Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the thirtyeighth sarga of the bAla kAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Having set up the background of ganga as the daughter of himavAn who ascended to the heavens as a river and further showcasing it’s service as a heavenly river in the birth of kArtikEya, now the scene is unveiling about the beginning of the earthly journey of the ganga..
Into the sarga…
viSwAmitra resumed after regaling the princes with the history of the birth of kArtikEya. He continued…
rAma, in the days of the yore, a righteous and valorous king named sagara ruled over ayOdhya. He had two wives – the elder one righteous and truthful kESini who was the daughter of the king of vidarbha and the younger of unrivaled charm sumati who was the daughter of arishTanEmi. They didn’t have children and desired for progeny. Hence the king with his two queens reached the peaks of the himavat mountain and performed austerities on the bhRgupraSravaNa mountain.
Pleased with a hundred years of his penance, sage bhRgu blessed him and said one of his wife will beget a son who will take his race forward while the other will beget sixty thousand sons. He further blessed him and said the king will earn lasting fame. The two queens were delighted and prayed to sage bhRgu to let them know which of them will get one son and who will get multitudes. Hearing their desire to know bhRgu magnanimously asked them to choose what they want – one son who would perpetuate the lineage or sixty thousand persevering sons who would bring great fame.
kESini chose to have one son who would be the heir to the race while sumati, the sister of garuDa chose to beget the sixty thousand sons. The royals circum-ambulated the sage in gratitude and returned to the capital.
O rAma, in due course of time, kESini gave birth to the race-saver by name asamanja. sumati gave birth to a super-fetus that looked like a gourd which when opened up had sixty thousand fetuses in it. The nurses nurtured the fetuses by placing them in pots (incubators!) filled with ghee (clarified butter). The sixty thousand fetuses grew into babies and after a somewhat long course of time attained adolescence. They were manly and handsome.
The elder son asamanja on the other hand was evil minded and used to throw children in to the river sarayu and rejoiced as they drowned. (Incidentally asamanjasa means inappropriate in Telugu language!) The king banished this son of his who indulged in the harm of citizens from the state. asamanja’s son was the valiant and well-spoken-of anSumAn who was the darling of everyone in the world.
O best among men, rAma, after a lapse of time, king sagara thought of performing a yajna and having consulted high priests began making preparations for the ritual.
Here we conclude the thirty eighth sarga of the bAlakAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Next: bAla kANDam, 39th sarga
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 
