whole kingdom is yours. He will take only two minutesto walk here. He wants you to be peaceful and take this nice asana."Visvamitra said, "I don't want any asana! Where is the king! Bringhim here!" By the time Dasaratha got there, he fell at his feet andsaid, "What do you want? If you want the whole Kosala then pleasetake it." "What?" the rishi asked. "I am not into kingdoms. I hada kingdom too." He was a great prince, a ksatriya, and by somearrangement of the Lord he had become a Brahmin. "I do not want yourkingdom," he said. "I have come here to ask something, and you musttell me that you will give it." Dasaratha was thinking, "I wonderwhat it could be that he wants? Maybe my head. I don't mind givinghim that, but please don't let him ask for Rama." Visvamitra said,"What are you thinking? You are trying to save something."Dasaratha said, "No no, you just ask and I will give it." So thenVisvamitra said, "I want Rama and Laksmana." Dasaratha immediatelyfainted. When he woke up, Visvamitra said, "See! You fainted, thismeans that you don't want to give. And you lied to me! I am rishiand you lied to me that you will give everything, and now you won'tgive. I'm not going to take them away forever, I only need them fora small purpose. I am doing a yajna, and someone is passing stooland urine on it. I want these children to come and play there, andthen these demons will go away." "What? Demons?" And thenDasaratha fainted a gain. He couldn't bear his being taken todemons, so he said, "I will come. I will defeat them!" Visvamitrasaid, "Don't you think I can defeat them? I could easily defeatthem, but I want Ramacandra and nothing else. What do you say?""All right," Dasaratha said. "But please take good care of my son,and also teach Him something since you know so many things."Visvamitra said, "I know what I will do with Rama, and he is comingwith me. Now." Dasaratha said, "But you have come a long way, youshould rest a while in my palace." "I don't stay in palaces,"Visvamitra said. "Where is Rama and Laksmana? Give them to me." Sohe took Rama and Laksmana and he left. They were walking, and asthey were crossing so many rivers and going through so many differentforests, Visvamitra was telling them stories, and Rama and Laksmanabecame so happy because there was no class and no study, this waslike a complete vacation for them. They were swimming here andswimming there, and Visvamitra was such a nice teacher that he wouldswim with them and play with them, tell them far-out stories ofdemons and goblins and ghosts. They were so happy. In the eveningtime at sunset, Visvamitra told them, "Now you do your sandhya, andthen you sit here and listen to these mantras. I'm going to teachyou some great, powerful mantras. One is known as Bala, strength.Another is known as Adibala, great strength. You may need them forthese demons. So Rama and Laksmana sat down and listened to Bala andAdibala, and then they massaged the teacher, Visvamitra. Visvamitratook rest. The next day Visvamitra woke them up and they reached theashrama of Visvamitra and they began a yajna. Then came this demon,a very famous demon called Marica. Marica was a great magician.Whenever he would come, then you would see that trees would befalling, the rivers would be flying up in the sky, and stars would befalling. The animals would also go crazy, the birds would scream,and the rishis would die as Marica' s breakfast was saintly personsonly. For lunch he ate something else like ksatriyas or kings, butbreakfast was sages. He was a cannibal, human eater. So Marica wascoming there, and with him was Dusana. His very name is the same ashis character. Dusana means "all bad things." His father named himlike that, so it must have been a good family. Dusana and Maricawere flying in space and were coming. So Rama and Laksmana weresitting there and Visvamitra was the head priest, he was offeringghee into the fire. He looked at Rama to signal that the demons werecoming. Rama looked at Laksmana and said, "So Laksmana, what are yougoing to do?" Laksmana said, "Yes, we will do something." So hetook several arrows and shot them into the sky. They went up intothe sky about three or four miles, and then from each arrow came amillion arrows, and all together they formed a huge wheel of arrows,and this wheel started circling on top of the fire. So Marica andDusana came and all that they saw was a wheel and some spokes."Where is the fire?" Dusana said, "I told you I wanted to pass waterthree hours ago and you said I should wait till we got here. I havebeen holding it in, and I can't see the fire. What are you doing tome? Let me go pass somewhere." "No no," Marica said, "Visvamitra'sfire, that is where we should pass." "But I can't see the fire, Ionly see this wheel." Then Marica said, "This must be the trick ofthese Brahmins. Let me come closer and see." So he came closer, andas he came close he got stuck with one of the spokes of the wheel,and he was thrown miles away. While he was already thrown,Ramacandra took one blade of grass, and he threw it at Marica. Itgot stuck on his back and carried him to the ocean. He fell in theocean, and after that he never touched the Indian land again. Heopened an ashrama and became a babaji somewhere in Sri Lanka, anddidn't even go back to see his family. That was what happened toMarica, and Dusana was k illed. All this killing was done by grass.Then the yajna was over and Visvamitra came to Ramacandra and hesaid, "What a great, wonderful thing you did! I saw Marica flyingaway and falling into the ocean." Then Visvamitra said, "There'sonly one small question I want to ask You." "What?" Ramacandrareplied. "What about Bala and Adibala and all those mantras I gaveYou?" Ramacandra said, "That is for an emergency, then we will usethese ones. Grass is sufficient for these demons." Then Visvamitrasaid a famous verse, that for a mighty person even grass becomes anastra. Ramacandra is so mighty, He's the source of all Bala. So whyshould He take Bala and Adibala? In this way He finished the demons.

Chapter 4; Visvamitra

2007-03-01T03:10:00.000-08:00

Now Visvamitra is not just some mystic yogi or a gurukula teacher orsomething. Visvamitra was such a great powerful personality. He wasa great ksatriya. One day he was going on a big hunting tour, andwhile he was going, the tradition was that when you pass by agurukula or an ashrama, the kings must stop. And they must go thereand respect the saint. The saintly person in turn will feed theking, because the king will not carry so much ration when he goesinto the forest. And he's not going to live on fruits and roots,because he's the king, not some saintly person. He needs some feast,so the saintly person must arrange the feast. And for arranging thefeast the kings will always donate a lot of things to the saintlyperson. In this way there was a nice arrangement for making feastsand taking feasts. So this great army of Kaushika, Visvamitra, wascoming, and he had his hundred sons and he was thinking, "That's asmall ashrama there." He looked down into the valley and the ashramawas about four houses, and there was stream running nearby.Visvamitra thought, "My army of a hundred sons shouldn't go. You allstay here," he said to his sons. "It is a custom that I should goand respect this saintly person, so I will go there and then I willcome back. And if he asks to feed something to me that is alright,but he can't feed my whole army." So Kaushika went down, and therewas two brahmacaris washing cloth in the stream, so he asked them,"Whose ashrama is this?" The brahmacaris replied, "This is theashrama of Vasistha Muni." "Vasistha?" Kaushika asked. "He's in mycountry and I didn't even know." "He came three months ago," thebrahmacaris replied. He would always go like that. He stays in aplace for about three hundred years and then he moves to anotherashrama, because too many students come there and he doesn't like abig population. So whenever there is too many people he disappearswith one or two students and goes to open another school somewhereelse. "I would like to see him," Visvamitra said. So the brahmacaris brought him before Vasistha.Vasistha was making some thread from cotton. He was wearing a gamshaaround his waist and another around his shoulders. Kaushika wascoming with many ornaments and a golden crown, so he came in thereand took his crown off, and touched Vasistha's feet. He then said,"I am Kaushika and I am on a hunting trip. I have a hundred sons whoI have left on the highway and I have come here just to see you. Soyou please bless my kingdom." Vasistha said, "How is this possiblethat you are coming to my ashrama and going without a feast?"Visvamitra looked at the house with its grass roof and cow-dung floorand the whole ashrama was only three or four houses. "You're goingto give me a feast?" Visvamitra asked "How will I eat it without mysons?" "No no, your sons, your army, your castle, everyone. Bringthem here." "But where will they sit? You have only four huts.""Bring them here," Vasistha said very determinedly. "If I don'tbring them, he will curse," Visvamitra thought, so he went back tohis sons. "All of you come with me to this ashrama," he told them."You must be joking!" the sons replied. "If we all go to thatashrama, we will be crushed. There's no place in there." Visvamitrasaid, "This great rishi has asked, so we must go." They werethinking, "Even if we passed by there, by the sound of these chariotsthe roofs will cave in." Their chariots were huge with eighteenhorses each. Kaushika said, "I don't want to be cursed, so let's godown there." As they were going down into the valley they saw that abig township was there. Palaces, roads, and swimming pools. Peoplewere running out of the city. It was a city suddenly, and Kaushikawas thinking, "This is wonderful. Just in the time of closing myeyes there is a big city here. It's bigger than Mahismati, mycapital! Look at these palaces!" They were all looking at this andwondering, and then Vasistha came out and said, "What are you doing?You must all go and take bath. Feast is already prepared. It willget cold." So then after they took bath they came and thousands ofthem sat down on a big grass lawn. They saw no plates or anything infront of them, and Vasistha made them sit in rows. Visvamitra said,"What items are you going to give us, and how are you going to serveit?" Vasistha replied, "You can think of any plate you like, and youcan think of any item you like, and you can think of any quantity youlike, and you will get it." Visvamitra thought, "A diamond plate."Boom! And the diamond plate was there. And whatever he liked atthat time was coming, heaps and heaps and they were eating andeating, but still it was just coming and coming, and they were justeating all the items they had ever heard about. One person said,"What Indra eats on his birthday, I want that." So he got it.Everyone got everything they liked. They were so satisfied, and thenthey wanted to see a dance. "What dance do you want to see?"Vasistha asked them. Visvamitra said, "The dance that is seen byNarayana in Svetadvipa, I want to see that." "All right, you cansee," Vasistha replied. Immediately there was a stage. And therewas a wonderful stage by the celestials of Vaikuntha. And Visvamitrawas so envious. He was thinking, "What is this? Some baba, he ishaving so much opulence. I am a king, and I look like a beggar infront of him." So he came to Vasistha and asked, "Please tell me,what is the source of your opulence? I'm sure it's not this beard."Vasistha replied, "No, it's not my beard. It's my cow." Then heclapped his hands and he said, "Kama-dhenu, come here." And then akama-dhenu came. This cow had a long tail like a braid, and apeacock feather on the back. It had the breasts of a human female onher chest and the body of a cow. And in her whole body is thepotency of all the demigods. This cow came when the milk ocean waschurned for nectar, and was given to Vasistha by the Supreme Lord,because he p erformed wonderful sacrifices so he needed a lot ofwealth. Where could he go, because the kings were such small timers.Sometimes they would have wealth, and even though they had sometimesthey would say that they don't have. So he gave this cow. "You canget anything from this cow." Visvamitra said, "I will give you onemillion ordinary cows. You give me this cow." Vasistha said, "Youmust be a fool. One million ordinary cows, why should I take themand give you this special cow. If you give me one millionkama-dhenus then I can think of giving you this one." "But youknow," Visvamitra said, "according to the shastras, whatever is inthis land belongs to the king, and I am the king so it belongs tome." Vasistha said, "Look at the kama-dhenu again, Kaushika."Visvamitra looked at the cow and noticed that it was four feet offthe ground. "This cow does not belong to you," Vasistha said. "Onlyif it touches the earth does it belong to you." So Visvamitra wasdefeated. He said to Vasistha, "Look, you may have so muchtapovalam, but I am a ksatriya and I have so much strength, onehundred sons. I am not going to ask you for the cow, I am just goingto take. So he came behind the kama-dhenu and started to pull, andhis hundred sons were helping him. "What are you doing?" the cowsaid to Vasistha. "You are my protector, and you are not doinganything. This mleccha is taking me away." Kaushika said, "You arecalling me a mleccha?" "Yes, you are taking the property of aBrahmin, so you are a mleccha at least now, or in the next life youare going to be. Why are you doing this? This is nonsense, and eventhe Lord will not be tolerant of this, you will be finished. Yourwhole dynasty will be finished, this is my curse." Visvamitra said,"You are a cow, so don't talk so much. Just come with me." So thenVasistha said, "Don't do this. She does not like it. If she likedit, then you could take her, but she does not like it." StillVasistha was keeping his anger inside, not showi ng it. "You keepquiet," Kaushika said. "I am taking the cow." Vasistha said,"Where are your 100 sons? I will show my power on them, because Idon't want to finish you. If you are there you can produce another100 sons. Show me your sons." "Here are my sons," Kaushika said,and then Vasistha looked at them and they were all gone. And then hesaid, "Kaushika, do you want to become a heap of ash? Then you'dbetter run away from me." Then Kaushika, in great disgust left theashrama. He went to the Himalayas and performed austerities for 300years to please Mahadeva. Lord Siva came, and asked Kaushika, "Whatbenediction do you want?" There's one great thing about abenediction from Siva. If you take a benediction from him, it isonly for your destruction. His benedictions will only destroy, theywill never give anything good. Unless you ask for love of God, ordevotion, but if one has approached Siva he generally doesn't ask forthese things. So Siva was asking, "What benediction do you want?"Or in other words, how do you want to be destroyed? So then Kaushikasaid, "I must have all the divine weapons. All the weapons thatIndra has, Agni has, Varuna has, all of them must come to my mind,and I must control them. I must be a rajarishi." "Yes, you are arajarishi," Siva said. "Now stop doing austerities, because it isburning my body. Go." Then Visvamitra immediately flew toVasistha's ashrama. Vasistha was having an oil bath, having oilmassaged on his body. When someone is having an oil on the bodyyou're not supposed to talk to him or talk in conversation. Kaushikadid not even give him a challenge or anything, he just immediatelystarted doing all the astras on Vasistha. Vasistha was still sittingthere getting oil on his body, and the first thing that Visvamitrathrew was a brahmastra. "Suddenly so much heat is in mustard oil,"Vasistha said. "It's not that hot!" So then Vasistha looked overhis shoulder and saw the brahmastra. "My God! What is he doing?Who taught him these weapons? He does n't know where to put them!He's throwing them here, but I am having an oil massage here.Kaushika, stop doing this nonsense!" Then came Agni astra, and thencame Vayu astra. They were all coming one after another. "This istoo much," Vasistha said, and he looked around. He saw his walkingstick, which was getting old, so he took that and threw it out. Thenhe continued with his massage. The walking stick came out and facedthe brahmastra. The brahmastra touched this walking stick, and itbecame like ice, and fell down. Then came the Agni astra, which cameemanating so much fire, and all the trees were burnt, but when itfaced the stick this astra was also pulled down. Then Vayu astracame, and all the astras that he learnt from Lord Siva were all usedup, pulled down by the stick. Then the stick started moving towardsVisvamitra, so Visvamitra started running away. As he crossed thearea of Vasistha's ashrama, the stick went down and Vasistha kept itdown. Then Visvamitra sat up and he was thinking, "That is just astick that he uses for walking. What will happen if he takes a bow?What will happen to me then? So this rajarishi is no good, I willbecome a brahmarishi." So again he went up to the Himalayas, and heperformed tapasya for such a long time that Brahma came to him."What do you want?" Brahma asked. "Why are you troubling me likethis?" "I want to be a brahmarishi," said Visvamitra. Brahma said,"Well I am Brahma, and I am calling you a rishi, so you are abrahmarishi. You be satisfied." Visvamitra said, "No, Vasisthashould say it." So Brahma brought Visvamitra to Vasistha and said,"Please call him brahmarishi." Vasistha looked at him and said,"What a great tapasa you have done! After all you are a ksatriya,you are supposed to be enjoying your senses. Simply by my challenge,you have become such a great rishi. Why brahmarishi? You are ajnanarishi, the rishi of saintly people. You are worshipable by me.Now Visvamitra, you stop your austerities." So Visvamitra stoppedhis austerities there, and he became well known as brahmarishi andwas moving around. Now, Tri-shanku, who was in the Iksvaku dynastysuddenly developed desires to go to the heavenly planet in this body.So he went to Vasistha who was his guru, Vasistha is guru for so manygenerations. "Please my guru, send me to the heavenly planets."Vasistha said, "Yes I can send you to heaven. You perform some piousactivities, next life you will go." Tri-shanku said, "No, not nextlife, this life." Vasistha said, "You die in this life, and then inthe next life you can go to heaven." "No, I don't want to wait. Iwant to go in this body." Vasistha asked, "Where did you get thiscrazy idea from?" Tri-shanku replied, "I am a very pious person. Ihave done so many nice things, and there is no complaint against me.Why shouldn't you send me?" Vasistha said, "That is very good, youare a pious person, a great king, but heavenly planet cannot beattained in this body." Tri-shanku said, "But you can adjust things,you are a great rishi." Vasistha replied, "No I can't adjust things,I can only follow the rules of God." Vasistha said, "If you can'tadjust things, then what kind of a guru are you?" Vasistha said,"Well if you don't want to be my disciple then I will go. I'm notgoing to teach the Iksvaku dynasty any more." Vasistha took hisdanda and walked out. Then Tri-shanku remembered that Vasistha alsohad a hundred sons, and they were doing tapasya somewhere in SouthIndia, so he went to South India and met these sons. He asked them,"Please send me to heaven in this same body." "What is thisnonsense? We can't do this," the sons replied. "Your father alsosaid the same thing." The sons said, "You mean our father said itcould not be done and now you are coming to us?" Tri-shanku said,"Yes, because young students like to do this sort of evolutionarystuff." The sons said, "Yes, we will do some evolution, you become achandala." So they cursed him, and suddenly his whole body turnedblack. Even his chadar which was golden turned black. All hisgolden ornaments turned into iron ornaments and his face becamecruel. So when he went back to Ayodhya, people laughed at him andkicked him out of the country. Then he was wandering in the forestand one day he saw a rishi standing on one leg. That was ourKaushika, Visvamitra, doing some other austerity now. He came to himand said, "You are so effulgent, like the Sun-god." Kaushika said,"Tell me what you want. And you seem to be a bit of a chandala, buteither way you are talking like a royal family man." The kingreplied, "I am Tri-shanku from the Iksvaku dynasty. I have beencursed by Vasistha's sons." As soon as he heard Vasistha's name, hegot fired up. "Why did they curse you? Who are they to curse you?"The king said, "I just asked them a small thing." "What did youask?" Vasistha inquired. "I asked them if I could go to heaven inthis body, and then they cursed me." Vasistha said, "What? You wantto go to heaven in this body? Where did you get this idea from?"The king replied, "One fine morning I got up, and I thought likethat." Visvamitra said, "See what happened to you, for entertainingthis idea?" The king thought that Visvamitra is cooling down, thisis no good. I had better get him fired up again. The king said,"That Vasistha said that no-one could do it." Visvamitra said, "Whatwas that? Repeat that again." "He said, no-one can do it."Visvamitra replied, "Who said no-one can do it? I can do it." Sothen Vasistha sent word to all the rishis saying, "I am doing ayajna, so you also come. I am going to ask the demigods to take himjust like this." All the rishis came because they were scared ofVisvamitra, that he would curse them too. So they came there, theywere all doing yajna and they were so scared. And then the demigodscame. Indra approached Visvamitra and asked, "Now what is thepurpose of this yajna? What do you need?" Visvamitra replied, "Wewant this man to go to heaven." Indra said, "So many people arecoming to heaven, I have no objection." "No no," Visvamitra replied,"Like this." Indra said, "What? Like this? No, that's notpossible. I can't let him in like this. I can't do it." Visvamitraprotested, "But this is a special case." Indra said, "No, specialcase nothing. I can't do it." Visvamitra said, "All right, if Icannot do it by yajna then I will do it by my austerities." So hetook the shruva, spoon which he was using to pour ghee, and hetouched Tri-shanku and said, "All right, Tri-shanku, fly now toheaven by my power." Then Tri-shanku disappeared from the earthlyplanet, and he was flying, flying through space. Indra was back inhis planet, and everyone was saying, "Indra, look who is coming.It's Tri-shanku." "Tri-shanku?" Indra said in disbelief. Then hetook his Vadra and hit him on the back and Tri-shanku came back atfull speed. So Visvamitra was sitting there peacefully andTri-shanku was crying, "Visvamitra, help me!" Visvamitra said, "Youare not coming back, you are going to heaven!" Visvamitra then usedsome more of his power and sent him back up. And then Indra sent himback again, and Visvamitra sent him back again, and then Indra senthim back. The third time when he was going towards heaven Tri-shankusaid, "I don't want to go to heaven! I would rather go to hell!Anything is better than this. What am I doing in outer space? Yousend me anywhere, but please stop this!" Visvamitra said, "No, Imade a promise to you. That promise must be kept, even if you don'twant. You must go to heaven!" And he sent him back. Indra said, "Idon't want you," and he kicked him back. This time Tri-shanku said,"Please Visvamitra, I don't want heaven. I realize now that it isvery bad to think like that. I just want to be a king somewhere.I'll be a beggar somewhere. Stop pushing me like this." Visvamitrasaid, "No. If they won't let you into heaven, I will create you aheaven. So he created a heaven. He created demigods, he createdIndra, he created Airavata, he crea ted everything by his tapovalam,and austerity was finished. So now, the planet has to be in orbitalso. No more tapovalam, so how are we going to put it in orbit?Then the whole heaven started to come down to earth, because that iswhere it was created. Now Visvamitra said, "O my God! Now heaven iscoming down and everything will be finished! What am I going to do?"Then he lifted his hands and said, "Hari! Hari!" The Lord appearedand asked, "Visvamitra, what is the problem? Usually you callBrahma, you never call Me. What happened to you?" Visvamitra said,"Look, look! Do something please, it is coming down!" The Lordsaid, "What is it? What is falling down?" Visvamitra replied, "Itis my creation." "Oh, it's your creation!" Visnu said. "So youmaintain it, I'm going." "No no no! Don't go, please do something.I only created it, I can't maintain it. It's not possible for me."The Lord said, "I will put my energy into it and maintain it." Sothe Supreme Lord entered into that heaven. This heaven is known asTri-shanku svarga, and it is still existing. The Lord put Tri-shankuthere to please Visvamitra. And then Visvamitra was saved, otherwisethese heavenly planets would come down and burn the earth planet andeverything else would be burnt. Then Narayana said, "Don't get intothis area. My zone is a very difficult zone, creating, maintaining,destroying. This is my work. You simply do tapasya, and blesspeople. Don't try to become Hari or there will be trouble."Visvamitra said, "I have realized it once and for all. I will not dothis any more." Then the Lord was so pleased with him for hisimmediate surrender that He said, "I will become your student inTreta-yuga." So in this way Ramacandra became Visvamitra's student.

