SrI: SrImathE satakOpAya nama: SrImathE rAmAnujAya nama: SrImath varavaramunayE nama: SrI vAnAchala mahAmunayE nama:
SrIrAma leelAs and their essence
Everyone reached SrI ayOdhyA and lived there very happily. SrI rAma and sIthAp pirAtti enjoyed together for 12 years blissfully.
Once, dhaSaratha chakravarthi desired to crown his son SrI rAma on the throne. He gathered a huge assembly and enquired the public about his views and all of them tumultuously revealed their acceptance. chakravarthi too, with great joy, arranged the coronation ceremony after consulting vasishta, who is the kulaguru (teacher of the clan). The town got decorated beautifully. SrI rAma performed necessary rituals and became ready for the coronation on the next day, morning.
At this time, mantharA who is a hunchback and the maid of kaikEyi, caused bewilderment in kaikEyi’s mind and asked her to get 2 boons from dhaSaratha, namely 1) bharatha should get the kingdom and 2) SrI rAma should go in exile to the forest. Though dhaSaratha became bewildered and fainted on hearing the boons, he regained consciousness and tried to convince her but could not succeed. Then they called Sri rAma and ordered him saying “kulakkumarA! kAduRaiyap pO” (Oh scion of this clan! Go to the forest). On hearing that, SrI rAma did not feel even a little bit of sorrow and happily accepted their command.
He did not want the huge country, great kingdom, and left his mothers there, and left his elephants and chariots, not wearing ornaments, accepted tree-bark and deerskin clothes and remained with his divine beauty increasing.
At that time, sIthAp pirAtti insisted that she would accompany SrI rAma to the forest. At first, SrI rAma did not agree to that. But sIthAp pirAtti said that the place where SrI rAma is present is svargam (heaven) and the place where he is not present is narakam (hell) and further insisted, and then he agreed. Following that, lakshmaNa too surrendered at the divine feet of SrI rAma, having the recommendation of sIthAp pirAtti. SrI rAma refused first and then agreed to that also. In this manner, SrI rAma holding the bow, sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa holding the sword and the bow started their journey towards the forest.
First they boarded the chariot of sumanthra, who is SrI ayOdhyA’s minister, and travelled for a long distance and stopped at the night, to rest in a place. Many residents of SrI ayOdhyA travelled along with them. Before they could wake up, SrI rAma, along with sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa, got sumanthra to ride the chariot, separating themselves from the others. They then reached the banks of thamasA river. They crossed the river and traversed through forests which have deer, elephants and horses and reached the banks of vEdhaSruthi river. They crossed that river and two more rivers named gOmathi and syandhikA, left the boundary of SrI ayOdhyA and reached the banks of river gangA. There, the hunters under the leadership of guha came to help them. guha had great devotion towards SrI rAma. SrI rAma embraced guha and accepted him as his brother. guha offered some food items which were not accepted by SrI rAma. But all of them rested there, under the care of guha for a night and with guha’s help, they crossed gangA on the next day. Subsequently they reached sage bharadhvAja’s ASramam and accepted their blessings and finally reached a beautiful hilly region named chithrakUtam. sumanthra took leave of them and returned to SrI ayOdhyA. He informed the residents of SrI ayOdhyA about the well-being of SrI rAma and others. Hearing about these, dhaSaratha became very sorrowful, and left his body and ascended to svarga. bharatha reached SrI ayOdhyA and came to know about the incidents. He became very angry towards his mother kaikEyi and then performed the final rites to his father. As vasishta et al proceed with crowning bharatha, he refused to accept that. He suggested that everyone could go to chithrakUtam and pray to SrI rAma to return here. Everyone agreed to that proposal and along with bharatha, his mothers, sages starting with vasishta, residents of SrI ayOdhyA, elephant and horse divisions of the army, marched towards chithrakUtam.
Here in the forest, lakshmaNa built a hermitage and all 3 of them lived a simple life eating ripened and unripened fruits, resting on the floor etc. bharatha reached there with the huge gathering and worshipped SrI rAma’s divine feet and prayed for his return to SrI ayOdhyA. But SrI rAma, completely refused to oblige and gave his pAdhukAs (sandals) to bharatha. bharatha took those, gathered everyone and reached the outskirts of SrI ayOdhyA, built a hermitage there and placed the sandals there, and started conducting the kingdom under their leadership.
Subsequently, SrI rAma, left chithrakUtam along with sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa and reached dhaNdakAraNyam.
Essence
- SrI rAma’s qualities are such good that even after dhaSaratha ruled the kingdom in the most righteous manner without any trouble for the citizens, they could not understand the greatness of anyone other than SrI rAma.
- kaikEyi, due to the misguidance of mantharA, lost her great love towards SrI rAma, the supreme lord. Similarly, if we get caught in worldly matters, we will also commit mistakes.
- Though dhaSaratha was righteous, he held on to common righteousness of keeping his word, but did not think about special righteousness of not sending SrI rAma, the supreme lord, to the forest. Hence, we can understand that he is less intelligent.
- Both sIthAp pirAtti and lakshmaNa demonstrated that the real joy for us is to be together with bhagavAn and the real sorrow is to be separated from him.
- bhagavAn’s noble qualities are revealed through his acceptance of guha without seeing guha’s inferior qualities.
- bharatha demonstrated how one should be parathanthra to bhagavAn. pArathanthryam means acting according to bhagavAn’s will completely.
- bharatha performed perfect surrender and prayed to SrI rAma for his return. Yet, since SrI rAma’s divine will was to go the forest, that surrender did not fructify. From this, we can understand that more than our surrender, it is bhagavan’s divine will, which is the cause for our real well-being.
Source – https://granthams.koyil.org/2024/11/14/srirama-leela-ayodhya-kandam-tamil/
adiyen sarathy ramanuja dasan
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