SRI RAMACHARITRA MANJARI

(In this edition, transformation of Vishwamitra from being Kshatriya into a Brahmin is explained. Please read, comment and share. SDN)

The substantiation about the distinction between the body of Lord Sri Rama and the bodies of Lakshmana, Bharata and and Shatrughna has been indicated in the word “PrajAtaha” in which the syllable “JA” means one who took the incarnation well. The letter “pra” in the original expression further points to “PrAdurBhUtaha”.

Readers may be wondering at the length of this explanation for the first stanza of Ramacharitrya Manjari. Unless all this explanation is given, the hidden meaning of the stanza will remain lost and therefore, late Sri P.P. Lakshminarayana Upadhyaya has provided this great insight into the story to make the work of Sri Raghavendra Swamy a very comprehensive one.

In this first stanza, Sri Raghavendra Rayaru has said: “NeetO VishwAmitrENa mantrAhruedanusanjAta…”, which can be written in direct or prose style as : “Atha VishwAmitrENa anujasahitaha neetaha”, which is further elaborated as: “TadA VishwAmitraha RAmAvatAram shrutwA DasharaThagruham prAptavAn| Atha RAmaha DasharaThEna anujnAtaha salakkshmaNaha VishwAmitrENa neeyamAnaha| This means: Then, having learnt about the incarnation of Vishnu as Sri Rama, sage Vishwamitra reached the palace of Dasharatha. Later, Sri Rama secured the direction from Dasharatha to accompany sage Vishwamitra, along with his younger brother Lakshmana.

This simple statement projects us to explore and know something more about sage Vishwamitra.

In the dynasty of Moon (Chandravamsha) was born a king named Gadhi. Due to the blessings and grace of his son-in-law Rucheeka, a Rishi, a son called Vishwamitra was born to Gadhi. Being a very strong king, Vishwamitra went on a glorious expedition and reached the Ashram of Vasishtha during the course of that expedition. Sage Vasishtha, with the assistance of Kamadhenu, a celestial cow, hosted a very good party to Vishwamitra and his huge army. Having come to know the extraordinary and mystic power of Kamadhenu, Vishwamitra forced sage Vasishtha to part with it. When Vasishtha refused, Vishwamitra stole Kamadhenu, which produced an army with its divine power and crushed the entire army of Vishwamitra. The army produced by Kamadhenu also destroyed the one hundred children of Vishwamitra. Vanquished Vishwamitra did a fierce penance to invoke Lord Rudra and secured Brahmastra and other lethal Astras from the Lord. Vishwamitra fired those Astras at Vasishtha, who transferred the power of his penance into a club and placed it in front of himself. The club destroyed all the Astras fired by Vishwamitra. Realising that the power of a Brahmin is greater, Vishwamitra did a penance for one thousand years in praise of Lord Brahma, seeking to be converted into a Brahmin. Lord Brahma, who appeared in front of Vishwamitra, just said “You have become a Rajarishi”. Realising that he had not yet attained Brahminhood, dissatisfied Vishwamitra again did  penance. (To be continued)