Appearance Day of Lord Rama

Recitation of Srimad-Bhagavatam 9.11.20

0:00Oṁ namo bhagavate vāsudevāya. Omnamo Bhagavate vaya, Omna mo Bhagavate vas su Devaya Omna Bhagava Teva Sudey. Today we continue the ninth chapter, eleventh verse, of the Rāmāyaṇa.

0:41The text number twenty: na hidaṁ yaśa ragupateḥ. Na hidaṁ yaśa ragupateḥ. Surayācñayā. Adika-saṁyavimukta-dhāmnāḥ. Rakṣo-vadhaḥ. Jaladhi-bandhanam. Astrapuṅgaiḥ.

1:33Kiṁ tasya śatru-hanane kapayaḥ sahāyāḥ. Nidamja Sora Gupatek Surayacha yachnayatta, nedaṁ yaśo raghupateḥ suraya, ne dam ya shora gupa teh surachnayatta, sura yatnayatta, lila ta no radika samja vimuktadamna.

2:15Lila dana samja vimukta dhamma.

2:21Na rākṣasa-vadho Jaladjalabdi Jaladhibandanamastrapungai rākṣasa-vadho jaladhi-bandhana, rākṣasa-vadho ja- ladhi-bandhanam astra-puṅgaiḥ, rākṣasa-vadho jaladhi-bandhanam astra- puṅgaiḥ, kiṁ tasya śatru-hanane kapayaḥ sahaya, sassamim

3:01tasyasatruhana kapaya sahayaha, tuhana shahaya, Nedamya showragu pateh surachnayatta, soragupate suraya, lila ta no adhika-sāmya-vimukta-dhāmnaḥ. Adhika- sankavadama Raksovadho Jalabdi

3:35Bandana Mastra Pungai Raksova dhana Kim tasya sastruhanane kapaya saha, Kiṁ tasya śatru-hanane kapayaḥ sahāyāḥ?

4:00Not all this yaśa. Fame of Raghupati, Lord Rāmacandra. Lord Rāmacandra, sura-yācanayā, suraiḥ, By the prayers of the demigods. Atta-līlā-tanoḥ, body Is always engaged in various pastimes.

4:43No one is greater than or equal to Him. No one is greater than Him. Rakṣo-vadhaḥ. Rakṣo-vadhaḥ. Killing the Rākṣasas. Killing the Rākṣasas. Jaladhi-bandhanam, bridging the ocean.

5:03Astrapuṅgaiḥ, with bow and arrows. Kiṁ, whether. Tasya His Chatuhanane in killing the enemies, the monkeys, assistance, Translation and purport by His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

5:48Lord Ramachandra's reputation for having killed Ravana with showers of arrows arrows at the request of the demigods and for having built a bridge over the ocean does not constitute his factual glory of the supreme personality of Godhead, Lord Ramachandra, whose spiritual body is always engaged in various pastimes.

6:15Lord Ramachandra has no equal or superior, and therefore he had no need to take help from the monkeys to gain victory over Jagannatha Swami ki jaya. Sri Nityananda ki jaya.

Purport on the Lord's pastimes

6:39Purport. Stated in the Vedas, Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad: Na tasya kāryamṁ karaṇaṁ ca vidyate na tat-samaś cābhyadhikaś ca dṛśyate parasya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate svābhāvikī jñāna-bala-kriyā ca. Swabaviki Jana Balakrichana.

6:59The Supreme Lord has nothing to do, and no one is found to be equal or greater than Him. For everything is done naturally and systematically by His multifarious energies.

7:15The Lord has nothing to do with karaṇaṁ ca vidyate, whether he does, whatever he does in his pastimes is his pastime.

7:28The Lord has no duty to perform, to oblige anyone. Nonetheless, he appears to act to protect his devotees or kill his enemies. Of course, no one can be Lord's enemy, since who could be more powerful than the Lord?

7:48There is actually no question of anyone's being his enemy.

7:52But when the Lord wants to take pleasure in pastimes, he comes down to this material world and acts like a human being, thus showing his wonderful glorious activities to please the devotees.

8:07His devotees always want to see the Lord victorious in variety activities.

8:14And therefore, to please Himself and them, the Lord sometimes agrees to act as a human being and perform wonderful uncommon pastimes for the satisfaction of the devotees.

8:33Na idaṁ yaśo raghupateḥ sura-yācanātaḥ līlā-tanor adhika-sāmya-vimukta-dānaḥ rakṣo-vadho jaladhi-bandanam astra-puṅgaiḥ kim tasya śatru-haṇane kapayaḥ sahāyāḥ. Radhika Samyavimuktadanah Rakshova Dho Jaladhi Bandanam Astrapungahi Kim Tasya Satruhanane Kapayak Sahaya Lord Ramachandra's reputation for having killed Ravana with showers of arrows at the request of the demigods and for having built a bridge over the ocean does not constitute the factual glory of the Supreme Personality of Godhead Lord Ramachandra, whose spiritual body is always engaged in various pastimes.

9:17Lord Ramachandra has no equal or superior and therefore he had no need to take help from the monkeys to gain victory

9:28over Rāvaṇa, and Vishna Pashty Buddha Sri Mate Paktivanta Swami Namas must, gauva ne pracharne, nirvize, sunya vaicha mais, vancha Kapataru descha kripa sindu devacha padidanampavanebyovishnavyona, Sri Krishna Chaitanya Prabhunitananda Syadvaita Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare, Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rāma, Hare Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Hare Hare.

10:48with the wokanakavadakasankirthanah Vitarokamala Vishwam Bharod Vija Ravyuka Dhabama Vandehi Jagatriya karu karnava tavandavish Mamma Vachu Mamprasukam Sanji Vaya da ki washakti daraswadamanyam shahastacharana sravana bagari pranamu bhaga I

Factual glory of Lord Ramachandra

11:23said no, I took it. So this beautiful verse from the 11th chapter of the ninth cant of Srimad Bhagavatam is more or less a conclusion of uh Sri Shukadev Gaswami's narration.

11:57Very short and not very detailed narration of the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra. Shukadeva Gaswami was actually in a hurry. He was doubting whether the Taksaka will come before the end of Sriman Bhagavat.

12:24So many days already passed. And now he came to the subject matter of Ramayana, which itself could occupy seven days.

12:38So coming to this Subject matter and knowing that ahead of him is the main subject matter of his narration, Lord Krishna, and pastimes of Lord Krishna, he kind of hurriedly said to Maharaja Pariksha, oh you have heard Ramayana so many times. Again and again and again you heard the stories of Lord Ramachandra and Sītā Devī and Lakshmaṇa and Hanumān in your palace all different trees would come and they will again and again tell this to you.

13:25So there is no need for me to tell this again. And I repeat this, you have heard this past time so many times. Maybe not from the rishis but from Ramayana Sereal Which is not exactly the same, but still it's

13:52a little difficult to tell the story which everyone knows, and especially such a long story, and you have to tell the story again within a very short time. So, what I will do, I will stress upon the point

14:12which Śukadeva Gosvāmī makes in this particular verse, where he wants to impress upon us what is the real glory of Lord Rāmacandra? What really constitutes his glory?

14:32Because while reading the pastimes of Lord Rāmacandra or contemplating about past times of Lord Rāmacandra, we can read these narrations from different angles.

14:49And according to our angle of vision, we will see certain pastimes and definitely all these different angles of vision, they are legitimate.

15:03We can read Rāmāyaṇa by looking at Lord Rāmacandra as the Supreme Lord who is manifesting his glories and his might. We can read Rāmāyaṇa from different points of view.

15:23So here Śukadeva Gosvāmī gives us the hint, how we should read Rāmāyaṇa and how we should read Kṛṣṇa-līlā, which is being described in the 10th canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, how we should read the whole Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, what would be the most beneficial way of reading these narrations and contemplating about these narrations?

15:50He says, naidaṁ yaśaḥ śrī-niketaṁ bhagavaty amaṁsīty [amāṁseti]..., he said no, this is not the real glory, naidaṁ yaśaḥ of Rāghupati. That by being cast by the Suras, by the demigods that he rākṣasa-vadhaḥ he became the murderer or killer of rākṣasas. No, this is not his real glory.

16:22If you want to read Rāmāyaṇa from this point of view how Lord Rāmacandra is punishing the wicked Rāvaṇa who made the whole world cry, you can do it.

16:36But here Śukadeva Gosvāmī says, no, naidaṁ yaśaḥ, this is not his glory. This is not the proper angle from which we should try to understand or really understand the essence what Ramayana wants to tell us, what Lord Ramachandra wants to tell us when he comes here.

16:57He says, no, this is not his real glory.

17:01Jaladhi-bandhanam astra-pāṅgaiḥ, he said it's not his real glory that he arrested jaladhi- bandhanam, arrested the ocean and made the ocean surrender to him and made the whole bridge over the ocean.

17:22It's such a, you know, superhuman feat to create the bridge over ocean. Still the remains of this bridge is there and still there are floating uh floating uh rocks uh which uh constituted this ocean.

17:45And this is, this is amazing and you can again try to understand the glory of Lord Rāmacandra by this amazing achievement.

17:54But Śukadeva Gosvāmī saw no no no. Kim tasya śatru-hane kapi-sahāyaḥ, what to speak about you know some monkeys helping him to win over this war. Is it his real glory that he you know gathered the band

18:15of monkeys and these monkeys made some mischief in Lanka because they wanted to take some bananas from the garden. No, no, this is not his real glory. So what is his real glory?

18:30If you superficially read this verse, then you will read that his real glory Adiqa Samya Vimuktadamnach. That he is nobody is equal to him. And nobody is Adika, nobody is greater than him.

18:51Adika Sammya vi mukta dhamnah, his his dhamna, his power, his energy, his influence is so great that nobody is equal to him. This is his real glory? No. No, this is not his real glory.

