Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the sixtieth sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
viSwAmitra summons sages to officiate and take part in the yajna he wanted to perform for the bodily ascension of triSanku to the heavens. He pronounced terrible curses on sages who questioned the ritual and refused to participate. Onwards…
Having destroyed the merits of the sons of vasisTha and sage mahOdaya earned from penance by his terrible curses, viSwAmitra addressed the assembly of the sages and said, here is the scion of the ikshvAkus – king triSanku who is desirous of ascending to the heaven in bodily form and has sought refuge in me. You may conduct the yajna in such a fitting manner that he is able to realize his desire. The assembly of Rshis agreed, even if grudgingly! They knew viSwAmitra to be a forthright, righteous and angry sage who can inflict terrible curse when rubbed the wrong way! So they began the yajna for the bodily ascension of triSanku to the heavens. viSwAmitra was the chief priest who officiated the yajna. The priests of the yajna were adept in the chanting of the mantras and the procedure of the yajna as laid down in the scriptures. As they performed the yajna thus in a perfect manner, viSwAmitra invited the gods to partake their share of the offerings but none of them turned up! The sage was livid at this! He declared to triSanku with an upraised ladle, “behold triSanku, with the self-earned merits of my penance, however little, I shall now send you to heaven bodily!”.
SatAnanda continued, O rAma, as viSwamitra thundered thus, as all the sages watched triSanku rose up bodily to the heavens. He reached the heavens, but the lord of heavens, indra and other gods objected to his presence, citing that he has been accursed by his preceptor and thus not fit to live in the heavens. indra ordered him to return to the earth. As indra said those words, triSanku began his fall to earth piteously crying and pleading with viSwAmitra to protect him.
Responding to the wailing triSanku, viSwAmitra ordered to him to stay mid-air. As triSanku levitated in the space, the replendent viSwAmitra created another congregation of stars in the southern direction including the saptarshis. He began the creation of a parallel universe and angrily thundered that he will create a set of gods including indra or will make the world devoid of indra.
All the Rshis and gods were taken aback by this spendid resolve of the sage! They humbly addressed the sage and said “this triSanku carries the sage of the preceptor and hence is unfit to dwell in the heavens”. viSwAmitra was somewhat pacified by their appeals and said, “I must ensure his ascent to the heavens in order not to falsify my own word given to him”.
A compromise was reached at. viSwAmitra’s creation of the constellation of stars was allowed to stay by the gods. They blessed the creation of viSwAmitra and agreed to his condition that the constellation shall stay as long as the creation exists! Further, they said triSanku shall rule the constellation and be the center of the constellation in a head down position, shining brightly, as if he has attained the heavens. The stars shall revolve around triSanku. The constellation will lie outside the normal path of the zodiac. The gods thus blessed the creation of viSwAmitra and praising him for his resolve made him desist from further insisting the heavens for triSanku.
viSwAmitra agreed to this proposal and all the gods and the Rshis went back the way they came.
Here we conclude the sixtieth arga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
[keeping with this episode the usage ‘triSanku swargam’ is in use today to indicate neither here nor there!]
jAi SrIrAma.
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 