Being Lakshman

So, when demon Marich came in a disguise of a magnificent golden deer and roamed around the hermit, where Lord Ram, Sita and Lakshmana were staying, Sita immediately became magnetized by seeing her beauty. She made a request to Lord Ram that she is so moved by the exquisiteness of that deer that she wants it immediately. Lord Ram, knowing that it may be an illusion, tried to convince Her about its futility and possible consequences but Devi Sita’s was unappeasable. She argued, “I have spent nearly thirteen years of my youthful life in the forest, caves, mountains and away from any form of luxuries without any regret, I never requested anything except your company, this is my only desire that I am extending to You, please accept it.” Lord Ram was touched by Her plea and agreed to chase down and bring that golden deer. He cautioned Lakshman to guard Devi Sita and not to leave the place until He returns.

Credit: Internet

The chase began. The deer was fast and frantic, but it was chased by none other than the Supreme Being. After going deeper in to the forest, by taking appropriate position, Ram shot an arrow and it pierced the heart of the deer. But to the amusement of Lord Ram, the deer suddenly turned in to a Demon and started wailing and calling “Oh! Lakshman Oh! Site!!! Oh Site!!! Oh Lakshman!!!”

Sita and Lakshman who were still in the hermit, heard the excruciating voice in which their name were being called. Sita immediately became anxious, perturbed and thought that Lord must have been fallen in a great danger and hence He is calling for help. She was in tears and asked Lakshman to leave immediately and go for help to his elder brother.

Lakshman was unusually very calm 🙂 and told her to not worry as no one in this three worlds can inflict any pain and danger to Sri Ram. In front of His strength even the demigods would not withstand, what to speak of the species of this planet. But Sita was unmoved by the argument and was constantly thinking that Her husband must be in great danger. She was constantly making request to Lakshman to go for the search of Ram. Lakshman was constantly reminding Her that Lord has told him to not to leave Sita alone, as this can be a trap.

At last Sita became furious and enraged on the arguments of  Lakshman and chastised and labeled atrocious allegations. She rebuked Lakshman “Even after my constant request to go for the help of your elder Brother, who seems to be severe in danger, you are in constant mode of denial. Now I got to know the real purpose why you came with us all along the forest leaving a Royal life. You had an attachment towards me and you must have thought that in forest when Lord Ram will not be there with me, you could enjoy me. Now that time has come. Even you are listening the desperate call of your brother for help, but you are so fallen that you are not willing to leave me!!!You are attracted by my beauty and have lost all your morality ”

I will stop the narration here. Everybody knows the story (at least Indians) what happened after that.

I was just thinking how it would be like “Being Lakshman” in that situation? A devoted brother, who left a royal and luxurious life a prince of a Chakravarti Kingdom, was faced an allegation of moral misconduct and lose character from none other than the lady whom he consider as mother throughout his life. How much pain he would have gone through, when these charges were labeled against him.

I was just thinking that even when we commit mistakes or any offence against other of any kind, and when someone admonishes us we feel so much burdened disheartened. And there in Lakshman, innocent of any crime and an epitome of sacrifice, how he could have tolerated those harsh words.

Ram is real. Ramayan is not out dated. It has several stories and characters which is even more relevant these days, when society is grappling with so many gruesome, atrocious, despicable, heinous, monstrous and abhorrent events. You know what I mean, Don’t you?

If time permits read Ramayan. Listen the Stories of Ramanyan from bonafide source. Discuss it. Deliberate on it.  Things will happen, either good or bad. It’s up to us to be a participant, in either good or bad.

Thank You!

Qualities of Lord

Namaste to readers and fellow bloggers,

Today I chose to write something different than my usual content. Let me know, if you enjoyed reading.

There is hardly any doubt that whenever anyone in India would be asked to recite some verse from Bhagavad Gita, majority of them would land up in mentioning below two verses

yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham

 paritranaya sadhunam
vinasaya ca duskrtam
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
sambhavami yuge yuge

I am not sure that how many of them will know the real meaning of these verses. For that matter, even I was oblivious of the meanings till few years back. But somehow got to know  and on this auspicious day of Ramnavami, when Lord Ramchandra manifested himself in this world, I thought of writing about it.

In these two slokas (verses) Lord mentions the reason why he appears in this material creation. The reasons why He came can be concluded from the verse as..

