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R2- RAMAYANA—PART ONE

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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