19:08This is not what Sukhadev Gaswani wants to tell us in this verse. He says what is his real glory that despite that he is nobody is equal to him and nobody is greater to him. He what he does at talila tanoho.

19:30He accepts the body which is constituted of his Lila. He takes the body which is suitable to his lila. And in which manner he takes this body which is suitable to his lila? Atta.

19:46Atta means perfectly accepts, completely accepts, not just partially accepts, not like an actor on the stage.

19:57Actor on the stage, he kind of transforms into somebody else and he's acting and shows, but at the same time, he thinks what my wife is cooking for me for the dinner. No, it's not like Lord Rāmacandra.

20:11When Lord Rāmacandra accepted this body, he didn't accept it partially, he was completely immersed into this rasa of his pastime.

20:24And because of this immersion of Lord Rāmacandra into his pastimes, we still read about these pastimes and we become immersed into these pastimes as well.

20:37So Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in the purport that his real glory is that because of the compassion and love to his devotees, he accepts this body which is suitable to his past times and he conducts his glory activities to please himself and to please devotees. He is himself taking pleasure in this.

21:06Srila Prabhupada says this: to please himself and them, he sometimes agrees to act as a human being and performs wonderful and common pastimes for the satisfaction of his devotees. So that's the real angle of vision.

21:23When we read Rāmāyaṇa, we have to understand how Lord Rāmacandra himself is experiencing his pastimes, what he experiencing this.

21:36And by reading this or hearing these pastimes from this angle of vision, we will be able to experience the same emotions, the reflection of his emotions, his rasa come to us, and while experiencing the same emotions, we will be able to conquer over the bondage of karma.

21:59That's the only way to conquer over the bondage of karma, just by reading or hearing the pastimes of Lord Rāmacandra. Līlāyayātā vidanatī jayaty ajaśram.

22:13In Brahma-saṁhitā it is said that the Lord comes here to conquer over our hearts. Jayaty ajaśram.

22:25He conducts his pastimes in such a way that to conquer over our hearts back to him and when we contemplate on these past times, uh, when we remember about these past times, then the knots of our karma will become loosened, and ultimately we will become free from this bondage of karma.

22:56So that Śukadeva Gosvāmī will say this in a couple verses after that.

Overcoming envy by hearing sacred pastimes

23:02He will say very beautiful and very important verse. The verse number 23. Puruṣo rāma-caritaṁ śravaṇāhy upadhārayan, uh, Anṛ-śaṁsyaṁ paro rajan karma-bandhāt vimucyate.

23:22He says it's basically more or less the Pala Sruti of what we are supposed to gain and the way how we're supposed to gain this the result after reading or hearing Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

23:37Puruṣo rāma-caritaṁ: the somebody, puruṣa who reads this rāma-caritam, śravaṇaihi or hears, rather hears rāma-caritam upadhārayan, again and again and again, by hearing this, by this method, uh, anṛ-śaṁsyaṁ paro rajan, O king, he becomes anṛ-śaṁsya, he becomes non-envious, he become free from the disease of malice.

24:15We all have this envy, the deeply rooted disease that we are, you know, we are wishing bad to other people.

24:26Śrīila Prabhupāda commenting on this verse, he says that even in spiritual— here in this material world, everyone is envious of someone else.

24:37Even in religious life, it is sometimes found that if one devotee has advanced in spiritual activities, other devotees are envious of him. Even in spiritual life, in religious life, he says, such envious devotees are not completely free from the bondage of births and deaths.

24:58Basically this disease of envy is the main cause of our of us remaining in this material world.

25:09And Prabhupāda stresses this point, and Śukadeva Gosvāmī stresses this point, unless and until we have even a little spark of envy within our heart. Little spark of envy. It means offensive mentality.

25:27It means that we wish bad to somebody else. It means that somebody else will experience some unhappiness or some grief or some sufferings.

25:42No matter who he is, if a little atom of this envy remains in our heart, this atom will bring about our new life in this material world. We have to be completely 100% free from this envy.

26:01And Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that how to get free from this envy. There is one way to get free of this envy, completely free from this envy. Completely free from this disease which is born from our ego.

26:16Prabhupada explains, what is the cause of this envy? The cause of this envy is our ego. What is our ego? I'm the best. And if somebody dares to be better than me, he better suffers. He should be punished for this.

26:32How dare he become better than me? You know, even if he is a better devotee, you know, it it's it's it's it's uh a scandal. How he can become better than me? It should not be allowed. It's something something is wrong.

26:50Okay, God is there, okay, no problem. I'm His servant. But you know, I'm the best servant. I should be the best. Everyone should recognize this. So, and therefore, this envy appears within our heart.

27:05And actually this disease of envy is karma-bandha, is the bondage of karma. And Śukadeva Gosvāmī here, he says very clearly, that there is only one way to get rid of this deeply rooted disease within our heart

27:25is to read again and again the pastimes of Lord Krishna, to read again and again the pastimes of the Lord, to read again and again pastimes of Lord Rāmacandra and other pastimes described in Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. This should be our intention.

27:42This is This is how this sādhana works. We should be very clearly, we should very clearly understand what is the end result of this sadhana.

27:53The end result of this sadhana is just by reading about this and understanding the protection of the Lord. Śrīla Prabhupāda explains this in the purport to the second verse which I read.

28:06Is that just by understanding that the Lord is loving us, that Lord already loves us and protects us in all regards, and understanding how the Lord Himself sacrifices everything for our sake, while experiencing His love.

28:27This is the only way how we can get rid of envy. Why we are envious? Because we didn't experience enough love. Because we are lacking of this experience of love.

28:44But when we experience an unconditioned love of the Supreme Lord and His readiness to sacrifice everything for our sake, for the sake of each and every one of us, then we will be free from envy. Why should we envy anyone?

29:05I am loved by the Lord and He's also loved by the Lord. It's not a mistake. It's not a mistake. He's not supposed only to love me. He's loving everyone, and that's good. That's very good.

29:21He's loving me and He's loving Suvarna Gaura and Yasovanta and Vana Mali Govinda and everyone else. He's loving every single one. And therefore we should be loving everyone as well. Why should we envy anyone?

29:40It is specifically said here anṛśaṁsya-paraḥ. Anṛśaṁsya-paraḥ. While reading Rāmāyaṇa and pastimes of Lord Ramachandra, how it works.

29:53By understanding His real glory, how He is so compassionate that He is ready to take this pastime for our sake, we become anṛśaṁsya-paraḥ, inclined not to inflict pain to anyone.

30:12Anṛśaṁsya literally means inflicting pain, wishing bad to somebody.

30:19So anṛśaṁsya-paraḥ, sarve svasty astu viśvasya khalāḥ prīyantu mad-guṇāḥ, let everyone will be happy. Even khalas, even the most wicked people in this world. This is the real attitude of a devotee.

30:34And this attitude comes when we live through the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra. So what is the pastime of Lord Ramachandra, what is the essence of His pastime?

30:46It is explained by our ācāryas that Lord Ramachandra is the embodiment of Karuna Rasa. Lord comes to this world and he displays in his pastimes different rasas so that we by reading about these different rasas can get the emotional satisfaction.

31:10Lord is rasa, rasa vai saha. And while reading about this rasa, we experience spiritual emotions, spiritual rasas.

31:19And by experiencing spiritual emotions, we will be able to conquer over the material emotions which we have, out of which envy is the most prominent one.

31:33So there is only one way to conquer over material emotions, which is the bondage. The real bondage of this world is the emotions. We are attached to emotions. We're emotional being. We're not rational.

31:49We may pretend being rational, but ultimately our intelligence is guided by the powerful force of our emotions. Everything which we do is actually guided by emotions. Rational is just a little bit, well, little rational.

32:08On the surface, we're rational. If we scratch a little bit, you know, we will understand. I'm just emotional. Somebody says something to us.

32:18And we can preach to ourselves that, you know, he's a part and parcel of God, he's good, he's just full number one, but ultimately within his heart he is good, but it doesn't work. We're hurt, emotion is there.

32:35We can preach, I shouldn't, you know, yeah, he's he's no, he's bad. How you can say that he's good, you know, he's against me. So very emotional. How to conquer over emotions?

Manifestations of rasas in divine incarnations

32:49We should uh read uh all this books and pastimes in such a way that we will be able also to experience the same emotions. So every incarnation of God comes with a particular rasa.

33:05The message which every incarnation brings about is to invoke this rasa within ourselves. And by experiencing this rasa, we will be able to understand how nice it is in the spiritual world.

33:20Spiritual world is not a boring place. It's not a you know Brahman. You know, finally I'm here. Relieved from all these burdens. No, it's it's the place which is full of emotions.

33:33And Krishna, that's the main message of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. He's a akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti. He himself embodies all the emotions. Every other incarnation brings about or you know invokes only one emotion.

33:47But Krishna invokes all emotions. It's you know uh how you say this? All in one. You know, you don't have to go to too many places. It's just supermarket of emotions.

34:03You don't have to go to this shop or to that shop, you just go to supermarket, you buy everything you need. So in one place, that's Krishna. He is akhila-rasāmṛta-mūrti, he is the embodiment of all the rasas.

34:17Every other incarnation is the manifestation of an emotion, certain emotion. Like for example, Nṛsiṁhadeva, he is an incarnation of which emotion? No. He's the incarnation of vātsalya-rasa.

34:39When you read the seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, you should read the seventh Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam from this point of view.

34:47When he puts Prahlāda Mahārāja and he starts licking his head by his tongue, lion-like tongue, you know he licked this little Prahlāda Mahārāja and he was begging forgiveness, my dear son, you suffered so much.

35:09Prahlāda Mahārāja didn't have fatherly love from Hiraṇyakaśipu. But he got motherly love from Nṛsiṁhadeva. Nṛsiṁhadeva was this manifestation of motherly love and he was treating himself as his child.

