Ramayana Chapter1. RAMA: THE CROWN PRINCE OF AYODYA
Rama, the crown prince of Ayodhya, got up from sleep with an uneasy feeling. The sky was still grey, but a floating cloud had shown up in the sky and was changing into silver, chasing the moonlight away and heralding dawn. Rama got up in haste. He wanted to avoid the daily routine of auspicious greetings by the royal bards.Of late Rama had discovered the great mystery of the solitary hours of dawn. His stepbrother Laxman would not leave him alone, because he feared that if left alone Rama would get lost in the woods; and who knows, he may really get lost without a trace. Laxman had made it his undeclared mission to guard Rama from falling into that mysterious trance which seemed to estrange him from everyone around.Rama knew Laxman’s mind very well. He knew how lonely and insecure Laxman felt in the palace without Rama. The four brothers, Rama, Bharat, Laxman and Shatrughna, used to be the delight of the household till when were children. Now that they had stepped into adolescence, they found that the world was changing for them.Rama was the eldest of them. Born to Kausalya, he had learnt to give more than he received, because something of his mother’s magnanimity had been inculcated into him since childhood. Laxman and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra, the most detached of Dasharatha’s three queens. As far as Rama remembered, the two of them, Rama and Laxman, spent the best part of their day in the inner sanctum of Kausalya, and following Rama, Laxman also used to cling to Kausalya for everything he needed. Sumitra had trusted both her sons, Laxman and Shatrughna to Kausalya because she knew Kausalya to be the most fair-minded and unselfish among the three of them.It was a very different story with Kaikeyi, the mother of Bharat. Her father was a powerful king who ruled over a very mighty tribe known for their physical prowess and fiery temperament. Besides her ravishing beauty, Kaikeyi was also blessed with a winsome smile behind which was concealed an extremely sharp and perceptive intellect. For some reason, not known to his children, Dasharatha was as if held hostage by her. Kaikeyi, who took pride in her marital conquest, had nothing but contempt and disdain for her co-wives: Kausalya and Sumitra.Rama, and especially Laxman, had grown up under a shadow of fear which they failed to recognize till they gained sufficient understanding of the intriguing relationship that existed between their father and Kaikeyi. A silent reign of terror prevailed in the palace. It was palpable now. Kaikeyi held both Rama and Laxman in silent disdain. She had never allowed her own son Bharat to mingle with his stepbrothers. Ever since the boys learnt to distinguish relationships in the family, it became clear to them that Bharat had a privileged position in the royal household even though early on Bharat had been taken away from the family by his maternal grandfather to be brought up with special care and privilege to fulfill his destiny.Kaikeyi considered it to be a great misfortune for her son to be born younger than Rama. She was determined to see her son crowned as king, if not of Ayodhya, he could certainly claim the throne of her father’s kingdom. But if possible, she would rather see him rule over both kingdoms.None of the four princes, however, was seized by any such ambition, and Bharat least of all.On that morning, Rama remembered that he was going to meet the strange hermit in the neighboring woods. When Rama reached the solitary dwelling place of the hermit in the heart of the woods, it was already late in the morning. The hermit was not the one who would wait for a prince to show up. A little delay here and there and Rama would be greeted by the silent walls of the hut where the hermit had camped these days.Rama donned a robe perfunctorily and freaked out surreptitiously. He was surprised to find that the hermit was very much there. In fact he seemed to be waiting for Rama.They were strange pals: a prince and a hermit. The hermit happened to be a little older than Rama. It was a bond of a slight interest each had in the other: a casual, amused condescension on the part of the hermit, and an earnest, inquiring spirit on the part of the prince.The hermit noticed that Rama was weighed down by that unnamable unrest which is the perennial destiny of all men. He was watering the plants in the courtyard which had gone without water the whole of the previous evening. He looked alternately at Rama’s pale, distraught face and the plants which were instantly responding to the water sinking to their roots. Rama also watched, taking in the fresh breath of life with the rejuvenated plants.The hermit had stayed on in the woods for longer than his wont. It was time for him to move on now. But everything over here held him back, especially Rama. There was infinite peace in Rama’s aura. It was as if he had brought that peace here on earth from somewhere far away.The hermit wanted Rama to speak. Rama stared vacantly at the walls of the hut.“Why is the prince silent today?” asked the hermit.Rama laughed and said, “Prince, indeed! I hate that epithet. One day they will find this man they call prince, lost in the woods, leaving behind only the memory of a name! A name: that is what I am, in spite of all this paraphernalia of princehood!”The hermit smiled. “Yes, you will leave behind a name. It will be a name that will not be a token of any human identity though.”Rama laughed. “I half understand what you mean. Like everyone else around me, you too have begun to fall under that hypnotic illusion called destiny. Tell me precisely, how can one escape what they call destiny?”The hermit said, “Right now you are held by your obligations.”“What are they?”Asked Rama. The hermit smiled skeptically. “Are you feigning innocence, or are you ignorant? As sure as the sun rises and sets, you are obliged to fulfill your duties towards your parents, your dynasty and your people. Your way leads you back to the palace. Before the sun reaches the peak, you must be back in the palace”Rama said, “I would rather be away in the woods, away from the suffocating anxieties of the palace. Do I not have the freedom to choose?”