Hari Om.
Let us begin the one hundred tenth sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Sage jAbAli took the mantle from prince bharata to coax rAma in all ways possible to give up his righteous resolve to honor the word of his father. He seemed to get a bit carried away by the occasion and invoked individualism and atheism to impress upon rAma that he need not feel too touchy about honoring the word given to the deceased father and should return giving into the popular demand and indulge in the royal luxuries! For sure, he touched a totally wrong chord here with rAma to take the convenient option of honoring bharata’s request and looking the other way as far as the word to father is concerned. Although enraged rAma rebutted this with great poise and dignity and underscored the importance of truth and the importance of keeping the word. He said that the whole was indeed established in truth and the kingdom was no exception to it. He increased the tempo of his argument gradually and finally he condemned the suggestion of jAbAli in no uncertain terms saying his was a huge fall from grace. Usually very respectful of his father, he disapproved even his father’s decision to have such an atheist in the council of ministers! This shook jAbAli and meekly he replied that he wasn’t an atheist but just utilized the arguments to coax him to return and take the mantle at ayOdhyA.
This is a great demonstration of rAma’s articulation. He could have berated jAbAli for his suggestion right away. But he patiently rebutted his arguments and only after that he condemned his suggestions. Onwards…
Sensing that rAma was angry at jAbAli for his suggestion, sage vasisTha intervened and put a word in support of him! He said even jAbAli was aware of the ways of the world and that he invoked this line of argument only to ensure rAma’s return to ayOdhyA. Then the chief preceptor said, listen to me about the historical perspective from the beginning of the world –
“In the very beginning there was water everywhere and the earth emerged from that. The self-manifested brahma along with the gods came into being. He assumed the form of the boar and rescued the earth from the waters and proliferated the world with his progeny.
Lord brahma is self-manifest and eternal. To him was born marici whose son was kASyapa. His son was vivasvAn whose son was manu, also known as prajApati. ikshvAku was the son manu.
That ikshvAku was the first king who duly ruled over ayOdhya and his son was the famous king kukshi. He begot vikukshi whose son was the formidable bANa. His son was anaraNya during whose reign there was no famine or no fear of burglary in the kingdom. Such anaraNya begot triSanku. That triSanku by virtue of his virtues ascended heaven bodily. pRthu was the son of triSanku. His son was the renowned dundumAra who begot yuvanASwa whose son was king mAndhAta. His son was susandhi who was blessed with dhruvasandhi and prasEnajit as his two sons. dhruvasandhi‘s son was the illustrious bharata who begot asita. King asita was upstaged by powerful rival kings. He was defeated and exiled in the bhRgu prasravaNa mountains by the powerful enemy kings belonging to the hEhaya, tALajangha and SaSibindu dynasties. The king along with his ministers took shelter in the mountains and he had two wives. They became expectant. Legend says that one of them got jealous of the other and gave poison to to destroy the embryo.
During those times a sage chyavana of the bhRgu clan liked to stay on those pleasant mountains. During one of his stays, asita’s wife kAlindi who was poisoned approached him and sought his blessings. Sage chyavana blessed her and said, grieve not, a glorious son will be born to you and he will be unaffected by the poison tried on him. By the grace of the sage, the chaste lady kAlindi gave birth to a son, in spite of being poisoned by her co-wife. Since the son was born with the poison he was named sagara (sa means with and gara means poison).
sagara‘s son was asamanja who was banished from the kingdom due to his bad conduct with the citizens. His son was anSumAn. dilIpa was his son and the man of the ganga-fame bhagiratha was the son of dilIpa.
kakuthstha was the son of dilIpa whose son was raghu. Being the descendants of king raghu you are all known as rAghAvas. His son was pravRdhha (also known as purushAdaka and kalmAshapAda) and he begot SankhaNa. He begot sudarSana whose son was agnivarNa. His son was Sighraga who begot maru. King maru’s son was praSuSRka whose son was the fanous king ambarISa.
[the names kakuthstha and rAghava are often used to refer to rAma and his brothers in the epic]
Lord of the land nahusha was the son of ambarISa and he begot yayAti. nAbhAga was the son of yayAti. King aja was the son of nAbhAga and our present king daSaratha was born to aja.
O rAma, you are the eldest son of king daSaratha’s and famous all over. You are the heir-apparent and rightfully you should occupy the throne, O king! In the glorious lineage of the ikshvAkus, the eldest is always crowned the king and while the eldest is alive, the younger cannot assume the throne.
क्ष्वाकूणां हि सर्वेषां राजा भवति पूर्वजः।
पूर्वजे नापरः पुत्रो ज्येष्ठो राज्येऽभिषिच्यते।।2.110.35।।
O illustrious Rama, you should not abandon the ancient tradition of the raghus. Assume the mantle of this kingdom like your father and rule over this earth filled with treasures.
Here we conclude the one hundred tenth 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: 2.111. I shall rule upon my return
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 