35:26And at that moment, all the childhood traumas of Prahlāda Mahārāja were healed by the excess of vātsalya-rasa which he experienced. That's the real manifestation of this.

35:40And then raudra-rasa, raudra-rasa is Paraśurāma. Paraśurāma was so angry he couldn't stop.

35:48He was killing all the kṣatriyas again and again and again, 21 times or 22. He probably himself lost the count how many times he killed them. So that was raudra-rasa. He's the manifestation of prauḍha-rasa.

36:08And Varāhadeva is the manifestation of bhayānaka. When he entered the ocean, the ocean started trembling. That's the manifestation of this rasa. And Lord Balarāma, he is the manifestation of hāsya-rasa.

36:27He's always joking with Krishna. So that's his specialty, that's his rasa which he brings about or involves in our heart.

36:38But Lord Rāmacandra is the manifestation of karuṇā-rasa. He is the manifestation of compassion, of pathos, of, uh, karuṇā? Is the manifestation of this grief.

37:01Actually, in the spiritual world, any emotion becomes purifying. You know, in the material world grief is not very commendable or good emotion.

37:19Lord Krishna chastises Arjuna in the beginning of Bhagavad-gītā, he says, you know, you're fool. Why you're fool? Because you're grieving. You have this shokar.

37:31Shoka is not something which you uh which you should experience your brāhmaṇa. If you experience shoka, it means you're śūdra. If you ever experience grief, it means you're śūdra. Welcome. Congratulations. We're śūdras.

37:54If we ever experience this shoka emotion, we're śūdras. But Lord Ramachandra, he always experienced shoka. And he wants us to experience shoka with him.

38:09But his grief, the grief of Lord Ramachandra over his Sita Devi, over so many other activities, it's just purifying grief.

38:23And if we really learn how to experience this grief of Lord Ramachandra, we will be completely purified from the tendency to experience material grief.

38:34Oh, I'm so I'm so unlucky as you know my wife and no you I don't have wife or my wife is so bad or something like this, you know, why Ravana didn't kidnap my wife, why he kidnapped Sītā? Because you're not Lord Ramachandra, that's the answer.

39:04But actually the grief of Lord Ramachandra is purifying. Actually, this is the beginning of Rāmāyaṇa. What is the beginning of Rāmāyaṇa?

39:22It is said that when Vālmīki Muni saw this krauñca birds engaged in their loving pastimes.

39:35And at that time a cruel hunter killed one krauñca bird. And the other krauñca bird started lamenting over the loss of his wife and crying piteously.

Purifying grief and Ramayana origins

39:55At that time, Vālmīki Muni, he composed the first śloka of Rāmāyaṇa. It is said that his shoka became shloka. The whole Rāmāyaṇa, this is a very important episode for us to understand, Rāmāyaṇa.

40:13Rāmāyaṇa is to invoke shoka in us. Because the whole Rāmāyaṇa came from this episode, how material life is ultimately tragic. That's a very important lesson of Rāmāyaṇa.

40:32Our life in this material world is tragic from beginning to end. And even when the Lord Himself comes to this world, His life has also become tragic. It's full of tragedy, full of pathos, full of this emotion.

40:52But if we meditate on the pastimes of Lord Ramachandra, how he experienced his grief, how he went through all these tests and trials and tribulations experiencing grief as much as we experience the grief. Even more.

41:13But at the same time, being completely composed and true to his vote and to his duty, how he did this, then this This experience of Lord Ramachandra will free us from this tendency to grieve over completely useless and trivial things in this world.

41:36Usually, if we consider why we're grieving in this world, it's really it's really insignificant. It's really insignificant. But it becomes such a drama.

41:50You know, I know it myself on my own experience, it becomes such a drama. Little fly becomes a big elephant.

41:59You know, but you know, I have a good opportunity to see how other people they take, you know, some little thing and blow it out of proportion and becomes completely absorbed in this grief.

42:14So, what happened with Lord Ramachandra? Basically, we should see how He experienced His grief.

42:22We should grieve together with Him, and this grief will be purifying because we will follow the the plight of Lord Ramachandra and meditate upon this. It's actually very interesting.

42:37Acharya explains why Valmiki Muni does not reveal in his Ramayana the secret that Sita actually was not kidnapped. The real Sita was not kidnapped.

42:56The real Sita was safely in Agniloka, in some of the heavenly planets of this universe. She was meditating on Lord Ramudev because Agnidev

43:12uh snatched her away while she was crossing this line, Lakshmana Rekha. uh So and then Agni Dev brought her back during this Agni Pariksha. So this is explained in Agnipuran.

43:37And uh we know that Lord Chaitanya he even uh brought this Agnipuran to uh this Brahmin uh in uh South India because Brahmin in South India, he just couldn't he couldn't tolerate this whole thing.

43:54But Acharya explains why Valmiki Muni doesn't explain this. He says the reason is exactly this: to invoke Karuna in our heart.

44:04Because when we know, oh yeah, this was not real Sītā. It was just some mannequin, some puppet Sītā. No, no, but this is not the purpose of Valmiki Muni. Valmiki Muni wants us to believe that this was real Sītā.

44:22Because Lord Rāmacandra himself, he didn't sit in Ayodhyā or in Kishkinda and he didn't think that, you know, oh, Sītā is safely in Agniloka. No.

44:34He was himself grieving over the plight of Sītā, and this illusory Sītā—it doesn't matter whether she was illusory or not, but she was crying day and night.

44:47She was crying day and night, and she was chanting Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma, Rāma.

44:54And Lord Rāmacandra at the same time was sitting in his cave in Kishkindha, and he was crying, and he was chanting on his beads, Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, He Sītā, Hā, Hā Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, Hā.

45:10Still, if you go to Kishkindha to Hampi, you will see this deity of Lord Rama with the beads. Lord Rama is sitting there in this cave, and he was chanting Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, Sītā, Sītā.

45:26How he was grieving, how he was going mad, in separation with Sītā! He didn't think at that time, yeah, I know, this is just, you know, it's just, this is just a little puppet show, you know, for some others. No.

45:43He was there. He was experiencing this grief.

45:48And we should really follow Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa. Therefore, it is said that we should not follow Agni Purana Rāmāyaṇa. We should follow Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa, which is the real Rāmāyaṇa, or we should follow Sukadeva Goswami Rāmāyaṇa, understanding what Sukadeva Goswami wants to say us. And Sukadeva Goswami is exactly saying this in these verses. We should understand that's the real glory of the Lord.

46:15Because of his compassion, he performs his pastimes perfectly. And by performing his past times, līlā-sthāna-bhuvanāni jāta-jāsaś-sram. Ah, smaratam upetya smaram upetya. Forget this verse anyway.

46:43So, uh, svabhaktānāṁ vinodāya, it is said in Padma Purāṇa that why Krishna comes to this world. He didn't come to kill Ravana. You know, he could send coronavirus to kill Ravana. Or some other virus.

47:04If coronavirus wouldn't work, you could send somebody else to kill Ravana. He doesn't need to come to kill Ravana. He doesn't need to perform this for the he's doing it incidentally he comes to experience karunaras himself and give us the experience of the same karunaras while we are meditating, while we are you know while all these pastimes are reflecting within our consciousness, within our heart.

King Dasaratha's plan and hidden doubts

47:38This is what we should do. This is what we're supposed to do.

47:41Therefore, I wanted to tell just one episode of Rāmāyaṇa. Little episode, which is one of the most dramatic episodes of Rāmāyaṇa that was the introduction to the whole lecture. But just a little episode, of course, the whole Rāmāyaṇa is full of this emotion.

48:04But I'll try to tell this episode

48:09of how Rāma was banished into the exile and how he was behaving, how Sītā was behaving at that time, how Lakṣmaṇa was behaving at that time, how Kaikeyi was behaving at that time, how Daśaratha was behaving at that time.

48:34So we all of course know this episode, but the real purpose of this episode is to invoke Karuṇa-rasa. What is Karuṇa-rasa?

48:46The Karuṇa rasa is the knowers of Rasa-śāstra they explain that Karuṇa-rasa comes when we do something. When somebody, Karuṇa-rasa is involved, when we see that somebody is doing something for the sake of others.

49:28When somebody is depriving himself of the comforts and pleasures and enjoyments of life for the sake of others. At that time, when we see this, when we see what he experienced this, what he feels at that time.

49:50How he, despite of having the opportunity to enjoy this life, he still nevertheless sacrifices himself. Then the Karuṇa-rasa is being invoked in our heart. How people are doing this for others.

50:10And that's a very important lesson because again, why Śukadeva Gosvāmī says that by hearing Rāmāyaṇa again and again and again we will be free from this envy, from this desire to inflict pain to others because we will develop the same spirit, the same spirit of self-sacrifice, doing something, not allowing others to experience even slight pain at the expense of ourselves we're doing this.

50:48If we learn how to do this, then the disease of envy will be finished. We will be completely free from this envy because we will experience this We will experience these much higher emotions.

51:03So we all know the story, and I will try to explain it again. We all know the story, that the story actually it started when Dasharata started seeing bad moments.

51:20Everywhere, whenever he would see, and all the people in Vedic culture they knew the science of omens. It's called Nimita Shastra.

51:31They knew, you know his left eye was tweaking and he always heard the cries of crows and the jackals were you know sometimes were doing their kirtan in a very piteous way and uh you know and sometimes he would see the donkey and the bad dreams would come to him, he would see himself sitting in a donkey going to the south direction.

52:06And he looked in his chart. He knew the science of astrology and he understood that very soon his death is coming.

52:16And he remembered at that time the curse of Shravan Kumar's father, who before dying cursed him and he said that as much as I'm dying in separation with my son, in your old age, you will also die in separation with your son.

52:42So he designed a plan. He knew that this curse will definitely happen. Nothing will avert this curse. So he thought that I will go myself into exile, I will go to forest.

52:57And then in the forest I will die in separation with my son. This is how he wanted to fulfill this curse.

