Hari Om.
Let us begin the fifty first sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam by offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
From SRngabErapura, they had to cross over the sacred river ganga in order to head to the forests. So, after spending the night there, as the morning dawned, rAma sent for guha and asked him to get the boat ready for his travel. The loyal guha made the arrangements and as they readied, charioteer sumantra was disconsolate to see rAma leave and insisted that he wanted to accompany him and stay with him during the course of the exile serving him. He advanced severak arguments strengthening his points, but rAma clearly saw that if sumantra doesn’t go back to ayOdhyA and report to duty, kaikEyI will allege that rAma didn’t go to the forests. And that blame would squarely fall on daSaratha. In sweet words rAma, made sumantra understand the importance of the latter’s return to ayOdhyA, no matter howsoever unwilling he was to do so. He takes leave of sumantra after leaving a message for the king, mothers and even bharata. Then guha sees rAma off at the banks and the trio board a boat and worshipping the sacred river ganga, they cross it and reach the southern bank. Then they start walking into the forests and stay under a tree near the country of vatsa that evening. Onwards…
Having broken the journey for the day under that tree, the great rAma performed the evening ablutions and then engagingly addressed lakshmaNa – “Tonight is the first night of the exile that we spend away from our kingdom and without sumantra. However, don’t be anxious about that. We got to keep vigil at nights and the responsibility of the welfare of sItA is upon both of us. And we need to spend this night somehow under this tree using whatever we have to spread on the ground”.
That rAma who deserved a comfortable couch lay on the ground and started speaking to saumitri –
“O lakshmaNa, certainly the king will go to sleep with a lot of grief tonight. Having accomplished her wish, kaikEyI would be delighted. I hope when bharata arrives, kaikEyI doesn’t take away the life of daSaratha for the sake of the kingdom. But what can the king do, having been orphaned by my absence and under the spell of kaikEyI due to his passion! Observing the difficult situation the king has worked himself into, I reckon passion trumps both dharma and wealth! Which illiterate would forsake his son for the sake of a woman and that too a well behaved and obedient son such as me! Now bharata, by virtue of the old age of father and my banishment shall lord over the land of ayOdhyA along with his wife and delight in that. Whichever king abandons the twin goals of dharma and prosperity and resorts to passion and desire is hurled into meeting the same fate as king daSartha!
अर्थधर्मौ परित्यज्य य काममनुवर्तते।
एवमापद्यते क्षिप्रं राजा दशरथो यथा।।2.53.13।।
It appears, kaikEyI entered the house of daSaratha with the goals of my banishment, daSartha’s destruction and bharata;s anointment. Moreover now she would be drunk with power and her good fortune and would torment both kausalyA and sumitrA for my sake. Oh, no! For my sake, dEvi sumitrA shall not be subjected to torment. O lakshmaNa as soon as the morning dawns, go back to ayOdhyA at once. I shall leave for the danDaka forests along with sItA, you go and protect kausalyA.
The mean and heninous kaikEyI can resort to any injustice. She might even poison my mother kausalyA. Surely, in another birth she must have separated a mother from her son because of which she has to suffer my separation. O. fie up on me, I have subjected kausalyA to much grief through this separation at a time when she was to enjoy my presence and prosperity. May no mother give birth to a son like me who gives so much grief to the mother.
Seeing the grief of my mother and overcome by that, her pet mynah would instruct her parrot to go and bite the foot of the enemy (kaikEyI). My mother of little fortune has not been able to receive any service from me; it is like she is son-less. She must drowned in the ocean of grief without me.
O lakshmaNa I am capable of overwhelming the entire earth and ayOdhyA with my arrows in my rage. But of what use will be to display valiance without any reason! Being afraid of unrighteousness and giving a thought to the after-life, I didn’t coronate myself”.
Thus in a myriad different ways and lamentations rAma shed copious tears and as the night dawned, went silent. He was overcome with sorrow, resembled a doused fire and a still ocean. Brother lakshmaNa consoled him –
“O valiant rAma, surely the city of ayOdhyA would have gone dark today, much like the sky without the moon. Your grieving thus is not right. By doing so, you will dishearten me and sItA as well. Neither me nor sItA can survive without you just like fish cannot survive without water!
न च सीता त्वया हीना न चाहमपि राघव।
मुहूर्तमपि जीवावो जलान्मत्स्याविनोद्धृतौ।।2.53.31।।
[Fish out of water that we use today has it’s origins here it appears!]
Forget father or Satrughna or my mother sumitrA, I do not even wanted to go to the heavens without you O rAma”.
नहि तातं न शत्रुघ्नं न सुमित्रां परन्तप।
द्रष्टुमिच्छेयमद्याहं स्वर्गं चापि त्वया विना।।2.53.32।।
Then sItA and rAma leaving their seats moved to the well made bed under the banyan tree nearby. Appreciating the sweet words of lakshmaNa, rAma permitted him to stay with him during the exile. He advised him on the code of conduct during the exile and gladly let me be with him. In that deserted forest, the mighty brothers, scions of the raghu clan, lived on fearlessly like twin lions on the mountain slopes.
Here we conclude the fifty third sarga of the ayOdhyA kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Click on the book for word by word meaning from IITK website
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Next: 2.54. The hospitable sage
Previous: 2.52. Loyal servant, meticulous master
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
