Individual verses with meanings
Hari Om.
Let us begin the seventy fourth sarga of the bAlakAnDam with offering our prostrations at the lotus feet of SrIrAma and our sathguru.
rAma won sIta through his sheer valor. King janaka offered that sIta will be given in marriage to a person who proves is mettle by lifting the bow of Siva that has been vested with janaka. rAma proved his mettle and not only he, his three brothers lakshmaNa, bharata and Satrughna also married the three sisters of sIta – UrmIla, mAnDavi and SRtakIrti respectively. The wedding was celebrated grandly in mithila and was celebrated by the celestials in a grand manner through divine music and floral showers. The sacred wedding of sIta and rAma, the ideal couple inspires every householder. As the wedding was completed, the party returned to their camps along with the brides. Onwards…
As a fresh day dawned after the celebrated wedding of the ikshvAku princes with the daughters of the janakas, sage viSwAmitra who has been instrumental in fructifying the alliance profusely blessed the princes and took leave of the kings daSaratha and janaka and went north to the himAlayas. King daSaratha also sought to take leave of king janaka and return to ayOdhya along with his sons and daughters in law. King janaka, filled his daughters with gifts galore – a hundred thousand cows, innumerable garments, carpets, divisions of military with decorated elephants, horses and infantry, maid servants, glittering and gorgeous gold jewelry along with pearls and corals and plenty of wealth. He saw them off by following them for a while and then with due permission of king daSaratha, janaka returned to mithila to his palace.
King daSaratha accompanied by his accomplished sons and daughters in law and along with the Rshis followed by the army was on his way to ayOdhya. All of a sudden they encountered unnerving screeching noise of birds flying hither and thither and the forest animals running around in fear in a clockwise manner. He immediately expressed his anxiety and sense of fear to sage vasisTha. The sage calmly said that the screeches of the birds sounds calamitous but the graceful movements of the animals on the earth is reassuring. He therefore asked king daSaratha not to worry.
Even as they were conversing thus, wind whirled violently, the earth shook and the sun dimmed, darkness enveloped the four quarters and huge dust storm kicked up as trees tumbled down. As the doomsday like scenes played up, excepting vasisTha, other sages, the king and his sons all others fainted!
As the entire army lay down like ashes, king daSaratha beheld in that terrible darkness a giant and terrifying figure of majestic matted locks, wielding an axe on his shoulders and a majestic bow with arrow, towering and unattainable like the kailAsa mountain, unbearably scorching like the fire at the time of dissolution, glowing so brilliantly that he can’t be gazed at by the ordinary, the slayer of the kings, the descedant of the bhArgava, the son of jamadagni – paraSurAma – with an appearance as terrifying as that of lord Siva when He conquered the tripura.
तस्मिंस्तमसि घोरे तु भस्मच्छन्नेव सा चमू:।।1.74.17।।
ददर्श भीमसङ्काशं जटामण्डलधारिणम्।
भार्गवं जामदग्न्यं तं राजराजविमर्दिनम्।।1.74.18।।
कैलासमिव दुर्धर्षं कालाग्निमिव दुस्सहम्।
ज्वलंतमिव तेजोभिर्दुर्निरीक्ष्यं पृथग्जनै:।।1.74.19।।
स्कन्धे चासज्य परशुं धनुर्विद्युद्गणोपमम् ।
प्रगृह्य शरमुख्यं च त्रिपुरघ्नं यथा शिवम्।।1.74.20।।
At the terrifying and frightful sight of lord paraSurAma who had annihilated the kshatriya race in the past [in revenge for the killing of his father by king kArtavIryarjuna] the sages wondered and whispered if the old vengeance against kshatriyas is back in paraSurAma and he is out to vanquish the kings again!
The sages pacified the dreadful looking paraSurAma by speaking sweetly to him addressing him as rAma, rAma and offering ablutions due to him. After accepting the due worship from the sages, paraSurAma addressed daSaratha rAma and said…
Here we conclude the seventy fourth sarga of the bAla kAnDam of SrImath vAlmiKi rAmAyaNam and humbly offer it at the lotus feet of SrIrAma. Hari: Om!
jAi SrIrAma.
Next: 1.75. Legend of the two bows
Previous: 1.73. siyAvar rAmachandra ki Jai!
rAmabhaktisAmrAjyam 