53:07And he said, that will be a very noble way. I will crown my son Rāma and he will become happy and with peaceful heart I will leave the palace at night.

53:20Uh nobody will uh see me and I will go to the forest and meditating on my son in separation with him. I will leave this body because my time has come. So very hastily and quickly he started doing some arrangements, and

53:38at that time, Bharata and Shatrugna were away from Ayodhya. And that was part of his plan. Actually, he remembered that he promised to the father of Kaikai that her son will become the king.

54:00Actually, one of his well, maybe not an artist but uh whatever. One of his qualities which he experienced again and again and again was that he was too quick to give promises. Many times in his life he experienced this.

54:24When Vishwan Mitramuni came to his palace, he said, Oh yeah, please ask me everything, whatever you like. I will fulfill all your desires.

54:34And then Viśvāmitra Muni says, okay, give me Rāma. He said, no, no, not Rāma, no Rāma. And then Viśvāmitra Muni said, yeah, okay, I'm a beggar, I am not in a position to demand.

54:51I will go back and you remain here famous of your ability to follow your word, to follow your promise. You may rule your kingdom being very famous of being satyavadi. This is this will be your glory.

55:15And of course Daśaratha said, okay, let me reconsider. Anyway, so many times he very hastily promised that I fulfill any of your desires. So and therefore while he was contemplating

55:39on this, he was thinking on putting Rāma on the throne of Ayodhyā. He was thinking, you know, what if Bharata will claim the throne instead. Because it was an open secret.

55:54Everyone knew that that was the promise of King Daśaratha to Aśvapati, the father of Kaikeyī, that I will make your son the prince.

56:09And he was thinking, you know, of course Bharat is such a loyal follower of Lord Ramachandra, but who knows what will happen within his heart? You never know. So it's better to be saved than sorry.

56:25Let him be away from Ayodhya, and we will make all these arrangements. So he had his doubts. That's one of the very important lessons of the whole Rāmāyaṇa. Please listen very carefully. This is a very important lesson.

56:46Why do we have doubts? Sometimes we start doubting without a reason. as this Daśaratha was doubting Bharata. Kaikeyī was doubting Rāma. Mantharā, you know, we will explain this a little later.

57:07And Lakṣmaṇa was doubting Bharata as well. Lakṣmaṇa was saying, let us kill Bharata. He's coming here with his army. He probably wants to finish you off while you are disarmed. Let's kill him beforehand.

57:24I will go and do it. You know. Why? Because of this little spark of envy. Kṛṣṇa himself explains this in Bhagavad-gītā. He explains in the fourth can, in the fourth chapter of Bhagavad-gītā, he explains why we have doubts.

57:44He says that the doubtful soul does not have peace either in this world or in another world. He says that, saṁśayātmā vinaśyati. Saṁśayātmā. And then he explains why do we have doubts?

57:58We have doubts because of some hidden desires within our heart. And these hidden desires within our heart make us doubtful. So the same thing, little spark, little spark of impurity within our heart, manifests as a doubt.

58:20So this little impurity manifested as a doubt in the mind of King Dasharata. And ultimately that was very bad mistake, which he did. So he started making all this arrangement.

58:35He said, he called, uh, Vasiṣṭha Muni and he said this, uh, beautiful month of Chaitra, which is very uh beneficial and auspicious, has come. And, uh, tomorrow is the Puṣya-nakṣatra. Tomorrow is the Puṣya-nakṣatra.

58:54Today is Punarvasu-nakṣatra, the day of Lord Ramachandra. Puṣya-nakṣatra is a very auspicious nakṣatra. So let's make all the arrangements, let's do this.

59:06And Vasiṣṭha Muni, his priest, he said, Oh, you know astrology so well. Very good, very good. Sadhu, sadhu. Yes, this is the best day to make this crown ceremony, and you're so wise. This is the best arrangement.

59:22This Vasiṣṭha became so happy. He ran away from the palace and he started gathering all his disciples. And he said, You know, the best news is there. Tomorrow we'll crown Lord Ramachandra, and he will become our king.

59:41And you know, and then you know, this news spread all over the city of Ayodhya like a forest fire. Everyone was rejoicing, everyone was making kīrtana. Everyone was starting decorating the houses,

1:00:01putting some illumination and you know, putting banana trees. And every man was busy and you know, everyone knew it. But few people didn't know it.

1:00:12Those people who were supposed to know it, they didn't know it because somehow or other it was supposed to happen and the way it happened. And but uh uh so just one second. Yeah.

1:00:44So after speaking with Vasistha Muni in his presence, Dasharatha Maharaja called Ramachandra. And Ramachandra came to him, he bowed down, he made

1:01:04his foot on the prostrations and water basins, and he said, Oh my dear father, oh my dear king, please tell me what I can do for you. And in a very solemn voice, and a very happy voice, choked with emotions,

1:01:20choked with tears, Maharaja Dasharata said, My dear son, I'm too old, I'm quite weak now, and I decided to give the whole kingdom to you. And tomorrow, please be prepared.

1:01:39Please fast this night with your wife Sītā. You should fast to purify yourself. Tomorrow there will be grand ceremony, grand ritual.

1:01:49You will sit on the throne and there will be rājābhiṣeka given to you by the priests, and Vasistha Muni will make all the arrangements for the elaborate ritual and it will be the happiest day in my life.

1:02:06Tomorrow will be the happiest day of my life. Little did he know that tomorrow will be the most dramatic day in his life. This is how it works. This is how we are. We think that tomorrow will be the happiest day in our life.

1:02:25And what will happen tomorrow? We don't know. Something really anishta, something really inauspicious may happen to us. So he went to his bedroom but he couldn't sleep.

1:02:41The bad uh bad uh thoughts were there and he just he just couldn't fall asleep. He was just whirling in the bed and uh you know he uh

1:02:58he again called Ramachandra and he said my dear son you know please understand me we should do it very quickly because I have some bad feelings. So please be prepared.

1:03:13The first thing in the morning, early in the morning, as soon as possible, we will do the ceremony. I want to do it by all means. Even before the sunrise.

1:03:25When the auspicious time of Brahmanuhta will start, on this auspicious moment, we will start celebrating your Raja Bhishek, and you will be crowned as the king of Ayodhyā.

Preparations for the royal coronation

1:03:37And with peaceful heart, I will live the rest of my life. So he became a little pacified because he thought, I made all the arrangements, everything will be proper, everything is there.

1:03:51He was because that's the nature of the mind. The mind wants to control everything. So the mind only becomes peaceful wherever everything is under control.

1:04:02And when we feel that something which is beyond our control will happen to us, the mind becomes crazy. The mind just goes here and there and, thrills, you know, how come?

1:04:14So he pacified himself by making all the arrangements. You know, I did everything, everything. And he was again and again and again thinking, what else can I do to make sure that this happened? This is how the mind works.

1:04:32So, and Lord Ramachandra he came to Sita Devi and he said, Oh, Sita, you know, he first came to Kauśalyā and he said, Oh, my dear mother, I have something to tell you which will make you very happy.

1:04:50And the mother said, Well, tell me my son. And she said, my father wants to crown me tomorrow. And she said, Yeah, this is the best news I ever heard. Thank you, my dear son, my austerity.

1:05:05At that time, Kausalya was sitting in floor of the deity of Lord Nārāyaṇa and she was meditating. And while Lord Ramachandra came to this room, to the chamber, to the temple

1:05:16room, in the palace of Kauśalyā, he saw that the tears gliding from her eyes. She was so intensely praying to the Lord for the protection of her son.

1:05:30And when Lord Ramachandra came and announced this news, she embraced him and she started crying and she said, All my prayers fulfilled now, all my desires of my life fulfilled and all my austerities which I performed throughout my life is now giving the fruit. Thank you very much.

1:05:52And she became very happy. And then Lord Ramachandra came to Sita Devi and he said, Sita Devi, tomorrow you will become the queen of Ayodhya. You will be sitting with me on the throne, and people will worship you and

1:06:09Sītā said, ah, my dear Lord, O Ārya-putra, my dear husband, you know, I'm worshiping you. I don't care whether somebody is worshiping me or not. I'm already happy, but if you will be happy to sit on this throne, I will be happily sitting next to you.

1:06:29I will be with you and we will uh you know and I will help you in this capacity if you want me to do this. So he started fasting, and all the people in Ayodhya they were decorating

Manthara's manipulation and Kaikeyi's envy

1:06:42their houses and you know doing all these arrangements, and as we And as we know, Manthara, she saw these preparations and she asked the nurse of Lord Rāmacandra, oh,

1:06:59please tell me what is the what is the festivities going on? What is this bustle and uh all this commotion in the city? You know, what kind of festival are we going to celebrate tomorrow?

1:07:13And the nurse of Lord Rāmacandra said, You don't know? Oh, how lucky you are! You still don't know. So, you will have this amazing news to hear now. You will be so happy to hear this news.

1:07:28Tomorrow, Lord Rāmacandra will become our king and he will be crowned. And Manthara, she heard this. She had to force her lips to make some sort of sort of smile so that nobody would understand what's happening

1:08:00within her heart, because the whole whole hurricane of envy started there. How is that possible? And with this envy in her heart, she came to Kaikeyī, to her queen. And she saw Kaikeyī, she was very happy.

1:08:24Kaikeyī was sitting in front of her mirror and she was decorating herself.

1:08:29And Manthara started crying, You foolish woman, what are you doing? You're just decorating yourself, tomorrow will be the last day of your life, you don't know the news, you

1:08:40foolish woman! And Kaikeyī was in a very pleasant mood and she said, Oh, you know, Manthara, you know, why are you so angry? Please cool down. Tell me what's happening.

1:08:54You know, I am a loved wife of my husband and everything is so nice. And Manthara started saying, You don't know? Tomorrow, Rāma, not Bharata, Rāma, not Rāma, the son of Kauśalyā, will be crowned as the king.

