bAla kANDam, sarga 1
Individual verses with meanings
Listen to the audio of recitation of this sarga
Hari: Om. Let us begin by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
तपस्स्वाध्यायनिरतं तपस्वी वाग्विदां वरम् ।
नारदं परिपप्रच्छ वाल्मीकिर्मुनिपुङ्गवम् ।।1.1.1।।
The first sarga of bAla kAnDam, the part that deals with birth and childhood of SrIrAma, is essentially the executive summary of the entire SrI rAmAyaNam. It is presented beautifully in the form of a dialogue between sage vAlmIki and the divine sage nArada. The sage vAlmIki who is ever absorbed in penance and the study of the vEdAs (i.e. tapas and swAdhyAya), inquired with the divine sage nArada enlisting sixteen qualities of a wonderful being!
“Who in this world now bears the following qualities?
- guNavAn – endowed with excellent qualities
- vIryavAn – one with prowess
- dharmajna – one with knowledge of dharma, righteous conduct
- krtanjna – grateful
- satyavAkya – ever speaking truth
- drDhavrata – firm in his vows
- Endowed with an excellent caritra or character
- Benefactor of all beings
- vidvAn – scholar
- samartha – capable
- Eka priyadarSana – One whose sight fills all with joy (i.e. very handsome)
- AtmavAn – self restrained
- jitakrOdhaha – one who has conquered anger
- dyutimAn – effulgent
- anasUyakaha – one without jealousy and
- In war whose wrath, even the Gods fear!
O great sage nArada, you alone are competent to answer – whom you would place in such a position? I am desirous and indeed very curious to know about such a person.
कोन्वस्मिन्साम्प्रतं लोके गुणवान्कश्च वीर्यवान् ।
धर्मज्ञश्च कृतज्ञश्च सत्यवाक्यो दृढव्रत:।।1.1.2।।
चारित्रेण च को युक्तस्सर्वभूतेषु को हित: ।
विद्वान्क: कस्समर्थश्च कश्चैकप्रियदर्शन: ।।1.1.3।।
आत्मवान्को जितक्रोधो द्युतिमान्कोऽनसूयक: ।
कस्य बिभ्यति देवाश्च जातरोषस्य संयुगे ।।1.1.4।।
एतदिच्छाम्यहं श्रोतुं परं कौतूहलं हि मे ।
महर्षे त्वं समर्थोऽसि ज्ञातुमेवंविधं नरम् ।।1.1.5।।
श्रुत्वा चैतत्ित्रलोकज्ञो वाल्मीकेर्नारदो वच: ।
श्रूयतामिति चामन्त्त्र्य प्रहृष्टो वाक्यमब्रवीत् ।।1.1.6।।
The all knowing sage nArada was delighted at this question and said, “Indeed, it is very difficult to find all the qualities you described in men, but I know of one, please listen carefully. Born in the ikshvAku lineage, there exists One known as rAma. He is steady in nature, one of great prowess, effulgent and has both people and his senses under his control.
He is intelligent, adheres to righteous conduct, is articulative, auspicious and a tormentor of enemies. He has broad shoulders and chest, is strong and long armed, the wielder of the mighty bow; has a broad forehead and a head with noble qualities; is valiant and a conqueror of the foe. He has a well-proportioned and lustrous body shining in complexion and is full of auspiciousness. He is righteous, truthful and is always concerned about the welfare of people. rAma is renowned, wise, pure, obedient and equanimous. He is like lord brahmA and is a sustainer of the worlds, protecting his subjects as well as the moral code in the society. He is endowed with an excellent memory and is well versed in the vEdas, scriptures as well as the science of archery. He is talented, dear to all, unperturbed, courteous and blessed with discrimination (of good and bad). Just the way a sea is accessible to the rivers, he is accessible to all who are virtuous. He has a delightful countenance and is equally disposed to all.
SrIrAma, the enhancer of the joy of kausalyA is the embodiment of all virtues. His thoughts are deep as the ocean, his fortitude is great as the himAlayas. His valour is equal to that of vishNu, while he is as pleasing to the eyes as the moon. His wrath or anger is like the annihilating fire at the end of the creation, while his patience is like that of the earth! In charity he is equivalent to kubEra while in conduct he is verily the God of dharma and there is none to rival him. daSaratha desired that his son rAma, the eldest and the best, the repository of all virtues, the mighty and just, the one ever engaged in the welfare of his subjects be crowned as the prince, the heir apparent to the throne of ayOdhya.
daSaratha’s wife kaikEyi reminded him of the boons he conferred on her earlier and demanded that rAma be sent on exile and her son bharatha be crowned as the prince. daSaratha, being truthful to his word and bound to dharma, had to send his beloved son rAma to the forest. The mighty SrIrAma in order to gratify kaikEyi and ensure daSaratha’s vow is observed, went to the forest. Displaying the ultimate bond of brotherhood, the humble, affectionate and loving lakshmaNa, son of sumitrA, also followed SrIrAma to the forest. sItA, the daughter of janaka and beloved wife of rAma, his very life breath, crest jewel among women, the one endowed with all virtues, followed SrIrAma to the forest, just as rOhiNI follows chandra.
daSaratha’s minister sumantra accompanied sItA, rAma and lakshmaNa till the banks of gangA to the city SrngibErapuram in his chariot even as daSaratha and several citizens tried to follow them. rAma sent back sumantra to ayOdhya from SrngibErapuram and crossed river ganga with the help of the king of nishAda tribe, guha.
