Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the fifty seventh sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
The feast that sage vasisTha offered to the royal retinue of king kauSika with the help of his wonder-filled cow went sour as viSwAmitra first bargained for the cow and upon refusal, tried to force her away. The cow created an entire army that decimated the royal army. viSwAmitra undertook penance and secured divine weaponry and came back to the hermitage and started destroying it. vasisTha faces the entire weaponry with his upraised brahmadanDa which subsumes all the weapons and defeats viSwAmitra. Disgraced viSwAmitra realizes the power of the bramaRshi over the kshatriya valor and decides to undertake penance to acquire the title of brahmaRshi. Onwards…
With a disgraceful defeat at the hands of sage vasisTha, viSwAmitra repeatedly was reminded of the humiliation and sighing repeatedly he decided to go for penance. Along with his wife, he went in the southern direction and started practicing intense penance controlling his sense and subsisting on roots and fruits. In course of time, viSwAmitra was blessed with four sons wedded to truth and dharma and were named- havishyanda, madhushyanda, druDhanEtra and maharatha. A thousand years passed as viSwAmitra engaged in intense penance. At the end of this period, lord brahma appeared along with the gods and declared that viSwAmitra has won the title of rAjarshi – a king who is also a sage. This was well below what viSwAmitra wanted! He hung his head in shame. With grief and anger mixed he reflected that the gods had not recognized his efforts adequately. With determination to achieve the title of brahmarshi, he continued his penance.
During this time, there was a king in the ikshvAku dynasty by name triSanku. He always spoke truth and was self restrained. A desire arose in his mind to ascend to the heaven bodily. He called for the royal priest vasisTha and submitted his desire. The royal preceptor said it was not possible to honour his desire.
Turned down by the preceptor, the king triSanku didn’t budge from his goal, he traveled south and there he came across a hundred resplendent sons of vasisTha performing intense penance. He bowed to each one of them with due protocol and humbly addressed them. O sirs, I have been turned down by the precetpr vasisTha for the performance of a certain yajna. Therefore you are my refuge. Kindly consent and help me perform this yajna by the power of which I can ascend to the heavens bodily. You, the repositories of intense penance are only capable of making me realize my desire. Hence kindly bless me by officiating in such a yajna, O sirs!
ikshvAkus have always been guided by the worship worthy preceptor. The preceptor by his wisdom always provided deliverance to the kings. After the preceptor vasisTha, you all are like gods to me.
Here we conclude the fifty seventh 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 