1:09:15And Kaikeyī became so happy, she said, Thank you very much for this news. This is the best news I ever heard. This is the best jewel I have. Please take this jewel for bringing me this news.

1:09:32And Manthara, she took this jewel and she smashed it on the floor. And she said, You stupid woman, you don't understand what happens. Don't you know that Kauśalyā is envious of you?

1:09:51And because Kaikaya was envious to Koshalia, she believed it. Again, when we are envious to somebody, a little spark of envy, will be projected on the whole world. This little slide. Kaikai was very pure-hearted.

1:10:12She loved Bharata more than her own son. She could not be dissuaded from his love from her love to Lord Rāma by saying that Lord Rāma is bad because she loved him.

1:10:31But she had a little envy towards Kauśalyā, as is natural for co-wives. And perhaps to some other people as well. So she was a little, and Mantharā immediately understood she's hooked.

1:10:53And she started saying, Now you're the queen. Tomorrow you will become the maidservant. Tomorrow you will serve as the maidservant. You will do the menial service in the palace of Kauśalyā.

1:11:08You will do, you will be, and people will deride you. And people will point at you and will say, Look at this Kaikeyi, she was the favorite queen of Daśaratha. What is she doing now?

1:11:23Now she's just the neglected maidservant in the palace of Kauśalyā. And she started hammering this point again and again and again and again. And what will happen with Bharata?

1:11:39For sure, Rāma, you know, when the fire of envy was ignited in Kaikeyi's heart, you know, then Mantharā felt free to exaggerate this whole thing because the fire was already there.

1:11:53She started saying bad things about Rāmacandra. She said Rāmacandra, for sure he will banish your son Bharata into the forest, and he will probably he will even kill Bharata.

1:12:11And the more she was saying these outrageous things, the more Kaikeyi was believing it. Please listen very carefully. That's not about Kaikeyi, that's about us.

1:12:24If we have a little envy within our heart, it's so easy to ignite this envy. It's so easy. We hear something bad or we read something bad from the internet? And yes, of course, I knew it all the time.

1:12:39You know, Kaikeyi within just with just a couple of hours of brainwashing, she was completely turned. Her whole mood, you know, she completely forgot her love to Lord Ramachandra.

1:12:58And then she looked at this envious witch Manhara as her savior. She said, "You are the best hunchback woman I ever seen. When I become the queen, I will make you the queen of all hunchback women.

1:13:18All other hunchback women, I will make sure that they are your maidservants. And when I become the queen, I will take the golden chain, massive golden chain, and I will decorate your hunch with this golden chain.

1:13:41And she said your hunch, uh, your hump, sorry, your hump, your hump, uh, is the embodiment of all the political wisdom in the world. Now I know why you're humped. Because all the intrigues and all the politics are there.

1:14:02And this wisdom is there in your hump. This is how she glorified Manthara. This loving Kaikeyi, she glorified Manthara in an outrageous way. She became totally dependent on her.

1:14:18She said, please tell me what is the best way, how I should fulfill my desires. And now I'm completely convinced. Tell me. And Mantara said, oh, don't you remember? Very silly woman, you already forgot what you told me.

1:14:37Because long back Kaikeyi confided to Manthara. She didn't tell it to anyone. That was the secret between the husband and wife. And the secret between the husband and wife is not supposed to be spread all over the place.

1:14:53The only one whom she confided was Manthara. Why? Because she was proud. Kaikeyi was proud.

1:15:02She wanted to say, oh, my husband loves me so much, and I helped him, I saved him from this, uh, Śambara demon, Śambarāsura, and because of his gratitude because I nurtured him so much and I healed his wounds, he promised to me that he will fulfill two of my desires. And I told him, yeah, I don't need anything, I'm happy, I don't need anything now but maybe sometime in the future I will need something, then I will ask.

1:15:35So one can say, "You silly woman, you probably forgot this. Now you have something to do. Now the Daśaratha will be yours, now you go there. But please be determined. Go till the end.

1:15:50Tasharata will promise to you that He will give you something, that He will give you the whole land. Don't listen to Him. Don't believe Him.

1:15:59Until he promises to you that he will do these two things, that he will put Bharata on the throne of Ayodhya, your son, and until he banishes Lord Rama for 14 years in the forest.

1:16:17And Mandar said, you know, you think it's a coincidence that he wants to do this coronation ceremony tomorrow while your son is not here? Don't you see the plot of your husband behind this?

1:16:33He sent Bharata and Shatrughna away under some pretext.

1:16:37And now all of a sudden hastily without any preparations he wants to do this coronation ceremony. Why is this? And, takencare, starts to think, yeah, she must be true, this is how it works.

1:16:52This is how envy works within our heart. This is what we should learn from this episode of this.

1:17:01And Manthara gave the whole scenario of play to Kaikeyi, what she should do. She should go to this krodha bhavana, to this anger chamber, and she should take off all the decorations and she should put the plain sari

1:17:24and she should not look in the face

Kaikeyi demands two boons from Dasaratha

1:17:29of her husband when the husband came. And you know, after speaking with Lord Ramachandra, Dasharatha came to Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi was his favorite wife.

1:17:43She was the youngest wife, she was the most pretty and he loved her so much. So because he had this bad feeling, he thought he will forget about this feeling bad feelings while being with his wife.

1:17:59That his wife will dissipate all these thoughts which are there and these bad feelings. So he came but he couldn't find his wife in the bedroom.

1:18:12He couldn't find his wife anywhere, and ultimately he came to this krodha bhavana and he saw his wife lying on the floor. And he said, My dear wife, Kaikeyi, my dear favorite wife, why are you lying on the floor?

1:18:27Somebody offended you. Somebody did something wrong to you. Please tell me. I will punish this offender immediately. And she said, no, no, see, in a very humble way, very humble voice. He said, no, no, no, no, no.

1:18:44To invoke the karuṇā-rasa in the heart of Dasharatha. No, no, no, no, no, no, nobody, nobody offended me, nobody offended me. Just some grief is there within my heart. you will be able to dissipate this grief.

1:19:08And Dasharatha, she started crying. Please tell me what I can do to dissipate your grief. I will, I am ready to do anything.

1:19:16I promise, she said, you know, I'll tell you, but first promise to me that you will do whatever I desire. And Dasharatha said, of course, of course, my dear wife. That's his habit. Of course I'll do it. Whatever you desire.

1:19:34Don't, don't hesitate for a moment. Please tell me, my dear wife. I will do everything. And she said, I am invoking the presence of sun and the moon. Let them be the witness. I'm invoking the presence of the fire.

1:19:54All the ten directions are the witness of your word. You said it yourself. You promised to fulfill all my desires. Her tone of voice became different. She was not invoking the pityness anymore.

1:20:14She started speaking with a completely different voice. You cannot go back to your word. You're a kṣatriya. Kṣatriyas are not supposed to go back on your word. You promise to me that you will fulfill my desires.

1:20:29I only have two desires, and you anyway promised to me long back that you will fulfill two desires. Here are my two desires.

1:20:38Tomorrow you will, or whenever the opportunity will be, you will crown my son Bharata as the king, and you will banish Lord Ram for 14 years into the forest. This is my desire. These are my two desires. You should do this.

1:20:59Dasharatha, he couldn't believe his ears. He started pinching his ears, he said, Am I dreaming? What's happening? You know, please tell me that this is not real, that this is something, that this is some illusion.

1:21:20Please tell me, how can you, how can you say this? I know how you love Lord Ram. I know that you love Lord Ram more than Bharat. How can you say this? And Kaikeyi started laughing. I know your plot. I know what you did.

1:21:43I know because you know you sent my son Bharata to his father, to his grandfather. You send him away to my brother and to my father. So, you know, you want to coronate today, Lord Trump.

1:22:01So you should promise to me now that you will do this. And then Dasharat he fainted. And then when he came back to his senses, he again started pinching himself.

1:22:15He said, Tell me that this was just a dream, just a mirage, that something which was not real. And she said, No, no. No, no, you heard everything properly. Tomorrow you will have to banish Lord Ram to the forest.

1:22:33Tomorrow. Tomorrow. Dasharatha started crying. He said, okay, I agree to coronate your son. But why should you banish Lord Ram? I'm sure if I tell Lord Ram that Bharata will be the king, he will be happy.

1:22:58He will become very happy, and he will assist your son to be the rule, the ruler, to be the king. He will become the most loyal follower and servant of Bharat. Why should you banish him, you wicked woman?

1:23:18She said, because this is my desire. You have to do it. No matter. He was trying this way and that way and this way and that way. Nothing worked. He realized that she will go to the end.

1:23:41He explained to her what will happen to you: all the people will leave Ayodhya together with Lord Ram. You will be ruling this Ayodhya alone with your son. Nobody will be there. I will be there. Everyone will leave Ayodhya.

1:23:57She was relentless. She was just going her way. She couldn't just even hear any reason or whatever. She was she just knew, you know, this is should be done.

1:24:10This is how she was programmed by Kaikeyi, uh by Manthara. She was totally completely programmed by Manthara. It should be my way, not any other way. So what happened next? Dasharatha he uh he uh fainted.

1:24:32And he was unconscious uh for the rest of the night, but early in the morning Kaikeyi was she was rejoicing, she was triumph.

1:24:43And early in the morning, Sumantra came, the minister of Dasharat and Sumantra when he came to the palace of Kaikai, he he stuck yeah.

1:24:58Actually uh Dasharat was lying in a semi-conscious state, half conscious, half asleep, or whatever. And then as usually the Haralds came and started glorifying Dasharat, started glorifying.

1:25:15This is the way how the kings would wake up from their bed and they were heralding his glories. And Dasharat, he it was intolerable for him to hear this.

1:25:27He closed his eyes, his ears, he sent away this, he was very angry at them. Stop this, stop this, stop this. He was completely devastated. And then Sumantra came and Sumantra started glorifying Dasharata.