Chapter 5: The lifting of the bow

2007-03-01T03:09:00.000-08:00

After Rama's fight with the demons Marica and Dusana, Visvamitradidn't come back to Ayodhya, instead he told them, "There is going tobe a big fire sacrifice in Mithila." King Janaka was ruling. SoVisvamitra said, "A great sacrifice and all the rishis and panditswill be there. I will take you there so you can see it." On the wayso many other pastimes happened, these are already famous pastimes.Ahalya, the wife of Gautama Rishi had been cursed to become stone,and she would not be released until Ramacandra touched her with Hislotus feet. Then she would come alive again. So those pastimeshappened within the travel from Visvamitra's ashrama to the presentLucknow, and from there up to Mithila. Mithila, the country ofJanaka is known as Mithila because long before Janaka there was oneking in the Iksvaku dynasty. Vasistha was the guru for a manygenerations, and the king at that time wanted to perform a yajna.Vasistha had agreed to perform a yajna for Indra in the heavenlyplanets, so he told him, "I will finish this yajna, then I will comeback and perform yours." The king did not say anything. He didn'twant to displease Vasistha, he was a great devotee. Vasistha went tothe heavenly planets, and before he came back the king called someother rishis, Gautama and his brother, and he engaged them as priestsand completed his yajna. He did not tell them that Vasistha was onlyin the heavenly planets. Vasistha came back. Very quickly hecompleted his yajna, he didn't even wait for receiving payment forit. He told Indra, "Just keep it in credit and I will collect itlater." Very quickly he returned, but when he got back he saw thatBrahmins were coming out of the palace with cows. "What's happeninghere?" he asked. "Oh, big yajna. It's all over now, though. Wejust received dakshina and now we are going." So Vasistha was veryupset. He called the king and said, "What is this? First you tellme that I should do the yajna, so I finished my job in the heavenlyplanet very quickly and even displeased Indra and his party, and Ihave come here because I am your Kula-guru, your family spiritualmaster. So how is this proper that you have taken some other personand performed the yajna?" The king was still keeping quiet, notsaying anything. Actually Vasistha should not have gone to theheavenly planets to perform yajna because he is the family guru ofthe Iksvaku dynasty. So if Iksvakus are having a yajna he issupposed to do that first, and then if it is necessary he can go tothe heavenly planets. So it was actually a mistake on the part ofVasistha, because he was a little greedy from the great remunerationhe would get from the heavenly planets. A Brahmin should not begreedy. By doing that, a great trouble happens. What was thetrouble? Vasistha became so angry that he said to the king, "Youbecome nirdeha." Deha means "this body" and nir means "without.""So you will be without body." All this time the king wastolerating, but now he said, "What is this? I must perform my yajnaon time, and you went there because you are greedy. Now you arecursing me." So the king got angry with Vasistha and said, "You alsobecome nirdeha." So at the same time, both bodies were lost, andthey both became nirdeha. When Vasistha became nirdeha he was goinghere and there and then one group of rishis who were meditating tookhim and put him inside a pot and kept him inside the pot for a longtime until he could take another body. In the same pot anotherrishi's soul was kept. They became brothers. Vasistha is thereforeknown as kumbha-muni, the rishi coming from a pot, and anotherkumbha-muni was Agastya. He was thumb sized. Not thumb sized of ourthumb, but the thumb of the demigods, so he was much taller than us.In Dvapara-yuga people were ten times taller, eating was ten timesbigger, lifetime was also ten times longer, and in Treta-yuga it wasa hundred times. So now we are living a hundred years, in Dvaparayuga they lived 1000 years, in Treta-yuga it was rs was the lifetimein Satya-yuga. So that is why in Satya-yuga the process ismeditation, because if you are living 100,000 years, what it theproblem with spending 30,000 years meditation? Agastya livedthrough all the yugas. He is even living now in the southern partof India. There is a mountain in South India called Kozwallamountain, and on Kozwalla mountain there are caves, and thescriptures say that Agastya is still there. These rishis arechiran-jivas, meaning that up to Brahma's life-span they will alsolive. So Agastya and Vasistha came from the same pot. In this wayVasistha got his body, and this person who became nirdeha couldn'tget a body because of the rishi's curse, no-one tried to give him anartificial room like Vasistha got. These test tubes are nothingnew. The rishis have been doing it for ages. They take the spermand put it in a pot, create some artificial climate and it wouldgrow in there and become a saintly person. These two rishis becametest tube babies, but the other person just remained nirdeha and heremained for a long time, and then he went to the heavenly planetsand from there to the spiritual world. His dead body was there, soall the saintly people in the country churned the body as there wasno dynasty, just like in the Srimad-Bhagavatam there is the story ofhow Vena's body was churned and Prthu Maharaja came. So thischurning was done, and this churning is called Mithi. When churningthe body you have to keep the foot from the body of that person andtake the leg and then churn it. So this is why it was calledMithila, and the man who came out of that body was called MithiJanaka. Ja means "birth" and Janaka means "one who has taken birthby churning." So Mithi Janaka means "one who has taken his birth bychurning of someone's body." And this Mithi Janaka, he didn't wantto be in Ayodhya because of all the prestige the family had. So heleft Ayodhya and created a separate kingdom, and that kingdom wasknown as Mithila, because the Mithi Janaka created that kingdom so itwas called Mithila. And all his sons were known by the name Janaka.He was Janaka, and then Janaka I, Janaka II, Janaka III and so on.Janaka had a great property in his palace. This property was thebow which was used by Mahadeva, Lord Siva, in a battle between himand Visnu. Once there was a battle between Visnu and Siva. Therewas no cause for this, it was just Narada Muni's jubilation. He wasonce in the assembly of Indra, and Indra was praising Mahadeva. Hewas saying, "Lord Siva has three eyes, and fire comes out of histhird eye and all that." So Narada Muni said, "There are so manySivas. In every universe there are eleven Sivas. My Lord isdifferent. He has no third eye but He knows everything." ThenIndra said, "No no no, you don't know. Visnu is alright, he's theavatar, but Siva is the great powerful person." "If it is so,"Narada said, "Why don't you go and ask Siva to have a fight withVisnu? Then we will see who is more powerful." Then Indra thought,"That would be a nice thing to do," so he went to Kailash. Siva'sbull, Nandi, was asking, "What are you doing on Kailash? This ismeant for people who meditate." Nandi is a great yogi, and anastrologer too. He saw Indra and knew there would be trouble, so hesaid, "Get out of Kailash. You are an enjoyer, so what are youdoing here?" Indra said, "No no, I have only come here for Siva'sdarshana without any motive." Nandi said, "I am an astrologer, andI can see on your face that you have come here to create trouble.Don't give any trouble to my Lord, he is peacefully meditating."Then Indra said, "Let me in Nandi." So he was allowed. When hecame in, Siva was in deep meditation. Indra came in there andprayed to Mahadeva so much, and finally Siva opened his eyes."Indra! Why are you here? There is no trouble happening. I don'tthink you have come here to ask me to fight with someone." Indrasaid, "I must say that I only visit Kailash to ask you to fight withsomeone, but this time it's not a demon." "Who is it then?" Mahadevaasked. "Well we had a little argument," Indra said. "Myself andNarada. I said that you are the most powerful, but Narada said thatVisnu is the most powerful." Siva said, "You see this japa-mala I amholding? Do you know what I am doing with this? Do you know what Iam chanting?" "I heard that you chant Rama's name," Indra replied.Siva said, "So I am chanting Rama's name. And then you are askingwho is more powerful. If I am more powerful than Him, then He mustbe chanting my name. But it would never happen, I am chanting Hisname." Indra said, "That is right, that is Purana, but I want to seeit." Siva said, Why do you want to see it? I am telling you, He isthe most powerful and all power comes from Him. I only destroy thisuniverse, that is all the power I have." So Indra said, "Even thoughyou say these things, I don't believe it." "Why don't you believeit?" "Because you are so powerful that you burnt the fort which wasflying in the sky." Then Siva said, "I know what you are up to. Youwant to have some entertainment. So you go to Visvakarma and ask himto make a bow for me. I am a babaji, but you want me to fight. Soat least give me some weapons." So Visvakarma used his mystic powerand made a bow. This bow was so big that 300 people had to carry it.Actually it was in a cart. The cart had so many wheels, and 300people had to push it to move it an inch, and then they had to restfor half an hour. So this was the size of the bow. It was unstrungalso, the thread was separate. So that was brought in front of LordSiva. "This is a good bow," the said, and took it up. When he tookit up all the demigods fainted. It was such a huge bow and Siva wasjust lifting it so easily. Then Indra was saying, "See? I told you,he's very strong. Don't think that he's just a babaji meditating.He's got so much strength." Siva then strung the bow and he said,"All right, I am ready." Then they went to Brahma and as ked,"Please bring Lord Visnu for a fight." So Brahma went to the milkocean and meditated. Visnu was sitting there in the Svetadvipa, andhe said to Laksmi, "I wonder what Brahma is calling for now?" Laksmisaid, "Maybe some demon is there." "How can a demon have comewithout My knowledge? There is no demon," the Lord said. "Then Youmust also know why he is calling You," Laksmi said. "Yes I do. Hewants Me to have a fight with Lord Siva." "Oh," Laksmi said. "Iwould like to see that." "Then I'll have to do it," the Lord said.So then He got up from His seat and He came to the other side of themilk ocean. He said, "All right Brahma, I am ready." And then Indrasaid, "But there is one condition - You don't bring any bow oranything from Your spiritual world. We will give You something fromthis world. Otherwise You will overpower him easily, we know that.We want a straightforward fight." So Visvakarma made another bow.Siva's bow was called Mahesh-chapa, and Visnu's bow was calledVisnu-chapa. Both were made by Visvakarma and were equal instrength. They were exactly the same. They were copies. So Visnucame and said, "No problem, I will take it." So he took the bow, andhe came and lifted it. When he lifted the bow, because He has got aneternal associate called Sarnga, who is His bow, and when Visnutouches any bow Sarnga will come in there and it will becomeSarnga-dhanu. He took the bow and Sarnga entered. Nobody could seethis happen. So He came and Siva was there, and as soon as Visnu wasin vision of Mahesh, Siva offered his obeisances and clapped hishands, rolling on the floor in ecstasy. Indra said, "What's goingon?" He turned to Narada Muni and said, "Go and tell him to give uphis devotion and fight!" Narada Muni went to Siva and said, "Youhave forgotten that there is supposed to be a fight. You havesurrendered." So then Mahesa said, "Please, bless me so that I canfight with You." Visnu blessed him, "All right. You can fight withMe." So they were fighting, fighti ng, fighting, and it was going onfor a long time. Finally Siva put the bow down and started runningaway from the battlefield, and all sorts of astras were coming out ofSarnga, and Siva ran away. He ran, and he was shouting to Indra, "Itold you! I told you! Now I am in trouble!" Of course, Visnu wasnot angry, he was only smiling. But then all the demigods prayed toVisnu, "Please stop the war. We need Lord Siva." So then the warwas over, and Siva was saved. Visnu took His bow and gave it to onerishi called Rcika. Rcika gave that bow to Jamadagni, another greatrishi. Jamadagni was the father of Parasurama, so that bow of Visnueventually came to Parasurama. Parasurama was holding this bow. Ofcourse, he didn't need this, as he had his axe with which he killedthen ksatriyas twenty-one times. And the bow of Lord Siva was givento one of the Janakas. Not the original Janaka who was made fromchurning. Seven generations after him there was one Janaka calledDevarata Janaka. He was very attractive to the Devas so he was knownas Devarata. Devarata got Siva's bow and he kept it in the palace asa worshippable object. In this way it was coming down in the family,and this Janaka we are dealing with was also worshipping the bow. Hedid not have any children, so they suggested to him to do ahola-yajna. You take a plough and draw a line around the palace.When you move the plough, it will get stuck in the mud, and everytime it gets stuck you have to donate gold to the priests. And everymovement you make it will get stuck, so you have to give gold. Whenall the Brahmins are satisfied, you move it again and when it getsstuck you have to get more gold. In this way you are giving a lot ofcharity and you are getting a lot of blessings so you will getchildren. So Janaka was doing this, moving the plough and givinggold. In one place it got stuck, and after giving all the gold,still the plough would not move on. "There must be some big rockthere," everybody said, so they dug and found a box. And inside thebox was a baby, a female baby, and she looked just like Laksmi. Shewas known as Janaki, the daughter of Janaka, and she grew up in thepalace. She was six years old. Janaka had a brother, and he hadthree daughters. So these four daughters were running around andplaying at the palace. Once they made a stick with a hook on it totake some flowers from the trees. So Janaki was trying to get it,but somehow or other there was a mystic tree there, and whenever shereached up, it grew more. Somebody was in that tree. So Janakicould not get it and she was the only daughter of the emperor, so shewas very frustrated. "I want to get it, and I know what I will useto get it." She ran into the puja room, and in there was this bigbow inside a box. She opened the box and took the bow in her hands,and then she walked outside with the bow. When the soldiers saw herthey all swooned. Three hundred people were supposed to push thecart, and this little girl was holding the bow. Whoever was able tostay conscious ran to Janaka and said, "Do you know what's happening?Your little girl is holding Lord Siva's bow!" "Send this man to thedoctor," Janaka said. "There's something wrong with his head." Thenanother lady came and said, "Yes, yes, it's true! And if you want tosee it come quickly." "What's wrong with these people?" Janaka said.Then he called his doctor. "Supply 1000 lemons to the palace. Andput at least 500 lemons on these people's heads, to cool them down."And then Janaka's minister came running and said, "No, it is no joke.I just saw it myself." This time Janaka said, "It must be true," sohe came running, and the last thing he saw was Janaki lifting the bowinto the box. Then she came towards Janaka as if she had donenothing. When questioned by Janaka, she innocently said that she hadperformed no great task. But Janaka had seen it happen, and he wentto his ministers and said, "My daughter must be haunted by some bigbrahma-rakshasa ghost, more powerful than Lord Siva. Otherwis blethat she is able to lift it?" So then the ministers thought over itand said, "Janaka, we think that your daughter is Maha-laksmi. Fromall the symptoms of her bodily features, we can understand that sheis none other than Laksmi. And if she is Laksmi, then naturally herLord is Narayana. Now your problem is, how are you going to getNarayana to marry her? There is no Narayana here." Then Janaka cameup with an idea. He said, "Anyone who can take this bow and stringit will marry my daughter." All the ministers laughed. They said,"In this way your daughter is going to remain unmarried. Because whoon this earth has the strength to do this?" Janaka said, "Narayanaobviously knows that Laksmi is here. He is not going to leave herunmarried. She is not going to take some woman sannyasa or anything.No. Narayana must come here." So everyone was shocked. They weresaying, "What is this man doing? This is as good as saying, `No-onecan marry my daughter.'" Anyway, this was going on, and a yajna wasperformed. The special feature of this yajna was that they weregoing to bring the bow and put it for darshana, and the ksatriyakings could try. So Visvamitra knew this, so he told Rama andLaksmana, "This is the bow used by Lord Siva, and if you want to seeit I will take you there." "We must see it," they said. Rama andLaksmana came there, and the rest of the story is known. We are onlydealing with those parts of the story that are not well-known. Allthe ksatriyas came and they were seeing the bow and Janaka toldVisvamitra, "You must call your young student to come and have a lookat this." So Ramacandra came and saw it, and Laksmana said, "Tryit." Janaka announced, "If anyone wants to try and string this bowand get my daughter, then please come." So one or two very puffed-upksatriya kings came. The first one could not lift it, and anothergot his hand stuck between the floor and the bow, and he had to bepulled out. Just then the whole assembly became dark and the earthwas shaking. They heard someone laughing loudly. So then Janakacaught hold of Visvamitra's hand and said, "Tell me what is nowhappening." Visvamitra said, "This must be a demon. Very soon hewill enter." In another three minutes there was a flash of light,and between the light came Trilokeshvara, Ravana. He had arrangedthat before he came, two other demons would precede him and announce,"Trilokeshvara Ravana is coming." Everyone was scared, "What is thisdemon doing in our assembly?" So then Ravana appeared. "What isthis svayamvara? You are all spineless people. You can't even liftthis bow! You must know who I am. I am Ravana, and I have liftedKailash with Lord Siva on it. This is only his bow. This is the bowof Lord Siva, and Lord Siva, his whole family, his entire troop ofghosts and goblins and the whole Kailash mountain was lifted by me,and I flew to Lanka. That is my strength." So then everybodythought, "He can easily lift this bow." So Ravana came, and he puthis hands on each side, and he lifted the bow. Everyone was amazed."Ah! He has lifted the bow!" Then Lord Siva in Kailash wasthinking, "What's going on? I didn't leave it for him. I left itfor Lord Rama." So then Siva went inside the bow and pressed down.Ravana got stuck. That also happened when he lifted Kailashmountain, when he put it down he got stuck. Now he was also stuck.He was crying and pleading, and finally Lord Siva let go, and he gothis hand out. And then Rama came, but he didn't use two hands, onlyone. He put his foot on the other end of the bow and he took thestring. As he pulled it, the bow broke into two pieces. Everyoneclapped their hands, and flowers fell from heaven. Then LordRamacandra got married to Sita, and those other three girls weremarried to Bharata, Satrughna and Laksmana. And they were comingback to Ayodhya. On the way back, again everything became dark andthe earth shook, and all the birds stopped singing. Dasaratha askedVisvamitra, "Is Ravana coming again?" " No, this is Parasurama,"Visvamitra said. "He is about one hundred miles away, that is why itis shaking. He is angry." Dasaratha said, "What are you going todo? Are you going to do anything to protect us?" And he askedVasistha too. They replied, "In this we have only one opinion.Usually we have two opinions, but here we have only one opinions.We're going to lay down and close our eyes, because Parasurama iscoming." So they laid down and closed their eyes, and Parasurama wascoming closer and closer, and he was doing his umkara. Every step hewas taking he was going, "Oom! Oom!" And by this sound all ofDasaratha's army fainted, and the elephants screamed. By hisattachment to Rama, Dasaratha didn't faint, because he wanted to lookafter Rama. Finally when Parasurama came, only two people wereconscious, the supremely conscious people, Rama and Laksmana. EvenBharata and Satrughna were on the ground. Rama looked at Laksmanaand said, "You have planned something?" So then Parasurama came tohim and said, "Who is this Rama?" Ramacandra said, "It is you. Youare the only Rama. You are Parasurama. Who else is Rama?"Parasurama said, "Some young child from Iksvaku's dynasty, how darehe break Lord Siva's bow? I have controlled the ksatriyas so much.I have finished them all. And now someone else is coming. He mustknow that I am still here." Ramacandra said, "No, no, what's theproblem? I didn't break it, but the bow was so weak that I justlifted it and it broke into two pieces." Parasurama said, "You meanto say that You are so strong and Lord Siva's bow is so weak? So theksatriyas are becoming strong again, and I am not going to leave itlike that. If you think that you are so powerful, then why did youinsult Lord Siva? You don't think that you have done aparadha? He'sthe great Mahesha and you broke his bow! And how does this Janakamake a svayamvara like this, that someone should string Siva's bow?So he is also an impostor. Now again I will start, and I will finishall of you. Finish Dasaratha, finish Janaka, finish everyone." Sothen Ramacandra said, "Yes, many people are supposed to be finished,but it is supposed to be done by me." Parasurama said, "Now you arecompeting with me?" He took his axe and said, "You look at this."Rama and Laksmana paid obeisances. "Why are you paying namaskara tomy axe?" Parasurama asked. They replied, "Because it killed all thebad ksatriyas. It is a famous weapon. It is a weapon of Visnu, andwe are in the Surya dynasty so we must pay our obeisances." SoParasurama was perplexed. At one point they are instructing, andthen they are paying obeisances. "There is something here that I amnot able to figure out," Parasurama said. "So I will have to givethem a test." Then he addressed them. "If you are so courageousand so strong, I will give you the bow of Visnu. Let us see if youcan string it." Ramacandra said, "Anything you give, I will take,and anything you say I will do by your blessing." So thenParasurama closed his eyes and lifted his hands. He was invokingSarnga-dhanu, the original bow of Visnu. He was calling andcalling, but it was not coming. And then he opened his eyes, and hesaw that Rama was already holding it, and it was already strung.Then he said, "You are the source of all strength. Now I understandthat it is you and not me. You are the Rama, I am not the Rama. SoI have no worries, and now I will only do meditation. That was whatI was doing, but Narada came to me and said, `What are you doing,Parasurama? The ksatriyas are becoming powerful again.' And hetold me that some king, he didn't tell me who, he just told me thatsome king has a son, and this son has broken Lord Siva's bow. Henever told me it was You." So then Parasurama paid obeisances, andRamacandra said, "Now what am I supposed to do? I have strung thebow, I have put and arrow upon it. I need some object. I am Rama.My arrow and my word never go wrong. This arrow has to get anobject. So where should I aim it? You tell me. You ust then hesaw Mother Sita. "Oh!" he exclaimed. "You look horrible with thistree bark and renunciate clothing on. This is the dress of arenunciate, not of a grhasta. You come with me." Compared to him,Sita was very small, and she was wondering, "What is this demontrying to do me?" So he told Sita, "After finishing these two, Iwill reduce my form and then we will be a good match." Ramacandrasaid to Laksmana, "Look what has happened! You had so many plansthat we would go to Dandakaranya and kill all the demons and returnto Ayodhya. But now, my wife is gone. Look, she is being carriedaway by this demon! We can't do anything, look what he has on histrident." Laksmana said, "Why are you saying all this? Just finishhim!" So they both took their swords, and they cut his legs, and hefell down. Then they brought Sita away, and they began cutting thedemon into pieces. The demon was screaming and shouting, "Who areyou? Tell me!" Ramacandra replied, "I am the son of King Dasaratha,and this is my brother Laksmana." Immediately the demon said, "I amactually a gandharva, and I was cursed to become a demon. They toldme that only when Rama and Laksmana cut me into pieces would I berelieved of this curse. So please do it, quickly, and then dig a bighole and bury me there." So they did that, then from the hole cameTumburu, a great gandharva musician who had been cursed by Kuvera forsinging some sense gratification songs. So he told Ramacandra, "Ifyou walk this way in Dandakaranya, you will come to the ashrama ofSarabanga Rishi, and then you will find so many rishis. Eventuallyyou will come to Agastya, and he will give you divine weapons. Afterreceiving these weapons you will go to Pancavati, and in Pancavatisome bad things will happen, but I won't tell you what they are.However, these deeds will make you most famous." In this way Tumburuwas sent there in disguise, and Ramacandra entered into theDandakaranya forest, and h is pastimes with the different rishis willbe discussed later. At the end of Dandakaranya, after Sita was takenaway, and Jatayu was given cremation by Ramacandra, Rama and Laksmanawere coming to Kishkinda, because one rishi told Ramacandra that inKishkinda they would get information where Mother Sita was. As theyreached Kishkinda, there was a very very old man with matted locks ofhair walking in front of Lord Rama. He looked at them and said, "Youare saintly people, or are you kings, or are you hunters, ordemigods? Please tell me who you are. I am a beggar in this area,and anyone who comes here, I beg something from them. So accordingto your business I will make my demand. You tell me whether you area demigod or a king or saintly person." So Ramacandra looked atLaksmana and said, "This is a wonderful beggar. According to thestandard of the donors his demands increase or decrease." Then helooked at the beggar, and he saw a wonderful diamond necklace on hisneck. He said, "You are a strange beggar. You have a very nicediamond necklace, and yet you are begging. I can't understand. Youhave so much wealth. How can one have such a nice necklace, andstill be begging?" The old man said, "You are able to see mynecklace?" Ramacandra replied, "Yes, I can see it." Then the beggarasked, "Is he able to see my necklace?" So Rama asked Laksmana, "Canyou see it?" Laksmana said, "No. I don't see a thing." Ramacandraasked, "How come I can see the necklace and Laksmana can't?" Thenthe sage very excitedly began to explain. And this is explained inthe next story.

