October 29, 2023
Hari Om Parents,
We started the class with the daily prayers. We did breathing exercises for some time. We chanted Nama Ramayana from my prayers books.
Today was abbreviated class as children had the unique opportunity to perform Saraswati pooja in the ashram, on occasion of Dusherra.
We continued with Ramayana story. Sitaji was Daughter of king Janaka. While performing Yajna, king Janaka was ploughing the yajnashala to purify it, at which time the tip of the plough got stuck, when they looked into it, Sitaji was found in a basket. She is ayonija. When she grew up, to find a suitable life partner for her, king Janaka came up with a unique task that had to be performed. He announced that whoever can string Lord Shiva's bow which was in his palace will be able to marry Sitaji. Normally it would take several thousand people to move the carriage that has Lord Shiva's bow. Many kings, demi-gods, rakshasas tried to string Lord Shiva's bow but were unsuccessful. Sage Vishwamitra took Rama and Lakshmana to look at the palace, to look at the great bow. After getting blessings from the sage, Lord Rama was able to lift the bow, string it and break it without much effort. King Janaka was extremely happy. After this ceremony messengers were sent to Ayodhya. King Dasharatha with his ministers then came to Janakpuri. Under the auspicious guidance of sage Vasishta and sage Shatananda marriage ceremonies were conducted. It was decided to give in marriage Sitaji to Rama and Urmila to Lakshmana – who were daughters of king Janaka. On the advice of sage Vishwamitra Mandavi and Sruthakirti (who were daughters of king Janaka's brother, Khushadhwaja) very given in marriage to Bharata and Shatrughna respectively. The whole of Janaka Puri celebrated marriage of Lord Rama and Sitaji.
After marriage while returning to Ayodhya, Dasharatha and party encountered sage Parashurama. He was very upset that Lord Shiva's bow was broken. He challenged Rama to string Lord Vishnu's bow. Lord Rama does this without any difficulty. Sage Parashurama realizes that Rama was indeed none other than Lord Vishnu, bows to him and departs. Rama's arrow took away all punya lokas of sage Parashurama during this incident.
We watched the video showing Sita swayamvaram, how so many kings fail to even move Lord Shiva's bow, while Lord Rama was able to do it quite easily.
Pranams,
Vyjayanti
Devender