“Princes do not have the freedom to choose, Rama. They have a mission”.“Then I will choose to be free from the obligations of princehood”.The hermit watched the prince in the bright sunlight. The prince’s brow was saddened by a dark shadow of despondency.The hermit asked, “What do you want to do to escape?”Rama said, “Renounce the claim to the throne of Ayodhya and disappear in the woods, vanish forever from the eyes of all and merge with the vast tide of time that is carrying you and me and everyone along. I am not indispensable. Any one of my brothers is capable of running this inheritance.”The hermit looked at Rama and absorbed his words in silence.“You are speaking out of disgust. When disgust dictates your speech and actions, be wary,” said the hermit.“Wary of what?” asked Rama.“Disgust depletes your power,” said the hermit.“I am in no need of power; I have been taught how to wield power all along since my childhood,” said Rama.The hermit said nothing. Rama watched him for signs of skepticism. The hermit realized that Rama sought an answer.“True, you are in no need of power,” said the hermit.Rama looked at the hermit warily to watch for signs of sarcasm. But the hermit was searching for words.“You may renounce the kingdom, but you cannot renounce power,” said the hermit.Rama brooded over this. The hermit was in a trance. He spoke undistracted as Rama listened.“You are suffering from loss. It is the loss of memory of what you own; loss of memory of who you are! Akasha, the eternal memory, is the keeper of the forgotten. There, in the Akasha, nothing is lost, nothing is forgotten. You have a mission, Rama!”The hermit stopped. He was still not out of the trance. Rama watched him in utter silence. He experienced a strange kind of freedom in that moment while the hermit was immersed in trance.The hermit spoke.“You cannot flee from your mission. Your freedom is not what you imagine it to be. Cast away the illusion of freedom. Your freedom is in your inner strength, not in renunciation. Be free to make use of your strength. Your strength is your power. You don’t have to acquire it. You have forgotten what you possess. The path of destiny is inscrutable to your human eye.”The hermit remained in the trance for a little longer. When he opened his eyes, Rama asked him anxiously, “What is my mission?”The hermit said, “You will know it soon. Those who are appointed to aid you in your mission are holding to life only to meet you and discharge their duty. They have been waiting for you.”Rama looked at the hermit in astonishment.“Are you one of them?”He asked.The hermit did not answer the question. Instead, he looked into the space and said, “I will meet you hence only after you have fulfilled your mission.”Rama got up to take leave of the hermit.When he returned to meet the hermit the next day, the cottage was deserted.
Rama, the crown prince of Ayodhya, got up from sleep with an uneasy feeling. The sky was still grey, but a floating cloud had shown up in the sky and was changing into silver, chasing the moonlight away and heralding dawn. Rama got up in haste. He wanted to avoid the daily routine of auspicious greetings by the royal bards.Of late Rama had discovered the great mystery of the solitary hours of dawn. His stepbrother Laxman would not leave him alone, because he feared that if left alone Rama would get lost in the woods; and who knows, he may really get lost without a trace. Laxman had made it his undeclared mission to guard Rama from falling into that mysterious trance which seemed to estrange him from everyone around.Rama knew Laxman’s mind very well. He knew how lonely and insecure Laxman felt in the palace without Rama. The four brothers, Rama, Bharat, Laxman and Shatrughna, used to be the delight of the household till when were children. Now that they had stepped into adolescence, they found that the world was changing for them.Rama was the eldest of them. Born to Kausalya, he had learnt to give more than he received, because something of his mother’s magnanimity had been inculcated into him since childhood. Laxman and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra, the most detached of Dasharatha’s three queens. As far as Rama remembered, the two of them, Rama and Laxman, spent the best part of their day in the inner sanctum of Kausalya, and following Rama, Laxman also used to cling to Kausalya for everything he needed. Sumitra had trusted both her sons, Laxman and Shatrughna to Kausalya because she knew Kausalya to be the most fair-minded and unselfish among the three of them.It was a very different story with Kaikeyi, the mother of Bharat. Her father was a powerful king who ruled over a very mighty tribe known for their physical prowess and fiery temperament. Besides her ravishing beauty, Kaikeyi was also blessed with a winsome smile behind which was concealed an extremely sharp and perceptive intellect. For some reason, not known to his children, Dasharatha was as if held hostage by her. Kaikeyi, who took pride in her marital conquest, had nothing but contempt and disdain for her co-wives: Kausalya and Sumitra.Rama, and especially Laxman, had grown up under a shadow of fear which they failed to recognize till they gained sufficient understanding of the intriguing relationship that existed between their father and Kaikeyi. A silent reign of terror prevailed in the palace. It was palpable now. Kaikeyi held both Rama and Laxman in silent disdain. She had never allowed her own son Bharat to mingle with his stepbrothers. Ever since the boys learnt to distinguish relationships in the family, it became clear to them that Bharat had a privileged position in the royal household even though early on Bharat had been taken away from the family by his maternal grandfather to be brought up with special care and privilege to fulfill his destiny.Kaikeyi considered it to be a great misfortune