Chapter 6: Birth and youth of Hanuman

2007-03-01T03:08:00.000-08:00

Hanuman is originally the son of Vayu, the air god. And he is alsoan expansion of Lord Siva. All the demigods were helping LordRamacandra in his battle. Lord Siva was thinking, "I must also helphim." So long before Lord Ramacandra incarnated, Lord Siva had apastime. Once Siva and Parvati were playing in Kailash, and they sawa monkey. Lord Siva, by looking at this monkey, he also took theform of a monkey. Parvati also took the form of a monkey, and theyplayed. During that time, Lord Siva gave Parvati a conception. Thenimmediately she became Parvati again and said, "I'm not going to givebirth to a monkey." So Siva said, "Well you have a conception so nowyou have to give birth to it." Parvati said, "No no, when you gavethe conception you were a monkey, so my son will become a monkey.Already I have an elephant, that is enough. I can't have this." SoSiva said, "All right then, I will make some arrangement." Siva thencalled Vayu, and Vayu came there. Once before Siva had given aconception and Agni had carried it, and Agni had said that he wouldnever do it again. So Vayu came, and Siva said, "Vayu, you have notdone anything to me up till now, so please do this for me. Take thisconception and look after it." Vayu said, "But you are the most hotperson, and I am going to be carrying this around when I am supposedto be cooling everything. The wind will be hot." Siva said, "Youmake some arrangement." So Vayu was carrying this conceptionwondering what to do, and then he saw the sapta-rishis goingsomewhere. He went before them and asked, "This is a conception fromLord Siva. This has to be preserved until the Supreme Lordincarnates as Ramacandra. That is a long time away, but it has to bekept. Please make some arrangement." The sapta-rishis said, "Oh wewill make some arrangement." So they went to origin of the Mandakiniriver and they took a leaf which was made of metal, and put theconception there. In this way it was preserved, and Vayu wassupposed to come and see that to the heavenly planets. You do notwant this?" And then she remembered all her previous activities.She took that conception, and what was this conception? It wasoriginally conceived by Lord Siva, carried by Vayu for so long, andVayu gave it to her, so it was Vayu's son and it was Siva's angsha,or expansion. And then Anjaneya was born. As soon as he was born hegrew into a sixteen year old boy. That was the potency of Lord Siva.So then Anjana immediately rose up to go to the heavens, and Anjaneyacaught hold of her cloth and said, "Wait a minute, where are yougoing? You gave birth to me, and now you are leaving? What will Ieat?" She was looking around, and it was sunset so she said, "Anyfruit which is as red and as ripe as the sun planet, you can eat it."Then she left, and he was very hungry. He thought and then said,"Why as red as sun and as ripe as sun? Why not just eat sun?" So hejumped up, and straight away went to the sun planet and jumped on thechariot of Lord Suryadeva. He was extending his hands, and he tookthe whole sun planet and reduced it to a small ball and put it in hismouth. Just then he looked and saw Rahu coming. "I am going to eatthe sun," Rahu said. Rahu always says this but he only ever halfeats it. So then Anjaneya said, "Oh you are going to eat the sun?Well I have already eaten the sun and now I will eat you also." Sothen he swallowed Rahu. Indradeva had been sitting in his seatdiscussing politics, but suddenly everything had become dark. Agniwas there, so due to his light he could see. He asked Agni, "Why isthis? Why is there no light?" Agni replied, "Somebody has taken thesun away." "What? Somebody has taken the sun away?" Agni said,"Why are you wondering who has taken it? Just use yourshabda-viddhi." Shabda-viddhi means that just by hearing the soundyou shoot your weapon. So he threw his vadra. While throwing it hewas already jumping on his white elephant, Airavata, and he wascoming. Anjaneya looke that everything was dark, and then he sawthis white elephant coming. "Oh, I will eat that also," and then hejumped on Airavata. While he was jumping on Airavata, the vadracame, and hit Anjaneya on his teeth. Anjaneya quickly caught hold ofit. Indra turned around and saw Anjaneya holding the vadra, and hethought, "This must be some big Visnu avatar. I'd better keep quiet.Out of living entities, only Indra can hold this thunderbolt, so hemust be some incarnation with a tail." So Indra went back. NowAnjaneya had the sun, Rahu and this vadra weapon, and he went back tohis place in Kishkinda to eat it. He sat down looking at this vadra,and thought, "Should I bite it or chew it?" At that time everyonewent to Brahma and asked him, "What is happening in this universe?Rahu is gone, sun is gone." Brahma said, "Don't worry. This is thepotency of Lord Siva, and this person is a great devotee of LordRama." Brahma lives for a long time, and so many Ramayanas arehappening. So he knows that it is almost the same every time, butthe pastime is a little different in each kalpa. So he said, "Thisis Hanuman. All of us have to go there and touch his feet and beghim. If you do that you will get the sun, otherwise no sun." So allthe demigods came, thirty three crores of them. They all came therewith folded hands. "Please Anjaneya, open your mouth." He was upsetbecause Indra's vadra had hit him on his teeth. "You have alreadybroken my jaw. If I open my mouth you will just break my other jaw."So then Brahma said, "My dear boy, I will give you anything you like.You can live as long as I live." Anjaneya was not satisfied. ThenAgni came forward and said, "Fire will not burn you." Still he wasnot satisfied, so Indra came forward. "You are already holding myVadra, so what benediction can I give you? But I tell you this, youwill become the most famous, as famous as me." Still not satisfied.Then Vayu came. "You will be as fast as me." He smiled a littlebit. One by one they all came and offered benedictions, and aftereveryone came and offered benedictions, still Anjaneya was notsatisfied. Brahma said, "Don't worry, I will use my mystic powers."And he read Anjaneya's mind. Anjaneya was thinking "Why is there nofruit in this world?" Brhaspati came to know of his desire and hecame forward and said, "Anjaneya, I will give you all the fruits inthis world, and I will give you the knowledge of Ayurveda by whichyou will know all the fruits, all the plants, and all the trees. Anyplant in the creation, you will know it, and what is the use of ityou will will also know. This is my benediction to you." ThenDhanvantari spoke, "I will be at your command. You put any medicineon anyone and they will come alive." So Anjaneya opened his mouth,and the Sun-god was there, and the demigods were very much satisfied.So then Brahma called him "Hanuman." Hanuman means one who has gotsome kind of a defect in his teeth. That is the meaning of Hanuman.Hanuman is also known as Vajranga, which means the same thing. Vajrameans teeth and anga means missing one part. One other name for himis Marut-suta, the son of the wind god. He is known as Anjaneya, theson of Anjana. And lastly he is known as Mahavira, or a great king.These are some different names of Hanuman. And then Brahma gave hima diamond necklace, and told him, "This is the highest benedictionyou can get. You will be the eternal servant of the eternal Lord,and only the eternal Lord will be able to recognize this necklace.That means you will be recognized by him, and he will be recognizedby you as the one who recognized the necklace." When Ramacandraasked the beggar, "What kind of a beggar are you? You have awonderful necklace on your neck." So Hanuman immediately recognized,that this is my worshippable Lord. And he immediately surrendered toHim. In this way he went to Sugriva, and Hanuman had so many otherexploits too, when he was a small boy. After the sun-swallowingpastime there were so many other pastimes. He used to take elephantsand tigers and play with them. One day he caught hold of a very wiseelephant. He was holding it by the tusk, and he was also holding atiger by the tail, and swinging them around. They were making somesound. This was Hanuman's fun. And then he saw an ashrama. Thesage who lived here had never gotten angry in his life. He was knownfor his sense control. Hanuman thought to himself, "Now we will testhis sense control." So he put the tiger and the elephant tied uptogether in front of his ashrama. This was early in the morning, during the brahma-muhurta time. So the rishi slowly opened the doorand took his lota for taking bath. And then he looked out and sawthis tiger, so he closed the door quickly. Up to that time he hadconstipation, but when he saw this tiger suddenly he felt naturecalling. So he had to go out. But what could he do? There was atiger outside his door. He looked out the door again, and this timehe saw the elephant as well, so he quickly shut the door again. Hehad to pass. But how could he pass inside? He had to go out of thewindow, and there was a tree outside of the window, and he looked upand saw Hanuman at the top of the tree. "So you are the cause ofthis mischief. Come here!" Hanuman thought, "He's becoming angry.I must go." So he came down, and he became small and entered thewindow. The rishi gave Hanuman a curse that limited his strength."Why did you curse me like this?" Hanuman asked. "This is only goodfor you. You are having your strength controlled so you can use itonly for the Lord's service. And when the service is coming, theLord will arrange for someone to remind you." So then Hanuman said,"I will never tie an elephant to a tiger any more. And I willcertainly not put it in front of your ashrama. I'll put it somewhereelse." So then he came back, and he did not play for a whole week.Ketari was asking, "Hanuman, how come there have been no complaintsfrom anyone for a whole week? Have you become a good boy?" Hanumansaid, "I don't want to give trouble to anyone." Then they heard asound, a very nice sound. Ketari said, "What is this? It is NaradaMuni coming!" Hanuman asked, "Who is this person?" Ketari replied,"He is a very great soul. He doesn't need any introduction. Youjust go to him and you will find out the greatness of this man."Immediately Hanuman jumped up and Narada was just on his way pasttheir place, going to see some rishi, so Hanuman jumped in his wayand paid pranams. "Narada Muni, I heard that you are a very greatperson, so you must b less me. Without blessing me, you are notallowed to go." Narada said, "What blessing do you want?" Hanumansaid, "Already the demigods have given me so many blessings. Icannot think of anything else, so you think of a blessing, and yougive it to me." Narada thought, "What blessing does Hanuman nothave?" And so he said, "You will become expert in music." That wasthe only benediction left to give. So Hanuman got that benediction,and Narada Muni said, "So I have given you the benediction, and nowI am going." Hanuman said, "One minute, one minute." "What do youwant?" Narada asked. "How will I know that I am the most expert inmusic?" Hanuman inquired. "My father told me that you are the mostexpert in music, so you must do me a favour today. Give me thebenediction that I will be more expert than you." So Narada said,"All right, I will sit somewhere and listen to you." "Shall I startsinging?" Hanuman asked. "Yes." Narada Muni put his vina on arock, and he sat down on the ground. So Hanuman selected that tunewhich would melt the rock, and he began to sing it. The rockmelted, and the vina was in the liquid. He was singing and singing,and the vina was floating in the liquid rock. Narada was closinghis eyes and enjoying, and he said, "All right Hanuman, you are thebest musician. You can stop singing now." Hanuman said, "You openyour eyes and tell me if I should I stop singing." Narada said,"How do you mean?" Hanuman replied, "You open your eyes." SoNarada opened his eyes and looked around. He didn't notice the vinafloating in the stone water. "Yes, you can stop singing." So thenHanuman stopped singing, and the liquid stone became rock, and thevina got stuck. Narada said, "I am going," and he took his vina,but it wouldn't move. "What did you do, Hanuman?" Hanuman said, "Ionly sung a song. You told me to sing a song, and you also gave methe ability. Now you are complaining. I have been a good boy for awhole week." Narada said, "One week of doing nothing means thatbefore that week you did too much." And then Hanuman told him allabout what he had done, swallowing the sun etc, and Narada becamevery pleased. Then he said, "Now whatever it was, you please singthe tune again, so I can get my vina." Hanuman said, "Well, I don'tknow...." Narada Muni said, "Please do it!" "No I won't," Hanumansaid, and he jumped up and ran inside the palace. Narada Muni camein there and called out, "Hey Hanuman, come and get my vina out! Ihave to go." Just then Ketari came out, and when he saw Narada Munihe touched his feet. "What is my son doing, he is giving you sometrouble?" Narada said, "Oh no, no trouble, just that he got my vinastuck in the rock." Ketari said, "Oh no, he has started his mischiefagain. Hanuman, get Narada's vina out of the rock!" And thenHanuman said, "I want Narada Muni's feet to touch every room in thispalace, that is why I was doing this. Now he has touched all therooms, and I will release his vina. The dust from his lotus feet isso rare that what is the use of just having it in one part of ourkingdom? We should have it all over." Narada said, "You are alreadyblessed, because you are Lord Rama's eternal servant." So Hanumanwent and sung for Narada, who quickly took his vina and left. Inthis way, Hanuman had so many wonderful pastimes. Then he toldKetari, "I want to get education. I have so many benedictions, but Ineed some education too, I need vidya. I am very much hankering forvidya." Ketari said, "But who could give you vidya? You have somany benedictions, but you also have uncontrollable behaviour. Ican't find a guru for you, because you are so strong, and so naughtyalso." Hanuman said, "This means that you are not going to performthe duty of the father. You're not giving me any education." Ketarisaid, "I have to give you education, but you do one thing. You go tothe Sun-god. He is the most powerful. Some time ago he wassuppressed by you, but I can't think of anyone else. So you go tohim." Hanuman went to see the Sun-god, and when the Sun-god sawHanuman coming, he said, "It's Hanuman again. What is he here for?He's grown up now, so he must have stopped playing his mischief."Hanuman came up and paid his obeisances. The Sun-god said, "What areyou here for now? Whom are you going to swallow?" Hanuman objected,"No, no, all that was because I was in ignorance. I still have somuch ignorance, but I want to get some knowledge. I've heard thatyou are a great pandit, so please teach me. I've come to join yourgurukula." So then the Sun-god looked down. He has a big sittingplace in the front of his chariot. There, there are six millionrishis sitting, and they are constantly reciting Yajur-veda, Rg-veda,Sama-veda and Atharva-veda to the Sun-god. So he looked to see ifthere was any vacant seat, but the whole place was filled up, so hesaid, "Sorry, but no admission." Hanuman said, "If there is no seatthen I will stand and learn from you." The Sun-god said, "But I haveto keep moving. If you stand in front of me then I won't be able tomove and the seasons won't be there. I will be in trouble." Hanumansaid, "Then I will move and learn." The Sun-god said, "All right.But you have to face me and move backwards. In this way you have tolisten to me, and whatever I say you have to learn. I won't repeatit." So Hanuman was there in front of the Sun-god, and he waswalking backwards. He was so sense-controlled that he could join theorbit of the sun. In 60 orbits he learnt everything, Rg, Sama, Yajurand Atharva. The Sun-god spoke it, he heard it and immediately heknew it. And then he said, "Now I have finished. Everything youhave said I have heard and I remember it." The Sun-god said, "Verygood, but you have to give me some dakshina." Hanuman said, "Wellwhat do you want? Do you want Indra's crown? You tell me anythingand I will get it for you in a second." The Sun-god said, "No, Idon't want any of that. Only one guru-dakshina I need from you. Ihave a monkey friend. You must become his minister. You must alwaysprotect his life." Hanuman said, "Oh? You have a monkey friend, andI should protect him? This is only glory for me. I will do it, Iwill protect him as my life." And then the Sun-god told him who wasthat monkey. It was Sugriva, and he is the son of the Sun-god. HowSugriva became the Sun-god's son is a wonderful story. There was onelady who was known as Narayani, and her husband was calledugra-tapas. That means "ferocious austerities," but he never did anyausterities. He was only engaged in sense gratification. He becameso diseased and paralysed that he had to be carried in a basket.Narayani would carry him in a basket so that he could go to differentplaces and get sense gratification. Ugra-tapas told Narayani, "Youmust take me to such and such prostitute today." So she was carryinghim. While Ugra-tapas was in the basket and Narayani was carryinghim, there was one rishi whose name was Bishmanda Rishi, and he hadbeen put on a trident by a king because of some misunderstanding, andwas suffering in that condition. He had tri-kala-jnah, knowledge ofpast, present and future, and when he saw Ugra-tapas he knew he wasgoing to a prostitute's place, and that he was crippled and beingcarried by his wife. So he got so upset, and forgot about his pain.He called out, "Hey Ugra-tapas, what are you doing? Your name isUgra-tapas, and what is your life like? And now you are asking yourwife to carry you to a prostitute's when you are paralysed. Whatkind of a person are you? You should die immediately. When the sunrises tomorrow you will die." When Narayani heard this she said,"When the sun rises tomorrow my husband will die? Then I curse thatthe sun will not rise." She cursed the sun. So the sun becamemotionless. The Sun-god's charioteer Aruna was getting ready,packing the horses etc, and then he looked back and saw the sun hadbecome static. "Oh? It is a vacation for me. I never got anyholiday, because t here was never any chance. Let me have some fun."So he went and asked the sages that sit on the Sun-god's chariot,"How come the sun is not moving any more?" "This is the curse of achaste lady," they replied. "How long will this curse last?" Arunaasked. "At least one day." "That's good," Aruna said. "One day isgood. I can enjoy nicely." So Aruna got one day's holiday. He wasthinking, "How can I enjoy this day? It never happened in thecreation before, and it will probably never happen again. The sunnever goes on holiday. I only have one day, so I must get thehighest enjoyment." So he took a book, like a tourist guide for theheavenly planets, and he found out that Indra was having a specialfeast and dinner in respect of some great personality, and Menaka wasdancing at that festival. "Oh I must go and see that," he said. Butin this party, only the invited guests were allowed. You had tobring an invitation, and you had to be dressed in a special design.It was only Indra's close friends. So he was wondering, "How will Igo? I know, I will also become a dancer." So he turned into awoman, Aruna became Aruni. And this Aruni was so beautiful, becausehe always sat with the sun and he was shining so brightly. He camein front of Indra's palace. The gateman said, "Hey, who are you?""I am Menaka's make--up assistant," she said. She forgot to put oneline on her face, so I have to do it. I am the only one who isexpert enough." "All right, you may come." So then Aruni entered.Menaka was dancing on one side and Aruni was hiding. And then Indrawas looking through the crowd, and suddenly he saw Aruni. "She ismore beautiful that Menaka," he said. So he immediately cancelledthe party, and started showing everyone out. Aruni was going toleave, but Indra caught hold of her and said, "Wait a minute! Whoare you?" Aruni said, "I am Menaka's make-up assistant. Leave mealone! I am going." "No you are not going, you are staying," Indrasaid. "I'm staying wh ere?" "With me," Indra said. "No, I am notstaying with you. I know your history," Aruni said. Indra said,"No, no, I will keep you next to Indrani." Aruni objected, "Even ifyou keep me more than Indrani, I cannot be here because I am a man."Indra said, "Don't play these games with me, I know you are a woman."Aruni said, "No I am not a woman! I am a man! I just turned myselfinto this form." Indra said, "Even then, you are the most beautifulwoman that I have seen." Aruni said, "If you were to give me aconception, who would bring up the child? I am the charioteer of theSun-god." Indra said, "Whatever or whoever you are, and whateverwill come out of it, I'm going to enjoy you." Aruni agreed, andimmediately there was a conception, and a demigod was born. And thenAruni ran, because it was getting late already, and the Sun-god wasslowly getting his movement back. At the last moment Aruna jumped onthe chariot and grabbed the reins. The Sun-god said, "You're surecutting it fine. Where did you go?" "Oh, nowhere," Aruna answered."Tell me!" "Oh, I went to Indra's planet." "What did he do to you?"the Sun-god asked. "He gave me a conception." "How did he give youa conception?" Aruna said, "It's getting late now, we only have afew moments." The Sun-god said, "A few moments is alright. It needsonly one moment. Let me see that beautiful form." Aruna objected,"No, no. This will only cause more trouble." "No, I must see," saidthe Sun-god. "You are my servant." "Alright," said Aruna, and hebecame Aruni. In the next moment there was another conception. Sothis is demigod life. Only a very few of them are thinking of Visnu.The bulk of them think of Visnu only when the demons come, and thenwhen the demons leave they go back to their sense gratification. Itis mentioned in the Visnu Purana that one who hears this story losesthe attraction for going to the heavenly planets. So now two babieswere crying. This was not usually the way that birth happened in theheavenly planets, so all the demigods were disturbed in their sensegratification. They all went to Brahma and Brahma approached Indra, saying,"You are the cause of this problem. You settle this down." "I can'thave babies in the heavenly planets," Indra said. "We'll have togive them to someone." Then he remembered the king of Varanasa,Riksharaja, who had no children. He was performing austerities toplease Indra so he could get a son. A benediction from the demigodsis usually something that demigods don't want in the heavenlyplanets, so they give it away. So Riksharaja was standing on one legto get some children, and Indra came and said, "Why are you standingon one leg? Here are two babies you can have." So they had twosons, Bali and Sugriva. Bali was the son of Indra, and Sugriva wasthe son of the Sun-god. And the Sun-god got the benediction ofguru-dakshina from Hanuman that he would always protect Sugriva. Inthis way, when Bali was anointed the king after Riksharaja, Sugrivabecame his minister, and Hanuman became the counsellor or minister ofSugriva.

Chapter 7: The great monkey army

2007-03-01T03:07:00.000-08:00

When the monkeys were looking for Sita, they were going to commitsuicide on account of their not being able to find her. Angada wasputting the kusa grass, and he said, "I'm going to die. I can't findSita." The other monkeys said, "No, no, there is a nice secure placewhere we can go to live." Hanuman chastised them. "This isillusion," he said. Hanuman got so upset, and he was chastisingAngada and the rest of the monkeys. "What are you trying to do? Doyou want to end your life in a prestigious way, or do you want to gofor some `security'?" They were on a mission for Ramacandra. Theyhad to find Sita and then come back with that information. Thirtythousand monkeys went on that mission. That was only in the south.In the north there were eighty thousand monkeys. And because eastand west were not so important, there was only ten thousand in thoseplaces. The greatest corporals and generals of Sugriva were ordainedto go, and they were told not to come back until they found Sita.Unfortunately all the other groups came back. The north, the eastand the west. But the southern party was still going. Hanuman,Jambavan, Angada and Nila were the greatest leaders of that group.We have discussed Hanuman's appearance already. Now we will discussJambavan. Jambavan is the oldest created being in the universe,apart from Brahma. When Brahma was thinking of making the creationand he had the vision of the Lord, the Lord shook hands with him andgave him the information of Bhagavatam, aham evasya evagre. "I ambefore everything and after everything." Brahma was contemplating tocreate, and he was thinking, "How great is this creation, and how amI going to do it?" In the meantime, the Garbhodakasayi Visnu waslaying down on the snake, and from both of his ears, two drops ofsweat came out. One drop became Madhu, a great demon, and the otherbecame Kaitava, another great demon. Madhu and Kaitava came and met,and shook hands. They looked back and said, "We must finish this."This is a demon. You take shelter of something, and then when youare done with it you destroy it. This Rakshasa mentality of Madhuand Kaitava created a bad atmosphere and Brahma started sweating.The sweat came from his four faces. Lord Visnu got up and looked atMadhu and Kaitava and said, "O great personalities Madhu and Kaitava,please give me a benediction." They said, "This is easy! He issurrendering to us. Do you know who we are?" they addressed him."Oh, you are the great Madhu and Kaitava, supremely powerfulpersons." They said, "What benediction do you want, Visnu?" Visnusaid, "You give me a benediction that I can fight with you." "Oh,you want a fight?" they said. "That is what we are expecting too.Now it is more prestigious for us, because it is our benediction.Yes you can fight with us, but one thing. If ever you think that youwant to kill us, you can only kill us in a place where there is noearth, no water, no air, no fire, no ether, no mind, no intelligenceand no false ego. You can kill us in that spot." That means thatthey cannot be killed anywhere in the universe, that was what theywere thinking. They didn't know anything beyond the universe,because they were demons. Then Visnu started fighting with them, andit went on for a long time. While the fight was going on, Brahma wassweating again because of the whole evil atmosphere created by Madhuand Kaitava. This time with the sweat came a small entity, and itwas there on his cheek. It was moving around there. Brahma said,"What is this?" and he looked at it. It started growing, so he threwit on the floor. It grew more, and it was a bear. No species werepresent at that time. "What is this?" Brahma said. Black bear withso much hair on the body, and it grew and grew and became so strong.It spoke in Sanskrit. He spoke to Brahma, "You have created me, sowhere shall I go?" Brahma said, "I created something without myknowledge. You go to Jambunada." That was one piece of land in thewater of dissolut ion, Jambunada-ksetra. So immediately he enteredJambunada, and he sat down there and was looking around. What he sawwas Madhu and Kaitava fighting. He was clapping his hands andwhistling, and he called out, "Wonderful! Hit him on the head!" Hewas the audience. Visnu was going up into the sky and picking themup and throwing them. They were so strong, coming from the ear ofVisnu, so they were giving a good fight. Garbhodakasayi Visnu waslaying down on Sesa naga for a long time, so he wanted to have somepastime. He wanted to have some entertainment, so he createdsomebody and started fighting. He took Madhu and Kaitava on his lap,and then with his hand he crushed them. They were finished, becausethere was no earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence orfalse ego. His was a transcendental body. Jambavan jumped up anddown and said, "Wonderful, wonderful fight! Can I see more?" Visnusaid, "You wait for the creation to start. Then there will be somany fights." So creation started, and the Manvantaras came one byone. There was a great dissolution, and Satyavrata was on the boat,and a golden fish came, a huge big fish with a horn. With Vasuki,the snake, they tied the fish's horn yo that boat. The sapta-rishiswere there and Jambavan was sitting there looking. "Aah, what a nicefish," he said, and he circumambulated the fish. The fish wascircumambulating the whole universe. In this way Jambavan had a goodengagement at that time. Jambavan will not die, he is a ciran-jiva.He was getting old, but he was quite strong. Then Kurma-avatar came,and Jambavan witnessed that also. He also was there whenVaraha-avatar slapped Hiranyaksa. Hiranyaksa was slapped and he wentup circling around, and while he was circling around his eyes cameout of his sockets, and Jambavan was playing with them. "What awonderful fight!" That was finished, and he saw Nrsimhadeva also.And then Vamanadeva appeared. When Vamanadeva grew into a huge bigfigure lifting his leg an d piercing the universe from the top,Jambavan, in six moments, circled this great form of Trivikramaeighteen times. That was the speed of Jambavan. He was in ecstasy,"Oh! What a beautiful form!" He was going around and around,eighteen times in six moments. When he was coming back down he wasin so much ecstasy, and he scratched Mount Meru with his toe-nails.Meru got upset. Meru came in person and said, "Hey, you dirty bear!What are you doing to me? You are touching me with your foot. Eventhe sapta-rishis don't do this, they float over me. They don't setfoot on me. You are doing this, so you become old. Because you areyoung and so fast, you have offended me. You become old and weak."He cursed him. So Jambavan became very old. Meru told him,"Although you are old, when the pastimes of Lord Ramacandra come, youwill do a lot of service for him." This was Jambavan. And Jambavanwas called by Sugriva, who said to him, "Jambavan, you are theoldest. There is nothing that you don't know. There is no demigodthat you don't know. There is no avatar that you haven't seen.There is no ocean that you don't know. You know everything in thiscreation. So you must help Angada, the son of Bali. Find out whereSita is." Jambavan agreed, and he told Angada, "Don't worry. Icannot fly like before, but I know every place. I can be your guidein this area of south India. Somehow we will find Mother Sita."Then there was Nila. Nila was also a Brahma-putra, a mental son ofBrahma, and he was an engineer, a chemist and a scientist. He wasalso a bear, a bear scientist. So this scientist could float stones,reduce and increase the density of stone, he was such a physicist andchemist that he could take different things, mix them up and creatediverse effects of colour, smell, and various feelings. He couldchange feelings by chemical combination. He could take something andmix with something else, and you would feel miserable. By anothercombination he could make yo one's mind by chemicals, without thatperson having to take it, unlike the drugs of today. He constructeda kingdom in Kishkinda which was so strong. It was complete stone,no cement or concrete. Just stone on top of stone. It wasconstructed so each stone was holding another, and it was a huge bigpalace, very strong. This is Nila. Hanuman, Jambavan, Nila andAngada set forward with thirty thousand vanaras. They lookedeverywhere, but couldn't find anything. Then they came to theVindhya mountains. By the time they had crossed the forest, whichhad no leaves (big trees are there, but they are only branchesbecause one rishi's son cursed the forest, "You will become barren").So many trees are there but there are no leaves. No leaves means noflowers, and no flowers means no fruit, so all the monkeys werehungry. Already they had been about three weeks with no water and nofood. They didn't know what to do. They saw a black cave in frontof the Vindhya mountains. Hanuman said to Angada, "We are greatwarriors, so we must have some thrill. Let us enter this cave." Allthe monkeys said, "No, no, we are not going inside this cave.Already there is no water, no food, and if you go inside this cavethere will be no light. And if you go deeper there will be no air,and we will all die." So Hanuman said, "Whoever wants to go, raisetheir hand." So Jambavan, Angada, Nila and of course Hanuman, and afew other monkeys, they all raised their hands. Hanuman said, "Allright, hold my tail." So Angada was holding his tail, and Nila washolding Angada's tail. Jambavan was in the middle, because he wasold and they didn't want to lose him, and there were other monkeysand all of them started walking into this cave. The only symptomsthat they saw was some birds coming from inside, and their wings werewet. Hanuman said, "Look, their wings are wet. That means somewater is there. And if the birds are coming from inside the cavethat means some people must be living there . It must be a niceplace, so everyone should come." He was preaching like this, and themonkeys were one by one joining. A few were standing there andwondering what to do. They thought, "Hanuman, Jambavan and everyoneelse are all going, and we are standing here. There is no waterhere, and they are the only protection for us. If they are gone,what will we do?" So they also decided to go. All the monkeysjoined, they all went into the cave. Every five minutes Jambavan wasshouting the names of all the different monkeys, just to check thateveryone was there, because it was so dark, you couldn't seeanything. And after crossing eighty miles in complete darkness,finally there was a glimmer of light coming. Hanuman shouted, "Rama!Rama! Rama! There is light here. Maybe there are some people and wecan get some food. We are hungry monkeys." So they all went towardsthe light and discovered a beautiful city inside the cave. And somany mansions were there. These mansions were all made with gold andrubies and diamonds, they couldn't believe their eyes. There waslakes and lotus flowers, nice creepers and fruits. Angada said,"Don't believe this. It may be the work of some demon, that as soonas we go in he will swallow us. Don't touch anything. Keepleaping." They were leaping from one place to another, and then theyleaped into a mansion. Without making any sound they were inside andlooking around. They found one woman who was dressed in tiger skin,with matted locks of hair. She had a trident in her hand. "What isthis?" they said. "She looks like a babaji, and she is in thiswonderful palace." Hanuman went in front, and he folded his hands.Hanuman is very good in talking. He gave a smile. He said, "Pleasetell us who you are. You look like a very spiritually advancedperson." Flattery. "I hope you are not a demoness. But you don'tlook like one, you look very pious. So you must tell us who youare." She said, "First you tell me who you are. How did you getinside this place? This is a mysti nd human beings, gandharvas,vanaras, can never come here. Only celestials can come here."Jambavan was mumbling, "Yes, yes, they are all celestials. They onlylook like monkeys." Angada asked him, "What did you say?" "No, no,"Jambavan replied. "I am just telling something old." Jambavan hadbeen in Rama-lila before, and every time they had gone in search ofSita, and every time they had gone into this cave also. Every timehe saw something like that, he would say, because he has seen it somany times. They were seeing it for the first time, because demigodskeep changing, but Jambavan is the same Jambavan. Hanuman said, "Weare all servants of Lord Ramacandra, the son of Dasaratha." Then shesaid, "This Ramacandra, I don't think he's the son of an earthlyking, because otherwise how just by chanting his name could you crossthat dark cave. It is not possible for anyone to do that. This mustbe an incarnation of Visnu." Jambavan said, "She also knows so much.I know that he is an incarnation of the Supreme Lord, and I also knowwho will find Sita." Some monkeys said, "What did you say?"Jambavan said, "Don't listen to me. I'm just an old bear, and oldpeople always mumble like this." Hanuman and this lady got into agood conversation. Hanuman pleased her, and she told her identity.She was a friend of Hema, and Hema was the daughter of Mount Meru.This Hema was once being kept captive in that city by one great demoncalled Mayasura. He was a great magician. Indra came, and he senthis vadra, and he finished this demon Maya. He took charge of Hema,and she became Indra's wife. Hema was alone in that huge big magicalcity, so Indra requested Meru to send his daughter so they could havesome association. Hema had gone out somewhere, so that is why thislady was there. She was an ascetic, and she believed in worship ofimpersonal Brahman, and mukti. She was there with tiger skin andtrident. This was the story. Hanuman said, "We are very hungry, and we are monkeys. Please give us something to eat." "No problem,"she said. "You just go into this garden and you can eat plenty offruits, fill your stomachs." So the whole army went into thisbeautiful garden of Mayasura, and they ate stomachs full. They cameto drink water, and after drinking water she supplied them with winewhich they also took. They took a little wine. The wine back thenwas just a drink, not an intoxicant. In this way they enjoyednicely, and they asked her, "You please tell us how we can now getout of the cave." She said, "Get out of this cave? No, you cannever get out of this cave." They said, "What? You've fed usnicely, you've given us so much nice drink, and now you're going tokeep us in prison?" Hanuman took his club and said, "You want to seethis?" She said, "Wait a minute, you just ate in my house. Youcan't fight with me. I said, `You can't get out of the cave'. Inever said that you won't go out of the cave. All of you, close youreyes." They all closed their eyes. And then she said, "Now openyour eyes." And when they opened their eyes they were not there. Infront of them was a huge big ocean, Mahodadhi. They were somewherebetween Rameshvara and Puri, but this land extended so many milesdown in Treta-yuga. The Ceylon that we are seeing today is not thesame Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is further down, because Hanuman flew onehundred yojanas. A yojana is eight miles. Eight hundred miles isnot the distance from Rameshvara to Ceylon. You can reach it inforty five minutes by a boat. It's not that far. It is mentionedthat they were on top of a mountain from where Hanuman flew, and inthe area of Rameshvaram you don't find any mountains. So that areafrom where Hanuman jumped, the Gandha-madana hills, is much moredown. And that is all eaten up by ocean. We shouldn't think thatthis was the shore where they were standing. They were miles down atthat time, because the ocean comes and eats the land. Hanuman andthe others saw this Mahodadhi ocea n. It was very fierce. Angadasaid, "We have come to the end of the land. Where is Sita? We havenot found her. How can we go back, now that is a month? We startedon the full moon night, and now it is again full moon night."Angada felt very bad. He said, "Bring some darba grass." He placedit with the tips facing the north. He was going to do aPrayopavesha. Prayopavesha means that when a great personalitycannot accomplish a task which he promised he would do, he would siton the kusa grass and leave his body by fasting. He was sittingthere on the kusa grass. Hanuman was sitting there with his head inhis hands looking at the ocean. He thought, "We have come to ablank disc. What is going on now? Should I go back or forward?What should I do?" Jambavan was taking rest, because he was tiredafter drinking wine and eating so many fruits. Other monkeys werewandering around and looking here and there. Hanuman saw themonkeys, and he asked them, "What are you going to do?" They said,"We have a good idea. We will go back to the cave. Plenty offruits, plenty of wine. You cannot get out. If you cannot get out,you cannot get in, and no-one will come to trouble us. We will behappy there." Hanuman said, "What a silly idea. This is maya.Ramacandra is our Lord. What do you need this security for? Youwant to take shelter in wine and fruit? You must be a monkey." Hechastised them. Angada was sitting there chanting mantras, andpreparing to leave his body. Hanuman also approached him. "Angada,you are a prince. What are you doing looking to the north, sittingon kusa grass? This is not meant for strong people. Look at yourshoulders, they're so strong. They are supposed to be for fightingfor Lord Ramacandra. Here you are fasting, preparing to die. Whatare you going to accomplish because of this? You will die. Andeveryone will say, `That son of Bali is a useless monkey. He diedbecause he couldn't accomplish his mission." Angada said, "You aresaying all this, but you tell me, what are we supposed to do? If Igo back Sugriva will kill me and take the kingdom. Already heplanned somehow to kill my father. Now he has got a reason to killme. He will say, `Now you didn't accomplish your mission so I willkill you.' No-one will say anything, and he will have the kingdom.Let him have the kingdom anyway, let me just die. At least he won'tdie." Hanuman realised he would have to use politics here. Samadhana bheda danda. There are four ways of preaching. First youspeak nicely, and then you offer something, then you make a bheda, adifference of opinion between the groups. "Do you know what he saidabout you?" If none of those work, you use the stick, danda.Hanuman thought, now I have to use bheda, politics. He said, "Yes,Sugriva is like that. He may take the whole kingdom, but your motheris there. If you die, she will certainly suffer. He will give herno food, no cloth and no respect. She will beg in the street. Yourmother!" Angada said, "No!" And he threw the kusa grass away. "I'mnot fasting!" Hanuman said, "If you die, what is the benefit? Youmust go back now. Somehow or other we must convince him that wecouldn't find Sita." Angada said, "How will I go back? I have nostrength." Hanuman said, "You sit down. I will tell you thepastimes of Lord Ramacandra. Then you will gain strength." He beganto describe the pastimes of Ramacandra. They discussed all thesewonderful things of how Lord Ramacandra broke the bow, how hedefeated Parasurama, how he caressed Jatayu and cremated him. Assoon as they were talking about that, they saw some change in theatmosphere. Everything was trembling and shaking. Hanuman caughthold of Angada and said, "Some demon is coming." They were lookingeverywhere, and then from under the mountainside they saw two bigfeet coming out. They looked like bird's feet, and each nail wasabout two kilometres long. Angada said, "That's it. All thirtythousand monkeys will be eaten by this b ird demon now. Look at hisfingers, they are so big!" Slowly the bird came into sight, and thenthey noted that this bird did not have any speed. It was draggingitself, slowly. They saw the wings also, which were each 14 yojanaslong. However, the wings were broken, and they looked completelyburned. They looked like charcoal. He was dragging himself withgreat difficulty, and then slowly his face came into view, a hugebeak. He opened his mouth and spoke, "Who is talking about mybrother Jatayu?" So many monkeys were blown over just by the aircoming out of his mouth. Jambavan was called, and Hanuman said,"Look after the monkeys, we must take care of this person. He may beuseful to us." They both came to him, and asked him, "Who are you?We are talking of Jatayu, and I am Hanuman and this is Angada. I amthe son of Vayu, and we are messengers of Rama." Slowly the birdopened his eyes and said, "Rama? Is this the son of Dasaratha?"Hanuman said, "Yes, this is the same Rama." The bird continued, "Hewas exiled to the forest. Has he completed his exile?" "What awonderful bird," Angada remarked. "He is sitting under the mountainand cannot see anything, yet he knows history. Yes they are still inexile because they lost their wife. Sita has been taken by Ravana."The bird said, "Ravana! Aargh! I will eat him up." Hanuman said,"Oh very good! Please do it." The bird said, "But I cannot fly. Mywings are broken. I am Sampati, the elder brother of Jatayu. I ammuch stronger than Jatayu. I heard that Jatayu was killed by Ravana.I want to kill him, but I can't kill him as I have entered into anagreement with him." Long ago when Sampati was flying, when he wasyoung and very strong, Ravana was flying with somebody's wife. Thisis what he does all the time. Once he was doing a fire sacrifice,and when Agni came to give a blessing, he took Agni's wife. Ravanais famous for taking people's wives. Sampati stopped him and said,"Where are you going? Who is this woman?" Ravana said, "This isNalakuvera's wife pati said, "You had better leave her right here,otherwise you don't know what I will do to you." Ravana said, "Ah,you are just a dirty bird." So he took one of his feet and caughthold of Ravana and crushed him. Blood came out of his body, and thatis why Ravana has five holes in his body, from Sampati's claw.Ravana covers these so no-one can see him. But there is one holewhich he doesn't cover on his chest. That is the tusk of Airavata.He wants to show that because it is a great fighting wound. At thattime Ravana touched Sampati's feet. "Although you are a bird, Itouch your feet. Please make an agreement with me. I won't come inyour area and do anything, and you don't come in my area." Theysigned an agreement. Because of this, Sampati was bound by dharma.Hanuman asked Sampati, "And how have you become old like this?"Sampati said, "Once Jatayu and I were having a competition, and wewere flying higher and higher. But we came very close to the sun,and I saw Jatayu was burning. So to protect him I put my wings overhim. However, I also was very close to the sun, and my wings gotburnt and came loose. After that I don't know where my brother went.You are the first I have heard say that he died in the service ofLord Ramacandra. I have stayed here so long, and a rishi once toldme that when I told you where Sita was, at that time I would get mystrength back." Hanuman became very excited, "What did you say?"Sampati repeated, "When I tell you where Sita is..." Hanuman cut himshort, "You know where Sita is?" And all the monkeys started jumpingup and down. "We've found Sita, we've found Sita!" Sampati said,"Can you please move me out of this cave? I have to climb on top ofthe Vindhya mountains to look at it." Angada asked, "Look at what?""To look at Lanka," the bird replied. Angada said, "Look at Lanka?It is eight hundred miles away!" Hanuman came close to Angada andsaid, "Just look at this bird. He's so huge, fourteen yojanas eachwing. This bird itself is about thirty yojanas long. Can youimagine how much power he must have in his eyes? He can sit here andsee Lanka!" With great difficulty all the monkeys came under Sampatiand moved him. Thirty thousand monkeys were trying so hard. It wasdifficult for them to somehow put him on top of the rock with hiswings like that. Then he lifted his beak and said, "I can see SriLanka. I can see the ten-story building of Ravana. I can see theroof, and Ravana standing on the top." He could see everything, hehad such optical power. Sampati is the son of Aruna, the charioteerof the Sun-god, so he must be very powerful. "I cannot see Sita," hecontinued, "But Ravana is walking here and there. So many demons arearound. I can see a forest of Ashoka trees. I can see a yellowcloth hanging there." As soon as he said that, Hanuman said, "Yes,yellow cloth. That is what Mother Sita was wearing." Previously Sitahad taken some ornaments, put them in yellow cloth that she tore fromher sari, and threw them down. Hanuman picked them up before Ramacame to Kishkinda, and Laksmana identified them as Sita'sjewelleries. Hanuman became very happy. Even while they werelooking, slowly Sampati's wings became straight, and new featherswere coming out of his body. Next moment they heard a loud, "Rama!"Sampati had chanted Rama. When he started "Ra" he was already up inthe sky. By the time they had heard the whole world he was just apoint in the distant sky. Sampati went to the heavenly planets. Hedidn't want to be there, because he wanted so desperately to killRavana, but because of the pact he couldn't do it. So he just helpedthem and then went. They had found out where Sita was. Hanuman wasasked by Jambavan, "You must leap over this ocean, and go to SriLanka." Hanuman said, "This ocean is so big. How will I do it?"Jambavan then told Hanuman his own pastimes. How he got the sunplanet inside his mouth etc. As Jambavan was narrating, Hanumanbegan to grow. He became big ger and bigger and bigger. He becameso big that Valmiki says his shadow was fifty yojanas long. All themonkeys were like mosquitoes in front of him. Then he said toJambavan, "Yes, I am the servant of Rama! I am the son of Vayu.No-one can stop me! I will crush Ravana with my thumb, and I willbring Sita on my shoulder! There is no need for Ramacandra to go.I am going now." He chanted "Rama!" He started with "Ra," and heended with "m". When he said "m" he was in Sri Lanka. That was howfast he was. Being an angsha of Lord Siva, he took the path thatLord Siva travels. There are different levels that differententities travel at. Gandharvas travel very close to earth, andafter Gandharvas come Kinnaras, after Kinnaras come Vanaras, andafter Vanaras come Siddhas, after Siddhas come Caranas, and afterCaranas come bigger demigods like Ganesh or Kartikeya, and themcomes Lord Siva's tract. In that area no-one flies. It is LordSiva's zone. That is where Hanuman went. He was flying fearlessly.In this way, by chanting Rama only once, Hanuman reached Sri Lanka.Before reaching Sri Lanka he encountered many disturbances, as wellas much help on the way. There was one mountain called MainataParvata. which can grow simply by thinking. The ocean king toldMainata Parvata, "Hanuman, the servant of Rama, is coming, and hemust take some rest. He is leaping in one breath, so you must growupwards and give him somewhere to rest." Mainata Parvata grewupwards to the sky and stopped Hanuman. Hanuman said, "What's this?There is no mountain here. Who are you?" Hanuman can speak notonly from his mouth but from any hole in his body, this was hisyogic perfection. He had only one breath, so he didn't use hismouth which he was using to chant Rama. "M" had to be pronounced inSri Lanka, and he was still on "Ra". He was talking through someother hole. Mainaka Parvata thought, "This is a wonderfulphenomenon. A monkey with a long tail speaking through the holes ofthe body. Please put your lotus feet on my head," the mountain said,"because I have to show to the ocean king that I have served you."Hanuman said, "No rest when I am doing Krsna-seva. I am going." Thedemigods thought, "This is not correct that he reaches Lanka soeasily. There must be some fun." So they called a great snakecalled Sarasa. This Sarasa was ordered to stop Hanuman. This Sarasatook the form of a demoness. She came there and opened her mouth.Hanuman was flowing and she was growing upwards, her mouth open likea big cave. Hanuman said, "Please move away from here. I am on theLord's mission." "No no no," she said. "Brahma has given me abenediction that unless somebody goes in my mouth, he cannot passby." Hanuman said, "Ah, but this mouth is too small for me." And hestarted growing more. She started growing also, making her mouthbigger, so he also grew. She grew more. They were growing andgrowing, and her mouth became half the size of the universe. At thattime Hanuman suddenly became small, and he entered the mouth and cameout. Then he said, "See, I have defeated you. I entered your mouthand came out again. Now you please bless me." So she gaveblessings, and then he went. Another great demoness came and said,"She didn't swallow you, but I must swallow you." She also did thesame thing. Hanuman also asked the same thing. "You please openyour mouth a little wider so you can eat me comfortably." She openedher mouth wider, and Hanuman became small. Though he became small,the strength is same. He went inside the mouth, and hit the back ofher mouth. By that hitting, blood came out and she died. ThenHanuman got her blessings too, while she was dying. She was someGandharvika that had been cursed to become a demoness. She said,"Now I am killed by Hanuman, I will get liberation." So she blessedHanuman. She said, "There is one more person that you have to kill,at the entrance gate." Hanuman landed in Sri Lanka. He looked atLanka, a beautiful city. He felt very bad. "Why should a demon havesuch a beautiful city?" He made up his mind, "Before I go from here,I will destroy this city, somehow or other." He came and Lankani wassitting there, a great demoness with a trident. So Hanuman became asmall monkey, very small, and he was running inside the gate. Shewas sitting there and she said, "Wait! You are not going." "She isvery intelligent," Hanuman said. "I am so small and she saw me." Heclimbed on her hand and up to her shoulder. He looked at her andsaid, "I am a small monkey, please let me in. I want to eat somefruits." "Fruits?" she asked. "What fruits are you going to eat?"Hanuman said, "I heard that there are beautiful mangoes, and Ravanais keeping them only for himself." She said, "I will get you anymango outside this gate. There are so many gardens here. Why areyou going inside for food?" Hanuman said, "Don't waste my time.You'd better let me in." She was shocked. "What? You are justsitting on my shoulder. Don't you know who I am? I am Lankani."Hanuman said, "You are Lankani? I will slap you." She was amused."You will slap me? You can't even reach my cheek." "Please take meto your cheek," Hanuman said. She took Hanuman and placed him nextto her cheek. He slapped her and she fell down and blood came fromher mouth. He was so small, but his strength was the same as whenhis size was normal. Then he went inside the city.