1:25:43Because this is what this is supposed to be, you know, the minister comes and first thing he starts glorifying the king and saying this is this is your glory and this is glory, this is your glory.

1:25:54And the Tasharat he became so angry. He said, get out of here. I don't want to see your face. Get out of here.

1:26:04Don't say this because every word which you say inflicts such pain to my heart that nothing is such unbearable as the pain which you inflict. And he Sumantra couldn't understand what's going on.

1:26:22He thought maybe my master couldn't have a good sleep before the coronation ceremony. Therefore he's so unhappy. Why he's so angry? And then Kaikai, she smiled.

1:26:39And she looked at Sumantra and she said, your father is not in a very good mood today. You know, he had a little rough night. That's why. So you please go and bring Lord Rāma.

1:26:57He wants to tell Lord Rāma what the last arrangements which he had done for his coronation are. That's what she said, this woman, in a very crooked way, she said, You please go and bring Lord Rama.

1:27:18And Sumantra looked at Dasharata and he said, Why this woman is telling me what to do. I am not her servant, I am your servant. Please tell me whether I should bring Lord Rāma or not, and Daśaratha cried. Get out of here.

1:27:37Bring Rāma here immediately. So Sumantra he couldn't understand what's going on. What in Madhouse? What is there?

Lord Ramachandra accepts fourteen years exile

1:27:51So he went to Lord Rāma and Lord Rāma was sitting with his wife Sītā. And Sumantra said, Your father is calling you.

1:28:02Your father is with his wife Kaikeyī, with his favorite wife Kaikeyī. And they want to tell you what are the last arrangements for your coronation.

1:28:12And Lord Rāma, he became very joyful and he said addressing to Sītā, my dear Sītā, my dear wife, you know I'm sure my father wants to tell me some good news that coronation is all the way and, I'm sure Mother Kaikeyī, she must be so happy now. She must be so immensely happy.

1:28:36That's why they're calling me. They want to celebrate this occasion, they want to congratulate me with this. Oh, Sītā, very soon I will come to you with the good news. You please wait for me and I will go.

1:28:50And he took Lakṣmaṇa with him, and Lakṣmaṇa was following him because Lakṣmaṇa was following Lord Rāma as the shadow. He would not he would not leave Lord Rāma for a second. So he went together with him and I came to

1:29:10the palace of Kaikeyī and Daśaratha was there and Daśaratha was he just he was sitting with his face cast down and he was only chanting and the tears were gliding his cheeks.

1:29:35And he couldn't, you know, when Ramachandra came and bowed down to Dasharat, Dasharat didn't even look at him. He couldn't he couldn't bear to look at Lord Ramachandra.

1:29:49Lord Ramachandra said, my dear father, what happened with you? Usually you would become so happy by seeing me and I would reciprocate with your happiness. Your happiness would reflect in my heart and I would become happy.

1:30:06And my happiness would reflect in your heart and in this way there was a there was a this chain reaction of happiness.

1:30:15And now you don't see me. What did I do wrong? How did I offend you? Did I do something wrong? Please tell me. And if you want me to do something, tell me now I will do whatever you like.

1:30:32And Daśaratha was sitting there and saying, Rāma, Rāma. then Taikeshi smiled. And she looked at Lord Ramachandra very In a very how you say this uh obnoxious way.

1:30:59She looked at Ramachandra and she said, Your father is a little sick today. But he will become better in a few days. He wants me to say something to you which he cannot say because of his sickness.

1:31:26Today you should go to the forest for 14 years and stay in exile for 14 years, and my son Bharata will become the king of Ayodhyā. Rama-candra, he didn't, even one muscle didn't, his his face didn't change at all.

1:31:51He smiled, he said, my mother. Thank you. If this is the desire of my father, I will do it. If my father will tell me to take poison today, I will do it. If my father will tell me to go to the fire, I will do it.

1:32:09My father now wants me to go to the forest. What could be better? Yes, I will do it. I will go to the forest. Thank you, my mother. So he turned away and he went away. And Daśaratha fainted.

1:32:30And Lord Ramachandra went away when he greeted to this Daśaratha's fate that he couldn't he couldn't tolerate it anymore.

Lord Ramachandra takes leave from Kausalya

1:32:39So Ramachandra went to his mother, Kauśalyā. He came to Kauśalyā and he said, my mother, I have to tell you something bad. But please don't worry, nothing really bad. It's just, you know, it happens. This is the way of life.

1:33:01Today we are happy, tomorrow we are aggrieved. Today something good is happening to us, tomorrow something bad is happening to us. This is normal, nothing strange.

1:33:12You know, yesterday I told you this good news that I'm being coronated. Today I will tell you another news. I'm not being coronated. Of course, I said, why? What happened?

1:33:23He said, Oh, oh yeah, my father changed his mind. Nothing strange, you know, my father changed his mind. He's totally, perfectly in the position to do it. He's my father.

1:33:38And then he said, you know, there is some other news which I have to tell you. She said, what? He said, I'm leaving today to the for For fourteen years. Kausalya was broken.

1:34:01She just she just fell down on the floor and started rolling and crying and saying, My son, what happened, what happened? And he said, My mother can care.

1:34:13She she wants me to do it and I will do it. I'm sure she's my well-wisher. She wants only good for me, so you know she's she wants to do it, so let's let's do it. And Kausalya said, I, my son'll go with you.

1:34:33And Ramachandra said, no, no, no, my mother. My father will die soon. He will not be able to tolerate the separation with me, I know.

1:34:46So you are his chaste wife, you are his first wife, you should stay with the father at this last moment of his life. You cannot leave my father now because he is already totally completely devastated by all this news.

1:35:12So now you are the only one who can give him some solace. You are the only one who can somehow rather pacify his heart. So please stay with him.

1:35:25And I will go to forest and it will be very happy and very soon fourteen years will just be like a flash of a lightning. Very soon I will come to you. I promise to you I will come to you and I will embrace you and I will bow down to your

1:35:41feet and we will be happy again here in Ayodhyā. Don't worry. Kaushalya crying and crying and crying, she gave the blessings to her son. Now my son, you can go to the forest. That's why he came to her.

1:35:58And then he came to Sītā. And Sita she also heard the news. And Lord Ramachandra say said to Sita, Sita, you stay here. I'll go to the forest for 14 years. You stay here.

1:36:16And you serve Kaikeyi as your mother. And you serve Kausalya and you serve Dasharatha. Nobody should even feel or detect any tinge of envy within your heart. I know your heart is completely pure.

1:36:33For 14 years you should serve first and foremost, my mother can care. Because I love her and she loves me, I know this. You should serve her. And Sita said, Initially

1:36:53she she started saying, no, I cannot do this, I will go with you, but Lord Ramachandra insisted and she became very angry. She said, if I knew that my husband is like this,

1:37:11my father, I would tell my father, don't make this mistake by giving my hand to this strange husband. How can you dare to say this to me? I cannot live with you. I'm like your shadow.

1:37:26Shadow cannot live without the object to which it belongs. How can you say this? And Lord Ramachandra said, no, it will be such a hardship in the forest, it will be so difficult for you.

1:37:39She said, No, it will not be difficult for me, because it will not be difficult for you. I will get your strengths, I will do whatever you do, and it will not be difficult for me. I'll go with you.

1:37:50And Lord Ramachandra smiled, he said, okay. Yes, you will go with me. No problem. And then he went to Luxman and he said, Luxman, you stay here. Ah, you stay here, you will have to deal with all this mess. You know me.

1:38:11And then Lakshmana says, forget it. I'm not going to stay here. Who do you think you are? I will be with you. And then no matter what Lord Ramachandra said, Lakshman said, no, no, forget it. Don't even tell this.

1:38:29I will go with you. So and then Ramachandra said to go to your mother, Sumitra, and you get your blessings, because without her blessings I will not allow you to go to the forest.

1:38:43So he went, he got the blessings of her mother, and then Kaikeyi called Sumantra, the father of Sumitra, the minister. And this Sumantra, he was so angry. He was so angry at her. He couldn't just look at her face.

1:39:09In the meantime, Vashistamuni came and he also heard the news and they were all cursing her. And this Sumantra said, What do you want?

1:39:21And she was looking at the husband, Dasharatha, who came to his senses and she said he cannot speak now. But he wants now to give his blessings to Lord Rama to go to the forest and to make the old arrangements.

1:39:44So hold Lord Rama again here, Sumantra.

Dressing in ascetic attire before departing

1:39:49And he wants to do it in front of all his three queens. So call Sumitra and call Kausalya as well. They all should be present at this moment. Now, this is the auspicious moment when Lord Ramachandra is going to the forest.

1:40:13So Lord Ramachandra came and she was there and Sumitra came and Kausalya came and Kaikeyi was sitting and she was smiling, she was happy, she was that's you know her all her desires are fulfilled. And she said, now you have to go to the forest now. Now, this very moment. And you should change your clothes and you should live in the forest like an ascetic.

1:40:55You should live in a forest like there is in a forest by by wearing tree bark. You should now in front of everyone you should take off all your decorations.

1:41:07Take off all your royal clothes, and you should put the clothes of ascetics. And when she said this, Dasharatha's heart exploded. He said, You wicked woman. I told you, I promised to you that I will ban Rama to the forest.

1:41:29Yeah, he goes to the forest, but he goes to the forest in his royal attire. He will go to the forest with his army. I will send akshauhinis of army together with him. He will go to the forest. Yes, he will go to the forest.

1:41:46I will go to the forest. His old servants will go to the forest. The whole loka will go to the forest. All the merchants will go to the forest. All the brāhmaṇas will go to the forest with him. And he will be the king there.

1:41:59And he will rule in the forest, and you will sit alone here, and I will see what you will do. He was really angry there. And then Lord Rama smiled and he said, you know, my dear father, you know it's not good.

