Hari Aum.
Om Namo Narayanaya. Om Sri Rama Jaya Rama Jaya Jaya Rama.
Today is the auspicious day of Rama Navami, the celebration of the birthday of the avatar of Lord Narayana known as Sri Rama.
A very happy Rama Navami to all readers; I hope and pray that Sri Rama blesses all of us and the world with peace and prosperity. May the wars everywhere subside and may much-needed calm prevail.
This is the perfect day to continue writing about the Ramayana and to narrate the birth of Sri Rama (many of you may be broadly familiar with this already but let us look at the details as described in the original Valmiki Ramayana).
In the previous post, we discussed King Dasharatha's intense yearning to have a child and his spiritual practice to obtain one. We also learned that the demi-gods (devas) were being plagued by a demonic being known as Ravana. They had sought help from Narayana who promised to protect them and other living beings by taking on an avatar.
Let us now continue our study of the Ramayana....
After pledging to manifest as the son of King Dasharatha to defeat the evil Ravana and establish dharma/righteousness, Lord Narayana disappeared from view. The demi-gods felt a sense of great relief having received His assurance of protection and praised Him with hymns.
Meanwhile, King Dasharatha continued his fire ritual to obtain a child (blissfully unaware of any of these events related to the demi-gods; he had no inkling that he was about to become the father of an avatar!).
The messenger of Narayana
As the worship continued, an extraordinary being of divine splendour arose from the sacred fire. He towered above the worshippers, dazzling like the sun. His face had a slightly reddish tinge and he was dark in complexion.
Dressed in red garments, and wearing divine ornaments, he had various auspicious marks upon his person. He resembled a lion both in strength and appearance (in that he was covered with soft hair, including a fine mane of hair on his head, and also had a moustache and beard!) and had a deep and resonant voice like that of a kettledrum!
In his hands, the divine being held a large covered vessel made of shining gold. Within this shining vessel, was a celestial sweet dish (called 'payasam' in Sanskrit) made of rice, milk and sugar.
The celestial being gazed at King Dasharatha and addressed him, saying that he had come as a messenger from Lord Narayana (or Vishnu). The King, delighted at the appearance of the divinity, bowed low in greeting and asked how he could serve him.
The messenger of Narayana then replied saying that he had brought a divine blessing from the Lord Himself in the form of this divine sweet payasam. He explained that this had the power to grant not only children but also health and wealth! He advised the King to give this sweet to his wives, assuring him that, by this means, they would be blessed with the children they desired.
Dasharatha, filled with boundless joy, bowed again before the dazzling being. Accepting the golden vessel, he agreed to do as advised. He then went around the messenger clockwise as was the custom to express his gratitude and respect.
The divine being then vanished into the flames and the King, losing no time, hastened to the palace. Entering the women's quarters, he met with his wives and explained the wondrous event that had just taken place! They too were overjoyed that their worship had borne fruit and accepted the divine sweet dish with great delight.
The celestial sweet dish
Dasharatha gave a portion of the celestial sweet dish to each of the three queens, Kaushalya, Sumitra and Kaikeyi (he gave one half to Kaushalya, then half of the remainder/a quarter to Sumitra. Then, half of the remainder/an eighth to Kaikeyi, and the remaining eighth again to Sumitra; this apportioning has some significance as we will see later).
Thus were conceived the four sons of Dasharatha and his wives. The King and the Queens, delighted with the divine blessing that they had received, now awaited the birth of their children with great joy and excitement.
The divine monkeys
Meanwhile, unknown to them, great preparations were underway to create a powerful army to accomplish the extraordinary task for which the avatar was manifesting. Telling the demi-gods that Sri Rama would soon be born, the divine Creator, Brahma, commanded them to beget children who would play an important role in His task upon Earth.