They moved from forest to forest, crossing rivers replete with waters and finally reached the picturesque chitrakUTa obeying the command of sage bharadwAja. They raised a hut in that scenic place and lived happily like the Gods! Meanwhile, daSaratha passed away, unable to bear the sorrow of separation from his dearest son. vasisTha and other brAhmins insisted that bharatha should rule ayOdhya, but he declined. The great bharata set out to the forest in search of the lotus feet of his beloved brother SrIrAma. Having reached SrIrAma in the chitrakUTa, bharatha fell at His feet, worshipped him and beseeched, “O the knower of dharma, you alone are the king of ayOdhya”. The delightful, generous, highly renowned and capable rAma politely refused to return to ayOdhya and persuaded bharata to return and rule the kingdom. Disappointed at rAma’s refusal to come back, bharata carried rAma’s sandals with him and ruled ayOdhya as his representative from the village of nandigrAma.
After bharata left for nandigrAma, rAma sensed that the people of ayOdhya may routinely visit chitrakUTa and attempt to persuade him to return. Therefore, he moved into the dense forests of danDaka, determined to fulfil his vow without any obstructions. Having entered the danDakAraNya, rAma slew the demon named virAdha. Thereafter, he visited the Ashrams of various sages starting with Sarabhanga, sutikshNa, agastya and his brother. While at agastya’s AShram rAma received with utter delight from him a bow, a quiver with an inexhaustible supply of arrows and a sword, which were given to the sage by indra, ordained to be passed on to him. While rAma, sItA and lakshmaNa stayed in the forest along with other inhabitants, the sages who had their AShrams there met him and requested to relieve them of the suffering at the hands of the demons. rAma assured them that he would vanquish the demons.
As time passed in the danDakAraNya, one day, an ogress from janasthAna, sUrpNakhA by name, descended on the hermitage of rAma, sItA and lakshmaNa. lakshmaNa deformed her by cutting off her nose and ears when she tried to grab sItA. Enraged, sUrpaNakhA went and instigated the demons by name khara, triSira and dUshaNa. They sent their infantry of fourteen thousand demons whom rAma vanquished single-handedly, following up with khara, dUshana and triSira as well.
Learning about the annihilation of his relatives who created havoc in the janasthAna, the enraged demon, rAvaNa, hurried to the demon mAricha to seek his help in extracting revenge on rAma. mAricha tried his best to dissuade rAvaNa from embarking on this foolish misadventure, but rAvaNa didn’t pay heed to his words, because his time was up!
With the help of deceitful mAricha, rAvaNa ensured that rAma and lakshmaNa went far from their hermitage chasing the demon mAricha, and abducted sItA when she was alone. The king of eagles, jaTayu, tried his best to rescue sItA and valiantly fought with rAvaNa, but ultimately was killed. sItA, who was bewailing at being abducted, felt further distressed at the killing of jaTayu. rAma was grief-stricken on not finding sItA in the hermitage, and went searching for her along with lakshmaNa. On the way they saw the fatally injured jaTayu who gave up his life in the lap of rAma. Tearfully, rAma performed the funeral rites of jaTayu and they went southward and encountered a demon by the name of kabandha. They cut off kabandha’s long hands and cremated him as per his request. He ascended to heaven gratefully, and while thanking the brothers, he asked them go further south, where an old ascetic by name Sabari would be waiting for rAma.
As per kabandha’s advice, rAma and lakshmaNa proceeded south and met Sabari who worshipped rAma with all her heart. On the banks of the river pampa, they met hanUmAn and as per his words made friendship with sugrIva, the chief of monkeys. The redoubtable rAma met sugrIva and recounted the events leading to their meeting and more importantly, the abduction of sItA. sugrIva heard the story with empathy and vowed friendship with rAma in the presence of the fire as a witness. Out of his deep sorrow, sugrIva then recounted his hostility with vAli to rAma and described his brother’s prowess. rAma vowed to eliminate vAli but sugrIva was unaware of rAma’s prowess and doubted if he could kill vAli. He showed rAma the skeleton of the demon, dundubhi, whom vAli had slain. rAma, the mighty and powerful, looked at the skeleton and kicked it off with his toe such that it fell about ten yOjanas afar – that translates to about eighty miles! Further, to convince sugrIva, rAma shot an arrow which pierced through seven sAla trees, chopped off the top of a mountain, went to the netherworlds and came back to his quiver in a trice. Thrilled and convinced of rAma’s prowess, sugrIva went to kishkindha along with rAma and challenged vAli for a combat.
vAli came to fight sugrIva ignoring his wife tAra’s dissuasions. rAma vanquished vAli with a single arrow and installed sugrIva as the king of kishkindha. sugrIva gathered all his monkey forces and dispatched them in all four directions in search of sItA. hanumAn and the team proceeded southwards.