1:42:20And yeah, Kaikeyi, she became afraid. She thought, what if it will happen? My son Bharat will come and nothing is there. How he will rule? There's no army, there is no servants, nobody is there. She became really afraid.

1:42:43And then she said something really outrageous. She said, no, no, no. She started quoting Shastra, she started quoting the history of the dynasty.

1:42:55She said, one of your forefathers, Maharaja Sagara, he had a son, his name was Asamanjasa. So his father, Sagara Maharaja, sent his son to the forest. Asamanjasa went to the forest and his father told Asamanjasa that you should

1:43:16take off all your royal attire, you should take off all the decorations on your body, and you should wear the simple clothes of an ascetic. So this is the example, this is the pramāṇa. You should follow your forefathers.

1:43:32You cannot do something. When she said this, one of the other ministers which were there,

1:43:39he became—everyone became outraged. Everyone became completely dumbfounded because they couldn't say this because this Asamanjasa was such a cruel person. He would drown his playmates in the river. He was too much. Everyone hated him.

1:44:01And ultimately, all the citizens came to Maharaja Sagara and he said, You do something with this son. You banish him to the forest, and his father being angry with his son sent him to the forest.

1:44:13So this minister of King Dasharatha, he started, he started yelling at Kaikeyi, You stupid woman, how can you compare Lord Rāma with Asamanjasa? How can you say this, that he should be sent to the forest in the same way as Asamanjasa was sent?

1:44:33Who do you think you are? How offensive you are. You know, this is how mad one can become due to offenses. You know, one offense breeds offenses.

1:44:47You do some one offense and then you know you get used to it. And you become more and more offensive.

1:44:54This offensive mentality became completely—she was completely overwhelmed with this. She gave this and you know everyone was hating him. And Lord Rāma, she said, no, no, no, no, no, no. She's right.

1:45:09I will go to the forest. How I can be in the forest with all the servants. It will be mockery. Everyone will mock at him. He went to the forest and he took all the servants with him.

1:45:23You also tell me that I should take my bed to the forest and mosquito net You know how how you can say this? You cannot say this. She's right.

1:45:41And then she already prepared this vastra, this really rough vastra from the bark of the tree and kusha grass. It's really hard, really hard, really irritating clothes. So she already had this prepared.

1:46:05So very happily, she said, yeah, by the way, you know, it so happened that I have already the clothes for you.

1:46:15So Lord Rāmacandra happily he came and he took uh he took this cloth from Kaikeyi's hands and Lakṣmaṇa he took this cloth from Kaikeyi's hands and in front of everyone, they started taking off all the decorations, he put his crown down, he put all his silken clothes,

1:46:36and they dressed into this cloth, this ascetic and they were standing there and Sītā Sītā came and she's so delicate and she came to Kaikeyi and she took this clothes from her hands and Sītā started crying.

1:47:00Because she just couldn't, she couldn't even imagine that she would wear this clothes. She she just looked at this clothes and she started crying. She couldn't contain herself.

1:47:15And then but still she's a very loyal wife and she should follow the uh the footsteps of her husband. So she she took this and she started wearing this clothes. She tried to wear this clothes but she couldn't.

1:47:34Because this clothes, she couldn't tie it, you know, it's a really rough clothes, you know. Can you imagine this from kuśa grass? Kuśa grass is a very not a very pleasant thing to have a clothes of.

1:47:49So and Lord Rāmacandra saw her perplexity. He saw Sītā standing there, trying and crying and crying and she couldn't do and everyone was looking at her.

1:48:01And then Lord Rāmacandra, he took this cloth from Sītā's hand and he started wearing this clothes on her over the silken sari. He said, no, don't worry, you know, we will put it over the silken sari.

1:48:18With his own hands he put this clothes to Sītā and he said, yes, now we're ready to go. Now we are ready to go.

1:48:30And then Daśaratha said that you know you please sit in the chariot and Sumantra would drive you and he told Sumantra you bring him back and uh and they went to and they went to They

1:48:53went in this chariot and all the people they came to the street to see Lord Rāma for the last time.

1:49:07Because before that they were looking at his face and they couldn't just, you know, usually when Lord Rāma would go through Ayodhyā, the big crowd of people would would gather around him because they just by seeing his face once they they couldn't stop s looking at his face.

1:49:25They were just following him trying to get a glimpse of his face. So now can you imagine all these people are standing along the roads of Ayodhyā and they know that they see the face of Lord Rāma for the last time.

1:49:41For the long time they will not see the face So they were crying and they were cursing the tears because the tears were muddening their vision and they couldn't see very clearly Lord Rāma. But they couldn't help.

1:49:58They were crying and they were trying to stop the tears, but the tears were coming again and again and again. And they were running behind the And they were calling Sumantra Sumantra please please drive slow.

1:50:18Don't drive so fast. We want to see Lord Rāma for the last time. Don't drive so fast. And Lord Rāma said to someone, drive fast. Drive fast. There is no use to prolong agony. What is the use of prolonging agony?

1:50:42And then but then some old brāhmaṇas who were you know who were not really be able to walk properly, they were kind of limping and they were handicapped. They couldn't come in time to see Lord Ram.

1:51:00So they started calling Lord Ram ram, ram, ram, ram, ram. You stay longer, you stay longer.

1:51:09And then Lord Rāma seeing the plight of this brāhmaṇas who were limping along the streets but couldn't mean time, he said to Sumantra: You stop, you stop the chariot, and you drive slowly, and I will go by walk.

1:51:25Let this brāhmaṇa see me. So this is this is how he is. And this last moment he's thinking about them.

1:51:37But then while driving by the palace of Daśaratha, then you know all of a sudden they already drove away already on the outskirts of Ayodhya. And Lord the King Dasaratha, Maharaja Dasaratha, he was still in his palace

1:51:58because when Lord Ram left, he fainted. And then Dasaratha When he came back to senses, he started running along the street to see Lord Rāma for the last time.

1:52:13He was running and running and running and he saw Lord Rāma and from the far away and he called Sumantra, stop. Lord Rāma was already on the chariot at that time. Hey, call Sumantra, you stop now! Stop now! Stop now!

1:52:35And Lord Rāma said to Sumantra, go fast! Go fast! What is the use? He again said the same thing. What is the use to prolong agony? How you why? He said it's sinful.

1:52:52It's the most sinful and the most foolish thing to prolong agony. I'm going to the forest. And you know Sumantra was perplexed. He said, what should I do?

1:53:05Should I follow the order of my master, or should I follow the order of Lord Ram? And he didn't know what to do. And then Lord Ram, look, this is the last thing which I will say, or maybe one of the last things.

1:53:20The Lord Rāma say, oh don't worry. You will come back and you will tell the Sūta and he will start rebuking you why you didn't follow my order. You will say, it was too noisy and I didn't hear your voice.

1:53:34Lord Rāma, who is the most truthful person in the creation, he tells Sumantra, you tell the lie. Why? Because of love. Because of love to his father, because of love to his citizens, because of love to everyone.

1:53:56He is ready, you know, he is dharma personified. Religious duty to personify. He directly tells to Sumantra. You tell the lie. To King Dasaratha when he comes back. So that's Lord Rāma.

1:54:16As it is said here, he perfectly takes this lilā-tanu, the body which is suitable for his pastimes. And every breath of his body is

1:54:34to perform these pastimes which are full of karuṇā-rasa coming due to his desire to fulfill the desires of everyone.

1:54:50And at the same time, you know he shows how Śukadeva Gosvāmī also say that this is the pastime of Lord Rāma, the one of the lessons of past times of Lord Rāma is that you try to please everyone, nobody is happy anyway.

1:55:05You behave yourself perfectly and still there are so much problems there. This life is problematic.

1:55:14But Lord Rāma, he taught us how we should live our life. We should live our life in a perfect manner, trying to perfectly follow his example. We should take all the uh all the adversities

1:55:34in our life with very sober heart, without uh you know making them uh into obstacles and we should know that the main thing in this world is love. And the only way to develop love, the only way to develop relationship

1:55:53is to follow Dharma. This is actually the main teaching of Lord Rāma. He says that the relationship is only possible when you follow dharma. The relationship between the husband and wife.

1:56:08Relationship, real relationship, not superficial relationship. If everyone follows his duty, then everyone is ready to sacrifice. You know, because duty means sacrifice.

1:56:21Duty means you're doing something which you don't want. But then when you do your duty, then the other one, the spirit of sacrifice is being invoked in another one. So the last thing which I will do.

Mood of sacrifice among divine associates

1:56:35The last thing which the last little story which I will tell is when when after 14 years and after this uh battle on uh on Lanka ultimately Lord Ram came back. And Bharat. You know, this whole Ramayana is about sacrifice.

1:57:00Ramachandra goes to the forest because he wants his father to be true to his world. He doesn't want that his reputation will be stained.

1:57:12His father, he's ready to to give everything up, you know, including his reputation, because of love to his son.

1:57:23Actually Daśaratha said when Lord Rāma came to this assembly where all the three queens were there to bid farewell to Dasharat, Dasharat said, My dear son, why don't you imprison me right now and become the king.

1:57:41This is the best way you can do now. Who will say no to you? Just put me in prison. I will be very happy sitting there in prison knowing that you are the king.

1:57:53And so Daśaratha is, he's ready to do everything for the sake of Lord Rāma. And you know this, this Lakṣmaṇa goes to the forest and Laksman didn't sleep for one moment for 14 years because during the day he was serving Lord Ram and during the night he was guarding them.

1:58:19When they went together with Viswamitramuni, Viswamitramuni gave both of them two mantras: bala and atibala. Bala means the strength to go without eating.

1:58:34And Atibala means the strengths, higher strength to go without sleeping. So Laksman had a good use of these two mantras which Vishwamitra muni gave to them, Bala and Atibala.

1:58:50So for 14 years he didn't sleep, for 14 years he was there guarding Sita and round, uh, while they were sleeping. And he was doing everything, he was building the house, he was fetching the fruits from the forest.

