Bits of life

J-4 Words-1600

Then he turned to Ahalya and cursed her to remain in the form of a stone till Vishnu himself decided to redeem her. So that moment had arrived for Ahalya when Rama, an avatar of Vishnu came and touched her stone form and thus let her regain her former self and beauty.

Viswamitra was as much surprised as Lakshmana was at Rama’s superior power. Then they restarted their journey into the bowels of the forest. Suddenly on the way, they heard a thunder like sound.
Rama asked Viswamitra,
“Sir, what is that loud sound?”
“Dear Rama, I will tell you the reason for that sound in a moment. One of your ancestors named Bhagiratha was asked to bring river Ganga to earth. Long years ago Ganga was not an earthly river. She was born of Brahma and stayed in heaven only. When Bhagiratha became the king, he found it was not possible to rule the land. Peace and prosperity were lost. So he was advised by his priest to bring the river Ganga to our earth. You see, river Ganga was formerly a heavenly river.

Bhagiratha was the king of a land called Kosala. He belonged to the Sagar dynasty. He had sixty thousand great uncles. His father died while he was an infant. His mother brought him up and when he was old enough she told him of the story of his sixty thousand great uncles. They committed the sin of disturbing saint Kapila’s yoga and therefore were cursed by him and relegated to the underworld. Saint Kapila however, granted that the only solution to get their spirits released after their physical bodies perished was to wash their sinful remains with the waters of the holy Ganga known as Ganges to modern world. Ganga alone had the powerful and positive effect of purging the sins of mankind. When Bhagiratha came of age he ascended the throne of Kosala. His ancestors, though they knew that their uncles were cursed to the underworld and died there, did not find time to spend in pursuit of bringing the Ganga to the earth and then to the underworld to perform their funeral rites. For generations the mission of bringing the Ganga from heaven to earth was left unfulfilled. With the result the sins of the sixty thousand great uncles multiplied started having disastrous effect on the kingdom. Natural disasters started to take place. There was no peace or prosperity. So with no other alternative, Bhagiratha entrusted his kingdom in the hands of his ministers and left for the Himalayas to do penance. He spent a thousand years in penance at the end of which Brahma appeared to him and asked him to express his wish. Bhagiratha asked him to make Ganga flow to the underworld so he could perform the last rites of his great uncles and release their spirits from the nether world.

Lord Brahma advised Bhagiratha to propitiate Lord Shiva for Shiva alone had the power to control the wild and untamed Ganga. If she flowed down to earth without controlling the power of the current of her waters, then the Earth would be erased. So it was necessary for someone to control her wild and impulsive nature. Shiva alone was capable of this act. Bhagiratha appealed to Shiva and Shiva caught her in his knotted hair and held her captive till she relented to his command of flowing with tranquility.

The place where Ganga descended from heaven to meet with other rivers is close by. That sound you heard is the sound of the descending Ganga.”
This was the head Ganga. And then it flowed to meet other rivers like Alakananda and it continued to flow through different states of the Indian subcontinent.
Coming back to the main story, we now travel with Rama and Lakshmana and Viswamitra to go the very center of the Dandakaranya. As they proceeded in the journey they suddenly heard a loud cry followed by demented kind of laughter. All the sky was occupied and reverberated with the laughter and cries of a mysterious creature. The three humans looked up and searched the skies. Sudden darkness enveloped the world and there was thunder and lightning. It started to shower and the shower was of blood and other unholy things like the dead bodies and skeletons of birds and animals, the remnants of some wild animals. Viswamitra guarded the princes from this unholy shower. After a while everything calmed down. The trio resumed their journey through the forest which now started to become thicker and thicker. A little later, the unbearably loud cries of a demoness started tearing the skies apart.
Then Rama asked Viswamitra the cause for all these uncommon events. Viswamitra replied thus.
“O prince! That was the work of Thataka, the yaksha woman turned rakshasi or demoness. She was born to a yaksha king named Suketu. He did penance to have daughter and was granted a strong and beautiful daughter named Thataka. She was then married to Sunda by whom she had two sons named Maricha and Subahu. It so happened that Suketu was killed by rishi Agastya. Thataka was enraged and wanted to wreak revenge on him. She launched a war against the rishi with her son Subaru whereupon rishi Agastya got angry and cursed them to become demons and live on flesh. Thataka lost her beautiful body and became a terrifying demoness and started harassing the rishis in the forest.
Rama and Lakshmana entered that part of the forest known as Thataka’s forest. Sage Viswamitra ordered Rama to kill the demoness and free the inhabitants of the area from her acts of terror. Rama hesitated and said,

“O holy sir, I cannot a kill her because it doesn’t behoove a king to kill a woman.”
Viswamitra replied,
“O Prince, do not hesitate to kill her. She is not an ordinary woman. But a demoness with the intentions to kill as many people as she could lay her hands on.”
Encouraged thus by the holy man, Rama first maimed her but she went on harassing them with her demonic power. Now he thought time had come to kill her. He aimed one arrow at her and left her lifeless. His arrow sliced her heart and she lay dead in her ugly demonic form. Soon her spirit came out and bowed to Rama expressing her gratitude for releasing her from Agastya’s curse.

The rishi community of the forest was happy that from thenceforward they ceased to have the threat of Thataka. But they were wrong. Next day onwards when the yagna was in progress the rakshasa Subahu started wreaking vendetta on the rishis. He started to rain blood and flesh of the dead animals on the holy fire lit by the rishis to perform the worship of elements. Rama and Lakshmana now took up their guard and chased away Subahu from committing mischief. But he was not quick to learn the lesson. He continued to pester the sages with black magic and other acts of evil. With no alternative in view, Rama had to kill him with another of his powerful arrows that saw the end of Subahu the son of Thataka. Maricha, the other son of Thataka ran away to save himself from death.

Once the yagna and worshiping formalities were over, Viswamitra took Rama and Lakshmana and started on a different journey. They reached a land named Videha whose king was Janaka. Its capital was Mithila. The most interesting thing about Janaka was that Lord Shiva of the Hindu triumvirate had gifted him with his bow. The bow was so heavy that none could lift it.

Janaka was also famous because of his knowledge of Vedas and religious doctrines. He had a daughter named Sita. She was also called Janaki because she was the daughter of Janaka. The story was that Sita was not Janaka’s daughter by birth. When he was performing the Bhoomi puja and ploughing the earth, he found a baby girl secured in a box. Janaka was thrilled at the little gift he thought he received from the gods. He did not have children till then. He brought the baby home and brought her up in the most exclusive way. He named her Sita which in Sanskrit means “furrow.” She grew up to be the most beautiful girl and had all the virtues of a woman. When she came of age, her father Janaka started planning how to and whom to get her married. He decided to hold her “swayamvara” (a ceremony where the girl could choose her husband from the assembled princes). The king announced that whoever could lift and string Shiva’s bow which was in his possession would be qualified to marry Sita.

The day of the swayamvara coincided with Viswamitra’s arrival to the city of Mithila with Ram and Lakshmana. When the sage heard of Sita swayamvara, he decided to enter Rama as a candidate. Rama lifted the immensely heavy bow and broke it with ease and was examining the strings as well to string the bow. The whole audiences were awestruck at the strength and stamina of the young prince of Ayodhya. After Rama broke the bow, Janaka asked his beloved daughter Sita to garland the handsome prince. Sita took one look at Rama blushed when their eyes met. She took the garland from the maid in waiting and put it around Rama’s neck thus signifying her consent to marry him. Then Janaka proposed marriage of Sita with Rama. Sage Viswamitra sent word to the king of Ayodhya describing the chain of events that