Ramayana – Vishwamitra asks for Rama’s help

Although Rama wanted to show the universe that he was only human, there were a lot of places where the God in him erupted out like a volcano. When we read the Ramayana, we can find a lot of instances in which Rama’s Godliness is displayed by him intentionally or unintentionally, or by people around him.

Vishwamitra comes to Dasaratha’s court asking to take Rama and Lakshmana to guard his Yagna. The king is not ready to send his sons. They are after all 12 years old. But then he also realizes that he cannot give a direct “no” as an answer to the great sage. So he indirectly states that he is not ready to send Rama (and Lakshmana). The dialogue that happened between the king and the sage is as follows.

“My Rama is not even 16 years old! He is lotus eyed. How can I send him with you?” asks the king.

The sage is not ready to take “no” as an answer though. He says

“I know who Rama is. He is the Mahatma (who is on top of all the Jivatmas) and so full of Valor and Satya Parakrama. You can even ask sage Vasishta, your guru. He will agree with me on this”

What Dasaratha said, is loaded with hidden meanings and that is why the sage had to emphasize on the fact that Rama was indeed God.

When the king talked about Rama’s age, he made it clear to Vishwamitra that Rama was not ready to fight as dharma stated that a person had to be at least 16 years old to engage in a fight. When he said that Rama was lotus eyed, he indirectly meant that Rama was still a kid and was like a gentle lotus which would close all its petals once the sun set in the evening and would wait for the sun to rise before opening its petals again. This can be seen as an important reason because the sage was asking for Rama’s help to kill Rakshasas and Asuras who fight through the night. So the king meant that Rama was not ready for such a fight spanning across nights as he was still a gentle boy not accustomed to being awake through the night.

To counter this argument, Vishwamitra had to admit to Dasaratha, something that he always knew- that Rama was the Supreme Lord himself and in one of his incarnations and also asked for Vasishta’s help to re-inforce this fact with the king. Vasishta and Vishwamitra were always found on the opposite sides of an argument and never saw things similarly. But Vishwamitra was confident that in this context Vasishta realized the same thing and hence would agree with him. Vasishta agreed with him and nudged the king to send Rama and Lakshmana with Vishwamitra.

Someone as august as Vishwamitra and Vasishta knowing that Rama was God clearly tilts the balance in favor of Rama being more God than human. Let us see other such instances in the future posts.

Ramayana – Rama fights Khara

Rama sends Sita and Lakshmana from the battle ground and gets ready to fight the 14000 strong army of the asuras alone. Khara comes to the place in the ground on his chariot where Rama is standing casually, with his bow swaying back and forth. Khara is encircled by his deputies who are giving out loud battle cries. They are all charging towards Rama with their maces, tridents and various other deadly weapons.

The devas and other celestial beings are watching this scene from their abodes high up. Although they know Rama has an uphill task in the fight, they are not ready to help him yet and he is not expecting any, anyway. He uses his bow and the quiver of arrows to injure and kill all the asuras including Khara, but leaves one asura named akampana to live. (Rama makes it a habit to let one asura live!)

For the first time, Rama shows how skillfully ambidextrous he is. The speed with which he selects his arrows, strings them and releases them with the highest precision clearly shows that he is no human. It is crystal clear to everyone around him seeing this episode in Ramayan that it is no mean feat to kill 14000 asuras single-handedly and suggests that Rama is divine.

Let us come to the question that we asked in the previous post. Why was Rama happy to get into this fight when Lakshmana could have easily killed all the asuras? He could have easily asked his brother to finish the battle while he was taking rest which Lakshmana would have finished with equal skill and dexterity.

The humanely husband in him took control and came to the forefront when he assessed the situation. He thought that this was a chance to prove his bravery and valor to his beloved wife although he knew that Sita uttered those angry words just to make him agree to her proposal. Still, he grabbed it with both hands like any other normal husband would have. He displayed his divine fighting skills and the “always waiting to please his wife” husband emotions at the same time.

There were a couple of occasions where Rama showed that he was God and not human at all…