Hari Om.
Let us begin the thirty sixth sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
As rAma, sItA and lakshmaNa come to bid good bye to daSaratha, the king sees them in the assembly with all his kin. He is absolutely devastated and requests rAma to at least stay back for a night and leave for the forest next morning. But rAma takes none of it. He is an absolute stickler to dharma and knowing that as long as he is around there in ayOdhyA it is bound to see unrest, he resolves to leave that very moment and tells the king that one has to earn the merit of every day by constant effort! Minister sumantra is aghast to see his master suffer thus. Having known the heart of the king, he launches a thunderous verbal assault on kaikEyI. One would be shocked at the kind of words he uses against a queen. That really proves his unquestionable loyalty to the kingdom of ikshvAkus and he earned that respect of everyone by his thorough knowledge of the tradition and history and timely recapitulation of the same to address situations. He has no hestitation in calling kaikEyI’s mother crooked and calls her also so! But at the end of his assault, there was hardly any reaction in the face of kaikEyI let alone any remorse! With that rAma is closer to the forest than ever. Onwards…
The desolate daSaratha tormented by his own promise said these words to sumantra – “O sumantra, let the four fold forces of my army fully equipped with arms and wealth follow my son rAghava. Let the procession to the forest be accompanied by well spoken courtesans and affluent merchants along with their merchandise. Confer wealth on the dependents of rAma and make them join this procession. Let citizens follow him in carts and let forest rangers that are experts in navigating the forests be part of the entourage. Hunting at will in the forest and indulging in the pristine forest produces rAma will not even remember the kingdom. Let my entire granary and treasury be at the disposal of rAma such that he happily spends his time in the forest in the company of sages performing yajnas and gives away wealth abundantly in charity. While the mighty bharata rules over ayOdhyA, let rAma have an enjoyable stay in the forests”.
At this offer that the king made, kaikEyI turned pale and her voice choked! She turned to the king and protested that bharata shall not rule over a country bereft of its men and empty coffers. Such a kingdom would be wine that has lost it’s essence! On hearing these terrible and uninhibited words of kaikEyI, King daSaratha was livid. He fumed – “first you tied me to the yoke and when I am pulling you are lashing at me. You wicked woman, why couldn’t you prevent me in the beginning itself”.
At this, kaikEyI was doubly incensed and angrily retorted that just like emperor sagara banished his eldest son asamanja, rAma should also be treated likewise! At this extremely shameless plug, the king and others in the assembly could just say – “shame (on you)” for such an absurd comparison between asamanja and rAma. But kaikEyI would understand none of this.
Then the old and wise minister sidhArta, much respected by the king interjected – “kaikEyI, do you know, the wicked asamnaja used to take away the children from streets of ayOdhyA and throw them away in river sarayu and made glee as they drowned. The enraged citizens served ultimatum to the king to choose between his son asamanja or the citizens. The king sagara was perplexed at this outburst of the citizens. He enquired the reasons. Then they narrated the wicked and perverted deeds of his son. On hearing this, the king at once banished asamanja from his kingdom by placing him and his wife on a cart with nothing other than what they had on their body at that time and caused happiness to the citizens. That prince, led the life of a wanderer around the mountains outside the kingdom doing odd jobs.
Now, what such sin has rAma committed in order to merit banishment? A blemish could be sighted on the moon, but not in rAma. He is absolutely blemishless. However O dEvi, if you do find any such blemish, please do let us know and rAma can be banished. banishment of a good person who is treading the righteous path is equivalent to restraining indra from righteousness and thus destroying his effulgence. So, O lady, please, enough of these tantrums, don’t insist on the banishment of rAma and save yourself from certain ignominy”.
Listening to the reasonable wise counsel of minister siddhArta, the grief-stricken king daSaratha turned to kaikEyi and spoke contemptuosly – “This vile and wicked woman who has taken to wrong ways cannot see reason and can’t judge what is good for her or me. I shall follow rAma to the forest today giving up my kingdom and wealth. You, kaikEyi, can enjoy this kingdom to your heart along with bharata”.
Here we conclude the thirty sixth 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: 2.37. rAma dons the bark
Previous: 2.35. sumantra lashes out
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
