Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the twentyfifth sarga of the bAla kAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
In this sarga, viSwAmitra narrates the history of tATaka to rAma and exhorts Him to slay her. Let’s delve into it.
Hearing the wonderful narration of the masterful sage, rAma spoke in a gentle and pleasing way thus. “O sage, I have heard that yakshas (a type of demigod) are generally not mighty, how then did tATaka, a yakshiNi (she yaksha) come to possess the might of a thousand elephants”?
Responding to the curious query of rAma, the sage began to narrate the past of tATaka. He said, “rAma, earlier there existed a yaksha by name sukEtu who was without children. He performed intense penance (tapas) for the grand sire brahma in order to be blessed with children. The illustrious lord brahma appeared and blessed him with a daughter who had a thousand elephants’ might and was named tATaka. As the yakshiNi grew up and attained youth and beauty, she was given in marriage to sunda, the son of jharjha. In course of time, she gave birth to a son by name mArica (mAricha) who was unassailable in prowess. As time passed, sunda passed away.
Once tATaka along with her son mArica saw the great sage agastya and they rushed towards him in order to attack him. Seeing their ominous move, the sage cursed mArica to become a demon. Further he cursed tATaka as well to be rid of her beautiful form of yakshiNi and attain one of an ogress with ugly and distorted looks. Ever since the angry yakshiNi has been causing havoc and mayhem in this land”.
O rAma, “for the sake of the welfare of the brAhmins and cows (who give wisdom and food respectively to the society), please slay this demoness who is vile and wicked. Other than You, there isn’t a man in the three worlds who is capable of doing this. O scion of the raghu dynasty, you could be hesitating to kill a woman, but know that as a prince, you ought to do what is good for the four orders of the society. A righteous one (king) doesn’t see whether an act is cruel or not, but performs it in the interest of the society”. O kakutstha, this is eternally binding on all rulers and you must slay her as she knows no dharma. There is precedence when in the past righteous ones have slayed women. indra destroyed manthara, the daughter of virOchana, who was intending to destroy the earth. Lord vishNu also destroyed the mother of kAvya and the wife of sage bhRgu who wanted to make the world devoid of the ruler indra. There are scores of other instances when unrighteous women who caused havoc in the society have been slain by great and righteous men for common good. Therefore, I exhort you to slay this ogress tATaka and free the region from her torture”.
Here we conclude the twenty fifth sarga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 