The mighty hanumAn, with the help of the eagle sampAti’s directions, crossed the hundred-yOjana-wide ocean and arrived in the city of lankA. In that city, he found sItA in the aSOka vanam meditating on SrIrAma. Passing on the token of recognition from rAma to sItA, hanumAn then started destroying the aSOka vanam. rAvaNa was enraged and dispatched his forces to kill hanumAn. The heroic hanumAn eliminated five commanders, seven sons of the enemy ministers and rAvaNa’s son, aksha kumara. Then, he let himself be captured, despite being immune to the effects of the weapons by virtue of the boon he received from lord brahmA. The demons captured him and tied him up with ropes. He restrained himself and remained bound while going around the lanka, taking a good look at the city, in order to plan the siege. The demons lit his tail and then, he freed himself from restraint and burnt down the whole city with that fire. hanumAn then went back to sItA and apprised her of the happenings, assured her of returning in a short time with rAma, lakshmaNa and the whole vAnara army to vanquish lanka. He then flew back to rAma quickly and circumambulating him, he informed rAma that he could locate sIta.
Then, rAma and lakshmaNa, along with the army of sugrIva, started for lankA. As they wondered how to cross the ocean, rAma was enraged and resolved to dry up the seas with his arrows, which were resplendent as the Sun! The lord of the rivers, samudra, was agitated and immediately showed up in his form. He said that a warrior, nala by name, was capable of building a bridge across the ocean (this is the rAm sEtu, the bridge which we still find between the Pamban island and Sri Lanka).
The army, along with rAma, crossed the ocean on that bridge and entered lankA. In the battle that ensued, rAma conquered rAvaNa and got sItA back. However, he was embarrassed and spoke to her harshly in the assembly. As he didn’t welcome her with great affection, unable to bear his words, sItA entered the fire. The god of fire himself emerged along with mother sItA and declared that she was chaste and sinless. rAma was extremely pleased at the words of agni and received sItA.
All the Gods assembled to watch this great reunion and worshipped rAma and sItA for ridding the world of evil. The entire world – consisting of both animate and inanimate objects – rejoiced at the accomplishment of rAma. He then crowned vibhIshaNa as the king of lankA. The gods conferred boons on rAma and with their help, he revived every monkey-warrior felled in battle! Then he, with his friends and well-wishers, boarded the pushpaka vimAna (an aerial car) and started for ayOdhya.
On the way rAma, the embodiment of truth, stopped by at the Ashram of sage bharadwAja. He sent hanumAn as a messenger to bharatha to notify him about his arrival. From the bharadwAja ASrama, rAma then went to nandigrAma where bharata lived for the past fourteen years. rAma reunited with his brothers at nandigrAma and having fulfilled the vow, the brothers shed their matted locks. rAma regained ayOdhya and was crowned as the King.
During rAma’s rule, the people were righteous and fearless, there was never a famine, virtuous people excelled and none suffered from diseases. No man saw the death of his children, women were not widowed and remained truthful and chaste. In his rule there was no fear of the elements (wind, fire, water), no fear of hunger, thieves or ill-health. All the cities – and the entire kingdom – was replete with food grains and wealth, and all lived happily, like they did in the krta yuga. The great emperor SrIrAma conducted hundreds of sacrifices called aSwamEdha yajnas and gave away innumerable cows and gold in charity to brahmins. He established numerous royal dynasties in the world and employed the four castes of people to excel in their own duties. He will rule the world for eleven thousand years and will return to the brahmalOka.” (This usage of the future tense here implies that this work was done during the lifetime of SrIrAma and we will see in upcoming chapters as to how SrIrAma himself approved of this writing of vAlmIki.)
The story of rAma is sanctifying, holy and is equal to the vEdas. Whoever chants this becomes free of all sins. Whoever reads and understands the true meaning of rAmayaNam receives worship in the heavens along with his children, grandchildren and other relations, after leaving the body.
By the devout chanting of this purifying story of rAma, the dwija or brAhmin becomes proficient in the eighteen branches of learning, the kshatriya attains the lordship of the land, the merchants attain the fruits of their merits and the SUdras also attain greatness.
Thus, the rAmAyaNam is an epic to be recited and imbibed by all, irrespective of their caste, creed or gender.”
Thus, the divine sage nArada answered the sound and inquisitive question that arose in the heart of sage vAlmIki about a person who is the embodiment of sixteen virtues. nArada also mentioned in brief, the entire life story of rAma – from his birth, to his conquests, right to the end, and filled vAlmIki with an indescribable joy which will find form in the upcoming chapters.
Here we conclude the first sarga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmIki rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
Next: bAla kANDam, sarga 2
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