BY
PRAGYANSHARMA POLAVARAPU(VRS.SOMANCHI)
In India traditional Hindus worship a great Prince Charming and an invincible warrior, Prince Rama, as incarnation of god almighty of the universe. His is a life of great sublime poetic beauty and influence thinking ofpeople since countless centuries.
The story reflects the great and sublime philosophic traditions of ancient India .
His life is more
like life of a great philosopher and hermit (yogi or rishi) than that of a
prince charming living in golden palaces.
His life story cast a spell on the lives of traditional Hindus for last 2000 years and established high moral traditions in society. There are hundreds of thousands of temples for Lord Rama in India and they are in almost every village and town.
Poets say his life story is like the soft moon shine and is like nectar creating joy and peace in minds .It is poetically said that even in heaven his name is recited by the greatest gods with reverence. He was a Prince Charming and darling of people . He was a young warrior prince who had the capacity to conquer even the entire universe with his magic arrows full of hidden power. But he was a gentle philosopher and a very sensitive person –a poetic personality and a saint and ascetic and hermit at heart .
He was the eldest
son of the mighty king Dasaradha the ruler of a kingdom of yore called Ayodhya.
Dasaradha himself was such a mighty warrior
that he helped the gods to win a big war against their enemies.
Prince Rama was
the heir to the throne and was darling of people because of his lovable
qualities,kindness of heart and
scholarly and philosophic and majestic personality. He treated the earthly
world as mirage and treated only the beautiful world of gods as the real world .
He was often engaged in great scholarly
discussions with holy men and talked about
necessity of morality, piety, truthfulness and love in man’s life during his sojourn on this planet earth.
He talked often
of holy philosophy and spirituality though being the greatest warrior of his time.
The great sages and philosophers in the
king’s court considered him as more learned than themselves. Many of them
thought that such an extraordinary prince with a flair for combating evil doers
must be having a special purpose for his life fixed by the gods.
He protected the
weak ,poor and helpless people irrespective of race . He protected the ascetics
who lived in forest hermitages and meditated for years on moral ,social and
philosophical issues .In return the
hermits ,who had access to great invisible magical weapons, taught them to
him.
The great sage Viswamitra, who using his great
spiritual power was capable of creating
new earths and new heavens, taught prince rama several magical and holy “astras” ( magical weapons). He took prince rama to a great competition of archery in the city of mithila organized by a
mighty king Janaka.it was to identify the greatest warrior on earth and to give
his pretty daughter Sita Devi in marriage to such a great warrior.
Prince Rama by easily winning the competition won the hand of the most beautiful princess
Sita .
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Lord Rama had three younger brothers who were
also invincible warriors like him but much devoted to him and respecting him as
their loving elder brother. They were
the princes Laxmana, Bhratha and Shatrughna.
The people and
the nobles and entire royal family were agreed that the eldest of the brothers
, prince Rama who was extremely talented, scholarly, brave and noble-minded
should be the next king. With such vocal whole-hearted support all around ,the
old warrior king dasaradha announced one fine day that prince Rama would be
next king. All were happy and the celebrations started.
But prince Rama’s
step mother got an evil idea that her own son prince Bharatha should become the
next king. She suddenly started pretending great pain and anger and reminded
the old king about an old (long-forgotten) boon he gave her. She did not tell
the reason for her great pretended unhappiness and asked the old king to honor it . The old king was a noble-hearted
person never failing to fulfill his word. He did not suspect any foul play on
the part of his queen.
The queen in an
aggressive mood suddenly demanded from
the king to make her son prince bharatha
as the next king and not prince rama. She demanded that the gentle prince Rama be ordered to live in forest
hermitages for fourteen years and to ensure
that Prince Rama truly leads an ascetic’s
life among hermits.
The old king was shocked and being caught in a
dilemma fell seriously ill and became unconscious.when the harsh queen ,the
step mother of prince rama ,sent word to him to come ,the prince arrived. He
came to the queen’s palace and understood what happened and what was being
demanded of him.
The heroic and philosophic minded prince Rama,true
to his noble character and to the consternation of everybody , announced
without a moment’s hesitation and in an easy demeanour that he would obey his stepmother’s orders without the least delay and keep his father’s
prestige unsullied.
Prince Rama at
heart really loved and respected all the three queens as his own mothers . he
was at heart like a child. He loved and respected his father and brothers just
as passionately as he did in his childhood.
He was a mighty
warrior with magical weapons and could
have rebelled and brushed aside all the obstructions to his becoming king. But
he was a divine minded philosopher and a noble and ascetic minded person. He did not react like a power hunfry ordinary
prince .
His queen princess Sita too was as noble and pious
minded as prince Rama .She loved prince Rama more than her own life. She loved
him not because he was an invincible warrior or a Prince Charming but because
of his ascetic saintly philosophic qualities. She insisted on accompanying him to
forest. She said that royal life has no charm for her and that in her great
husband’s presence the most fearful forest would be like heaven to her and that
she herself would remove all the thorns and stones in the paths where her
husband walked
Prince Laxmana ,younger
brother of Prince Rama who always accompanied him like a shadow was no less
sacrificing . he was also a great
warrior and great conqueror. He could not bear the punishment meted out to his
elder brother by the heartless queen Kaikeyi. He wished nothing more in his
life than protecting his brother and queen sita. He too insisted on accompanying
his revered elder brother and sister in law to the forests to protect them. Prince
rama could not convince him to stay back.
He too renounced
palace life and accompanied prince Rama to the forest. Soon the mighty prince
Bharatha ,for whom his mother created all the storm, returned from a long visit
to his maternal uncle. On hearing of the developments he became extremely angry
and sad and tried even to kill his mother but was prevented by his brothers. He
asked prince Rama to take back the throne. However prince Rama was not a person
to change his decision and vowed to implement his mighty father’s promise and
keep up his father’s prestige . He consoled and pacified everybody saying he
would return from forests only after the full fourteen years.
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