Lord comes,

1. Whenever there is decline in religiousness and irreligion rises
2. To deliver those who are pious and
3. To annihilate the miscreants

So in Hinduism, we are aware that Lord had ten incarnations called as Dashavatar. If we would study a bit it about these incarnations, then we will surely find that every time when he came,  above three criterion were satisfied.

Lord Ramchandra came in Treta Yuga, and whatever happened after that, is an epic and known to all Indians (not only Hindus), at least the overall story. So I am not going to tell you about the story of Ramayan. My purpose of this writing is to remember the qualities that Lord had displayed during his stay on this planet. He was an ideal as He was Lord himself. So we cannot imitate or emulate him, but by knowing his qualities, surely we can try to follow his footstep. So today is Ramnaumi and taking the cue from the Ninth day of the Chaitra Month, I tried to write nine out of innumerable qualities of Lord in short. However I am not competent to describe the glory of him, yet I gave it a try.

Credit: ISKCON

1. A Perfect Son: Nowhere in the world you wouldcome across a story where a son in his youthful stage left all his lavishness and luxuries of kingdom and spent 14 years in exile, faced innumerable hardship as Ram did and that too just for the sake of keeping his father’s word. Even though he knew his stepmother is the culprit for all his adversity, yet no where we come across an incident where he has raised a voice of disrespect against her.

2. A Perfect Brother: When Lord Ram got to know that her stepmother wanted to coronate his son Bharat as Crown prince of Ayodhya, even though Lord had exclusive right over throne. Yet, he readily agreed to the proposal and left for the forest as if he was relinquishing a blade of grass. The same love was from the other side too. All three younger brothers were so attached to Ram that they were even ready to accept death but not the separation from him. Till today the brother’s relationship between Ram and Bharat is revered in India.

3. A Perfect Student: Ram had formal education in ashram of Vashishta and Vishwamitra. Both the teachers taught the intricacies of diplomacy, weaponry, politics etc. Lord Ram excelled in all the discipline and was revered by them as well.

4. A perfect Husband: Lord Ram is known as Maryada Purushottam, a supreme in Virtue. When polygamy was prevalent in that era especially among the Kings and Kshatriya (warrior class), he vowed and later observed that he will have only one wife in his life. When Mother Sita was taken away to Lanka by Ravana, Ram was so tormented and agonized that he saw her in trees, in stones, in rivers etc. As her presence was unknown, he was helpless and asked about her from birds and the animals of Dandakaranya. Later when he got to know that Ravan has kidnapped her, with meager of resources and army of Monkeys and Bears he attacked mighty Ravan(from whom even Indra, king of Demigods, was affraid) and defeated him in war and brought back Maa Sita home

5. A perfect Friend: His friendship was conspicuous when he assisted Sugriva, who was on the weaker side and made him the King of Kiskindha. The story of his friendship with the King of Nishad is well known and highly revered.

6. A perfect Enemy: As we know that he was a perfect friend, at the same time he was a perfect enemy of the devils and miscreants since the childhood. As stated earlier one of the reasons that he came to the earth was to destroy the evil force. So he killed many demons who used to trouble the Sadhus or the Saints . Some of them were so powerful that they had even defeated Demigods. Ram killed many demons during his stay.

7. A perfect warrior: Ram was a perfect Kshatriya and a valiant warrior. On one hand Ravan had well equipped with all the mysterious weaponry, yet Lord defeated him with handful of army which manly comprised of Monkeys and Bears.

8. A Perfect Master: There is a very interesting past time of Lord Ram, when he eat the berry given by Sabari, a lower caste women in her old age, who herself has tasted them before giving to Lord. In Indian context, it is an offence to give something to the master after first consuming or defiling it. But she was so engrossed in the love of lord that she did not wanted to give a sour berry to Him. And Lord was so generous that he accepted and consumed all the berries.

9. A perfect King: In Ramayan we come across an ideal world, where a king used to go in disguise to see the wellbeing of his countrymen. It is said that in his state no person was in distress. His reign was so celebrated that till today politicians cutting across the party lines claims before the election that they will bring Ramrajya, yet they had no intention to follow the footsteps of him.

Although, my words will not do justice to the describe the qualities of Lord, yet I am hoping that you have enjoyed it.

Thank you for reading.