Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the sixty first sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
viSwAmitra was performing intense penance when the ikshvAKu triSanku rejected by his preceptor vasisTha seeks the refuge of viSwAmitra. The gutsy sage does perform a sacrifice to send triSanku to the heavens bodily but is rejected by indra, the lord of heavens. viSwAmitra then creates another suspended where triSanku reigns and a compromise is reached between viSwAmitra and the gods who recognize the creation of viSwAMitra and let the creation stay. viSwAmitra realizes he lost time and some of his hard-earned merit. He now moves away from the southern direction where he was performing penance to the western direction. On wards…
SatAnanda continues… O rAma, tiger among men! looking at the departing sages viSwAmitra lamented about the obstacle encountered in his penance in the southern direction. He desired to move elsewhere and continue his penance along with other sages. He indicated that the forests of pushkara in the western region would be appropriate to perform austerities and moved there. There in those forests, he practiced rigorous penance subsisting only on roots and fruits.
Around the same time king ambarISa ruled over ayOdhya. He prepared to conduct a yajna and in the process the horse that is let out was stolen by indra! The horse couldn’t be traced despite the best efforts and it bode ill for the king and the kingdom. The officiating priests attributed the disappearance of the horse to the inability of the king to uphold law and mentioned that there is a heavy price to pay to expiate for this. The price was to either bring the disappeared animal irself or a human subject to complete the sacrifice!
The worldly-wise king chose to look for a human subject in exchange for a thousand cows! So he set out along with his wife and son in search of a fit and willing human to complete his yajna and toured over villages, cities and mountains. He found sage Rchika in the mountains of bhRgutunga sitting along with his wife and sons. The resplendent and sagely king met the brahmaRshi Rchika and they exchanged notes of their welfare and then the king requested thus.
O sage, I started a yajna and the yajna horse is lost. I have searched all over but to no avail. Could you please spare a son of yours in exchange for a hundred thousand cows. Rchika immediately declined to part with the elder son. Hearing this Rchika’s austere wife, the mother of three, immediately said – O king, the sage is not willing to part with the elder. The youngest son Sunaka is dear to me and I can’t part with him. She further added, generally fathers dote on the eldest and mothers on the youngest and hence we cannot part with them.
The middle son SunaSSepha was listening to this conversation and said on his own, O king, the youngest son is dear to mother and the eldest is dear to father. It means that, the middle son is automatically sold. You may take me with you O king. The king was pleased, he immediately bartered a hundred thousand cows for SunaSsepha and took him away on his chariot immediately.
Here we conclude the sixty first sarga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Next: 1.62. SunaSSepha saved
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rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 