Hari Om.
Let us begin the one hundred eighth sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The hermitage of rAma was the venue for the mission of bharata. Ever since he was hurriedly summoned to ayOdhyA, he had been copping suspicion, dejection and guilt due to his mother’s thoughtless act. But he overcame all that and with a clear and committed mind, set out on mission mode to bring rAma back to ayOdhyA. He went there accompanied by a large army and citizens. In their presence, bharata argued the case for rAma to be the king as per the traditions of the ikshvAku clan. He was clear that their father transgressed dharma in banishing rAma as per the words of his wife and hence bharata wanted rAma to undo the wrong committed by their father and be a good son! On his part rAma believed that they both ought to do what they have been asked to by their father and thus ensure his word was kept. Both brothers appeared to be making the right points. The citizens hailed bharata for his pleadings and echoed the sentiments expressed by him. However rAma was unrelenting! He made after-life points of how the departed ones depend on their sons to redeem them from a certain hell named puth which they could incur due to their acts. The son by virtue of fulfilling their promises delivers them from hell and hence both he and bharata were to ensure that daSaratha didn’t meet such a fate in his after life. Therefore bharata should return to ayOdhyA and he should continue in the forest for fourteen years. The ayOdhyA citizens witnessing this debate were torn between thrill and grief. Thrill at the commitment of rAma for dharma and grief due to him not yielding to the pleadings and returning to ayOdhyA. It was time for others to pick up the thread and convince rAma. Onwards…
As rAma was consoling bharata thus, the sage jAbAli, an eminent brAhmin who was in the council of ministers of daSaratha took the thread of discussion and addressed rAma – “Very well O rAghava, let your intellect be not subjected to such meaningless sentiments. You are thinking like a common man! Who is whose friend or relation and who gets anything at all from whom? Man is indeed born alone and dies alone. The one who feels such and such is my mother and father and takes the relationship to heart is to be considered a mad fellow. No one belongs to anyone (in this world)!
A traveler goes to another village and lives there in a house and then the next day after his work is done, he moves on. That’s all. Similarly mother, father and wealth are such facilitators for a man and nothing more than that. This is how the wise think, O kakutstha (rAma)! You ought not abandon the paternal kingdom that comes to you as your right and instead tread a dreadful and thorny path. Return to ayOdhyA and crown yourself the king. The city awaits you like a woman eagerly awaiting her husband. Go and indulge in royal luxuries in ayOdhyA and live like indra in the heavens.
The king daSaratha and you are two individuals. He was nobody to you and you are nobody to him. In fact, for a living being, the only contribution of father is his blood in the form of semen which enters the womb of the mother and during favorable time takes the shape of the fetus and in due course the man is born. The king daSaratha has gone where he had to. That is how all mortals end up. You are unnecessarily brooding over it and subjecting yourself to difficulties.
I pity those who in the name of dharma ignore everything else in this world. What do they gain in the end, death does end their lives too. Look at these people who offer food to the deceased in the ceremonies; it is such a waste of enormous quantities of food! Will the dead ever consume food? If indeed, the food you offer in this world fills the hunger of someone in another world, then such a SrAdhha ceremony can be performed for someone who is traveling away from home! Will the food so offered fill the stomach of the traveler?
Such rituals have been laid down by intellectuals in order to cultivate a habit of charity in people. Hence they exhort people to give charity, perform yajna, undertake vows, renounce the desires etc. Therefore O rAma, do as I say, embrace the one that is visible and perceptible. Leave these imperceptible and intangible things behind.
Therefore agree to this proposal of the wise and accept the offering of bharata and take the kingdom and be happy.
Here we conclude the one hundred eighth sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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Next: 2.109. jAbAli incurs rAma’s righteous wrath
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 