Bits of life

J-3 Words-1600

none less. After listening to the assuring words of Vasistha, the king agreed to send Rama with the brahmarshi, Viswamitra.

Lakshmana, the third of the four brothers was devoted to Rama. He never left the side of his eldest brother. When Rama was getting ready to leave with the sage of the forest, Lakshmana too got ready to accompany him. Viswamitra was pleased with his success in taking Rama and Lakshmana with him to the forest to fulfill a holy mission.
All the three reached the forest and the rest of the sages were happy to receive the princes.

Let us take a diversion and talk about the epic features of Ramayana.

An epic should have a sublime theme. The story of Ramayana was written with the theme of the fight between the forces of good and evil. Its theme is about righteousness and faith, of love and respect, of truth and duty, forgiveness and fortitude. Characters are representations of qualities. At the same time they do not assume the forms of being archetypal. The proof is that however many number of times you read the Ramayana it sounds new and interesting. That is why an epic becomes symbolic of a particular culture and civilization. It lives forever.

According to the ancient Indian tradition as it happened with the other epics of the world such as Homer’s Iliad, an epic is written in classical style which is also described as “sublime style” that is poetry with strict adherence to meter and rhythm. Language of the Ramayana is poetic and has a set meter and rhythm. Valmiki followed the classical tradition by intuition. No one taught him the basics of language which at that time was Sanskrit, or ornamentation of style. Everything was granted to him by the divine blessings of Brahma.

As far as language is concerned, the Ramayana is full of epic similes, figures of speech and long descriptive passages. It contains long philosophical discussions and debates among various characters at different stages of the story.

Invocation is an important part of an epic. Like Milton’s Paradise Lost Book 1, where the author seeks the blessings of God to proceed with his epic writing mission and to justify the ways God to man, the Ramayana begins with Valmiki’s prayer to the goddess of education, Saraswati, and to Vinayaka, the God who stops obstructions to writing and also grants the boon of writing spontaneously and fluently. Valmiki expresses his desire to describe the behavior of Rama, so he becomes an ideal for the human kind for generations to come. Accordingly, it is approved that Rama is a universally acknowledged character of great qualities, the most important being patience and tolerance besides, forgiveness, love, sympathy and pure friendship.

The next important quality of an epic is heroic central character. Rama or Ramachandra happens to be a prince and a king in later stages. He was the divine incarnation of Lord Vishnu of the trio of Hindu Gods, the other two entities being Brahma and Shiva. Rama’s character is drawn on the lines of a hero. A hero is the leader of a society. He sets the standards of behavior to the people of his land. Rama’s reputation besides his valiance and the superior or the best physical features also depends on his principle of having one wife. He married Sita, the daughter of Janaka, the king of Mithila, and remained faithful to her despite the fact that those days a king was allowed to practice polygamy. Similarly, Rama, when he promised something to somebody always adhered to it and never broke promises. His reputation also rested on his craft of archery. When he aimed at enemy, he killed him with one arrow. Such was his skill at this particular martial art.

An epic is supposed to have the interference of Gods in the lives of mortals. Men and deities mixed freely. Usually, deities have their favorites among people of the world. Thus the margins between the physical and the metaphysical seemed to have dissolved in the Ramayana just like the epics of Homer such as Odyssey and the Iliad. Gods influenced the lives of men and were free with curses and blessings. It shows the flight of imagination on the part of the author. This is one of the reasons why they say, a classic is forever. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata, the pundits affirm will live forever. They will rule the hearts of men for as long as the moon, the sun and stars shine in the universe.

Another feature that stands out in an epic is the subject of war. War was almost the beginning and end of the Ramayana. It begins with Dasaratha’s conquests of different parts of the world and ends with the completion of war between the forces of Rama and those of the demon king Ravana. War was shown at different stages of the epic between various characters. War thus, occupies a vital place in the book.

Let us turn back to Viswamitra’s mission to take Rama and his brother Lakshmana to the forest. The brothers were in their years of adolescence. On the completion of their task and later their travel Mithila for Rama to marry Sita, and Lakshmana her cousin Urmila, they become adults.

But before such interesting things take place they went through some fearsome and valiant experiences.
The first thing that sage Viswamitra did as he crossed the city limits of Ayodhya and entered the thick forest of Dandakaranya with the duo of princes, was to find a peaceful place in a clearing. Then he directed the prince brothers to have a bath in the river nearby and after they did as he told them, he proceeded to teach them two very important skills called Bala and Atibala. By virtue of these two skills, Rama and Lakshmana could overcome hunger and sleep. As there were called upon to give up food and sleep in their mission to kill the demons and guard the sacrificial fire and offerings by the hermits of the forest, wise Viswamitra could foresee and visualize the importance of teaching them Bala and Atibala. The princes were happy and grateful to have been taught by the holy man some new skills of great value.

After that they walked on to their destination that was the hermitage of Viswamitra. As they were talking and walking they came upon a hermitage where Lord Shiva killed Kama the entity that represented desire. The sage thought it was important for the princes to know about the evil power of desire and that they should be ready to shun it when temptations beckoned them. The princes were happy to visit this very important spot in the forest.

Their next experience in the forest was even more awe inspiring. As Rama was crossing a path, his foot accidentally touched a stone. And lo, the stone turned out into a beautiful woman. She knelt before Rama and said,
“Oh worthy Rama, I have been waiting here for your holy touch for a number of years. Finally, due to my good fortune you came by and allowed me my former appearance and life. Thank you for your kindness.” So saying the woman disappeared with a smile on her face.

Rama was a little confused as to how this came to be. Sage Viswamitra explained the background of the woman who was in the form of a stone for many years.

“Rama! Let me tell you both why and how this stone came to be here and why she turned into her former self by the touch of your foot. In her former life she was the wife of the most venerated of the rishis named, Gouthama. He did many yagas and attained rare yogic powers. He had the ability to call on gods any time he wished. His wife was Ahalya, a very chaste lady. To her bad luck it so happened that the head of the devas, named Indra, desired her. He wanted to spend a night with her. With evil thoughts a mind hatches evil plans. So did Indra. Every dawn, with the cock’s crow, Gouthama had the habit of going to the river bank and after his holy bath, he offered prayers to the Sun, the superior keeper of the health and wealth of the creatures in the universe. Ahalya used to be asleep and after a while she got up and prepared the preceding formalities so her husband could come and lit up the holy fire and proceed with his worship and sacrifices.

On this particular night Indra came to the hermitage of Gouthama and crowed. Gouthama thought it was time for him to go to the riverbank for his bath. So he got ready and went away in darkness to the river. In the meanwhile, Indra came in disguised as Gouthama and went to bed with Ahalya, thus satisfying his carnal desire. By her spiritual powers she realized it was Indra the superior among gods who sought her favor. She couldn’t deny his wish because she felt proud of her charms and was flattered that a superior deity like Indra sought her attentions. Gouthama, who went to the river bank finished with his bath and prayers and hurried back to the hermitage. He caught Indra red handed and was naturally angry for the sin he committed. He cursed him on the spot to acquire a thousand vulvae all over his body for seeking to fulfill his carnal desire and cursed him further to remain a eunuch for all times to come.