Chapter 8: Background stories

2007-03-01T03:06:00.000-08:00

Sri Lanka was built on top of a mountain called Tri-kuta Giri. ThisTri-kuta was a piece of rock that broke from Mount Meru. Long ago,there was some discussion between two Gandharvas. One Gandharvasaid, "Vasuki is such a powerful strong snake, that when the Lordtook incarnation as Matsya, he used Vasuki as a rope to tie the hornof that fish to the boat where Maharaja Satyavrata and thesapta-rishis were travelling. In the dissolution water, this boatwas kept safe due to Vasuki binding Matsya and the boat." The otherGandharva said, "Maybe he is strong, but do you think he could be asstrong as Vayu, Varuna or Agni?" The other said, "He must bestronger than them, otherwise why did the Lord select Vasuki?" Whilethey were discussing in this way, Vayu, the god of air, who ispresent everywhere, he couldn't tolerate this discussion. Hepersonally came in front of them and asked them, "What is thisuseless discussion?" "Who are you?" they enquired. "I am Vayu," hereplied. "Is there anyone as strong as me? Why do you even discussthese things? Don't you know that I am everywhere and I am listeningto these things?" One Gandharva said, "Well, I have seen Vasuki. Iwas the last one to creep into the water at that time. I've seen howstrong he is." Vayu said, "Bring that Vasuki, and we can test."Then Vasuki was brought, and he challenged Vayu. "What do you mean?I am so strong! Every time the Lord selects me, so there must besome reason." Vayu said, "Then we can test our strength." Vasukisaid, "I will coil around the Meru three times, and you blow and seeif you can open my coils." But they never consulted Mount Meruwhether they could do it. Around Mount Meru were so many insects andcreatures. All the planetary systems were going around it. Vasukiwent on there, and Meru did not mind. So many snakes were on therealready. But he didn't know there was going to be some sports.Vasuki coiled around Meru three times and started getting tighter andtighter. And then Vayu started blowing against Mount Meru in fullforce. Mount Meru started moving back and forth, because Vayu wasusing all his strength, and Vasuki was not going to give up. So itwas not just Vasuki, but Vayu had to work on both, the strength ofMount Meru and the strength of Vasuki. And then Mount Meru startedcomplaining and screaming. "What is this? There are three partiesinvolved in this, but I was never consulted. Why am I being giventrouble like this? I am going to turn upside down and createtrouble. All the planetary systems will fall." Brahma heard allthis, and he appeared on the scene, telling Vayu and Vasuki, "Youhave your kind of strength, and he has his kind of strength. In yourkind of strength, you are the most strong. And in his strength,blowing, that you cannot do. So in that way he is strong." WhenVasuki uncoiled after the sports, one rock was broken from MountMeru, and it fell in the salt ocean. This rock had three peaks, soit was known as Tri-kuta. It was on the salty ocean for a long time.And then Visvakarma, for the purpose of making a nice palace for thepastimes of the demigods, he made this Sri Lanka city on top ofTri-kuta mountain. Later, Kuvera, the cousin brother of Ravana, tookover this place. He also got an appointment as the treasurer of thedemigods, so they didn't mind him using it. Kuvera was there for along time. When Ravana, Vibhisana, Kumbhakarna and Surpanakha wentthere for performing austerities, Ravana's mother Kaikashi becamevery envious that Kuvera was sitting on this wonderful Sri Lankacity, so she told Ravana, "Why don't you perform some austerities sothat you can get a benediction and kick him out of this place."Kaikashi was the wife of Vishravas, and Vishravas had another wifethrough whom Kuvera was born. These were co-wives, and they wererivals. Kaikashi was inciting Ravana, "You must perform sometapasya, some great austerities." Ravana performed austerities,Kumbhakarna performed austerities, Vibhisan a performed austerities,and Surpanakha also performed austerities as well as Khara andDusana. Each one was born with 1 hour 45 minutes difference betweenthem. Ravana, then Kumbhakarna, then Vibhisana, then Surpanakha,then Khara and Dusana. So they were all in Himalayas performingausterities. When Brahma appeared before Ravana, he asked for allkinds of greedy benedictions, and he got them. Kumbhakarna wasthinking to ask for a benediction by which he will live forever.The word in Sanskrit is "nitya-tvam." nitya means eternal andnitya-tvam means eternity. "I want eternity." But somehow thematerial nature tricked Kumbhakarna. The word Devatta, the power ofspeech came in his tongue, and tilted his tongue. Instead ofnitya-tvam, he asked for "nidra-tvam." Nidra means "sleep", so heasked for sleep. Brahma said, "Tadastu, you can have it."Kumbhakarna said, "What? No! I wanted to live forever, not sleep!Please stop this benediction!" Brahma said, "No, I have given youthis benediction, I cannot take it back." He begged, "This is notfair! It is a trick of the demigods! I did so much austerity, andnow I am simply going to sleep. This is not proper! Why would aperson ever perform austerities so that he can just sleep forever,and then die at the end?" So Brahma felt very compassionate. "Allright, Kumbhakarna, you sleep for six months. And then you get up,and you eat for six months." So Kumbhakarna went to sleep. At theend of the sixth month, waking him up was very difficult. They hadto bring a huge army. The army would march on his body. Elephantsand camels would walk over him, and they would play bugles and putfire on his chest. Still he would be snoring and wouldn't get up.After all the army marched past shooting astras and creating a lotof noise, then slowly he will feel some pain somewhere and then hegot up. When he got up he would smash half of the army. He was ahuge big figure. As soon as he got up he would ask, "Where isfood?" He hadn't eaten for such a long time, so he eats for sixmonths. This is what he did before he went back to sleep again.While he ate, his education was done. Pandits would sit on bothsides and read books to him. He would be simultaneously eating andlistening to the shastras. In this way, he also became an expertarcher. He got other benedictions also. He was a great yogi, andwhile sleeping he would come out of his body in his subtle body, andhe would travel around and find out everything. One body was asleep,but in his sukshma-sharira, Kumbhakarna visited Kailash, performedausterities and got astras from Lord Siva. Only his gross bodycouldn't be seen. Vibhisana was also praying, and when Brahma came,he said, "Give me devotion to the Supreme Lord." Ravana said, "Ohno! One more in the family. First Prahlad, and now him! What areyou doing? Brahma is here, so get something worthwhile. But no,`devotion to the Supreme Lord.' What will you do with this? Youhave become a demon!" For the demons, a devotee is a demon. "Youare not against Hari, you want to worship Him." That was Vibhisana'sbenediction. And Surpanakha got a benediction for changing her form.Whatever form she wanted she could take. That was how she was tryingto attract Laksmana and Ramacandra. She became a beautiful girl, andshe was saying, "Ramacandra, I'm so attracted by you." Ramacandrasaid, "Yes, anyone will be attracted by me. The only problem is thatmy wife is here. If she was not here, I wouldn't mind. But look atmy brother! He is also married, but his wife is not here. You checkwith him." Laksmana said, "How is it possible? When my elderbrother is in front of me, how can I do it? You go to my elderbrother, he is just joking with you." So she went back toRamacandra, and said, "Your younger brother is not interested inthese things. You are the older one, why aren't you interested?" Hereplied, "Yes I am the elder, but the point is that my wife is verywild. If she ever finds out that I am talking to you, I don't knowwhat will happen. He is fre vidual separate from his wife. Go tohim." She went to him, but Laksmana said, "Yes his wife is wild, butshe is not here now. You should be utilizing this opportunity. Yougo try with him, and if that doesn't work you just come back to me."So she went back to Ramacandra, saying, "See? Your wife is not herenow." Ramacandra said, "Yes, my wife is not here, but this brotheris very political. When she comes back, he will tell her. So youfirst go to him, and if he is happy then he won't tell." So she ranback to Laksmana. By that time Sita came. Surpanakha said, "Allthis trouble is because of you!" And she ran and picked Sita up. Assoon as she did that, Laksmana came with his sword, and cut off thetips of her nose, ears and breasts, and the original Rakshasi formcame out. She was crying, and then she disappeared into the sky.Then Khara and Dusana came with 14,000 able fighters from the demondynasty. Ramacandra finished all of them with one arrow. Janasthanwas a very strategical point. Janasthan was the last point in themainland. If anyone could conquer the soldiers in Janasthan, thenthey could dare to cross the ocean and come to Sri Lanka. Ravana wasso happy because Janasthan was there, and Khara, Dusana andSurpanakha were just exploiting the area, eating rishis every day.He was so happy. "Who can come to Sri Lanka?" But then, thisso-called human being, Ramacandra, he told Laksmana, "Don't evenmove. I will do it." He killed 14,000 demon soldiers, and Khara andDusana were destroyed. When the news reached Ravana, he wasthinking, "No this is not true. It cannot be true. How can a humanbeing kill 14,000 demons?" Always Ravana was thinking, "No, it's nottrue. It's not true." But it was true. Everything he heard seemedto him to be like it was not true. When he went to Marica and said,"Please go and become a deer," Marica said, "What? Become a deerand do what? What can a deer do to Rama? I still remember how hepushed me right acr oss the mainland and threw me into the saltyocean with only a blade of grass. That is why I became a babaji,not for searching after the Absolute Truth. In fear of the blade ofgrass I became a babaji, an ascetic. Don't drive me in front ofRamacandra again." Ravana said, "If you don't go, I will kill you."Marica was thinking, "Ravana will kill me anyway. Ravana or Rama,but it's better to die in the hands of Rama. Why die in the handsof this demon?" So Marica said, "I will go." Ravana said, "Ahh! Ialways knew you had great affection for me." "No, I don't have anyaffection for you." "Then why do you want to go?" Ravana asked."Well who wants to die in your hands?" Marica said. "I would ratherdie in the hands of Rama. And I know I will die, so I am going."Ravana made the biggest mistake in his life by kidnapping Sita.Ravana was a great scholar and pandit. He was known as Shastra-jna.He knew all shastras, in all the Vedas he was expert. Nobody atthat time had the expert pronunciation of Ravana. Even in thedemigod's assembly sometimes when they held sacrifices, they wouldbring Ravana for chanting verses. If someone is chanting Sanskritverses, that does not necessarily mean he is a great devotee.Demons are also chanting Sanskrit verses. Vedais ca sarvair ahameva vedyah. Ravana read all the Vedas, yet due to his lust he couldnot even accept that another man's wife should not be taken.Ravana's lust was exemplary. Once he was performing a firesacrifice, and Agni appeared there with his wife, in spite of Brahmatelling him not to go there, this Ravana was a trouble-maker. Agnisaid, "Look at his chanting, so perfect. Such wonderfulinstallation of fire, so I must go there personally." Brahma said,"All right go, but don't take your wife." So then Agni said, "Howis it Vedic that one goes without his wife? If I go without her Iwill only be 50%. I must go with my wife." Brahma said, "Well, ifthat is written in your head, what can I say? You go." So Ravanawas circumambulating the fire with folded hands chanting mantras, andthen Agni came. "Ravana! I am here." Ravana looked around. Notonly was he there, but Agni's wife, Swaha, was also there. Shelooked so beautiful, as beautiful as fire. She is actually the flameof the fire. When Ravana looked at her, he immediately lifted herand flew away in the middle of his yajna, before completing it. Thepriests were shouting, "Ravana! At least do the purnahoti!" "Whatpurnahoti?" Ravana replied. "Woman is more important." So Agni wasshouting, "Please, please Ravana, give me my wife back! I'll giveyou anyone, but don't take my wife." Every husband thinks like this,"If my wife goes, how will I eat?" The wife is supposed to be thesaha-dharmani, one who helps the husband in his religious practices.After Ramacandra had said, "I will finish all the demons inDandakaranya," Sitadevi was looking so worried that Ramacandra askedher, "How come you are so unhappy after your husband made such awonderful promise, and flowers fell from the heavens?" She said,"You took the vanaprastha life to live in the forest for fourteenyears, as an ascetic. Only for defending me did You say you werecarrying your bow and arrows. You have come here, and now, insteadof living as an ascetic, You are beating on Your shoulders, sayingYou will kill the demons. That is one point. Another point is thata king of noble quality should not become the enemy of someone unlessthat person has given him some trouble. The demons have given you notrouble. They are eating rishis, but they are not troubling you.And if rishis are being eaten then it is the responsibility ofBharata, he is the king. You are not the king, and You said that youdid not want to be, so you are breaking your word." Women give verytechnical arguments, but sometimes they are totally useless. Atleast in this case they were. Sitadevi was saying this, but thenanother time when Gautama Rishi's wife gave her cosmetics which werein two big heavy baskets , she asked Laksmana, "Can you please carrythis for me?" Laksmana said, "But mataji, we are in the forest. Weare supposed to be wearing tree bark. Only because Dasaratha beggeddid you get some silk saris, and I am already carrying one basketfull of silk saris. We have to climb mountains, cross rivers, I haveto carry sword, shield, bows and arrows, an axe, and now cosmetics?What for?" Anasuya, Gautama's wife, was no ordinary woman. She hadheavenly cosmetics. You only had to put this make up on once everyfive or six days. You can take bath, do anything. Laksmana wascomplaining, "These cosmetics will smell for ten kilometres distance.It is dangerous. We are moving in the forest, and ten miles aroundwe are propagating that we are here. It is unsafe. A tiger, a lionor even some demon may come." Actually these cosmetics were sodangerous that she had so many problems. Even demigods wereattracted to her. "But I won't use them," Sita argued. "Then whatis the use of carrying them?" Laksmana said. This is alsotraditional for women to carry things that they never use. PoorLaksmana left his wife in Ayodhya, and he had to carry thesecosmetics for fourteen years. Even when they crossed the ocean hehad to carry it. She said, "When I am back in Ayodhya I will useit." When she was sitting in the Ashoka-vana, she was lamenting,"What did I do? I said such bad words to Laksmana who was carryingall that weight for me. He was even carrying all those uselesscosmetics on his shoulder. I criticized him, `You want to enjoy me,that is why you are not going'. Why did I say that? Now I amsuffering because of it." In this way Mother Sita was lamenting. Soback to the original story. Ravana knew all these mantras, but whywas he a demon? Being the son of Vishravas, he is a Brahmin, not aksatriya. He is the grandson of Brahma, and a very learned pandit.Still he is a demon. What makes him a demon? He does not acceptthat the Supreme Lord is the enjoyer, the Supreme Lord is thecontroller and the Supreme Lord is the friend. Bho ktarama yajnatapasam sarva loka mahesvaram / suhrdam sarva-bhutanam jnatva mamsantim rcchati. So Ravana lost his shanti, he had no peace. Why?Because he was not accepting the Supreme Lord's sovereignty. Ravanawas thinking, "Why not me? I am the lord." That is why he calledhimself, "Trilokeshvara Ravana." This means "the controller of thethree worlds." That was his ambition, even while he couldn'tcontrol a common cold. But still he was Trilokeshvara. In anycase, Ravana got so many curses. He was cursed that a monkey wouldburn his city down. Another curse was that monkeys will spit on hisface. When a monkey spits on his face, the tenth day after that hewould die. He would be killed by human beings who were surroundedby monkeys. This was all predicted, but the foolish Ravana with histen brains couldn't accept this, because of lust. Ravana did notcarry his ten heads all the time. If he lost one head, anotherwould come. And if he lost that head, the previous one will comeback again, because his life point was somewhere else, not in theneck or the chest. This was one trick of the demons. They wouldkeep their life point somewhere else. It may be in a bird, a lizardor a lotus flower, and from here they extend their power. If youkilled him, slashed him or did anything to him, he wouldn't diebecause his life was somewhere else. So these heads were comingwhenever one was removed, and these ten heads possessed ten kinds ofintelligence. This was the benediction he got from Brahma. Onehead was expert in politics, one in Vedic dharma, one inadministration, one in how to enjoy, another in travelling plans,etc. In this way when he was going to take Sita, he consulted allthe ten heads. Nine heads refused, "Don't kidnap Sita." Only hisown head refused to listen to that instruction. So many powerfulthings he had, but by exploiting the property of the Supreme Lord,Ravana met his death. Once he even challenged Narada Muni. Naradawas flying, and Ravana saw him. He called out, "Hey! Come here."Narada Muni thought, "Why should I be of any trouble? Let me gothere." Ravana said, "You teach me the meaning of om, right now."Narada said, "No. Meaning of Om is not to be taught to people likeyou. I won't teach." Ravana said, "Why not? I am a disciple, andyou are a guru. You must teach me." This started in Treta-yuga, thedisciples telling their guru what to do. So then Narada said, "Thisis not for this age, Ravana. You please wait." Ravana said, "No!Do you know who I am? I am Trilokeshvara Ravana. Here is my sword!"He had a sword called Candrahasa. This sword was so wonderful, thatyou can just tell the sword, "You go and kill him." It will chaseyou through the fourteen planetary systems, kill you and then return.Such a missile he had. Candrahasa can go through steel, throughbrass, even through illusion. Suppose a person creates an illusionby magic, Candrahasa would go through the illusion and kill thatperson. This is the sword he used when fighting with Airavata, thewhite elephant. So Narada said, "You are showing me some sword, andyou think you are going to frighten me into teaching you the Vedas?This is not the principle for learning Vedas. What kind of knowledgewill you get from me? That knowledge will become useless, so I willnot teach you." Ravana said, "All right Narada, get ready." "I amalways ready," Narada said. "What do you mean? Get ready now!" Sohe took the Candrahasa sword and slashed Narada. It went rightthrough him, but nothing happened. Narada was standing theresmiling. Ravana got so angry. "I am going to finish you!" hescreamed and took his trident which emits fire, which is only used byLord Siva and which is more powerful than the Brahmastra. It wentright into him, but Narada was still standing there chanting, "Hari!Hari!" Ravana took all his astras and weapons at his command andthrew everything at Narada, who was catching them and giving themback, "Don't lose his weapons aside, touched Narada's feet, and gavehim a seat. "Please tell me," he inquired. "How come you are notkilled?" Narada said, "This is a benediction from the Supreme Lord,that I have got a spiritual body. You don't understand this. Onceupon a time you also had one, but you lost it because of somemistake. Don't waste time trying to kill me, because I won't die."Ravana said, "That's what I want also! Can you teach me the trick?"Narada said, "Very simple, just accept Visnu as the Supreme Lord.Surrender to him." Ravana's face screwed up. "Oh! Aaargh! Againthat Visnu! I don't want to listen to this name! Get out of mypalace, you and your transcendental body. All bogus!" So thenNarada Muni said, "But Ravana, you have unnecessarily used your angeron me, so this will not go in vain. A monkey will spit on your face,and the tenth day after that you will die, although you are thinkingyou are so powerful." Narada Muni cursed him. Actually it was abenediction. All curses by Narada are benedictions. Because of thatcurse that he would get spat on by Sugriva, he got the arrow of Ramain his chest. Sometimes when a Vaisnava is agitated, that is alsoauspicious. But we have to be a demon to agitate a Vaisnava. If weare not a demon, and he becomes agitated, he may not curse us but thematerial nature will take action. In any case, Hanuman thought, "Letme go and find Sita."

