Chapter 3; Ramacandra`s childhood

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.