The demi-gods were told to have children filled with divine strength and power, exceptionally skilled in the art of warfare and who would be capable of changing their form at will. These children were to be born of the union of the demi-gods with various other celestial beings (such as apsaras, gandharvas, yakshas, kinnaras and so on). They were to reside upon the Earth, living in the wild forests and mountains in the form of monkeys. In time, they would be called upon to fulfill the purpose for which they had been born.
Thus, before the birth of Sri Rama, a large number of celestial beings took birth upon the Earth (being born of the devas, their birth and growing up was very quick compared with human beings!).
They were possessed of great size, strength and valour and wandered about freely in the forests. In play, they could uproot trees with ease, agitate the ocean, shake mountains and leap huge distances across land and sea as well as into the sky.
Apparently unaware of the purpose of their birth, these divine children of the devas, lived happily in the forests, mountains and by the sea.
These divine monkey warriors not only bore a resemblance to their demi-god parents but also possessed their natural skill and powers. For instance, the son of Indra, King of devas, was Vali, who became the King of monkeys. The son of Surya, the sun-god, was Sugriva, the younger brother of Vali, who was as glorious as his father.
The son of Vishvakarma, the divine architect, was Nala who had a natural talent for building. The Guru of the demi-gods, Brihaspati, fathered Tara, a divine monkey of exceptional intelligence.
The demi-god of the wind, Vayu, was the father of Hanuman. Hanuman was unique in many ways-- he was as fast as the wind, of immense power, and blessed with great intelligence. Unlike many of the other monkeys (who tended to be somewhat haughty due to the awareness of their own power), he was also blessed with extraordinary humility (this was perhaps his greatest strength as we will see later).
Thus, even before the advent of Sri Rama and His brothers, the Earth teamed with divine monkeys, the children of the demi-gods, who were ready to serve Him as He fulfilled the purpose of His avatar.
Birth of Sri Rama and celebrations
Now, let us return again to Ayodhya! Approximately a year after King Dasharatha's worship was completed, a particularly auspicious day dawned. It was the ninth day ('navami' in Sanskrit) of the lunar month known as Chaitra (April-May; and the various planets were powerfully situated in various zodiac signs in the sky, signalling the birth of a Divine being!).
On this sacred day, the avatar of Lord Narayana known as Sri Rama was born of Queen Kausalya. Shortly afterwards, on the same day, Bharata was born of Queen Kaikeyi. Around a day later, Queen Sumitra gave birth to twin boys who were known as Lakshmana and Shatrughna.
On the eleventh day after the birth of the children, their naming ceremony was performed in accordance with the scriptures by sage Vasistha, the family Guru.
Although, Sri Rama was an avatar of Narayana , His three brothers were also divine in nature (they were part-manifestations of the various powers of Narayana; to an extent, their divinity was manifested in proportion to the quantity of celestial payasam consumed by their mothers!).
On the occasion of the birth of children of King Dasharatha and the Queens, there was tremendous rejoicing in the kingdom of Kosala and particularly, in the capital city of Ayodhya. As part of the great celebrations that took place, there was much music, dancing, artistic performance and worship.
The streets of Ayodhya were filled with people in great spirits. In the heavens above, the demi-gods and divine sages also celebrated and showered flowers upon the city to express their great joy.
The King then gave away great quantities of wealth and jewels as gifts to various worthy recipients including sages, priests, musicians and dancers. The entire city of Ayodhya and the kingdom of Kosala seemed to shine with a divine splendour upon the advent of Sri Rama.
King Dasharatha in particular was filled with a unique ecstasy. With the arrival of his children, and Sri Rama in particular, he felt a peace and bliss that he had never felt before. Thus he regarded himself as being extremely fortunate and blessed.
Thus concludes the description of the birth of Sri Rama. To be continued....
Om Sri Ramaya Namah.
Om Namo Narayanaya.
Hari Aum Tat Sat.
P.S. Just to say, to those who have sent me queries regarding ishta devata and so on from the Vedic astrology chart, I am sorry for the delay replying. I am working my way through the requests received but have taken on some extra work and other commitments hence the delay (apologies but it may take me a month or more to respond to your queries currently).
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