Ramayana Simplified: Part 3: The Background behind the birth of Rama
There is a small story behind the birth of Rama. Rama is the seventh incarnation or ‘avatar’ of Lord Vishnu. Every avatar has a purpose. Totally, there were ten avatars out of which nine avatars are already taken by Lord Vishnu. Each time, avatars took birth to destroy the evil forces who were against dharma or who were going against the moral values and not allowing the survival of good people on earth. One such thing happened before the birth of Rama (or Lord Rama, note that Rama took birth as a normal man but as time passed by, people referred to him as Lord Rama because of his ideal character).
At a certain point in time, the number and strength of asuras or evil forces were increasing on earth. The earth or ‘Bhoomi Devi’ (in Chapter 1, An Introduction to the kingdom of Kosala, it was mentioned how Hindus treated earth/environment as a goddess or ‘Bhoomi Devi’) could not tolerate the burden of the evil forces or the asuras. Bhoomi Devi explained this whole problem to Lord Brahma. Lord Brahma and other devas set out to Lord Vishnu to find a solution to this problem. It was brought to the attention of Lord Vishnu that an asura called Ravana was killing all the innocent people. Through continuous tapas (meditation)to lord Brahma, he was granted a boon or a wish by Lord Brahma that ‘he should not be getting killed by any gods(devas), ‘thrimoorthys’ (Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu, Lord Siva) or the ‘Yakshas’(a type of nature-spirits)’. He was very confident that humans cannot kill him because of his power. Due to that overconfidence or since he underestimated the power of humans, he said that he can be killed by a human, but not the above 3 categories.
Lord Vishnu said that Maharishi Kashyapa had attained tapas for getting him as his son. Now Kashyapa is reborn as Dasharatha and his wife Adithi is reborn as Kousalya. So Lord Vishnu suggested that he can take birth as their son who will be able to kill Ravana and other asuras and establish Dharma. All the devas took birth as Vanaras (more like a mix of monkeys and humans).
‘Puthrakameshti Yaga’ took place in Dasharatha’s palace, the three wives of King Dasharatha become pregnant after consuming the prasada that they got from the Yaga (Detailed story in Celebration in Ayodhya). Lord Vishnu appears in Kousalya’s dream, Kousalya praises the lord through ‘Kousalya Sthuthi’ and the lord tells her that he will be born as their son as per the tapas that was conducted in their previous birth. Accordingly, Rama was born to Kousalya.
Few Insights…
Why did Lord Brahma grant a boon to an ‘asura’ like Ravana?
We see different instances where different asuras meditate fervently to gain some selfish needs. We must understand that irrespective of evil spirits (asuras) or good people, a person involved in a vehement tapas is always granted his/her wish irrespective of their motive (it can be sometimes selfish or cruel). But such a person who is getting involved in cruel activities always suffers through his/her life. We see that Ravana was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and takes a boon from Lord Brahma by passionately involving in meditation. But his activities were selfish and cruel. We must also note that Ravana had a kind of materialistic devotion. In the end, we can see how he suffers for the cruelties he had committed. Even in recent times, we see great devotees engaging in adharma or cruel activities. The karma or the type of activities we do in our present determines our way of life in the future. So materialistic devotion along with negative activities can have a negative impact on anyone’s life. We can always utilize our devotion in purifying our minds and doing good things for society. In that way, we ensure a better life.
We also see that Ravana had taken the boon that he cannot be killed by devas or thrimoorthys or yakshas. He underestimated the power of humans and he was under the condition that a human can kill him (as he didn’t expect that a human can kill him). We see that Lord Vishnu who had taken avatar in the form of Lord Rama finally kills Ravana. Sometimes we underestimate another person’s abilities and power. Often we underestimate ourselves and further make us weaker. Never try to underestimate our abilities or other’s abilities.