Chapter 9: Hanuma`s adventures on Sri Lanka

2007-03-01T03:05:00.000-08:00

All these stories were going through Hanuman's mind as he stood therebefore Sri Lanka, how Ravana got cursed in many places, and how he isso foolish. Hanuman actually felt very compassionate, and he wasthinking, "If I see Ravana, by any method, I will give him goodadvice. I will tell him that he is very intelligent, and that maybehe could use his intelligence. Just give back Sita, and everythingwill be alright." Hanuman went into the city, and it was just beforemidnight. The moon was present, and he could smell wine all over thecity. Practically 99.9% of the population was drunk. Everyone wasin the enjoying mode, and in Sri Lanka there was plenty of enjoymentto be had. These demons went all over the world, and brought womenfrom all over the world. Ravana had more than 12,000 wives. All ofthem liked him, although he was a demon. He had a brownish colour,but the form of his body was next to the beauty of Upendra (thebrother of Indra, not the dwarf incarnation of Visnu). He had a verybroad chest and a beautiful face. Sometimes he is depicted as veryugly, but actually he was not ugly. When he got angry or lusty, hecould produce such ugly forms, but Ravana's true formlooks verybeautiful. Visnu Purana, Valmiki and all the narrators describe as aperson of great granduer. When Hanuman and Sugriva, or anyone forthat matter saw him for the first time, they would think, "Thiscannot be Ravana, because his body is so beautifully designed. Thisman must be full of good qualities. He cannot be a demon. We musthave made a mistake." He was so beautiful. He had this hole in hischest which was from the tusk of Airavata. He had other holes in hisbody from Sampati, but he covered these with his silk cloth. He hada beautiful hairstyle. His speech of course was so excellent that hecould speak and make day look like night. These are the glories ofRavana. Amongst his queens were nagas, and there were princessesfrom Satyaloka, Siddhaloka, Caranaloka, Gandharvikas, every speciesof life was present in his palace as queens. They all liked him andrespected him. Ravana's country was so good. There was plenty offruit and food, and they had dharma which was followed. Ravana wasruling wonderfully, and no-one had any fear in Sri Lanka. They hadno fear even from Indra, Candra or Agni, because Ravana was sorespected. So Hanuman was going from room to room. "Is Sita here?Is Sita there?" In every room he found about ten beds and so manyqueens sleeping. Hanuman was a naisthika brahmacari, and he wasthinking, "Oh God, I have to do this. All these queens of Ravana aresleeping here, and most of them are drunk." It is not good for abrahmacari to see a woman while she is sleeping, and Hanuman had todo this. At first he thought, "Should I do this?" And then heconcluded, "I am serving Rama, and if I don't look at all of them,Sita may be somewhere in between, and I will miss her." So he madeup his mind, "I'm not going to be attracted. How will I not beattracted? I won't stop chanting Rama's name." So he was chanting,"Rama, Rama, Rama, Rama," and he was looking everywhere. WhenHanuman saw so many queens, their make-up and dress, their beds andtheir silk, he was completely shocked. "What kind of place is this?It is like a heavenly planet." They had false eyelashes, they hadshaven their eyebrows, and they had coloured in 12 tones from theeyelash up to the eyebrows. Hanuman actually saw this. He gotscared by looking at them. He said, "If they are so beautiful, whydo they have to put false eyelashes on?" Hanuman saw all this, andhe was very happy. "This man, whatever he has done, is enjoying hissenses very nicely. At least he is good at that." And then he cameand saw in the middle of a room a wonderful bed made of coral anddiamonds, and on top of it was white silk covering the bed. Therewas a brown figure lying there with big shoulders and wonderfulbodily beauty, and he was snoring. Hanuman said, "So beautiful, buthe is snoring and his mouth is wide open. He must be very ignorantperson." Although Ravana has so much knowledge, still there isignorance." Then Hanuman looked around and saw that there was awhite umbrella on the side of the bed. That means he is the king.So Hanuman looked at him, and then he walked backwards to get abetter look. And then closer and closer. He looked from all angles."Oh! What a great fighter." Then he saw the hole, and he said, "Ihave heard about this hole. This man would have fought withAiravata." Hanuman was getting fired up, and he thought, "I wouldlike to fight with him. But if I wake him up everything will bespoiled." And then he looked around on the other side, and he saw avery beautiful woman laying down on the bed. The smell of wine wascoming from her mouth. Hanuman had never seen Sita. He inspectedthe woman and said, "Oh! A heavenly body. This person must be Sita.No, how can it be Sita? She is the chaste wife of Ramacandra. Hereshe is brought by the demon, and she is dressing herself nicely withsilk and ornaments, and she's laying there with wine on her breath.I am a monkey, but I do have some discrimination. How can this beSita? Sita would be lean and skinny and crying with demonessesaround her. That is Sita, not this. This is not Sita." Then helooked everywhere but he couldn't find Sita. So he came out of thepalace, and he was thinking, "What should I do? I was preaching toAngada, `Don't give up your body. And don't try for some security.'But now it looks like I will have to do that, jump in the ocean anddie. How can I go back and tell them, `Yes, I went across the ocean,I saw Ravana, but no Sita'. What will they do to me? If I go toSugriva he will kill me. Even Angada himself may kill me. And If Isee Ramacandra's dissatisfied face I will die myself. What is theuse of my existence? Let me die." And then he was walking andcrossing the gardens and coming to the ocean. He thought, "Let mecheck once more." He looked at the garden. It was Ashoka-vana,Ashoka trees. Very thick garden. He thought, "Sita must be in thisforest. Why? Because Ravana would have kept her in a nice garden,but she will be thinking of these Ashoka trees. In Pancavati whereRavana lifted Sita from, there were Ashoka trees. I rememberRamacandra telling me that he was going to the Ashoka trees andcrying, "Oh Ashoka trees, please tell me where is my wife?" So shemust be remembering that when she sees these Ashoka trees. She musthave walked in here. At least she must have been through here atsome stage. Let me ask the Ashoka trees, they may tell me" In thisway, Hanuman, with some little glimmer of hope came into the Ashokaforest. There was a very tall tree which he climbed up, and when hegot to the top he looked down. To his surprise, under the same treewas Mother Sita. She was sitting there with Vibhisana's daughter,Trijata. Trijata was consoling her. "I had dreams that Ravana wassmearing oil all over his body and drinking oil with his two hands,and he was sitting on a chariot driven by monkeys. This chariot wasbeing driven through the southern side. This means he will die. Ialso saw that Sri Lanka was burning, and a monkey was flying over. Ialso saw that Ramacandra was sitting in the coronation ceremony withyou. So don't lose faith. Don't give up your body. One day orother Ramacandra will come here." Hanuman was listening to all thisand he was so happy. Then Ravana came and gave so much preaching toMother Sita. "You must marry me!" She refused and he said to thedemonesses, "You kill her if she won't listen to your advice." Thedemonesses were preaching to her, and then when she wouldn't listenthey decided, "We will kill her." Exactly at that point, Hanumanjumped. As soon as they saw this monkey jumping, they all fled thisway and that. Sita looked at him and she said, "Ravana, you can takeany form, but I'm not going to be attracted. Why did you think thatif you took a monkey form I would be attracted?" Hanuman said, "Waitwait, I a m not Ravana! I am the servant of Rama, and I have comehere to serve you." So she said, "I don't believe it. If you arefrom Rama, then how did you cross the ocean?" Hanuman said, "Oh,that is very interesting. I grew big." "You grew big? How canmonkeys grow big?" Hanuman said, "I will show you," and then hegrew, and he touched the skies. Sita got so scared, she said, "Maybethis is another demon." While he was growing he was chanting, "Rama,Rama, Rama, Rama," and she thought, "Ravana would not chant so manyRama-namas. It is not possible. He can't be a demon." Then Hanumanreduced this form, and said, "Here I have the sakshi, the evidencethat I am coming from Ramacandra. This is his ring." Hanuman talkedwith Mother Sita and she gave him the hair ornament. Hanuman tookit, and after taking it he said, "I am a monkey. I cannot just comelike a saintly person and go, I want to do some naughtiness here inthis forest. You won't be affected, don't worry. Some nonsense mustbe there. You just watch." So he put the cudamani hair ornamentsomewhere safe, and then he started uprooting the Ashoka trees,throwing them here and there. There was a rock waterfall, and hedestroyed it, and the water flooded all over the place. He took thecreepers and threw them this way and that. Then he took thedemonesses and put them in his mouth, biting them and spitting themout. He was shouting and slapping his shoulders. He was yelling, "Iam the servant of Rama! Who will stop me? I will destroy Sri Lanka!I will swallow Ravana! Anyone who is as powerful as me should comefor a fight! Challenge! Challenge!" And then he jumped up on theentrance of Ashoka-vana, and he was eating fruits and spittingeverywhere. The minister for Ravana in charge of the Ashoka forestcame in front of Hanuman. It had been a long time since he hadlanded in Sri Lanka, gotten in the gate, checked everyone, seen andspoken to Sita, but he had not passed water the whole time. It hadbeen six or seven hours. When the minister came and opened his mouthyelling, "What are you doing?" he got Hanuman's blessing. Theminister said, "Hey! Hey! Stop!" Hanuman said, "I am a monkey,what do you expect?" The minister felt very bad, and he went intothe forest and asked the demonesses, "What are you doing? A monkeyis doing so much harm." They said, "What are you doing? The monkeyis doing so much harm, but why are you telling us?" "Yes, what am Idoing?" the minister said, and then he went to Ravana. He said, "Amonkey has passed urine in my mouth." Ravana said, "You came toreport this?" And he gave him a slap. "What kind of a caretaker areyou? You come and tell me that a monkey passed water in your mouth."The minister said, "What was I supposed to do? I was speaking tohim." Ravana said, "Don't you know that you never open your mouthwhen monkeys are around?" The minister said, "Well you have to dosomething, he has destroyed the whole Ashoka forest." Ravana said,"What? One single monkey?" Vibhisana closed his eyes and he wasthinking, "Hm, monkey. Monkey. Monkey smashing Ashoka forest. Iremember this." Then he left the palace, and went to his place andhe was sitting and thinking. "Monkey, Ashoka forest. Monkey, Ashokaforest. I heard it somewhere." And he was trying to figure it out.It took him two days to understand it. He understood it. Ravanasaid, "You call Prahasta's son Jambumali. He is the first card."This Jambumali is in a big lake of wine. He is sleeping there, andwhenever he wakes up he drinks a little bit. And then again hesleeps, and he wakes up and drinks more. He can't wait to go fill upthe cup and drink, it takes too much time. So he is in a lake ofwine, and he is kept like that so that whenever war comes he can beused. Jambumali was woken up. They had some anti-liquor medicine,so they gave him that and he woke up. He asked, "Why are you callingme? You want to change the lake or put me in another one?" Theysaid, "No, a fighting!" He came to Ravana and said, "With whomshould I fight? With Indra, with Agni?" Ravana said, "No no, with amonkey." "I'm going back," Jambumali said. "No no, it's not anordinary monkey. It's a very great monkey. He has finished ourAshoka-vana, so we must finish him. Take 80,000 soldiers and go."So 80,000 demon soldiers and Jambumali walked up. He was a veryyoung demon, Jambumali. Hanuman was still sitting on top of thearch, and he was saying, "I am the servant of Rama. Who is there tofight with me? I can swallow Ravana. Come on, challenge!Challenge!" Jambumali said, "Hey monkey, you are talking too much!Do you understand that Ravana's son has tied Indra to a flagposthere? Do you know that the nine planets are serving in the kitchencutting subji? What do you know? You don't know the power ofRavana. You don't know the power of my father Prahasta. He haseaten mountains and digested them." So then Hanuman said, "All past.What about now? This has happened, that has happened. But now youlook, I can also tell you that the whole Ashoka-vana has beendestroyed. That has happened, and now something else is going tohappen. Don't waste time." Jambumali said, "What? You think youcan fight with me?" Hanuman said, "Why are you talking?" and hebegan to pick up rocks and throw them at him. The rocks were comingso fast and furious, and he couldn't fight them. Then he got on thechariot and started shooting arrows. Hanuman said, "Oh, these demonsare very cultured. He is sitting on the chariot doing acaman,chanting mantras and firing astras." All these astras were coming,and Hanuman was holding them, breaking them and giving them back. Noastra can affect Hanuman, that is a benediction. Jambumali saw thisand said, "Now I will have to do some magic," and he started growing,and he became so big. Hanuman was only up to his ankle. That iswhat Jambumali was thinking. He was thinking, "That big? All right,I will grow more." He closed his eyes and grew more. Then hethought, "Now I have grown so much, Hanuman will be this big." Andthen he opened his eyes. He saw some big round thing in front ofhim. He looked at it, and he thought, "What is this? It is notHanuman's face. There is no mouth and no teeth. It's just a biground thing." He looked to the other side, and it was just anotherround thing. "What is this one?" he thought. He was looking, andhe was so confused. Then he heard a sound from way way above,"They're my knees Jambumali!" He looked up, and Hanuman was way upthere. Jambumali thought, "My God, what a growth! This is thetopmost I can do, and I am only up to his knees." So then Jambumalilooked back, because he didn't want to discourage the soldiers.Hanuman said, "What are you looking at? I finished them all." Hehad finished the 80,000 soldiers already. There was a beautifulparliament hall called Caitya, belonging to Ravana. This hall hadvery huge marble and diamond pillars. Ravana took one of thepillars, and he just put it on top of the army. They were nicelyorganized so that simply by a little work Hanuman could finish themall. This happened while Jambumali was growing. Jambumali wasalone. His chariot had been smashed and his horses killed.Jambumali was standing there alone. Hanuman said, "What are yougoing to do? If you want to take shelter of my feet, they are waydown there. You will have to look for them." So Jambumali was veryinsulted, and he said, "No! This is maya! You come before me inyour original form!" Hanuman said, "What are you doing then? Thatis also maya. You come in your original form." So he came down,and then Hanuman came down also. Hanuman said, "All rightJambumali, there are three minutes for you. There is one nicemantra I will teach you. If you chant this mantra while dying youwill attain the Supreme Lord. There is only two syllables in it.Ra-ma. Chant." Jambumali said, "What? I didn't come here to learnmantras. I am here to fight with you. I want to finish you."Hanuman said, "You cannot do that, so you might as well do this.You cannot finish me, so why don't you do something within yourmeans. Just chant Rama, and then go back home." Jambumali screamed,"Aaarghh!" and jumped on Hanuman. Hanuman put his index finger inhis navel and lifted him up, and then he circled and threw him. Allhis liver and everything came out of his mouth, and then he died.When the news came that Jambumali was finished, immediately Ravana'sson Indrajit got up and said, "This must be a demigod, so he must befought nicely." So Indrajit came. With Indrajit there were somescenes, and then Indrajit said, "I am going to use Brahmastra onyou." So he threw the Brahma rope. Hanuman thought, "I have doneenough harm now, so I must see Ravana. If I get bound by this rope,I can see Ravana." He looked at the rope and thought, "I willrespect Brahma." Then the rope came and tied him. Indrajit waspulling the rope, and he pulled Hanuman to the court of Ravana. Asthey entered there, Ravana said, "Hey, you mischievous monkey! Whoare you?" Hanuman said, "I am a servant of Rama, and a messenger.You please give me a seat." Ravana scoffed, "A seat for a monkey?You can climb up in the tree if you want." Hanuman said, "No, thatis not proper. I have come here to talk politics, and I have comehere to give you a message. You must give me a seat." Ravana said,"In my assembly, I don't give a seat to animals." Hanuman said, "Youmean that to get a seat in your assembly I have to be less than ananimal?" Ravana said, "Hey, you are talking too much." By that timeHanuman had extended his tail and made a big big seat. It was aboveRavana's head, and he jumped up and sat on that. Then he said, "SoRavana, I think this is a good seat for me." So then Ravana waslooking up. Then they had a discussion, and Hanuman gave a very goodpiece of advice. "You please give up Sita. I saw your palace. Youhave so many beautiful queens. Why do you want to take Sita? I cantell you, Sita is beautiful." Hanuman was using some sama dhanabheda danda. He said, "Sita is not that beautiful. Vandudari is amuch more beautiful dancer. Surely you must satisfied with that.You can have so many others. I will myself procure women for you ifyou want. Just give up this Sita, for your own benefit." Ravanasaid, "No, I won't listen to this. I will keep Sita, and not onlythat, I will finish you." Hanuman said, "Finish me? How can youfinish me?" And Ravana said, "You are tied up." Hanuman said, "I amnot tied up, I am just holding myself. And then he lifted his handsand Brahma's rope broke. Indrajit's jaw dropped. "What is this?This monkey has broken Brahma's rope." So then Hanuman said, "If youwant you can use ordinary rope and tie me. Only if I want to be tiedcan you tie me. Now I allow you, tie me. Let me see what sort ofpunishment you will give me." So then they tied him with ropes, andgreat demons were pushing him on both sides with tridents. He madeno objection. Ravana said, "Put fire to his tail." So they set histail on fire, and Hanuman said, "Wonderful, you gave me an idea. Iwas just wondering what to do. I wanted to do so many things, but Ididn't want to do it myself, because Ramacandra will say, `Why didyou do it?' Now I have no problem. They put fire, and I was justjumping around and things happened to catch on fire. I didn't wantto burn Lanka. Why should I? I am just a messenger. A messengercannot attack the opponent. But what can I do? They put fire on mytail, and I am a monkey so when I jump the tail goes this way andthat way." So in this way Hanuman was jumping from roof to roof,window to window, and everywhere he put fire. Even in Ashoka-vana heput fire. Everything was burning. Hanuman was jumping up and down."Aah, wonderful! Wonderful!" And then suddenly he thought, "MaybeMother Sita is also burnt! What have I done? Oh no!" So he wentinto the Ashoka forest and he was looking, and he saw Mother Sitasitting in the er a tree. No harm was there. So then he told her,"Why should you wait? Just climb on my shoulder. You know I crossedthe ocean here, so I can also cross the ocean back. You sit on me,and I will take you. Before I fly from here, I will kill Ravana."So Sita said, "No! What are you doing? You already told me thatRamacandra promised He will kill Ravana and take me back. If you dothis, my husband's promise will go in vain. Ramacandra has one word,one wife and one arrow. He uses only one arrow, he has only onewife, and if he says a word, he keeps it. So don't do this, you arenot supposed to do it. Even if you are supposed to do it, I'm notgoing to sit on your shoulder. On the way you may see some fruitthat you like, and you will shake the tree and I will fall into theocean. I don't trust you completely. So you enjoy yourself, and goback and tell my Lord that I am waiting. And if he doesn't come inthis many days, then I will leave my body."

