Lord Rama was the seventh incarnation of Lord Vishnu who killed the demon king Ravana and restored dharma on the earth. Rama was the son of Dashrath, king of Ayodhya. His mother’s name was Kausalya. Rama is also known as “Maryada Purshottam.” He was an ideal king of all time.
Rama was very handsome and his skin had a bluish shade. Ramrajya is the phrase used in India for best governance. He used to treat his subjects as his children. He sacrificed his beloved wife, Sita, for the sake of people’s satisfaction. The epic Ramayana is based on the life of Lord Rama and is revered as a holy book by Hindus.
The Story of Lord Rama:
In Treta Yuga, Dashrath was the king of Ayodhya. He had three wives, viz. Kausalya, Sumitra, and Kaikeyi. He belonged to the clan of the sun known as Suryavanshi. He was a great king and he had helped demi-Gods to defeat demons in a battle. He had everything in his life but he did not have an heir for his kingdom. So, he performed a Putra-Kameshthi Yagya (a ritual performed with a desire for a son).
After being pleased with this ritual, the god of fire appeared from Yagya and gave him kheer (an Indian dessert containing rice or similar ingredients and sugar boiled in milk). King Dashrath distributed the Kheer amongst his three wives. After this, all his three wives became pregnant and gave birth to children. Rama was born to queen Kaushalya and was the eldest of all. Sumitra gave birth to Laxman and Shatrughna and Kaikeyi gave birth to Bharat.
Lord Rama and his brothers got their primary training in warfare and philosophy from Sage Vashishtha. When Rama was age 16, sage Vishwamitra came to King Dashrath and asked for help against demons who were causing disturbances to sages while performing Yagyas (fire sacrifices). Vishwamitra chose Rama for his protection and took him with him. Laxman also accompanied Ram. Vishwamitra gave them training in divine weapons. Rama and Laxman killed Tratika and many other demons and freed the ashram of Vishwamitra from the fear of demons.
Then, sage Vishwamitra took Lord Rama and Laxman to Mithila where king Janak had arranged a Swayamwar (a ceremony where a bride chooses his groom) for his daughter Sita. There was a condition in that Swayamwar that the Kshatriya who would pick up and string the bow of Shiva would be eligible to marry Sita. Many Kshatriya kings and princes tried their luck, but none of them could even lift the bow.
Then, after taking the grant from sage Vishwamitra, Rama picked up the bow of Shiva easily but while trying to string it, it broke making a thunderous noise. Lord Parshuram came to know about this through his meditative powers and appeared there. He got very angry with the fact that somebody had broken the bow of Shiva, but soon he realized that Rama was the incarnation of Vishnu and he left the place after blessing the couple.
The married couple returned to Ayodhya. They received a grand welcome from the people of Ayodhya.
As King Dashrath was getting older, he decided to coronate Lord Rama as he was his eldest son. All the people including Ram’s mother and step-mothers were happy with this decision. There was only one person who was not happy with this decision. Her name was Manthara and she was a servant and companion of queen Kaikeyi, Ram’s stepmother. She ill-advised Kaikeyi that if Rama becomes a king, then her son Bharat would just remain subordinate to him, and her own life would become hell as she was Ram’s step-mother.
Initially, Kaikeyi did not believe her, but soon she fell prey to it. Manthara also told her to ask for the two boons that King Dashrath had promised to give her in the war against demons. Using those boons, Kaikeyi compelled Dashrath to announce the coronation of prince Bharat, her only son, and exile Rama from Ayodhya for 14 years during which time he had to live in the jungle.
Rama accepted the decision of his father wholeheartedly and left Ayodhya. Laxman and Sita also accompanied him. Rama then started living in a jungle. Soon, as Dashrath could not tolerate the separation from Ram, he fell ill and died (King Dashrath had been cursed by the mother and father of Shravana whom Dashrath had killed unintentionally that he would be separated from his beloved son and would die from the sorrow of his separation).
When Bharat came to know about his mother’s deeds, he became very angry and refused to get coronated. He drove away Manthara from Ayodhya and refused to even see the face of her mother, Kaikeyi. Soon, Kaikeyi repented on her decision and came along with Bharat to meet Rama in the jungle.
Bharat offered the kingdom back to Rama and urged him to return to Ayodhya, but Rama refused to do so as he had promised his father to remain in exile for 14 years. So, Bharat took Ram’s sandals back with him and put them on the throne. He looked after the kingdom as a representative of Rama thereafter.
On one day, Shurpanakha, the sister of demon king Ravana, saw Rama in the jungle. She liked him very much and asked him to marry her. Rama told her that he is married and had a beautiful wife, Sita. He told her to try her luck with her brother Laxman. Then she approached Laxman who was cutting woods with his knife, but Laxman refused to marry her. When Shurpanakha saw Sita, she got angry at her and showed intentions to harm her. Seeing this, Laxman got angry and cut Shurpanakha’s nose with the knife, which he was working with.
Shurpanakha left the scene and reached to Ravana and told him to avenge her insult. She also told him that Ram’s wife was very beautiful and he should marry her. Seeing the condition of Shurpanakha, Ravana became furious and decided to teach a lesson to Ram. One day, he reached the jungle where Ram, Sita, and Laxman were staying. Ravan’s uncle Marich transformed himself into a golden deer and dragged the attention off Sita. Sita liked that deer very much and asked Rama to hunt that deer for her. Rama left the place after the deer but told Laxman not to leave Sita alone. After some time, Rama killed the deer but at the time of its death, the deer transformed into the demon Marich and yelled for help in the voice of Ram. When Sita and Laxman heard this voice, Sita thought that Ram’s life was in danger and he ordered Laxman to go and help his brother.
Laxman was hesitant to leave her alone but then went to help Rama at her order. Before leaving, he marked a magical line around the hut with his arrow, so that no one else except Sita would be able to cross it. Seeing Sita alone, Ravana transformed himself into an ascetic and begged for food to Sita. Ravana tried to cross the line but he could not, so he insisted Sita cross the line and give the food to him. When Sita crossed the line and reached near to him, he abducted her and took her to Lanka in his airplane. On his way back, he was offered resistance by Jatayu, the eagle, but Ravana hurt Jatayu and was successful in taking Sita to Lanka.
When Rama and Laxman came back to the hut, they found that Sita was missing. Hence, they started searching for her. Soon, they found wounded Jatayu who told them that Ravana had abducted Sita and had taken her to Lanka. Jatayu died after that. Rama had no clue about where Lanka was located. After wandering here and there, they met Hanuman. He took them to Sugreev. Sugreev was the brother of King Bali who had stripped Sugreev off of his wealth, money, and rights due to some misunderstanding.
Bali also snatched Sugreev’s wife from him and made her his queen. Rama asked for help from Sugreev but he told Rama that it was only possible if he would kill Bali and give him the kingdom. Rama agreed to do so. King Bali was invincible as he had a boon that anybody who would come to fight with him would lose his half power and Bali would get that half power. Hence, it was not possible to defeat Bali face-to-face.
So while Sugreev and Bali were fighting with each other, Rama killed Bali with a special arrow. