SRI RAMACHARITRA MANJARI

(Sri Hari agrees to take birth on earth to save deities and all deities too follow suit, as ordained by Lord Brahma. Please read, comment and share. SDN)

The fact that Lord Brahma, Indra and other deities, who had all been tortured by Ravana, appealed to Sri Hari to protect them, has been mentioned as follows: “RAvaNAdirAkShasapeeDitabrahmAdidEvaihi prArThitaha|” It is therefore clear that the demons were causing a lot of trouble to Indra and all other deities, who were subordinate to him or who belonged to a lower strata or cadre. However, Lord Brahma and Lord Rudra were not troubled. They were perturbed because of the trouble that other deities were subjected to by Ravana and others.

Lord Sri Hari immediately assured Lord Brahma and others that he would soon relieve all of them, including righteous and culture-bound human beings on earth and summoned a deity, who had a portion of the divine power of Lord Brahma and told him: “You should emerge from the sacrificial fire that Dasharatha has lit, handover the bowl containing the sweet gruel to Dasharatha, make his wives consume it and inform them that they would soon become pregnant by consuming the gruel.” The deity took permission of Sri Hari, disappeared from the Vaikuntha, presented himself from out of the sacrificial fire, handed over the Payasa to Dasharatha and conveyed the message that Sri Hari told him to. Dasharatha gave half of the quantity of what was there in the bowl to Kausalya, gave half of what remained to his third wife called Sumitra, another half the quantity of what remained to Kaikeyi and gave the remaining quantity again to Sumitra. The three wives who drank it became pregnant.

Meanwhile, Lord Brahma summoned all the deities and said: “Even though there is no personal use, Lord Sri Hari has agreed to descend on earth for our sake. Simultaneously, you should all take birth from female animals like monkey and bears and serve him. This is your duty. I cannot take any birth on earth. Even then, some time ago, when I yawned, the manifestation of Dharma took birth from my mouth and he is called as Jambavanta. I will be present in his body and serve Lord Hari in that form. You should execute the task at your hands too, diligently.” Accordingly, all the deities took birth from female monkeys and bears to serve Lord Hari.