The Book of RAM Read online

  O Infinite One

  How does one worship you?

  Do we praise your deeds?

  Or do we recite the scriptures?

  —From Bhaye Prakat Kripala of the sixteenth-century saint Tulsidas

  Between destiny and desire

  Before Ram, Dashratha had a daughter by Kaushalya. Her name was Shanta. Shanta’s story is not found in Valmiki’s Ramayana but can be pieced together from bits of information scattered across the Mahabharata and other regional retellings of Ram’s tale.

  Rishyashringa’s curse

  Angry with the clouds that had released rain and made him wet, a Rishi called Rishyashringa forbade the clouds from releasing any more rain. Rishyashringa could do this because he practiced tapasya, or absolute restraint of the senses, which included celibacy. In fact, so intense was his tapasya, that he had never seen a woman in his entire life. The resulting tapa or spiritual heat that he generated gave him siddhi or magical powers with which he could subvert the laws of nature. The only way to put an end to the drought that followed Rishyashringa’s curse was to get him married. ‘So long as he has no knowledge of women, the drought will continue,’ the gods told a local king called Lompada. But Lompada had no daughter who could turn this hermit into a householder. So he turned to Dashratha, king of Ayodhya, who allowed Lompada to adopt his daughter, Shanta. Succeeding in arousing Rishyashringa’s curiosity, Shanta made him her husband and with that the rains returned to Lompada’s kingdom once more.

  The story of Shanta and Rishyashringa is significant because it transforms the Ramayana into a householder’s epic. It does not look down upon the material world. In fact, it frowns upon monastic practices that reject all things worldly.

  The world may be ever-changing and full of uncertainties, but walking away is not the answer. World-rejection, according to the epic, is dangerous and destructive. That is why the rains fall and the earth blooms only when Rishyashringa embraces a woman and becomes a husband. It is this stance of the Ramayana that has led to its classification as iti-hasa which literally translated means ‘so-it-was, is and will be’. The Ramayana reflects on the problem of the human condition, of how desire and destiny make the world impermanent and tragic. It also offers the solution by showing us how to live a spiritually fulfilled life through responsible conduct.

  Though Dashratha seems to have fathered Shanta without any difficulty, he is unable to father any more children. Dharma insists that a man must father a son and continue his lineage and that a king must produce an heir for the throne. A desperate Dashratha therefore marries a second and a third time. When despite his numerous marriages he remains bereft of a male heir, he decides to perform a yagna and compel the gods to give him a child to carry the line of the solar-kings forward. The Rishi who is called to perform the yagna is none other than Rishyashringa, subtly implying that the Rishi’s tapasya not only caused the drought in Lompada’s kingdom, but also the barrenness in Dashratha’s household. Rishyashringa’s yagna gives sons to Dashratha, just as his marriage gave rains to Lompada.

  Three wives and a yagna

  Kaushalya was Dashratha’s first wife. After bearing him a daughter, Shanta, she gave birth to no more children. So Dashratha married Kaikeyi, princess of Kekaya. It was foretold that Kaikeyi would bear a great son and her father gave her hand in marriage to Dashratha only after Dashratha promised that Kaikeyi’s son would be his heir. Unfortunately, Kaikeyi did not bear any children, let alone sons. Finally, Dashratha married a third time. But even the third queen, Sumitra, bore no children. A frustrated and desperate Dashratha decided to perform a yagna that would please the Devas and compel them to give him a son, one who would follow him to the throne. So, the sage Rishyashringa was invited and he performed an elaborate yagna. As the yagna drew to a close, a celestial being rose from the fire-pit. Dark and dressed in red, he offered Dashratha a vessel containing a celestial potion. ‘Offer this to your wives and they will bear divine sons,’ said the being before disappearing. A very happy Dashratha, immediately rushed to his wives and divided the magic potion between his senior queen, Kaushalya, and his favourite queen, Kaikeyi. Both of them divided their share and gave one half each to Sumitra, the junior queen. As a result, the three queens gave birth to four sons. Vasishtha named Kaushalya’s son, Ram, Kaikeyi’s son, Bharata, and Sumitra’s twins, Lakshman and Shatrughna. Lakshman born from the share given by Kaushalya to Sumitra grew up devoted to Ram while Shatrughna born from the share given by Kaikeyi to Sumitra grew up devoted to Bharata.

  The yagna represents Dashratha’s refusal to surrender to a childless fate and is a choreographed expression of Dashratha’s intense desire to be a father. The Ramayana thus reveals a potent force governing samsara—kama or desire. Desire transforms Rishyashringa from hermit to householder. Desire causes rain to fall. Desire makes Dashratha a father.

  But while desire is necessary, it is also destructive. It is desire that makes Dashratha give two boons to his favourite queen, the beautiful Kaikeyi, which results in the exile of Ram. The entire Ramayana anchors itself on the story of Dashratha offering Kaikeyi two boons. Had this not happened, there would have been no exile of Ram, no abduction of Sita and no war with Ravana. Ram would have been just one of the many kings of the illustrious Surya-vamsa or solar dynasty.

  Two boons

  On the eve of Ram’s coronation, Dashratha learnt that his favourite queen Kaikeyi had locked herself in the chamber of despair. He rushed to her side and found her wailing, rolling on the ground, hair unbound, bereft of flowers and jewels. ‘Give me the two boons you promised me long ago,’ she said. ‘Make my son, Bharata, king of Ayodhya and order Ram to live as a hermit in the forest for fourteen years.’

  Why does Dashratha give Kaikeyi this boon in the first place? Was it just a whim, the desire to please his beloved, or a sense of obligation when she saved his life in battle?

  Kaikeyi to the rescue

  Kaikeyi once joined Dashratha on his war chariot when the Devas summoned him to join them in their fight with the Asuras. In the middle of this battle, the axle of the chariot broke. The chariot would have surely toppled but for Kaikeyi’s timely intervention. She leaned over the side of the chariot and used her arm to replace the broken axle. Dashratha was so grateful to Kaikeyi that he offered her two boons, anything she wished. Kaikeyi told her husband that she would ask for these boons at an appropriate time.

  Dashratha feels so indebted by Kaikeyi’s actions that he lavishes her with affection by offering to give her whatever she desires. She desires nothing, she clarifies, content to save her husband’s life. ‘But when you do, I will grant it to you. Not one, but two wishes,’ says Dashratha, indulgently. The Ramayana holds this lack of royal discipline as the root cause of turmoil.

  Years later, after Manthara, the maid, stokes the flames of insecurity and ambition, Kaikeyi finally asks for her boons.

  Manthara’s tirade

  Kaikeyi’s maid, Manthara, was furious when she learnt that Ram was to be crowned king, and that too when Bharata was away at his maternal uncle’s home. Had Kaikeyi’s father not given Kaikeyi’s hand in marriage only after Dashratha assured him that her son would follow him to the throne? Incensed, she strode into Kaikeyi’s chambers only to find the queen celebrating the news of Ram’s coronation. ‘He is like my own son,’ Kaikeyi said. Manthara beat her chest, banged her head against the wall and spat out all the venom in her heart. At the end of her tirade, Kaikeyi was convinced that her husband had wronged her. When her husband would depart to the forest, she, the palace favourite, and her son would be at the mercies of Ram and his mother. Having finally made her mistress see her way, Manthara advised Kaikeyi on how she could remedy the situation.

  Manthara symbolizes the dark side of kama or desire and how it breeds unhappiness, suspicion and anxiety. She casts aspersions on Dashratha’s integrity: why was the coronation taking place while Bharata was away at his maternal uncle’s house? Given this, Kaikeyi’s first boon, that Bharata should be