Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the fifty eigth sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
Satananda continued his narration… viSwAmitra earns the title of rAjarshi after a thousand years of penance. He feels slighted and continues penance with more vigour. In the meanwhile, the camera moves to the ikshvAku dynasty where the present king triSanku has a desire to rise to heaven in bodily form and is refused by the royal preceptor vasisTha. He then accosts the hundred sons of vasisTha and expresses his desire and seeks their help. Onwards…
The hundred sons of the sage were outraged at the audacity of the king to seek alternatives when the royal preceptor didn’t agree to his wish. They found this to be sacrilegious that the king seeks to fulfil his desire against the advice of the preceptor by approaching his own children. They soundly reprimanded him for his childishness of crossing the supreme words of the royal preceptor whose advice was always paramount to the kings of the ikshvAku race. They flatly refused to entertain his wish and take part in a yajna which was turned down by the highly capable vasisTha.
The king courteously bowed to them but was relentless. He told them that he would now seek someone else to fulfil his desire having been turned down by them as well. The sons of the sage were incensed at this insistence of the king and cursed him that he assume a despicable form of an outcast!
At the turn of the night, the curse came true and the king turned into a despicable dark complexioned man seeming like one roaming around the cemetery with soiled clothes and jewelry made of iron! His ministers, counsellors and people despised him and fled. The king so transformed left the city and roaming around reached the hermitage of viSwAmitra who was performing penance. Upon seeing the king in such a pitiable state viSwAmitra was moved by compassion.
विश्वामित्रस्तु तं दृष्ट्वा राजानं विफलीकृतम्।
चण्डालरूपिणं राम मुनि: कारुण्यमागत:।।1.58.13।।
Recognizing him to be the king of ayOdhya who has turned into an outcast with a despicable appearance, viSwAmitra wished him well and asked who was responsible for his current state. In reply, the articulate triSanku said, “O sage, I have been spurned by my preceptor as well as his sons and failed to achieve my desire. I wanted to ascend to the heavens bodily. Rejected by them, I am at your doorstep. I have performed a hundred yajnas but am unfit to ascend to the heavens in bodily form. I swear on the kshatriya dharma, that neither have I ever uttered falsehood even under trying circumstances nor I ever will. I have looked after my subjects justly and fairly. I have always satisfied the preceptors by my conduct. Now when I want to perform this yajna to ascend to the heavens, my preceptors do not appreciate this! Fate is indeed all powerful and all of man’s efforts fail in the face of it. However you are capable of granting my wish and hence I have taken refuge in you. You are eminently capable of turning down fate and blessing me with my desire, glory be to you. Your efforts shall redeem me and hence I seek no other refuge.”
Thus triSanku submitted to sage viSwAmitra to grant his wish.
Here we conclude the fifty eigth sarga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Next: bAla kANDam, 59th sarga
Previous: bAla kANDam, 57th sarga
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 