Chapter 10: The army goes to Sri Lanka

2007-03-01T03:04:00.000-08:00

So Hanuman flew back. And then while coming back, and when theyreached Kishkinda, there was a beautiful forest called Madhuvana.This Madhuvana was a private garden of Sugriva. There was so manyhoney hives there, and honey was flowing on the ground and so manyfruits. It was well guarded. There was one great monkey calledDadhimukha. Dadhimukha was sitting in front of this garden at fourdoors. Only Sugriva was allowed in. So when the monkeys werereturning, they went to Hanuman and said to him, "We have done agreat task, so we must have some enjoyment. Let us go insideMadhuvana and drink honey." Hanuman said, "What? Go insideMadhuvana? Sugriva will get angry. He will know we have done a goodjob. We are not allowed to go in there." Then Jambavan said, "OhHanuman, you don't think properly. That Madhuvana is such awonderful place, there is so much honey there. We have worked sohard. All these monkeys were so patient. They must be rewarded. Ifyou are not going, I am going." So Jambavan entered the Madhuvana,and all the monkeys entered the Madhuvana. There was a difference ofopinion, but eventually they were won over, and then all the monkeyswere all drinking honey like anything and eating fruits. Dadhimukhawent to Sugriva and said, "What is this? Even your defense ministerHanuman is totally useless. Even your great uncle Jambavan is alsouseless. They are all coming inside the royal forest, and they aredrinking the honey." Sugriva looked at Ramacandra and said, "O Lord,Your work has been accomplished." Ramacandra said, "How do you knowthat?" Sugriva replied, "How can they dare enter Madhuvana, mygarden, and drink honey? This means they have done some wonderfultask. Maybe Sita is with them, otherwise they wouldn't dare to doit." So he told Dadhimukha, "Give them more honey! Give them morefruits. Open the gates of Madhuvana, it is open for everyone." Andthen Hanuman came, and he was saying, "We found Sita! We foundSita!" Hanuman was thinking, "If I say "Sita..." then Ramacandra maythink that I have not found her." He did not want to confuse him.First of all he said, "Found, found, found." When Ramacandra heardthis, he said to Sugriva, "What you said was true. Hanuman is in thesky, and he is saying, `I have found.' What would he have found? Hewould have found Sita, because he was looking for Sita." So thenHanuman came and there was discussion, and then Ramacandra decided,"Attack!" So to summarize, they built this wonderful bridge andcrossed over it. Then they arrived there on the shore. As soon asthey arrived there Sugriva was looking this way and that, andVibhisana said, "That is Ravana's palace, that ten-floor building."So then they all commented, "What a beautiful building." WhenRamacandra looked back there was no Sugriva. He said, "Sugriva!Where is Sugriva?" Vibhisana said, "Some demon is playing a trick.We must be on guard, everyone be ready." Everyone took their weaponsbut Sugriva was not there. Sugriva flew to the tenth floor of thebuilding. He simply could not tolerate that Ravana was living therewith Sita under his custody, and Ramacandra was here. Sugriva got soangry, he went there, and Ravana was as usual looking upon themirror. Sugriva became small, and he went around his face and spaton it. Ravana was doing his make-up with fifteen assistantsspraying, and doing all sorts of things to make up his face, and thenhe felt something wet. "What is this? What is that?" Sugriva wasspitting all over his face. Then he told his servants to stop doingwhat they were doing, but still it was coming. He said, "There'ssome bee or mosquito here." He looked around, and then he caughthold of Sugriva, holding him in his hand. Ravana said, "How dare youdo this? What are you doing, spitting on my face?" He lookedclosely, and realized it was a monkey. "Another monkey! And sosmall?" The monkey was speaking, "Ravana, I spat on your face. NowI am happy," and before he coul d catch him he flew away. He landedin front of Ramacandra. Ramacandra said, "Sugriva, where have youbeen?" Sugriva said, "I went there and spat on the rascal's face!"Ramacandra said, "What did you do? Oh, I have made a great mistakeby associating myself with monkeys. I am the son of Dasaratha. Ihave landed in another man's country, and you have already gone andspat on his face." Sugriva said, "I am sorry my Lord, but you mustunderstand that after all, I am a monkey. When I get angry, I can'tcontrol it. All your yuga-dharma you can keep in your pocket.Nobody will blame you, because they will say, "Sugriva was a monkey.What can you do? It was not Ramacandra's defect." So thenRamacandra said, "I want to send a messenger."" So Sugriva said,"The only person who has got so much sense control, apart fromHanuman, and he has already gone anyway, is Angada." So Ramacandracalled Angada and embraced him. He said, "My dear Angada, I am goingto send you to Ravana. He is a very dangerous person so be careful.You go to him and tell him that Ramacandra does not have anyintention to fight with him. All I desire is that he give back Sita,and I will leave. I will make friendship with him. I will be hisgreatest friend. If anybody attacks Lanka, I will protect him. Youplease tell this to him. Only Sita, nothing else do I want from him.I don't want these monkeys to get killed and I don't want to kill hisdemons, and I don't want to kill Ravana." So Angada said, "Allright, I will take this message to Ravana." He circumambulated Ramaand Laksmana, touched Rama's feet. Then he came to Hanuman, touchedhis feet and said, "You must bless me, because you were the first oneto go." "Go there," Hanuman said, and he called him close by and inhis ear he said, "You must insult them." And then Angada flew off.Angada came straight in front of Ravana, flying in, landing right infront of him. He said, "Ravana, my name is Angada. I am the son ofBali. You may remember him." This Bali did one wonderful pastimewith Ravana. When eard that anyone who goes in front of Bali willlose half his strength, he was thinking, "This means that he willbecome more powerful than me in this world, so I must first controlBali." So he went there, and Bali had made a vrata or vow that hewould worship Salagram in four holy places every day. He wouldworship in Rameshvaram, Badrinath, Jagannatha Puri and Dvaraka. Allthat he would do in one way. Each place he would visit in one leap.He would leap from Kishkinda to Rameshvaram. He would do theworship, and before it is too late then he will jump back toKishkinda. From there he would jump to Dvaraka. He was justleaping. Then to Badrinath and coming back. While he was doingthis he would make sure that he would keep his foot on top ofSugriva's head and press it a little bit. That he was doing also.Sugriva was hiding there, in one area. In that place Bali cannot gobecause he was cursed that if he entered there his head would breakinto 10,000 pieces. Sugriva took shelter in that place. Even then,before going to Dvaraka, Bali would make sure he would give him onekick on his head, and then he would go to Dvaraka. While comingback, again one kick. In a day, eight kicks Sugriva was getting.Hanuman could not tolerate, so once when Bali was kicking like thatHanuman caught Bali on his waist, and he was trying to pull himdown, because if he touches the ground he would be dead. Bali knewthat if he touched the floor he would be dead, so he was trying topull Hanuman up. One was pulling down and one up, and they were inone spot. They had equal strength, ten thousand elephant strength.Neither was going anywhere. Bali said, "Leave me alone! Let mego!" Hanuman said, "I will let you go on one promise; you don't dothis kicking any more. Otherwise, I will pull you down." Balisaid, "All right, we will make a truce. I am not against you, youare not against me. I am against Sugriva. I will not come here andkick him, and you leave me alone." He left. After being harassedby Hanuman, he went to Dvaraka and quickly he was doing his worshipand Ravana was behind. Ravana did not come in front because he knewhe would lose half of his strength. From the back he was thinking,"Slowly I will catch hold of the tail, and then I will do something."So when Ravana came close to the tail, he caught it, and he wasthinking, "Oh that was very easy." But when he was trying to pullthe tail, instead of pulling the tail the tail pulled him. And thenthe tail extended and came around his body. He held him in his tail,and then he leaped to Kishkinda, from there to Badrinath, from thereback and to Puri, leap back. Ravana was hanging in the tail. Eventhe Gandharvas were laughing, the women and the Caranas werelaughing, and Ravana was closing his eyes, and he said, "Bali, pleaseleave me, don't tie me in the tail. At least carry me in the hand,it is more prestigious than being tied in a monkey's tail. This isnot good." Finally when they arrived in Kishkinda he brought histail around in front of him and said, "Hey, you be careful. Youdon't come in this area any more." Ravana said, "I am surrendered toyou, I am your servant. And don't attack Sri Lanka, and I won't comehere." So Ravana made a pact. Angada told him, "Ravana, do youremember Bali? At least you should remember his tail. I am his son.I am the smallest in the army that Ramacandra has brought. That iswhy Ramacandra picked me to come and see you. I am a very smallperson. I am a prince, and there are bigger monkeys there. But I amrequesting you one thing. Ramacandra said that if you give backSita, he would go back, and he does not want anything." Ravana said,"Why are these monkeys coming and talking like ministers to me? Youhad better put your tail between your legs and run away from herebefore I kill you." Angada said, "Oh, you are going to kill me? Youcan kill me later." He lifted his leg and put it in front of Ravana."But for now you please move my foot. Then we can think aboutscheming and m urdering and killing." Ravana said, "Come hereIndrajit." So Indrajit got up and went there. He slapped, and afterslapping he saw his palm swell up, because it was like a rootedBanyan tree. Then he sat down and used both hands and tried to shakeit, and found that it was like Mount Meru. Indrajit was sweatingprofusely, and he gave up. Vibhisana got up and said, "Ravana, yourtime is coming. Look at this. A monkey's foot cannot be shaken.Don't you understand that there's something happening? You werekeeping the planets in your kitchen and now a monkey's foot cannot beshaken? Something is wrong somewhere. Think about it." Ravanasaid, "You are so weak-minded. I will do it," and he got up. Angadasaid, "You want to touch my foot?" Ravana said, "Aaargh! I havelifted Kailash!" So Ravana had all his twenty hands going, he washolding his legs and straining like anything, but he couldn't moveit. Angada said, "Try my toe. You may be able to do that." Ravanabent down and he was completely helpless, because he couldn't moveit. Ravana sat down and said, "Where do you get your strength from?"Angada said, "The same old question. Where are you getting yourstrength from? Where is anyone getting their strength from? Thesource of strength is Rama, and simply by chanting his name I amholding my breath. That is why you are not able to move my toe. Iam the smallest monkey in the army. There are bigger monkeys thanme. And with all of us is your brother Vibhisana who is helping.Laksmana is also there, and above him is the Supreme Lord Ramacandra.Use your intelligence Ravana, and give back Sita." Ravana said, "No!I'm not giving back Sita. I don't believe any of this." Angadasaid, "Then you will meet your death," and he flew back. When hecame back, Jambavan came to him, and asked him, "They couldn't moveyour toe?" He was seeing Ramayana over and over. So then Angadasaid, "How do you know this?" Jambavan said, "I am Jambavan. I havebeen here for a long time. " Then the monkeys asked Angada, "Tellus the story." Jambavan said, "I will tell you the story, Angada goand tell Ramacandra what happened." So Angada went and toldRamacandra. Vibhisana said to Rama, "Now is the time. We mustattack." Ramacandra said, "We will wait for tomorrow," and they alltook rest. Vibhisana told Hanuman, "You can't believe these demons,they're very tricky. Especially when the sun sets they become morestrong. This is one property of demons. I know, because I am fromthis civilization. Be careful with these demons." So Vibhisanasaid, "We have to protect Rama and Laksmana," and he told Hanuman,"You build a fort with your tail, and we will put Rama and Laksmanainside. Then we won't lose them. You and I should guard." Theydivided the monkey army into four groups, east, west, south andnorth. Angada, Nila, Sugriva, Jambavan, they all became guards.No-one slept, because they were expecting someone to come and kidnapRama and Laksmana. So he made a huge big fort with his tail. It hadrooms, verandas, courtyards, seven stories. To enter this fort youhave to first go through the ear of Hanuman, and from there enter themouth. From there you go to the back of the neck. There is onenerve that goes from there straight to the tail. You go into that,and past the tail. You travel in the tail and a little bit alongthere is a small opening. That is the gate. How could anyone enterHanuman's ear and go through his mouth and all that? So everyone wassatisfied, "This is such a good defense." The tail had been circled,and circled differently in some places to make windows. Everythingwas there, recreation and swimming pool. Everything was created bythe mind of Hanuman, and it was all inside his tail. OutsideHanuman was going around that tail fort guarding. It was a consciousbuilding, because it was the tail. Rama and Laksmana were thereinside. Hanuman and Vibhisana were patrolling back and forwardguarding. Then at one point whe n Hanuman saw Vibhisana, Vibhisanasaid, "I want to go in and check. Please make sure that no-one comesover to this side. You stay here." Hanuman was standing standingstanding, but he did not come. He said, "Let me take a quickflight." He flew across and he came back. When he was coming backhe saw Vibhisana standing outside. He said, "If you went inside, whydidn't you come back? I was in the door." Vibhisana said, "I neverwent inside." Hanuman said, "There is something wrong," and theyboth went inside. They saw that there was no Rama and no Laksmana.They were missing. They checked everywhere but they couldn't findthem. Then all the monkeys were crying and lamenting. Vibhisanasaid, "This must be the work of Mahi-Ravana, the brother of Ravana.He stays in the netherlands, he has a secret city somewhereunderneath. He is a great Mayavi. Somehow or other he has takenRama and Laksmana. Hanuman, only you can go and get them, and I cantell you how to reach this place." Hanuman decided to go and getRama and Laksmana.

Chapter 11: Ravana goes to Bali for help

2007-03-01T03:03:00.000-08:00

After the spitting happened, Ravana was thinking, "This is bad. My time has come. But I am Trilokeshvara, and I can conquer time. How I can conquer it I don't know, but somehow it will happen. I am very powerful, and up till now everything has gone good. Why should it go bad?" Still his political mind was thinking, "I should take help from another king. Even if it is not necessary, if something happens then I can run to him at least. So which king should I take help from? These Devatas are useless, they are my servants. I don't need to take help from them. Other demons? Well, no-one is as powerful as me. In our family, who is as powerful as me? Bali Maharaja! He is most powerful, and he is still living, because he was put down to the Sutala planet." Ravana knew that Bali Maharaja was there, and that he was a very charitably disposed person. He gave his whole kingdom to Vamana. "He came from a demon family, and I am also a demon, so we can shake hands and we can kill Ramacandra." He decided to go and see Bali Maharaja, so he went to the Sutala planet. At the entrance to the Sutala planet, there was Visnu, Vamanadeva with a club on His shoulder, and he was walking back and forward guarding the gate. Ravana came there, and he looked at Him. Ravana travels with his club and his sword. He said, "Who is this dwarf?" He came there and tried to get in the gate. Vamanadeva put his club there, and said, "Mmm-mmm!" making a sound indicating no. He didn't speak, he had taken a vow of silence. Everything shook inside Ravana. Still he didn't show it. "I will try another method," he thought, and he became invisible. It was one of his perfections. But he was invisible only to the material eyes, not to Visnu. Again the club came. He became very small and tried to enter very quickly. Visnu put His foot on his body. Vamana was just standing there, and Ravana was screaming, "Aaargh!" and gasping for air. But because Visnu touched his body he became qualified to be killed by Ramacandra. Up till that time he had not been qualified. Because Vamana stepped on him, some Visnu-sambandha had come. "All right, your body is purified. Now Ramacandra's arrow can come." That is why Vamana kept his foot there. He could have crushed him, but He just held him there. Then He let him in. Ravana increased his form and came before Bali Maharaja. As if nothing happened, he said, "I came to see you. There is no place in this world that I cannot go. I am Trilokeshvara." Bali Maharaja said, "But what about Vamanadeva in the gate? Didn't He stop you?" Ravana said, "If He stopped me how can I be here?" Bali said, "He has stopped you and He has let you in." "How does he know?" Ravana thought. Bali continued, "He must have stopped you, then He became merciful and let you in." Then Ravana said, "Who is He to become merciful on me?" Bali said, "He is Visnu, the Supreme Lord!" "Don't say that again," Ravana said. "I am the Supreme Lord!" Bali said, "Oh, you are the Supreme Lord? Can I know why you are here?" Ravana said, "I came for help." "Oh, this is a wonderful Supreme Lord," Bali said. "He is the Supreme Lord, he has come for my help. I must be the Supreme Lord." Ravana said, "You are an elderly person, so don't laugh at me. It's not fair. Dharma-shastra says that you should not mock a younger person because he has less qualities than you." Bali said, "Oh, you still remember the dharma-shastras?" Ravana said, "Why should I have forgotten it?" Bali said, "If you have not forgotten it then why are you here?" Ravana said, "I came to see you because you are my great great great great grandfather." Bali said, "I am your great great great great grandfather for so long, but you never came. Why did you suddenly come now?" Ravana said, "Let's forget all that. Look, one human being has landed in Sri Lanka with monkeys." Bali said, "A human being has landed in your country? How did he come?" Ravana said, "He crossed the ocean, or built a bridge they say." Bali Maharaja closed his eyes, and he smiled and said, "Oh! Isn't He the son of Dasaratha." Ravana said, "Aarggh, yes! That's him! That Iksvaku dynasty bunch of weaklings. Again and again I have controlled them, but still they have no shame and they continue to come and give trouble." Bali said, "What kind of monkeys has he got?" Ravana said, "Well one monkey came and burnt the Lanka city. Another one came and I couldn't move his toe. The next one spat on my face." "Really?" Then he closed his eyes, and again he smiled. "Oh wonderful! And what did you decide Ravana? Did you decide to give back Sita?" "How did you know?" Ravana said. "That's all right. I'm your great great great great grandfather, I know better that you. You must give back Sita." "No," Ravana said. "I won't do it. Why should I do it? It's some monkeys only, some human beings." Bali said, "Yes some monkeys only! One burnt the whole city, another you couldn't move his toe, and another spat on your face. Just some monkeys only. And these are just messengers who came without the intention of fighting. When they come with the intention of fighting, what will happen? Your brother is on their side, Vibhisana. This is a big point for you. Your brother, who knows everything about you is on the other side. At least if he is on the other side, you must not fight. As long as your brother is living, and he is on the other side. What a clever king you are. You are waging a war. He will tell everything about you!" Ravana said, "Anyway, he's one of those weaklings who are always crying Visnu! Visnu! He's against the grain of our family. He's become a demon." Bali Maharaja said, "All right, what do you want from me?" Ravana said, "You must help me." Bali said, "How can I help you, such a religious person? After all, you just took somebody else's wife. That's all. It's natural for a demon to do that. What is the complaint?" Then Ravana became very happy and said, "See? You have intelligence. You understand me." "Yes, I understa nd you," Bali said. "Anyway, you have come, you are in my kingdom, so I want to give you some gift before we talk politics. Don't worry, I will help you. Let me give you a gift. You come with me." He took him into a big maidang, open ground. It is mentioned that it was four yojanas, thirty-two miles. There was a big mountain with a diameter of thirty-two miles. It was nine yojanas, seventy-two miles high and thirty-two miles wide. And very nicely shaped, and it was solid gold, and on the side were diamonds bigger than Ravana's face. They were nicely shaped. Ravana said, "What a wonderful mountain. It's made of gold with diamonds on it, and it's all very nicely arranged. Who gave you this mountain?" Bali said, "Who gave it to me is of no importance. I want to give it to you." Ravana's eyes opened wide, and his mouth opened wide also. "You're giving this to me? All of it, not just one diamond?" Bali said, "All of it! This whole mountain!" Ravana was thinking, "Why go back to Lanka? Forget Sita and Rama. Just take this mountain and go somewhere else, have a nice time." Demons always make plans like this. Bali said, "But I will only give it to you if you can lift it first." So Ravana was trying, but he could just barely get it off the ground. Ravana was very powerful, but he couldn't lift this mountain of gold and diamonds. So Bali said, "Now step back a bit and take a better look at it. What does it look like?" So Ravana said, "It looks something like an earring, an earring studded with many beautiful diamonds." So Bali said, "Yes, that's right. This is the earring of Hiranyakasipu. During the fight between Hiranyakasipu and Lord Nrsimhadeva, this earring fell down here. In your previous birth you were Hiranyakasipu, and the Lord killed you. You were much more powerful than you are now. You can't even pick up this earring that you used to wear. Now Visnu has come again, and He will surely kill you." But even after that example, Ravana couldn't understand. He left the kingdom of Bali.

Chapter 12; Rama and Laksmana are kidnapped

2007-03-01T03:02:00.000-08:00

This Mahi Ravana was very difficult to kill. Even if you cut his body into three thousand pieces, and throw it in three thousand places, it will come back again and join. You can do anything to him, but he won't die. The reason is that his life point is in two places, not it his body. His life point is in a diamond which is kept very secret in Mahipuri. But even if you crush the diamond, that is not enough. Only his five heads will disappear, and ten hands will disappear. The other five heads and ten hands will still remain. Half of the life was kept in there. And half of the life was kept in the Himalayas. There is one mountain which is very difficult to reach with ice glaciers surrounding it. Huge big pieces of ice are floating on the top. If you cross there, there is a cave. Inside the cave, there are five lamps burning. These five lamps are guarded by five snakes. These snakes were very mystical, they were not actually snakes, they were illusion. Any time someone comes there they will spit poison. Anyone who breaths the poison from a hundred miles away will die. If you can get past the snakes, then in order to kill him you have to blow these five lamps simultaneously. At the same time you have to crush the diamond, and at the same time you have to shoot an arrow in the chest of Mahi Ravana. If you can do that, he will die. So he was very clever, a great scientist. When Ravana called for Mahi Ravana, Mahi Ravana came in front of him. If you just think of him, he would come. Demons, snakes, politicians and women. These four beings will come closer if you think of them. Snakes, if they are close, they make you think of them. Ghosts, who don't have gross bodies are like that. The more you think of them, the closer they come. They get attracted when you speak about them. Whistling, and scratching pots attracts them also. If you scratch a pot while serving prasad, that sound cuts the ether. It makes a way for the subtle body to come. Wherever you cut the ether, they will come through that gap. Whistling also cuts the ether, and they will come to that point from where the whistling is coming. Also you shouldn't scratch the floor with your feet. This is very bad. So the demon came, and asked, "Why did you think of me?" Ravana said, "I'm in trouble." "From whom?" the demon asked. "Two human beings and some monkeys." Mahi Ravana said, "I saw that tail fort, is it these people? Are they doing some magic for your pleasure?" Ravana said, "No, no magic. They have come to fight." Mahi Ravana said, "I give you a promise. It is four o clock now, and I promise you that by twelve o clock tonight I will offer them to Maha-Kali in sacrifice. I will bring the blood to you, and you can mix it with wine and drink. This is my promise." Ravana said, "Ahh! This is a brother. That Vibhisana is useless." So he gave so many gifts to Mahi Ravana. Mahi Ravana said, "Don't worry. Don't talk with your ministers. Don't try and do anything, you just go and enjoy. At midnight, they will be offered. This is a promise." So Mahi Ravana came back to his city. He was fired up, so excited. He was calling his ministers. His wife asked, "Where are you going? You are preparing for something?" "Yes, yes," Mahi Ravana said. "I have already offered 999 princes of ksatriya families to Kali. If I offer one more I will get great benedictions from her. Now I got two!" She said, "You got two? Oh very good. Where are they, and who are they?" He said, "They are in my brother's place. They have come to attack him. Dasaratha's sons Rama and Laksmana." She said, "Oh! What are you talking about? He's the Supreme Lord!" Mahi Ravana said, "What? Supreme what? This is Mahipuri. At least here, I am supreme. There is no-one superior to me. Everything moves because of me. Don't you know this?" She said, "That's right, you are the supreme lord of here, but then He is Supreme of everything." Mahi Ravana married this girl from the snake family. Snakes are devotees are Visnu. She said, "I know this person. I have heard a prediction from Narada Muni that he will come and kill your brother. I also heard that when a monkey enters your city, you will also be killed. Don't get into trouble. There are monkeys there, so your monkey may also be there. Let Ravana go to hell. What do you have to do with it? You are not His enemy. Leave the Supreme Lord alone otherwise you will have trouble." Mahi Ravana said, "This is why people say to marry in your own family, your own dynasty. Why did I marry you, you are a snake and you are spitting poison." So he left her, and he got his ministers and told them, "We only have a few hours left. We have to smuggle Rama and Laksmana and offer them in a sacrifice to Kali." They all clapped hands, "Wonderful plan! Wonderful!" Demons are like that. One of them gives a demoniac plan, and another comes and gives a demoniac clap to it. He took four of his expert assistants. One was known as Catur, another as Sadhya, another was known as Sarva-prana, another was known as Dushmati. Sometimes people give bad names to their children, such as Duryodhana or Duhsasana. They all came up on the bank of Sri Lanka. Mahi Ravana said, "OK, come on. We have to get ready. One of you must go, so who wants to go?" The first one said, "I will do it. Give me a box, and I will bring Rama and Laksmana in it." So he was given a box. He went in there and he was checking out this fort, going around and around it. "This is very big," he thought. So he laid down and looked up, still he couldn't see it. So he came back to Mahi Ravana and said, "This is not a place for me to go. It is so big, and a monkey is walking back and forward guarding there. I hear so much sound. All the armies are awake playing drums and singing songs. I can't do it." Sadhya said, "Ahh, weak person! Look at me! I can do it. I don't need a box, I will bring them in my hand." So he expanded himself, and then he came in. He thought, "A small wall, so I will just expand myself a little bit." He saw this tai nd come. In the meantime, somebody may come here. Even Ravana may come, taking my own form. Don't let him in. Give him a hard time." Then he went into the ear, and came into the fort. He took Rama and Laksmana. He expanded his form, looked up, and he expanded his form more, and then without touching anything he flew up to the top and escaped. He was very good at holding his breath, so nothing was felt by the tail. The tail had antennae. If anything was happening, Hanuman could feel it. But this time he didn't feel anything, as Mahi Ravana was such an expert yogi. He stopped his breath as if he was not existing, and he took off. He reached Mahipuri and put them in front of Maha-Kali. They were sleeping. Laksmana was also put to sleep by Mahi Ravana by his special tricks. The Supreme Lord undergoes these things so that these wonderful pastimes can happen. The actual Vibhisana came after his round of the fort, and Hanuman said, "Is everything all right? Wait a minute, how come you are outside? You went inside." Vibhisana said, "I didn't go inside. I just told you I am going around and I am coming back now." Hanuman said, "Now I am feeling that there is something wrong somewhere. You'd better go in and check." So Vibhisana went in, and he discovered there was no Rama and Laksmana. All the monkeys were jumping up and down and crying. Vibhisana came out and said, "Hanuman, you spaced out. Rama is not there, Laksmana is not there. I'm going to commit suicide." Hanuman said, "Wait, wait! You are the only source of information. You tell me where Rama and Laksmana could have been taken." So Vibhisana described Mahipuri. Hanuman said, "I cannot wait here any longer. I am going to take that Mahi Ravana and crush that Mahi Ravana between my hands." Vibhisana said, "Be careful. His life is not in one place. But I don't know where it is. Someone in Mahipuri will be able to tell you. You have to find someone who is close to him. They will be able to tell yo u where it is." So Hanuman left for Mahipuri.

