Ramayana Simplified: Part 20: The Story of Thryambaka
After a very big journey, Maharishi Vishwamitra and the two princes were finally about to reach Mithila. As mentioned in a story before, the name ‘Janaka’ is a title name given to the king ruling Mithila. The name of the current ruler was Seeradhwaja (Ref Part:7). He was a very just and efficient ruler. The king welcomed Maharishi Vishwamitra and both the beautiful princes. The king was eager to know more about the two princes as he got attracted by their personalities. The maharishi introduced the two princes, talked about their achievements, and also talked about the way in which Rama and Lakshmana fought valiantly against Thadaka, Mareecha, Subahu, etc. (Ref Part: 5).
The next day, Maharishi Vishwamitra said that he wanted to show the two princes the Shiv Dhanush (bow) or Thryambaka as they (the princes) were great in their archery skills. The maharishi also added that the two princes wanted to know more about the history of the dhanush. The king said that his ancestors got the dhanush from Lord Shiva. Thus, King Janaka started narrating the story of thryambaka.
Once, there was a small feud among the devas to find if Lord Shiva or Lord Vishnu had more strength. The devas thus got divided into two groups. Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu became prepared for a small test to find out who was more powerful. Thus, Vishwakarma built two bows. Each bow was so strong that even a thousand devas would not be able to lift it. The whole earth started shaking when they just got prepared for the war by stringing their bows. Thus saptharishis who came there at that time wanted to stop the test from moving ahead as they feared that it could have a significant impact on people living on the earth. The devas were in a competitive spirit at that time. The saptharishis thus sought help from Lakshmi Devi and Parvathi Devi who were wives of Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva respectively to cancel the test. Thus the test got canceled with the intervention of their wives.
The Vaishnava Chapa (The bow which was given to Lord Vishnu) was taken by Maharishi Rijijika which was in turn transferred to Maharishi Jamadagni and thereby transferred to his son Parashurama. The Shaiva Chapa (The bow which was given to Lord Shiva), was transferred to King Janaka’s grandfather.
Maharishi Vishwamitra and the two princes thus walked along with King Janaka to see the bow.
Few Insights…
When I was talking to one of my friends about the significance of Ramayana, he raised an interesting point. He said that in this 21st century, we can’t walk with astras (bow) in hand just as Lord Rama did, the point he made there was that Ramayana is irrelevant in this modern world. But how can we make it relevant? As mentioned in previous stories, the stories can be made relevant by considering some of the good points each story has got to convey and applying them in our daily lives.
From this story, we see how Lakshmi Devi and Parvathy Devi were able to calm Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva and were able to avoid a war-like situation. This shows how a wife should be when her husband faces a problem. As we know many of the husbands are put to situations where they may have to work very hard for their family. They may have to face several stresses from their workplaces. So, it is very important for their wives to understand the efforts they are putting and should be ready to think from their point of view for a smooth family life. It is also necessary for a husband to understand the efforts put up by their wives. Often we come across situations where husbands have a misunderstanding that their wives do not have much work to do compared to them (husbands), this can also create problems in a family. Thus it becomes very important to respect and acknowledge each other's efforts which will ultimately help in the smooth running of a family.
This may take us to another question: Will gods like Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva have krodha (anger)?
This story shows how krodha (anger) can affect even the devas including Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. As mentioned in the previous point, this story also shows how their wives were instrumental in clearing their krodha.