for her son to be born younger than Rama. She was determined to see her son crowned as king, if not of Ayodhya, he could certainly claim the throne of her father’s kingdom. But if possible, she would rather see him rule over both kingdoms.None of the four princes, however, was seized by any such ambition, and Bharat least of all.On that morning, Rama remembered that he was going to meet the strange hermit in the neighboring woods. When Rama reached the solitary dwelling place of the hermit in the heart of the woods, it was already late in the morning. The hermit was not the one who would wait for a prince to show up. A little delay here and there and Rama would be greeted by the silent walls of the hut where the hermit had camped these days.Rama donned a robe perfunctorily and freaked out surreptitiously. He was surprised to find that the hermit was very much there. In fact he seemed to be waiting for Rama.They were strange pals: a prince and a hermit. The hermit happened to be a little older than Rama. It was a bond of a slight interest each had in the other: a casual, amused condescension on the part of the hermit, and an earnest, inquiring spirit on the part of the prince.The hermit noticed that Rama was weighed down by that unnamable unrest which is the perennial destiny of all men. He was watering the plants in the courtyard which had gone without water the whole of the previous evening. He looked alternately at Rama’s pale, distraught face and the plants which were instantly responding to the water sinking to their roots. Rama also watched, taking in the fresh breath of life with the rejuvenated plants.The hermit had stayed on in the woods for longer than his wont. It was time for him to move on now. But everything over here held him back, especially Rama. There was infinite peace in Rama’s aura. It was as if he had brought that peace here on earth from somewhere far away.The hermit wanted Rama to speak. Rama stared vacantly at the walls of the hut.“Why is the prince silent today?” asked the hermit.Rama laughed and said, “Prince, indeed! I hate that epithet. One day they will find this man they call prince, lost in the woods, leaving behind only the memory of a name! A name: that is what I am, in spite of all this paraphernalia of princehood!”The hermit smiled. “Yes, you will leave behind a name. It will be a name that will not be a token of any human identity though.”Rama laughed. “I half understand what you mean. Like everyone else around me, you too have begun to fall under that hypnotic illusion called destiny. Tell me precisely, how can one escape what they call destiny?”The hermit said, “Right now you are held by your obligations.”“What are they?”Asked Rama. The hermit smiled skeptically. “Are you feigning innocence, or are you ignorant? As sure as the sun rises and sets, you are obliged to fulfill your duties towards your parents, your dynasty and your people. Your way leads you back to the palace. Before the sun reaches the peak, you must be back in the palace”Rama said, “I would rather be away in the woods, away from the suffocating anxieties of the palace. Do I not have the freedom to choose?”“Princes do not have the freedom to choose, Rama. They have a mission”.“Then I will choose to be free from the obligations of princehood”.The hermit watched the prince in the bright sunlight. The prince’s brow was saddened by a dark shadow of despondency.The hermit asked, “What do you want to do to escape?”Rama said, “Renounce the claim to the throne of Ayodhya and disappear in the woods, vanish forever from the eyes of all and merge with the vast tide of time that is carrying you and me and everyone along. I am not indispensable. Any one of my brothers is capable of running this inheritance.”The hermit looked at Rama and absorbed his words in silence.“You are speaking out of disgust. When disgust dictates your speech and actions, be wary,” said the hermit.“Wary of what?” asked Rama.“Disgust depletes your power,” said the hermit.“I am in no need of power; I have been taught how to wield power all along since my childhood,” said Rama.The hermit said nothing. Rama watched him for signs of skepticism. The hermit realized that Rama sought an answer.“True, you are in no need of power,” said the hermit.Rama looked at the hermit warily to watch for signs of sarcasm. But the hermit was searching for words.“You may renounce the kingdom, but you cannot renounce power,” said the hermit.Rama brooded over this. The hermit was in a trance. He spoke undistracted as Rama listened.“You are suffering from loss. It is the loss of memory of what you own; loss of memory of who you are! Akasha, the eternal memory, is the keeper of the forgotten. There, in the Akasha, nothing is lost, nothing is forgotten. You have a mission, Rama!”The hermit stopped. He was still not out of the trance. Rama watched him in utter silence. He experienced a strange kind of freedom in that moment while the hermit was immersed in trance.The hermit spoke.“You cannot flee from your mission. Your freedom is not what you imagine it to be. Cast away the illusion of freedom. Your freedom is in your inner strength, not in renunciation. Be free to make use of your strength. Your strength is your power. You don’t have to acquire it. You have forgotten what you possess. The path of destiny is inscrutable to your human eye.”The hermit remained in the trance for a little longer. When he opened his eyes, Rama asked him anxiously, “What is my mission?”The hermit said, “You will know it soon. Those who are appointed to aid you in your mission are holding to life only to meet you and discharge their duty. They have been waiting for you.”Rama looked at the hermit in astonishment.“Are you one of them?”He asked.The hermit did not answer the question. Instead, he looked into the space and said, “I will meet you hence only after you have fulfilled your mission.”Rama got up to take leave of the hermit.When he returned to meet the hermit the next day, the cottage was deserted.
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