Chapter 13: The killing of Mahi Ravana

2007-03-01T03:01:00.000-08:00

Hanuman was flying over the ocean looking for lotus flowers. He came to an area where there were many lotuses, and he saw one particularly big lotus. "That must be the lotus," he thought. He entered it, and he was thinking, "What are those sounds? I should have asked Vibhisana. Anyway, I can't waste any time." He prayed to Vayu, and Vayu came in front of him. "What is the problem Hanuman?" Vayu asked. Hanuman said, "The problem is that I have to go inside here, and some sound is supposed to be pronounced. I forgot." Vayu said, "Don't worry. This is working by suction system. Suction system is by air, and I am that. You go." The lotus opened, and Hanuman went through very quickly, and he landed on the bottom, and looked around. What he saw was a big tank which was known as kalpa, or the desire fulfilling tank. People were coming from the city, taking a little water from there to go and worship Kali. Hanuman thought, "This is the outside of the city, and it looks so wonderful. The inside must be even more beautiful." Then he was wondering how to enter, and there was a brick fort. On top of the brick fort there were two thousand lakhs of demon soldiers walking with their bows and arrows. Hanuman saw them and thought, "I want to finish all of them together and it is very good that they are all on the fort. If they are spread out it is very difficult, but they are all in one spot. This is good arrangement. Now what should I use to kill them?" and he was looking around. Then he heard a sound. "Hanuman! I am here! Use me!" He looked back, and there was a big tall tree, very big and fat. The tree was talking. Hanuman said, "Who are you, and how are you talking?" The tree said, "I am a demigod. I was cursed by Narada Muni to become a tree. `Why will you make me a tree?' I asked him. `I will become useless.' He said, `No, I will make you a useful tree. You will grow in Mahipuri, and when Hanuman comes he will use you for the war.' Please use me Hanuman, that is what I am here for." So Hanuman took that whole tree, and then he held it up and brought it down upon the fort wall. Two thousand lakhs of soldiers were finished. Then he opened the door wide and went inside. He crossed a forest. That was the brick fort, and now there was a brass fort. So many more soldiers were there. He stood there and he slapped his shoulders, challenging them. They all jumped off and they formed themselves into an army. They were marching, left right left right. Hanuman increased his hands. His form was the same, but his hands increased. He went as much as the army was there, and he closed the hands and threw the soldiers to one side. He opened that door and went inside, and he went through a forest. Then he came to the copper fort. There was three times more soldiers there. There were eighteen thousand lakhs of soldiers. So he grew and took his visvarupa, a huge big form, and then he looked at them and he breathed. They were all finished. He opened that fort. Then he came to the white metal fort. At that fort there was one demon who was leading all of them, and he had got mystic perfections. He produced a storm, and began producing rain. He produced stool rain, bone rain and all kinds of rain. Hanuman came there, and said, "This is very bad." He looked at them, and they all disappeared. They were illusion. They couldn't stand the gaze of Hanuman. Hanuman took that demon in his hand and said, "You create all this illusion. You are so vile that even your dead body shouldn't remain here." And he ate him up. Hanuman is no vegetarian. When the soldiers saw this, they thought, "Oh, this is very difficult, we must run away." But Hanuman did not let them run away. He took them all in groups and started eating them. He was hungry for a long time and had not eaten anything. He ate some, crushed some, threw some away. He finished all of them, and then he opened that gate. Then he came to the bell metal fort, and each one was w to do with all this?" And then he sat in one place, and he got so angry. He looked, and the fire came out of his eyes. The whole fort just melted. In that melting, all the soldiers died. This time he didn't open any door, because it was all finished. He just climbed over. The white metal fort was finished, and he came to the golden gate. In front of the golden gate was a machine. It was a big meter, and it had a hand on a scale. When anyone passes that way, it would show whether they were a friend of Mahi Ravana, or they are inimical toward Mahi Ravana. According to your inimical feeling, it would show ten degrees, twenty, thirty degrees. It was very difficult. If it moved a little bit this way, the army was ready to come and finish you. Hanuman thought, "Now I have to do some lila," and he was waiting outside. In the meantime, Mahi Ravana was sitting in his room, and he called his sister. There is a story that his sister, who was married to another demon, they had a son. When the son was gone there was an ashariri from the sky who told them, "This son will become king when Mahi Ravana dies." Mahi Ravana did not want to die, and he did not want anyone else to become king, so he put that family in the jail, just as Kamsa did. So her name was Duratandi. This Duratandi and her son Nilamega were both in jail. But this Duratandi had a very auspicious power that any abhiseka or puja that had to be done, if you ask her to bring water then the puja was always successful. Now they had to do a very important puja, sacrificing Rama, so that is why he gave her a release. He only released her legs from the chain, her hands were still bound up. Servants would go with her and only at the water tank would the chains be opened. She would collect the water, and the chains would be locked again, and she had to bring back the water. This was the plan of Mahi Ravana, and he was telling Duratandi to do that. So Duratandi was coming to the water tank, close to which Han and thinking how to get in the gate. She came and while taking watershe was lamenting, openly cursing Mahi Ravana. "What a brother Ihave! He wants to kill Rama and Laksmana." When Hanuman heard thathe jumped up and came in front of her. "What did you say? You knowwhere Rama and Laksmana are? I am looking for them!" She said, "Whoare you? Are you Ravana, taking another form?" "No, no, I amHanuman, the servant of Ramacandra." She said, "Oh, you must helpme!" She gave a whole story, and he said, "Don't worry. If you helpme I will help you." She said, "How will I help you?" He said, "Iwill become small, and I will enter a leaf. You put the leaf in yourwater pot and carry me inside. I want to trick these people." Shesaid, "What happens if they find out? They have got a scale there,and if you don't like Mahi Ravana, it will show." He said, "Allright, I like Mahi Ravana." "No, no, no. How can you like MahiRavana and Rama? It's not possible." Hanuman said, "Anyway, whydon't you do it? I like a thrill, and I want to trick them." So hebecame very small and entered into a mango leaf. When you bringwater for bathing, you put a mango leaf in it. She put mango leavesin there with Hanuman. And then very peacefully she was bringing it.The meter was there, and she was slowly coming, and she wasshivering. Some demons were saying, "Hey! Why are you shivering?What is that you are bringing?" She said, "No, no. This is abhisekawater, we are going to kill Rama today." As soon as she came infront of the meter, it went right over the other side and there wasno more numbers it could go to. They said, "Hey, stop! You arehating Mahi Ravana so much. You used to hate him before, but it wasonly thirty degrees. Now it's coming out of the meter." She said,"No, I have become friendly now, otherwise how has my brother let meout?" So then they said, "There must be someone inside the water!"And they looked in the water. g, so they concluded, "There issomething wrong with this machine. You walk past, and let us checkagain." So she went back and then came past the machine again."Boing!" and it broke. "Who is this who does not like Mahi Ravana?"they asked. Hanuman jumped out of the pot and said, "It is me!" andhe became huge and took everyone and began to make a big mess, hecouldn't wait to see Rama. He was smashing some people, crushingsome people, biting some, walking on them, throwing a bunch andanother bunch another way. He took a group and another group andsmashed them against each other. In this way he finished them all.Then she said, "There are ten houses around Mahi Ravana's house.These are his great corporals and generals. You must kill them.""No problem," Hanuman said. He went there and stood in the middleand put his tail slowly inside each house. First one house, whereone general was sitting with his wife telling her, "You look like themoon." And she was saying, "You look like the sun." In the meantimethe tail came and bound both of them, pulled them out of them houseand started flapping them on the floor. In the same way he went toevery house and smashed them all. All the houses were finished.Then the news reached Mahi Ravana. Mahi Ravana came out in front ofHanuman and said, "Hey! I will kill you!" And he got on hischariot. Hanuman flew up and fell on the chariot. He crushed thechariot. Mahi Ravana was smashed. Hanuman said, "Jaya RamacandraBhagavan ki jaya!" And then Mahi Ravana came up again. Hanuman gavehim a big punch on the chest, making him unconscious. Hanuman said,"Jaya Ramacandra Bhagavan ki jaya!" Again he got up. Hanumanthought, "Every time I say Jaya he gets up. Next time I'm not goingto say it." So he took Mahi Ravana in his hands and tore him topieces, and he threw the pieces everywhere. He sat down, and theyall joined together and Mahi Ravana got up. He used his specialmartial arts techniques. He locked Mahi o he couldn't breath. ThenMahi Ravana disappeared. Hanuman said, "No-one can get out of mylocking system!" Then he looked around and he saw a silver mountain,a rock. Duratandi told him, "This is not a silver rock, this is MahiRavana. He can take any form." Hanuman sat on it and crushed it.Again Mahi Ravana came out, and he started running. This time he wasso fast that Hanuman couldn't catch him. Hanuman went to Duratandiand said, "Now what? Where has he gone?" She said, "He isperforming a yajna for killing you." Mahi Ravana went inside a caveand he was quickly performing some yajna, and from the yajna, a bigbrahma-rakshasa came. He was saying, "Who? Who? Whom should Ieat?" Mahi Ravana said, "Hanuman, over there!" So he jumped up andcame to Hanuman. Hanuman got ready to fight the bhuta, but Duratandisaid, "Don't fight with the bhuta, it's a waste of time. Go andspoil the yajna. Automatically the bhuta will die." Hanuman said,"Oh, that's good." So he went there and spoiled the yajna by passingurine on the fire. The yajna became contaminated, and thebrahma-rakshasa disappeared. Again Mahi Ravana disappeared. Hanumancame back to Duratandi and said, "I am confused. What should I do?"Duratandi said, "Even if you crush him he won't die, because his lifeis in three places." She told a secret. So he came to the Kalitemple and saw Ramacandra dressed up with turmeric powder, sindhu,flower garland. He was going to be sacrificed, so he had to lookgood. He came to Rama and said, "My Lord, You must help. I dideverything that I know. This man is invincible." Ramacandra said,"No problem. At midnight he will kill Me. At that time, I will makesome trick and I will shoot the arrow. At the same time, you must goand finish those lamps. I will get Laksmana to crush the diamond."Rama was the Supreme intelligence. So Laksmana got Duratandi to findout where the diamond was, and he reached that place and was waitingfor midnight. was flying and flying. He was going very, very fast.Finally he landed there. He saw this cave, and he saw fiveentrances. They all connected inside, and there were five lampsburning. He came in there, and he blew one out. He came to thenext, and he put that one out. He looked back, and the other one hadagain lighted up automatically. He put one off, and another lighted,back and forth. Then he said, "I will do everything at once." So heturned his head while blowing. They all went out, but all came onagain. In the meantime the snakes had come out spitting poison. Thepoison was not doing anything to him, but they were coming and movingmystically, and Hanuman came out and said, "Oh, what am I going todo?" Again he thought of Vayu. Vayu came and said, "Hanuman, what'sthe problem now? You don't have much time, only three minutes left!"Hanuman said, "Well what can I do? This lamp goes out and anotherone starts. This lamp that lamp, back and forth. I am confused."Vayu said, "Ahh! You forgot who your father is!" Hanuman said, "Ididn't forget. You are my father." Vayu said, "You know that onlybecause of me is any light burning?" And Vayu withdrew from there.As soon as Vayu withdrew from that cave, it became a vacuum. And atthat point, they all went out at once. Immediately Hanumanremembered Brahma, and he prayed to him, "I want to use thatbenediction, that special benediction. I want to reach Mahipuriright now." Next moment he was in Mahipuri. At the same timeLaksmana crushed the diamond. Just before that, Mahi Ravana had comeand told Rama, "Pay obeisances! And then I will offer you to Kali!"Rama said, "I don't know how to pay obeisances. I forgot. I was inshock. Can you teach Me how to pay obeisances?" So Mahi Ravanasaid, "All right, I will show you. This is how you pay obeisances."As soon as he bent down, Rama took his arrow and shot him. All thesethings happened at the same time, crushing the diamond, putting thelights out, and Ramacan t inside Mahi Ravana's chest. And then hestarted dying. When he started dying, everything began to cave in.The jewels became powerless, the roads were cracking, the buildingswere crumbling. And then Hanuman came and said, "Rama and Laksmana,sit on my shoulder!" And he broke everything and flew off. He cameback to Sri Lanka. And then the war started.

Chapter 14: Ravana killed and Sita recovered

2007-03-01T03:00:00.000-08:00

In the area of Mahipuri, Nila the engineer of the Vanara armyreconstructed the city, and Mahi Ravana's nephew was established asthe king. Now the war started. This war was different from how theKuruksetra war was fought. Day and night the fighting was going on.Demons especially become more strong after sunset, and a lot ofdamage was done to the monkey army. Especially when Indrajit came tothe battlefield, and when Kumbhakarna came to the battlefield, a lotof damage was done to the monkeys. Indrajit used a lot of illusorytechniques. By becoming invisible he fought, and at one point hemade Rama and Laksmana unconscious by using some special snakeweapon. Then on the advice of one of the great doctors of the Vanaraarmy and Vibhisana, Hanuman flew to the Himalayas and brought thePuspa-Puspa-Puspa-samjivani mountain. Puspa-samjivani means, "Theflower of revitalisation." Actually they told him to bring thePuspa-samjivani leaf. But the Puspa-samjivani leaf had some sparkleor shine. Hanuman arrived in the Himalayan region and went to thatparticular mountain. The rishis who were meditating on the mountain,for them this Puspa-samjivani leaf was very valuable, because if youjust took one leaf you wouldn't have to eat for five years. No food,no thirst, no hunger, no sickness. It was very nice. They saw thatHanuman had come. They knew if anyone came there they only come forPuspa-samjivani. There was nothing else there, just Puspa-samjivaniplant and rishis closing their eyes and meditating for thousands ofyears. They knew that there was some danger, so they used theirmystic power and made all the leaves shine like Puspa-samjivani.Hanuman was looking. "Ah, this one! But that one is also shining."He saw the whole mountain was shining. Hanuman said, "Oh, now I havea problem. I don't know which one to take. I will take the wholemountain." So he put his hand under the mountain and he lifted itup. The rishis were alarmed. "What's going on?" He flew, andbefore Hanuman came wi th the mountain, Jambavan very cleverly usedthe monkey army to kick all the dead bodies of demons into the ocean.He cleaned the whole place. Only the monkey dead bodies were kept.Because otherwise, when Puspa-samjivani mountain comes, then everyonewill get up. They will be as before. So very cleverly Jambavanarranged that all the dead bodies of demons were kicked into theocean, and some stones put on their head that they wouldn't come tothe surface. Then the Puspa-samjivani mountain came, and all themonkeys got up. Now the demons were small and the Vanaras were more.Even when he was bringing the mountain, even before he had landedthey all got up, the power of Puspa-samjivani was so much. The fightwas going on and everyone had very powerful weapons. Indrajit means`the conqueror of Indra'. But he had a benediction that he would bekilled only if while he is performing a sacrifice someone stops himand fights with him. Because Indrajit was very powerful, he wasthinking, "Who would dare to stop me while I am performingsacrifice?" In between the war he disappeared and went to a verysecret place to perform a sacrifice. But Vibhisana knew the place,and he brought Hanuman and Angada there, and they contaminated thesacrifice and pulled him out. Then there was a big fight, andfinally Laksmana killed Indrajit. One by one everyone was killed,and only Ravana was left. The demigods helped a lot in the war, andIndra sent his chariot and his charioteer Matali there, whichRamacandra was using. He broke Ravana's chariot, killed hischarioteer and his horses, broke the bow, broke his club and flag.And then he said, "All right Ravana, I will give you some time. Yougo today, and you come back tomorrow, with the good decision ofgiving Sita back to Me. If you do that, everyone who is dead willcome back. You will get all your opulences. As if it has neverhappened, people will forget what they knew of you, and you will beknown as a noble king. I will go back to Ayo a good friendship."Ravana felt this a great insult that he was not killed, so he wentback to his palace. Then he remembered that Lord Siva once said tohim, "When your life is in danger, you call me. I will save you."There is a vina known as Rudra-vina, Lord Siva's personal instrument.That was with Ravana, so he took that vina and started singing songsin praise of Lord Siva. Lord Siva is easily pleased, so heimmediately came before Ravana and said, "Why did you call me?"Ravana said, "My life is in danger." Siva said, "How is your life indanger? You tell me." Ravana said, "I took the wife of the son ofDasaratha, and he came here with his army of monkeys, and they havekilled everybody. Even Kumbhakarna, Indrajit, everyone is gone. Iam the only one left. And that king insulted me by telling me, "Yougo. I won't kill you today. Come back tomorrow." So over and aboveeverything, I am insulted. Please save my prestige and my life."Siva said, "Yes, I must save your life. I will save your life.Here, I am saving your life. Give Sita back." Ravana said, "No!Oh, the same thing again! You are cheating me! You promised me youwould save my life, but you are not doing it." Siva said, "No, I amsaving your life. Did I say that to save your life I would go andfight with someone? I have my own method of saving your life. Justtake this small piece of advice: Give back Sita. Everything will bewonderful." Ravana said, "No, I expected that you would go and fightwith Rama and finish Him." Siva said, "I don't mind. I can go andfight with Rama, but I will be finished." Ravana said, "No, I am notgoing to give back Sita." Siva said, "All right, then you will die.Who can protect you?" Then Ravana came the next day. When he came,Ramacandra was standing there holding His bow. Even to carry thatbow was very difficult. It was much bigger than His body, and veryheavy. He used to hold it like he was holding some grass. WhenRavana cam ana and Laksmana said, "Jaya! Finally, he issurrendering!" Then the next moment Ravana said, "What am I doing?No, I am here to fight with you." Then Rama fired His arrow, and hefinished Ravana. Then all of Ravana's queens came, and they werecrying. Then Vibhisana and Hanuman came to Ramacandra, and theysaid, "So the war is over, and we are arranging for the cremation ofRavana. We are performing sraddha for all the ones who are dead.Please instruct us about bringing Sita." Ramacandra said, "Yes, youboth go and tell Sita that Ravana is killed, and you bring herhere." So they went there, and Sitadevi had already got all thenews from Vibhisana's daughter. Hanuman told her, "Mother, you arebeing called by Ramacandra, so you must come." So she dressed inthe same cloth in which she was taken away by Ravana, and which washanging on the tree. She dressed herself up, and she came. Whenshe came, Hanuman and Vibhisana came and said to Ramacandra, "Hereis your wife, Sita." Ramacandra said, "Tell her that she can doanything she likes and go anywhere she likes. I have killed Ravana,and she has no fear now. She can go where she likes." Hanumancried, and he was looking at Vibhisana saying, "What is this? Crossthe ocean, build a bridge, kill the demons, bring a mountain, andthen, `You go wherever you like.' Did He actually say this?"Vibhisana said, "Yes, he did. I am also confused." So then theywent to Laksmana, and asked him, "What is this?" Laksmana said,"That's what I am also wondering. What is this?" So then they allcame back to Rama, and Vibhisana was leading the party. "O LordRamacandra, can You please repeat what You have said?" Ramacandrasaid, "Didn't you hear Me? Now our work is done. You have killedthe demons, so we will go back. You can tell this lady to dowhatever she wants." So then Hanuman came to Sita devi, and he waslooking at her face. Sita said, "Did you hear what He said?"Hanuman said, "Yes, He said you can do whatever you like." Sita to"You tell this king, my husband, that in going anywhere I liked, Idid not have to wait all this time. I could have gone anywhere Iliked. I was only waiting for Him to come. Now why is He rejectingme?" Then she prayed to all the demigods, and they all appearedthere. Even Janaka and Dasaratha came. They were all present, andthey said, "Ramacandra, this is Your wife, Sita. This whole programYou did was to get her back. Now You take her back." Ramacandrasaid, "No. I don't have to take her back." Dasaratha and Janakacame and said to Him, "No, no. This will be too hard for her.Please take her back." Ramacandra said, "How will I take her back?She is not My wife." And then everyone became confused. Brahma camethere and said, "This is Your lila. You just take an avatar tofinish the demons and protect the devotees. But You don't do toomuch lila, because we will get confused. Lila is all right, but nottoo much lila. So here is Your wife, just take her." Rama said,"She is not My wife." Brahma said, "Why?" "How can she be My wife?She stayed in Ravana's garden for so long, four months. I may takeher as my wife, but when I go back to Ayodhya, what will I say to Mycitizens? They will say, "Rama, You went to the forest. How waseverything?" "Everything was all right except that My wife stayedwith Ravana for four months." What will they think? Will I be ableto keep this lady on the throne as my queen? On the simhasana, thegreat seat of the Iksvaku dynasty, some woman who left her husbandand stayed somewhere else for four months? They will complain toMe." Hanuman asked Ramacandra, "Then what are You supposed to do?"Rama said, "You ask Sita." So Hanuman came back with Sita and said,"You solve the problem." Sita said, "Ask Him. If He wants I can goto the fire, and prove that I am pure." Vibhisana came and toldRamacandra, and Ramacandra said, "Yes, that's a good idea. TellLaksmana to make a fire." S ita would walk into the fire, after allthat trouble. So he left that place. And Vibhisana also left thatplace. They couldn't tolerate. Laksmana was a thankless person allthe time. He was always given the thankless jobs. So he went toMother Sita and told her, "Please come, and go into the fire."Sitadevi climbed into the fire. She was sitting on the fire and thefire was glowing. Nothing happened to her. That's all there inRamayana. But something did happen. What happened was that Agnicame there and brought the original Sita. Sita was actually never inSri Lanka. This was a big scandal. This scandal was arranged byLaksmana. When Marica got the arrow of Ramacandra in his heart, heshouted, "Oh Laksmana! Oh Sitadevi!" Sitadevi told Laksmana, "Yourbrother is in trouble! You must go and save Him!" Laksmana wassmiling. Sita said, "What kind of a demoniac person are you? Howcan you smile and laugh when your brother is getting killed by thedemons?" Laksmana said, "What problem is there? When people get aproblem they chant Rama's name. How can He have problem? Anyone whois afraid of an enemy, they chant Rama's name and they get protected.How can He have any enemy? He is protecting everyone in this world.How can he have a problem?" Sitadevi said, "Now I know your plan!You always wanted to have me as your wife. Now that Rama will bedead you will be happy." Laksmana closed his ears. "Oh no! What isthis?" Then she said, "If not, then you must go now." So he said,"All right, I will go." But then he thought, "I'm not just going toleave like this." So he took his Agni astra, the astra of fire, andhe drew a line in front of the ashrama. He said, "You be beyond thisline. Don't cross this line." So then Ravana came as a sannyasi,and he was trying to first enter the house. When he came, he touchedthe line and the fire came, and he couldn't go in. Then he called,"Is there anyone in the house?" Sita devi came, and Ravana asked,"Whose ho is is the son of Dasaratha's house. He is in exile.Nobody who comes to this house goes without getting something. So Iwll give you something." Then she brought some fruits. Ravana said,"I don't enter houses. I am a naisthika sannyasa. You have to comeoutside and bring it to me." She said, "I have been told by myprotectors not to cross this line." He said, "All right, I won'ttake. I'm going, and I'm angry." She said, "No, no, don't goangry." He said, "Yes, all these Dasaratha and Rama, they are alljust misers. They don't give any charity. I'm going, and I'll telleveryone, `This is Rama'." So Sitadevi thought, "Oh, this is verybad. I have to protect the name of my husband." So she crossed theline. When she crossed the line, the fire came again and Agni tookher to his palace. He produced a Sita who was illusory, and that wasthe Sita Ravana took. One may say, "If she is illusory then what isthe whole problem with this scene?" No, even that Sita belongs tothe Lord only. She's not supposed to be in Ravana's garden. Butthen Ramacandra had a vow that He only married one Laksmi in thatincarnation. He was not going to take the other Laksmi. He toldher, "You can go wherever you like." He was not cruel, he just toldher what she is supposed to be told. But this happened in a verysecret manner, not many people knew. At least in the Ramayana, it isnot stated. In the Kurma Purana, the story is mentioned. Agnibrought the original Sita and handed her over to Ramacandra.

Chapter 15: Return to Ayodhya

2007-03-01T02:59:00.000-08:00

After getting back the original Sita from Agni, Ramacandra said, "Nowwe must go to Ayodhya." There was a big pushpa-bhimam, which flewnot by steering but by mind, mental instruction. So they all got onthe pushpa-bhimam, along with a few leading monkeys. Then the othermonkeys said, "Well we're not going by this bridge and walking allthe way to Kishkinda. We will also go by flight." So Ramacandratold the pushpa-bhimam, "You expand." So it expanded and took allthe Vanaras in it. They all took a flight. While they were going,Ramacandra was showing Sita, "This is Janasthan where I fought with14,000 rakshasas and killed them with one arrow. This is Pancavati.This is the Dandakaranya forest. This is Kishkinda." They had astopover in Kishkinda, and then they took Sugriva's family also.They all got in the pushpa-bhimam. Then they were flying overBharadvaja ashrama's. All the places where they visited Ramacandrawas showing to Sita. "Do you remember this place? Do you rememberthat place?" In this way they were coming to Ayodhya. In themeantime Hanuman told Ramacandra, "We have to go fast, otherwisetomorrow sunrise, Bharata will jump in the fire. It is fourteenyears already." Ramacandra told Hanuman, "You go before us." SoHanuman flew very fast and jumped in front of Bharata. By that timeit was sunrise already, and Bharata was circumambulating the fire andpreparing to jump into it. He went once, twice round. On theseventh round he would get into the fire. When he completed thesecond round he heard the sound, "Rama is coming! Rama is coming!"He was looked up, and he said, "Where is Rama coming?" Then he wentaround again. The third round he saw this figure jumping in front ofhim, a big tail and a club on his shoulder with a crown and so manyornaments on his chest. Bharata looked at him and said, "Who areyou?" He said, "I am Hanuman, the servant of Rama." Bharata said,"What? I think that by fasting too much, I am having somehallucination." So he asked everybody el se, "Do you also see thismonkey?" They said, "Yes we see him." So then Hanuman jumped up ona tree, and he began to speak Ramayana. How everything happened, andhe shortly summarized the whole thing. When Bharata heard this hewas very happy. And then the pushpa-bhimam came. So all thecitizens of Ayodhya, because of Hanuman's prior information, theywere able to receive Ramacandra properly. Bharata took Him to thesimhasana, and said, "Here are your shoes. Now I hand this countryback to you. You will be king." And then there was a coronationceremony. At this ceremony, everyone was given some gift.Ramacandra was giving, Sita was giving. Hanuman was very happyseeing that so many people are coming and getting something andgoing. He was in ecstasy and he was chanting and dancing andjumping. So then Sitadevi felt very merciful, and she called him."Hanuman, nobody gave you anything. Here, take this necklace." Andshe gave him a pearl necklace which she was wearing. Hanuman brokethe pearls and started eating them. All the saintly people in theassembly were saying, "What is this monkey doing with Sitadevi'snecklace?" They were all murmuring amongst themselves. "Ramacandrawent to the forest, but why is He bringing the forest into the city?And what is he doing with the queen's necklace? He is insulting thekingdom." Ramacandra said, "Hanuman, they are all having someconfusion over you." Hanuman said, "What is the confusion?"Ramacandra said, "Well, they are all saying that you don't thinkabout Me so much, you do not value me so much." Hanuman said, "Thenwhat should I do?" Ramacandra said, "You show them how nicely youvalue Me, and how you are respecting Me." Hanuman said, "If that isYour order I will do it." So then he put his hands on his chest andopened his body, and showed his heart. In his heart was acourt-hall, and there was Ramacandra and Sita, and in front of themwas Hanuman, and he was opening his chest, and inside the c ndra,Sita, Laksmana, Bharata, Satrughna and Hanuman. And Hanuman wasopening his chest. In this way they had an unlimited vision of Ramabhakti, and they were all convinced. The coronation was over, andthen everyone did some service. Everyone, because He had not beenthere for fourteen years. So thousands of people were waiting toserve Ramacandra, and Hanuman was thinking, "What do I do all dayhere in Ayodhya?" He was walking and telling people about Ramayana,but he got bored. He came to Mother Sita and said, "Let's go to theforest again. This is nice, but I want some personal service ofRamacandra. I'm getting bored here." So Sitadevi called the palacemanager and said, "Any service?" He said, "No, there is a waitinglist of people waiting to take service." Hanuman said, "You havebrought me here for what? If I cannot serve Rama, then what is themeaning of my sitting here? You must get me some service. I'mdepending on you." So he was given the service of waking up Rama inthe morning, and he was happy. Another day, Hanuman went toSitadevi's house, and he said, "Mataji, I'm very hungry. Please giveme something." She said, "I am putting sindhu on my hair. Pleasewait, and I will give you something." Hanuman said, "Oh, I can'twait. I'm very hungry." "No-one can be that hungry," she said."You just wait." "No mataji, I'm so hungry I could die. I need somefruit." She said, "Just wait until I have finished putting this inmy hair." Then Hanuman looked at her and said, "Why do you this?Why are you putting this red stuff on your hair?" She said, "Youknow why I do this? Because if I do it then Ramacandra will behappy, and he will live long, and he will have great opulence. Allthese things will happen." Hanuman said, "Oh," and then he left.Quickly Sita finished, and got the fruits together. She called out,"Hanuman! Hanuman! Where are you?" Hanuman was not to be found."But he was so hungry." She clapped h . They all went, but theycouldn't find him. Then two minutes later, some figure enteredSita's room. It was completely red. She looked, and it had theshape of a monkey, you couldn't see the face, the nose, chadar,dhoti, anything. He was completely red. He had taken bath in red.She said, "Who are you?" He said, "I am Hanuman." "What did youdo?" "I covered my whole body with sindhu. You said that if youonly colour this much, then Rama will get happy and prosperous, so Icover my whole body and he will get more." That is why when you seeHanuman deity it is all red, because he puts sindhu all over hisbody. The mataji only put it one place, but he took bath in sindhu.That was how much love and affection Hanuman had for Ramacandra. Soin this way they were living very happily in Ayodhya till Sitadevigot pregnant. She had a desire to go to the forest, because sheliked the forest so much. Wildflowers, bumble-bees, deer andpeacocks. So she had this desire, "I should go to the forest again."So one day she told Ramacandra, "Can we go to the forest again?"Ramacandra said, "Why the forest? No-one is giving any delegation."She said, "I like the forest." He said, "All right, I will takeyou." Every evening, Rama and Laksmana would dress up like ordinarycitizens and go around Ayodhya. Who is doing what, who is sayingwhat, they will check it. They were feeling the pulse of thecitizens, seeing if they liked them or if there is some enemy, a veryimportant job. Ramacandra and Laksmana were going around like that.They heard a big scene in a colony, a small colony. Dhobis wereliving there. So they hid and saw what was going on. There was alady being kicked by her husband and she was crying. She was holdinghis feet and saying, "Do anything, but don't send me out of thehouse." He said, "No! You are not qualified to enter this house.You can go away, I don't like you." So then she was calling all thevillagers. "Please help me. What did I " So they all came forjudgement, and the husband said, "No judgement! I am husband, she iswife. I decide what she does, and she is not coming in this houseany more. She can go." Then some elder people came and said, "Whatare you doing? This is very bad. She is not a bad woman, she likesyou and wants to serve you. Why are you kicking her away?" He said,"You are saying all this, but if your wives did the same thing, youwouldn't be even standing and talking, you would have finished her.""What did she do?" they asked. He said, "This lady went to washcloth, and she never came back. Three days later she came. I askedher what happened, she is saying, `Somebody came and said that myfather was sick, so I had to go. I was only in my father's house."They said, "So what is the problem? She was only in her father'shouse." He said, "How do I know? She may have gone anywhere. Sheis not pure, I am not taking her." They said, "No, you must takeher. She is crying, she is very affectionate for you." He said, "Doyou think I am Lord Ramacandra, that after keeping my wife in someoneelse's house I will take her back? I'm not as cheap as Lord Rama."Ramacandra heard this, and he looked at Laksmana. Laksmana pretendedthat he hadn't heard this, and he was looking away. He didn't wantany more scenes. When they came back they were very silent anddidn't discuss anything. Ramacandra didn't take any prasad thatnight. Then he called Laksmana and said, "Tomorrow morning, just atthe time of sunrise, you take Sita and you drop her in the forest."Early in the morning, Laksmana's chariot came, and he knocked on thedoor. Sita was thinking, "It must be Ramacandra." She said, "Who isit?" "Laksmana," came the answer. "What is the news Laksmana?" sheasked. He said, "Ramacandra has told me to take you to the forest.""Jaya!" she said. She had wanted to go to the forest, and shethought that Ramacandra was now sending her with Laksmana. So shewent and ut. Laksmana saw her and told her, "Ramacandra said you arenot taking anything." She said, "What about those cosmetics?" "No.Nothing. Just get on the chariot." "I can't take anything at all?"she asked. "Nature will provide you everything," he said. He was actually worrying and pining in his heart, but he could not say anything. She happily got on the chariot, and they went. They crossed the Tamasa river, and they came to the banks of the Ganges. Laksmana said, "You get down." She got down, and Laksmana took the reins. She said, "Hey, where are you going?" He said, "I am leaving you in the forest." "You are leaving me like this in the forest, in this place? There is nobody here!" "Yes," he said. "You are banished to the forest. Your husband, my brother has banished you to the forest because of the dhobi's criticism." He couldn't stand there any more. Quickly he drove the chariot, and disappeared. Sita started crying, she fell on the ground and became unconscious. Two brahmacaris were coming from Valmiki's ashrama to gather some firewood in that area, and they saw this queen lying there. They ran back to the ashrama and told Valmiki. "There is a queen there, she is pregnant and unconscious." So Valmiki knew who that was. He came up to her, and told her, "You stay in my ashrama and deliver the children there. I promise you, somehow I will make compromise between you and Lord Ramacandra." She stayed in the ashrama.

