written update feb 13 ’08 : Ganga Ma

Written update february 13 '08

Ayodhya

The queens and the Rajkumars are sitting together. Bharat tells them some stories about Gurukul and how Ram took very good care of them all. Suddenly Sumantra walks in and says that the king called for them, because sage Visvamitra has come. Sumitra says that they will come in a while. Sumantra answers that the sage is going and he is taking Ram with him, to protect his ashram from the daemons and the king agreed with this. The queens get shocked and Kausalya says that she won't let Ram go so soon. Ram answers that his father made a promise and he can't break that. He will obey and he will go with the sage. Sumitra then orders Lakhsman to go with Ram and she says that he should be his shadow. They all go and Manthara appears. She says that now it is time for Bharat to start taking over the kingdom. Ram is just a child and he will not return.

They enter the throne room. Sage Visvamitra is sitting on the throne. He stares at Ram. Dasarath orders the Rajkumars to greet the sage. Ram goes first. Dasarath orders Ram to go with the sage. Lakhsman asks permission to go with Ram. The sage agrees and so does the king. He says that from now the sage is their Guru, their parents. It is their duty to take care of them. The sage will take them to the place he is performing his Yagna. The brothers are bidding farewell. Ram asks his mother to bless him. He orders Bharat and Shatrughna to take good care of their parents. And they leave. The queens watch them till they are out of sight. They are very sad.

Sumitra is crying her heart out and so are Kausalya and Kaikeyi. Dasarath enters and they ask him why did he send the Rajkumars away? They came back just now and now they are gone. They seek answers, but the king answers that he was helpless. Kaikeyi answers that he is the king, how can he be helpless? He answers that he is not happy also. He could not break his promise. He is a king and he has to fulfill his duty. Sometimes he has to offer. Kausalya says that he had to think of his queens. Kaikeyi says that the sage is whole alone, how can he understand their feelings. Dasarath says that everyone is Visvamitrs family. He does only good for mankind. And they should be honored that he asked for Ram and that their two sons are going to protect him. Kausalya says that she thinks that they can do nothing else than suffer.

Forest

Visvamitra takes Ram and Lakhsman to Ganga, the river. They watch the people doing a pooja for Ganga Ma. Visvamitra says that thank to Ram his forefather. The people narrates the story of Ganga in their song: a king named Sagara magically acquired sixty thousand sons. One day, King Sagara performed a yagna for the good of the kingdom. One of the integral parts of the ritual was a horse, which was stolen by the jealous Indra. Sagara sent all his sons all over the earth to search for the horse. They found it in the nether-world next to a meditating sage Kapila. Believing that the sage had stolen the horse, they hurled insults at him and caused his penance to be disturbed. The sage opened his eyes for the first time in several years, and looked at the sons of Sagara. With this glance, all sixty thousand were burnt to death. The souls of the sons of Sagara wandered as ghosts since their final rites had not been performed. When Bhagiratha, one of the descendants of Sagara, son of Dilip, learnt of this fate, he vowed to bring Ganga down to Earth so that her waters could cleanse their souls and release them to heaven. Bhagiratha prayed to Brahma that Ganga come down to Earth. Brahma agreed, and he ordered Ganga to go down to the Earth and then on to the nether regions so that the souls of Bhagiratha's ancestors would be able to go to heaven. The vain Ganga felt that this was insulting and decided to sweep the whole earth away as she fell from the heavens. Alarmed, Bhagiratha prayed to Shiva that he break up Ganga's descent. Ganga arrogantly fell on Shiva's head. But Shiva calmly trapped her in his hair and let her out in small streams. The touch of Shiva further sanctified Ganga. As Ganga travelled to the nether-worlds, she created a different stream to remain on Earth to help purify unfortunate souls there.

Boat

Visvamitra says that Ganga is also called Tripthaga. That means that she traveled all three worlds. He asks Ram the moral of this story. Ram answers that with real devotion, with tapas, you can even call God on this earth. That is the moral of this story. Visvamitra says that he is right. When men do tapas they can become god. Ram makes mankind purshottam by living with them.

End.

Devi