As today is Rama Navami, I would like to share one of the stories from the Ramayanam which has deeply moved me.
There has always been a debate on whether Lord Rama did the right thing or not by sending Seetha Devi to the forest. About whether Raja Dharma is greater or Pathi Dharma is greater. This post is not about that.
I wanted to write about how Lakshmana was banished from Ayodhya by Lord Rama himself. Once in one of my Samskritham classes, my teacher
Sriram Mahadevan
told us this story from the Valmiki Ramayanam (Utthara Khandam). When Lord Rama’s time on earth was nearing its end, YamaDharmaraja decided to come down to the earth and speak to him about it. But as the conversation was meant to be a secret, only between Lord Rama and himself, Lakshmana was made to stand guard outside the chamber where the conservation was going on. Lakshmana vowed that he would kill anybody who dared to enter the chamber while he was on guard.
As the conversation was going on, Sage Durvasa walked in and asked for a meeting with Lord Rama. Lakshmana politely refused, and told him what was going on inside and asked him to wait for sometime. But the sage became very angry at being told this, and in his anger, told Lakshmana that he would reduce the whole of Ayodhya to ashes, if he wasn’t allowed to see Lord Rama immediately!
Now, the whole world knows about Sage Durvsa and his anger! Lakshmana did not know what to do.. If he did not let Durvasa inside, the whole of Ayodhya would be reduced to ashes. But if he allowed him inside, he himself would first have to go in, to announce to Lord Rama the arrival of the sage. That means that according to his own oath he would have to kill himself!
He thought for a moment, and decided that as per Dharma, the wellbeing of the kingdom was more important than his own life. He entered the chamber and announced to the king, the arrival of the sage.
After Lord Rama finished talking to both Dharmaraja, and Durvasa he also realized that now, Lakshmana would have to kill himself. In anguish, he immediately called for a meeting of all the learned men of his sabha, like Vashishta and Vishwamitra etc. He asked them what could be a punishment equivalent to death. The Rishis announced that the banishment of the accused person from his own kingdom was the only thing equivalent to death..
Therefore Rama banished Lakshmana from the kingdom to the forest.
Even here, he followed his Raja Dharma and not the Dharma of an elder brother! Lakshmana is said to have immediately left the kingdom, and jumped into the Sarayu in anguish.
This is the Rama I worship as my Ishta Devatha, the Avathara Purusha of Lord Vishnu.
Jai Shree Ram
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