1:59:07And then you know Urmila. She is one of the probably most tragic and unsung heroes of the whole Rāmāyaṇa. Everyone is singing the glories of Lord Ram, of Sita. But who speaks about Urmila? Urmila, she was the only one.

1:59:30Mandavi was with Bharata, Sri Rutakirti was with Sutrugna, Sita was with Ram. Urmila was the only one who was sitting there in her palace. Her palace is there in Dick near near Vraj. And she was sitting there.

1:59:46She did not eat and she didn't sleep for fourteen years, also. She was meditating on her husband, on Lord Lakṣmaṇa. And she wouldn't, she wouldn't do anything else.

2:00:06For 14 years she was sitting there waiting for her husband.

2:00:10And Bharata, Bharata comes and Bharata, he rejects the kingdom and he goes to this Nandigrama and he sleeps in the Nandigrama, he sleeps in the in the land, in the earth.

2:00:28And she didn't—he didn't eat anything. He was only eating—he was only eating this barley soup to maintain his life somehow rather because he didn't want to be any—he said himself, I don't want to be any higher than my ha—than my brother.

2:00:50You know, this whole, whole story is about this. And then what happened for 14 years? Bharat didn't look at the face of Kaikeyī. When he came back from Gandhar, from Afghanistan, where Kaikeyī's ancestral home was.

2:01:21He came to his mother's palace and he told Kaikeyī, you know, I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore. You're not my mother. From now on I will call you Maharani Kaikhi. This is how I will call you.

2:01:43I will not call you mother. Please forgive. Please forget about me. I'm not your son. Don't call me your son. I will not call you my mother. And he didn't look at her face.

2:01:57So once during these 14 years Kaikai came to Bharata because she was she was hated by everyone. Everyone in Ayodhyā hated her. She was again and again and again going through this drama.

2:02:16So she came with tears in her eyes to Bharata and she said, My dear son, I'm living there alone. And there's only snakes and scorpions in my palace. There's nothing else.

2:02:36She meant to say that all the people who are there behaving like snakes and scorpions. They always always say something to her. She said, my dear son, can I leave my palace and live together with you?

2:02:54I will also sleep on the earth and I will also eat this parley soup which you eat, and I will I will be, you will not even notice me. Please allow me to be with you. Bharata looked at her and said, No, Mother.

2:03:12No, he didn't say mother. No, quick again. It's better for you to live in the palace because that will be the prāyaścitta, the atonement for what you did. If you try to escape the consequences of what you did now, nothing

2:03:28will happen, good will happen with you in the next life. So better you go through the sufferings. So, but the first thing which Lord Ramachandra said when he came, then all everyone greeted

2:03:40him and Bharat came and Bharata brought the sandals of Lord Ramachandra and he bowed down to Lord Ramachandra. Lord Ramachandra embraced him. The first person to whom Lord Ramachandra came was Kaikeyi.

2:04:00He didn't go to his mother. He didn't go to anyone else. He went straight to Kaikeyi. And when he came to the door of Kaikeyi's palace, he looked around and he didn't see Bharata. Because Bharata didn't want to see Kaikeyi.

2:04:23He said, I don't want to see your face. He said, Where is Bharata? Bharat greeted me, he was always with me. What happened with Bharat? Somebody said, oh no, he went away, he doesn't want to see Kaikeyi.

2:04:38And Trump said, you call Bharat here. And so somebody ran and they brought Bharat to Lord Rama. And they came to Kaikeyi. And the first thing which Lord Ramachandra said to Bharat, you bow down to your mother.

2:04:58And he himself bowed down to Kaikeyi. And Kaikeyi started crying and everyone started crying.

2:05:09Everyone was started, was crying and crying and crying because of this karuna, because of this sacrifice which is there for the sake of others. This is what Lord comes.

2:05:26And when we hear about his pastimes, then the disease of envy will vanish ultimately. We will understand that this is the most foolish thing to be envious. This is what Kaikeyi did. She was envious.

2:05:45She was slightly envious to Sita. And look what happened. This is the most stupid thing which we can do is to wish bad to others.

2:05:58We should do like Ram, not like Ravan, not like Kaikeyi, not like Manthara. We should serve others and by listening again and again and again, we will understand how glorious Lord Ram is.

2:06:19And then we will be able to appreciate properly the glories of Lord Krishna.

2:06:24We will not be able to appreciate the glories of Lord Krishna unless we understand what Lord Rama is teaching us, how to enter into relationship, how to deal with other people, how to care for other people.

2:06:40Then only we will be able to understand quite bewildering features

2:06:46of Lord Krishna's pastimes which Śukadeva Gosvāmī is about to describe to Maharaja Parikset and therefore this verse is so important nedam ya so raguatek suryatajata lilata no Radika samja di mukta dhamnah Rakshova Dhowja Ladibandanam, Astrapungahi Kimtasya Satrapanane Kapayah.

2:07:22is the real glory of Lord Ram? His real glory is that he behaved perfectly as a human being. His real strength, his real dhamna. Dhamna means glory, dhamna means power, dhamna means influence, dhamna means glow, effulgence.

2:07:45His real effulgence is that his real glory is that he is ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of others, for the sake of his devotees, and his devotees are ready to sacrifice everything for him.

2:08:04That's that's love. That's love. And the Lord comes here and performs His līlās of love in a suitable body. Sādṛśaṁ dehaiś ca Lord, as uh, Śukadeva Gosvāmī will say in the Tenth Canto.

Lessons from Ramayana and sacred chanting

2:08:30Okay, so that's that's my long class. I'm really sorry for this. Well, how should we uh read Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa?

2:09:21Śrīla Prabhupāda said that if I have time, I would translate for you Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa. He didn't have time unfortunately.

2:09:32He also said that Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa is a revealed scripture, is on the level of śruti, it reveals everything.

2:09:46So, you know, Lord Rāma's pastimes are there in the Second Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, in the seventh chapter. They are there very briefly in the First Canto of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.

2:10:00And every now and then people refer to Lord's pastimes, to Lord Rāma's pastimes.

2:10:06We should we should relish these past times, but we should really clearly understand what is the angle of how we should relish, what is the real glory of our Lord, you know, as I as I tried to say.

2:10:23So, because you know there may be various reasons why our ācāryas are very very busy with explaining Lord Krishna's pastimes.

2:10:40But actually Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī in Kṛṣṇa-sandarbha, while explaining certain elements of Krishna's līlā, very intricate elements of Krishna's līlā, he also uses this, he basically explains this story about Agni and Agni-parīkṣā and illusory Sītā, Māyā-Sītā to explain certain elements of Krishna's pastimes with gopīs.

2:11:16So our ācāryas, they very much know the intricacies and of course, Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu, He realised also Rāmāyaṇa and He especially was fond of this brāhmaṇa in South India who was doing this anukaraṇam of the past times of Lord Chaitanya, of Lord Rāma. More or less re-enacting past times of Lord Rāma.

2:11:51So they are they are very much here with us. And especially one of the teachings of Rāmāyaṇa, very important teachings of Rāmāyaṇa, is the glory of Lord Rāma's name.

2:12:06Tulsīdās says that because of Lord Rāma's name, Hanumān was able to cross the ocean. Because of the power of Lord's Lord Rāma's name, the Sītā was able to keep her chastity in the imprisonment of Rāvaṇa.

2:12:32Because of Rāma's name, all the monkeys they built a bridge towards Lanka. So one of the very important elements of Rāmāyaṇa is the glorification of the power of Rāma's name.

2:12:53In the Uttara Rāmāyaṇa there is the story about King Vīramaṇi who defeated Śatrughna himself, who snatched a sacrificial horse and defeated Śatrughna and all his associates because he was protected by Lord Shiva.

2:13:15And then Hanumān started fighting with Lord Vīramaṇi with this King Vīramaṇi and Hanumān defeated Vīramaṇi completely, smashed him, and imprisoned him.

2:13:29And then Vīramaṇi went to Lord Shiva and he said, What's going on? You're supposed to be the most powerful. And Lord Shiva said, Okay, I will fight myself with Hanumān. And then Hanumān started fighting with Lord Shiva.

2:13:45And there was a fierce battle and ultimately Hanumān he completely defeated Lord Shiva. And Lord Shiva said, I came to I came into this trouble just Just to show the world the glory of Lord's Rāma's name.

2:14:05I was fighting with Hanumān and I knew that I will be defeated because Hanumān was chanting Lord's right name, Rāma's name all the time. Therefore he defeated me.

2:14:17Therefore, so the Hanumān is to show the glory of the power of uh Rāma's name. Rāma Rāma Rāma Rāma. Hare Rāma Hare Rāma Rāma. Hare Rāma. There are two, three questions, but I will last and I can say that. Okay Okay.

2:14:38And he's asking that how can we give up our positions if it's very difficult? Like Lord Rāma. You know, he was about to be crowned. He didn't even he didn't even look.

2:14:57He said he said to Kaikeyī, Lord Rāma said to Kaikeyī, my dear mother, why did you go through the channel of my father? You could have just told me this. I would do it immediately without any hesitation.

2:15:11Why should you do this whole complicated arrangement? Just come to me and say, you go to the forest, I will go. So that you know, if we know that this is ultimately our relationship with God, not with this position.

2:15:28If we understand that our real relationship is with God, with His holy name, then all these positions will be just opportunities to serve, not opportunities to show how great I am, you know, look at me. So it's just a question of strengthening the relationship with God in the form of the holy name.

2:15:51The more strong it is, the easier for us it will be. Although there will be some pain, I know myself. There will be some pain. But you know the remedy to this is to strengthen the relationship with the Lord.

2:16:08Okay, thank you very much. Śrīla Prabhupāda-kī jī! Śrī Rāmacandra Bhagavān-kī jī! Śrī Sītā-Rāma-Lakṣmaṇa-Hanumān-kī jī!