Chapter 16: Sita proves her chastity

2007-03-01T02:58:00.000-08:00

Two or three days passed, and all the brahmacaris in the ashrama were talking. "Prabhu, do you know what has happened? Why has this queen visited our ashrama?" "Kings and queens always visit ashramas." "You are too innocent. This queen has been banished by her husband." "Then we should give her shelter." "What do you mean, give her shelter? Ashrama is not meant for giving shelter to destitute matajis. If her husband has kicked her out, she must go. What is she doing here? It's a bad name for our ashrama. Tomorrow even the king will get angry at us. Even the demigods will be unhappy." So they were talking like this. It became bigger and bigger, and everyone was talking. Valmiki was sitting in his yajnashala doing some yajna, and he saw someone talking. "Ssh! Silence!" He continued the yajna, and then he noticed someone talking again. Quickly he finished the yajna and did a purnahoti. "Everyone come here! What is your problem?" They said, "No problem, everything is all right." "No, no, there is some problem." Valmiki said. "What problem? If some queen comes here, what is the problem for us? We are brahmacaris, we don't care. We didn't say anything. Who is saying?" Valmiki said, "No, you are saying something. Don't play jokes with me. I don't want to know who said it. Just tell me what is the subject." One of the brahmacaris said, "They say that maybe the queen is not chaste, and maybe they will tell something about us, maybe it is bad for our ashrama. They are all telling like that." Valmiki said, "We can solve this problem. I am telling you, she is chaste." When the founder was not there, they could give so many opinions, but this was the founder himself. They said, "Maharaja, you say she is chaste." Valmiki replied, "Yes, I say she is chaste." "How do you know?" they asked. Valmiki said, "All right, let us argue. How do you know she is unchaste?" They said, "Why does her husband keep her like this in the forest?" Valmiki said, "Do you know who is her husband?" They said, "Yes, we know. The king of Ayodhya, Ramacandra." "Do you know who he is?" Valmiki asked. "We know He is the Supreme Lord." Valmiki said, "So then, if the Supreme Lord is kicking someone out, that must be a very qualified person. What is the problem for you and I?" They said, "But still, others will criticize." Valmiki said, "All right, we will do a test. Bring Sita here." Sita came, and Valmiki said, "They are all saying you are unchaste. I know you are chaste, but you have to prove it." She said, "Anything you say, I will do. Do you want me to go into fire again?" Then they all said, "No, no! Brahma-hatya will come. Suppose you die, and then what happens?" Valmiki said, "She is saying that she is ready for any test, so you prescribe that test." Then they all went outside and made a committee. Then they came back, and said, "She must cross the Sitiba-sala lake. Then she is chaste." Valmiki said, "All right, we will arrange it today." So they all went to the lake. This Sitiba-sala lake was very huge, almost like an ocean. It is in the Himalayas. This lake had also expanded outside its region into a forest part of Ayodhya, because some rishi wanted to have the lake there, so she expanded there. This lake was known as Sitiba-sala because there was a couple of birds. The husband bird one day came back after getting grains, and he saw the wife bird was not there. He was waiting, and after sunset the bird came. Around the lake are the trees, and that is where the rishis are, speaking so much dharma and religion. So even the birds were influenced. He said, "It is already sunset. Why are you coming so late?" She said, "I lost my way. And somehow I found my way back here again." He said, "No, no. You have to do some prayascitta, some atonement. I think you are unchaste." The female bird said, "Birds don't have these rules!" The male bird said, "Well we are living in this ashrama area, and here everyone has dharma. We cannot have adharma, it will not be acceptable. You can go, go somewhere." And he started crying, "What happened to my family? Why has it become like this?" So as the female bird was flying, some demigods known as the Dik-palas, the eight directions, and there was the Pala or controller of the directions, they were in the tank taking bath. All the demigods took bath in that tank. They saw the bird crying, and they said, "Come here. Why are you crying?" She said, "What to do? My husband says I am not chaste." They all laughed and said, "What? But you are a bird! What does he want?" She said, "He says I must do some prayascitta." "There is no prayascitta for animals and birds. Even the human beings don't do it." She said, "Somehow or other, please take me back to my husband." They came there and said, "Hey! What is this? You don't have these things, you are birds. She lost her way and came back, now come on, take her." He said, "No. This is a religious area. Everyone is religious here. How can I be irreligious? Not possible. You are demigods, and you know so much shastra. Please prescribe some prayascitta." So they said, "All right. You cross this lake." The bird said, "You think that this small bird can cross this lake?" They said, "She will cross it. And if she crosses the lake, you accept that she is chaste." So then the bird said, "I will cross this lake," but she fell in the water. But the Dik-palas, the controllers of direction, made some arrangement that she crossed the lake and came to the other side. When she got there, they said, "Look, no bird can do it. She has done it, so she must be chaste. Take her." From that time this lake was known as Sitiba-sala, because a Sitiba bird crossed the lake and proved her chastity. So the ashrama inmates of Valmiki decided that Sitadevi should also prove her chastity in this way. So Sitadevi looked at the lake, and she said, "Even if I have thought about another man when I was asleep, unconscious, dreaming, sick, or in my mind, if I have ever thought of another man, I will drown." And then she jumped. She didn't even try to swim, but the waves of the lake carried her across to the other side. She was dropped there. Valmiki looked at the brahmacaris as if to say, "What do you say now?" When he looked they were all gone. As soon as they saw she was halfway over they went back. Then they made an outhouse for her and accommodated her. She stayed there. Every day she was worshipping Ramacandra, and would perform some austerity for His welfare. Although He had kicked her out, she was performing some austerity for Him. That is a wife.

Chapter 17: The great festival

2007-03-01T02:57:00.000-08:00

Slowly the time passed, and Sitadevi gave birth to children. There are opinions that she only gave birth to one child and that Valmiki created the other child. Whatever happened, there were two children called Lava and Kusa. Valmiki wrote the Ramayana up to the point of Rama's coronation, so he taught Lava and Kusa this Ramayana, how to sing it. But Lava and Kusa were not told who they were. They were told that there was a great king, and this is the story of the great king, and they must learn it. So they learnt it very nicely and they would sing it in front of Sita. Sometimes Sita would cry. They would ask, "Why are you crying?" and she would say, "I was just thinking how much suffering that lady Sita would have been having." Lava and Kusa became expert Ramayana singers, and Ramacandra decided to perform asvamedha-yajna. Satrughna went with the horse all around the world. Ramacandra could not perform the yajna without the wife, so they made a golden deity of Sita. The deity was next to Him, and in this way they were doing the yajna. A big yajnashala was built, and all the rishis from all over India were there. So there was large accommodation, and entertainment, drama etc. They didn't know where to go, because there were so many programs going on at the same time. Laksmana was arranging all the shows, all the dramas, dances and music. Vibhisana took care of the treasury, he was in the reception. They were all accommodated and everyone was having a nice festival. Then Valmiki came to the gate. Not everyone was allowed to come, so as he came in the gate, he left Lava and Kusa and said "You go and try to get inside." In front of him was Angada, standing there. There were many gates, so Lava and Kusa came and were walking. Angada put his tail there and said, "Hey! Where are you going?" They said, "Yajna is happening, so we must go." Angada said, "Who are you? Have you been invited?" They said, "We are disciples of Valmiki." Angada said, "Oh, disciples of Valmiki! But one thing, you have to have an invitation, otherwise we don't let you in." So then Lava and Kusa said, "How do you know we don't have invitations?" Angada said, "I have the list of people who are invited. Your name is not here." They said, "You read it properly. Our name is there. It must be there." He started reading, and they went inside. Angada informed someone that they had gotten in. The police came there and they saw Lava and Kusa. "Hey, where are you going? You are not allowed here. We have information that you have come inside without permission." So immediately they took their vinas and started singing. They were singing the dynasty of Iksvaku. Then the police heard this, and they were entranced. Very soon there was a big crowd. Any rishi who was walking past also stopped and listened, thinking it was one of the programs. They didn't know it was just someone singing spontaneously. They were sitting there listening and relishing Ramayana. So then Bharata came there and said, "What is this crowd? Move along." Someone said to him, "Just listen to this. Ramacandra has just taken birth." Bharata said, "Ramacandra just took birth?" "Just listen," they said. Bharata sat down, and he also forgot where he was going and what he was doing. Hanuman was going on patrol, checking everything. When he heard this kirtan, he also came and sat down, and forgot everything. All the activities of the yajna came to a standstill, because Lava and Kusa were narrating the nectarean pastimes of Rama. Finally Laksmana came, the chief controller. "What's going on here?" They said, "Some gurukulis are doing Ramayana." Laksmana said, "This is a good thing! I can make this into a program." He called them over. "Come here boys. Why don't you do Ramayana as a program?" They said, "We don't mind doing it, but how can we do it if we are not invited?" Laksmana said, "I will invite you as special guests. Who is stopping you here?" So he announced to the guests, "Lava and Kusa can go anywhere, do any thing, pick up anything, eat anything, sit anywhere they like, play any style, they can do anything. They must just do the Ramayana class every day, that's all. They have nothing else to do all day, just Ramayana and maybe a little astrology in the morning. That's all." So Lava and Kusa came on the stage, and they were singing Ramayana. All the guests were sitting there listening. Then at one point they thought, "Why shouldn't we call Ramacandra for this?" So Hanuman went there and said, "There is a wonderful Ramayana program going on there in the yajnashala." "Ramayana? What's that?" Hanuman said, "Your pastimes." Rama said, "Oh, I would like to hear that." Ramacandra came there, and sat down. Everyone was listening. They were describing the Vanaras, killing of the demons, and everything like that. Ramacandra was so happy that every ten minutes he was throwing pearl necklaces, giving wonderful gifts to them, embracing them, covering them with kisses. They were so fired up they were going on and finally they came to the coronation, and then they stopped, because that's where Valmiki's Ramayana ends. Hanuman said, "Go more, go more!" The boys said, "Go more? That's all we know! And that's why we came here, because we wanted to know what happened afterwards." So then Laksmana said, "I will show you. This is Hanuman. Remember Hanuman, whom you were singing about?" They touched his feet and got his blessings. "I am Laksmana." They circumambulated Laksmana and paid obeisances. They had so much respect for the characters of Ramayana. "This is Vasistha, Visvamitra, Gautama," and everyone was introduced. Hanuman brought them to Ramacandra. "This is Ramacandra." Then they also paid obeisances. And then they asked, "Where is Sita?" Hanuman looked down. They ran to Vasistha, and asked, "Where is Sita?" He looked the other way. They came to Ramacandra, and they were on both sides of him, shaking him and demanding, "Come on, tell us! Where is Sita?" He was just crying. Then they went around asking everyone, "Where is Sita? Where is Sita?" Some lady told them that Sita was in the forest. "What is she doing in the forest? How did she go to the forest?" Someone told, "Some dhobi gave some criticism, so she was sent to the forest." Lava and Kusa took their vinas and came in front of Rama. They broke the vinas there in front of him, throwing them on the floor. "You are not glorious. We made a mistake. Why did we sing Your glories? What a demoniac person You are! You are more demoniac than Ravana! He is bringing somebody else's wife and he is a demon. You are a great Iksvaku king and you're kicking your wife out because some dhobi said something. Shame! Shame! Shame! No-one should read this Ramayana. We won't copy it or give it to anyone. We are going." No-one could say anything. What could they say? And then Ramacandra came to them and said, "Please bear with Me. Just give Me some time to explain things. You are rishi-putras, sons of saintly people. You must not lose sense control." They said, "You talk of sense control! You sent your wife to the forest because some dhobi criticized her, and now you are talking of sense control. You have no more dharma. You were always thinking that you were the personification of religion. No! You are a great cheater! Why did you waste our vach-sakti, our power of speech by describing the glories of a person who has no honour in this world? We are going." Then Valmiki was waiting outside. The boys came out, and he said, "So? What happened?" "What happened? There is no Sita there! They sent her to the forest." Valmiki said, "Did you talk with Ramacandra?" They said, "Who was this Ramacandra? We don't want to see His face any more." Then they were running, and Valmiki said, "Wait, first let me go and say something to them, and then I will come." So he went and told Ramacandra, "My students are upset because you don't have Sita. So, what is wrong with Sita? Why don't you take her?" Ramacandra did not say one word, he just went inside the palace. Valmiki came back and said to Lava and Kusa, "Whatever it is, you must not offend elders, he is a great personality. You must be careful not to commit any aparadha." They said, "What aparadha? We won't even think of Him. How can we then commit aparadha? He's not even qualified to be thought of by someone like us." They completely rejected Rama. Then they came to Sitadevi's room, and Sita was writing "Rama" and worshipping Rama. They said to her, "We saw Him face to face. Do you know what He did? He sent His wife to the forest." She said, "You are good boys, you shouldn't say like this." So they kept quiet.

Chapter 18: Lava and Kusa`s challenge

2007-03-01T02:56:00.000-08:00

Now the horse was coming back. After going all around the world, it was coming back to Ayodhya. Right on the bank of the Tamasa river, Lava and Kusa saw it. There were soldiers going past with the horse. They saw the symbol of the sun dynasty on there. "It must be something to do with that..." but they wouldn't even mention the name. Kusa said, "Let us go and see." So they saw this horse with a golden plate, and they read the plate. "This horse belongs to Lord Ramacandra of Ayodhya. He is performing asvamedha-yajna. Anyone who stops this horse must meet the army of Ayodhya. Anyone who does not stop this horse must give a gift." Lava and Kusa said, "We will give a gift!" They told all the boys, "Tie this horse." Then the army was coming and Satrughna was coming. They saw the horse, and some children were standing there playing. That was normal. When he got closer he saw that they also had bows and arrows, and Satrughna said, "Hey, you are playing some Brahma? You are holding bows and arrows." They looked up at him, and they said, "Why are you talking? You must fight with us. We have stopped your horse, and we are not giving you any gift." Satrughna said, "Fight with you? You are just small children. Do you know who I am?" Lava said, "By looking at you, I can see that you are Satrughna." "How do you know me?" he asked. "That is not the question! Why are you wasting time? If you have any backbone, you fight with us!" So Satrughna went back and got on the chariot. "All right boys, get ready." They said, "We are ready." They were playing marbles. Then Lava said to Kusa, "He is going to throw snakes. That's what he will do." They knew the whole Ramayana, who has what astra, how they will use it. They have all information. Satrughna was chanting all the mantras. "How am I going to do it? All right, I will perform my duty," and he gave the naga-parsha. While they were coming, Kusa took a piece of grass and threw it. When Satrughna saw that, he said, "I have seen this somewhere, taking a grass and throwing it." So Kusa threw the grass and it came and ate the naga-parsha, and hit Satrughna on the head. He fell unconscious. One tenth of the army fled to Ayodhya, which was very close, only about five or six hours of travel away. They came there and there was a drum there, which they beat. Everyone came there, and they told Laksmana, "Danger! Satrughna has fallen! There are two boys who look like rishi-putras, and they are very good in astra-shastra. They just took a blade of grass and counteracted Satrughna's snake weapon." Laksmana said, "I have seen this before." And then he remembered Visvamitra's yajna. "How is it that these small boys are doing it? Bharata! Go and see." So Bharata went, taking half of the Ayodhya army with him. Bharata came there and saw the boys, and he gave him some sweets. They took the sweets, and then Bharata said, "So are you going to give the horse back?" "No," they said. "But I gave you sweets." "You gave me sweets, and I ate them." "So no horse?" Bharata asked. "No horse." they said. "Now fight." Bharata said, "Fight? Do you know who I am?" "Yes," they said. "You worship shoes." Bharata said, "Are you not the same boys who were singing Ramayana there in the yajnashala?" They said, "Yes, we are the same boys, and we know that you worship shoes. You are offering camara to the shoes, and you were going to enter the fire. And then a monkey came out of the sky and told you something, and you believed it all." They were taking the Ramayana and making it into a Kimayan. They were upset with Rama. Bharata said, "Don't say this, this is aparadha. Don't say like this. With one astra I can finish your whole ashrama." "Oh, whole ashrama?" they asked. One of the boys took an arrow and drew a square, one foot by one foot, on the floor. They said to Bharata, "You please pluck the grass from here this one foot square patch. If you can do it, then I will see that you have strength." Bharata looked at that, and Kusa said to Lav use the Agni astra." He took the Agni astra, and he was going to burn that place and show them how powerful he was. Kusa took a hair from his sikha and kept it in front of him. Agni astra was coming, and this hair was standing there. As soon as the Agni astra hit that, it cooled down and couldn't move any more. Bharata said, "What is this?" So he took the Brahmastra. Before he could chant his mantras, and he was just getting ready, the Brahmastra was just starting from his bow and they both uprised Brahmastras, Lava and Kusa together. Both used Brahmastras. Before his Brahmastra was away, Bharata saw two coming. "Oh! What is that?" He was burned, and he fell down. Half of the army was also finished, all burnt into coal, everybody was black. The messenger ran off to tell Ramacandra, "Bharata also fell." So then Laksmana said, "This is very bad. I will go myself." He came in his chariot with the sun symbol on the top, so Lava and Kusa were standing there with their bows and arrows. Kusa had said, "Next is Laksmana, so we can't just play around." Laksmana said to them, "Listen to my advice. You may know a few astras, you may do some tricks, because your guru is protecting you. But you must understand, I am Laksmana." They said, "Yeah, yeah, you are Laksmana. You were chastised by Mother Sita. You wanted to enjoy her, isn't it? Don't you remember that?" Laksmana said, "Oh! Why are you bringing this information to the surface?" And then they said, "And you were the rascal that brought Sita to the forest, we heard in Ayodhya. At least tell us, where did you leave her?" He had promised Rama that he would not tell anyone, and he said, "Why are you talking politics? Let us fight." So he took his astras, and the combat went on for some hours. It was tough to beat Laksmana down. Finally he was also shot down. He received wounds on the face, and he fell down. The news reached Ayodhya. Ramacandra had not been informed yet. Laksmana was superintending all of this, and now Laksmana had left. Ramacandra had not been informed of the loss, he was only told that the horse had been stopped, and something was going on. Now he was told what the real story was and he got upset. He rose and said, "I am going." Hanuman said, "This is my job. You sit down and do your yajna." So Hanuman went alone, flying through the space. So Lava and Kusa were talking. "Who will come next? It must be that monkey. We will give him fruits." "No, no. He will not be into fruits, he will get upset, because we have put Laksmana down. When Hanuman sees this he's going to get on our case." "So what should we do? Should we go to Valmiki?" "It's not that desperate yet. We can manage the situation." So he called some boys, and told them, "Do some Rama kirtan." So they began chanting, "Raghupati raghava rajarama, patita pavana sita-rama." They were all chanting and dancing. Hanuman was coming there. "Oh! Kirtan!" And he completely forgot everything. He was dancing in front, "Raghupati raghava..." Lava and Kusa said, "Keep going, and don't come back. Even the message won't reach Ayodhya. We'll have the horse." So they were having kirtan and going around the whole forest. Hanuman was leaping and dancing. He was leading kirtan, and then playing mrdanga. He had totally forgotten what he had come for. Lava and Kusa were sitting there laughing. "What an army! What a king! And what a monkey! What a crew!" Hanuman had not come back for a long time, so Ramacandra said, "We must go." So Vasistha, Visvamitra, Gautama, all rishis and saintly people and the leading citizens of Ayodhya came to the forest. Then they saw this Lava and Kusa playing there next to the horse. They were acting as if they didn't hear him or see him. They were completely ignoring him. Ramacandra called out, "Lava, Kusa. Come here." So they said, "Who are you to order us to come there? You come here!" He said, "I am the Lord of Ayodhya." "That may be," they said. "But we are the princes here in Valmiki's as hrama. We are rishi-putras. You cannot order the rishis, it is not possible. You want to hear some stories on that? Do you remember what happened to Visvamitra when he went to Vasistha's ashrama? Didn't you learn these things? Where did you go to school?" Ramacandra came to them and caressed their heads. "Just control your senses, please. Be patient. I have not done anything wrong. Just for the prestige of My dynasty, I don't want anyone to criticize the Iksvaku dynasty. That is why I did that." They said, "We are not asking explanations from you. Where are the arrows? Why don't you fight?" Ramacandra said, "No, I won't fight. If I use one arrow, that's enough." Kusa said, "Some 14,000 drunkards came in Janasthan. They didn't know what to do, bumbling around, and you finished them with one arrow. Big glory! You don't scare us with this. We know the whole Ramayana." Ramacandra said, "That's all right. They were all weak, you are very strong. But if you are strong you should also be intelligent. If your guru sees this, he will not allow it. Did you get the blessings of your guru?" They said, "Did you get the blessings of your guru when you sent Sita to the forest? Did you ask Vasistha?" He hadn't done it. In fact, after doing it Vasistha asked him, "Why did you do this?" Ramacandra had no reply to this. Kusa said, "Oh, you can do it without your guru's instruction. We can't though, because you are tall and we are short, isn't it? Let us see your arrows! Come on!" Ramacandra got very upset. "Maybe this has to be done," he said. He took acaman, and he was going to take his arrow. Just then, Hanuman, who had been going around and around, came to a big banyan tree and then the boys tied him on the tree. He was so absorbed, "Rama, Rama, Rama." They tied him. And then they stopped the kirtan. As soon as kirtan was stopped, he said, "Chant! Chant! Why did you stop?" They said, "No, no. We are going because we have work in the ashrama. But we will give you some engagement. You please count how many leaves are on this tree. You have nothing else to do." And they left. He was looking up, and suddenly he remembered, "I came here for some other purpose." He broke the rope, and he came to where everything was happening. He saw there was Rama, and there were these two boys, and he looked at Rama who was going to touch his arrow. Hanuman said, "There's something wrong here. I must get some help." So he ran into the ashrama of Valmiki, and he was asking everyone, "Where is Maharaja?" "Here is Maharaja," they said. He came to Valmiki and said, "Ramacandra and your disciples are there, and they will be finished and the whole ashrama will be burnt. Rama is angry." Valmiki said, "Oh!" He got up and was running. And then Sitadevi came out. Hanuman saw her and said, "Sita! You are here!" She said, "Yes, they are my children." Hanuman said, "Do you know what's happening? Ramacandra is going to kill them." So Sitadevi ran out also.

Chapter 19: Conclusion - Rama ends his lila

2007-03-01T02:55:00.000-08:00

Everyone was running to the place where the confrontation between Rama, Lava and Kusa was. Sita came and said, "Stop! What are you doing? You are going to finish your own dynasty!" Ramacandra said, "Who is that? Sita! Valmiki!" So he stopped. He went to Valmiki, and Valmiki said, "This is your wife Sita. These are your children, Lava and Kusa. Somehow they are upset with you, because you sent Sita out of the country." Lava and Kusa were listening to all this, and it all came together in their minds. "Oh, this is my father!" So they fell at His feet. Ramacandra said, "Now I am very happy. At the end of Asvamedha, somebody stopped my horse, but they were only my children. Otherwise it would be a very bad name for me. All right Lava and Kusa, you come. We will go, and I am very sorry for sending Sita to the forest. I won't do this any more." When he was talking like this, Sita was folding her hands and closing her eyes, and she was praying. Ramacandra said, "Sita, come and we will go." She said, "No." "You're not coming?" "No, I'm not." "Where are you going to go?" Rama asked her. "Wherever I'm supposed to go. I've had enough. I'm not taking any more of this treatment. I'm going." Ramacandra said, "No, no, you must come with me." Sita said, "No, I am not coming." And she prayed to Mother Earth. The earth opened and Bhumidevi came out and took her inside. Ramacandra lamented and came back to Ayodhya, kept Lava and Kusa as the kings of Ayodhya, and then he ruled for 30,000 years after that, and so many demons were killed. The Madhu demon was killed near Vrndavana area, and a city was established there, Mathura. Satrughna was sent to the Sind region. Laksmana and Rama were there, and the time came when he had to wind up his pastimes. So Brahma instructed Yama, to go and tell Rama that it is time for him to come back. Yama came, and he dressed himself like a Brahmin, and said, "I want to get some charity from Ramacandra." So he came in there. When Ramacandra asked him what he wanted for charity he said, "I want a private, confidential discussion with you. No-one should be there." So Ramacandra said, "Hanuman, you go. And Laksmana, you also should go." The Brahmin said, "No-one should come in between. If anyone comes during our discussion, he must be banned to the forest." So Rama said, "That's no problem, no-one will come. You can tell me." So then he started talking with him. In the meantime when Laksmana went outside, he saw the four Kumaras there. He paid obeisances and said, "Oh, you are here! This is a great fortune for us! Here is a nice guest house for you to stay." They said, "We didn't come here to stay, we came to see Rama." Laksmana said, "You can see Rama, but come and take rest, take some prasad." They said, "We will see Rama first, then rest and prasad." So then Laksmana said, "No, you cannot go." They said, "What? Same thing again? Someone did this before, and do you know what happened?" Laksmana said, "Please don't get angry with me. I know you are absolute personalities, but Ramacandra has given some promise to a brahmin that no-one will come in." "So?" they asked. "What will happen if you go in?" "I will be banned to the forest," he said. The Kumaras said, "You won't take this sacrifice for serving us saintly people?" He said, "Yes, I must take it! Why didn't I think of that?" and he ran inside. As soon as he came inside, the Brahmin stopped talking. "Oh! He has heard my secret! What will happen now?" Ramacandra said, "Laksmana, you are banned to the forest." Laksmana said, "Yes, you are very expert in banning people, so I will go. My only point is that the Kumaras are outside. They came to see you." "The Kumaras are here?" Rama said, and he ran outside. When he got outside, there were no Kumaras. They only came to do that, and they had already left. When he came back, there was no Brahmin. He had also left. Then he was looking for Laksmana, but there was no Laksmana. He had gone to the forest. Laksmana went to the forest and sat down. He meditated, opened his eyes and Sesa came out of his mouth and he entered the ocean. Then Ramacandra called Lava and Kusa and said, "Now I am going." All the citizens said, "No. Where are you going? We will also go with you." He said, "If all of you go with me, then Lava and Kusa won't be kings. They have to rule somebody." He made a calculation on who stays and who goes. Sixty percent of the population decided to go, and Ramacandra walked out with his mothers and the elderly people like Sumantra. The citizens were also there, and they went to the Sayayu river, and Ramacandra entered the Sayayu river with all of his citizens, together. No-one's bodies were found. They were all elevated to the spiritual Ayodhya. Lava and Kusa ruled and the dynasty was continued until fourteen generations after the beginning after the beginning of Kali-yuga. The last king had no child, and in this way the surya-vamsa was over. Ramacandra does these pastimes a little different in each Treta-yuga. Sometimes Sita was taken from the forest, sometimes from Janaka's palace, sometimes from Ayodhya. A little bit different every time, but still the same thing. Ravana is stealing, and Rama is destroying the demons. He leaves us this wonderful literature through Valmiki, that we can all listen to it and if we know the appearance and activities of the Lord in principle, then after leaving this body we won't come back to this material world.
RAMACANDRA BHAGAVAN KI JAYA!Hare Krsna.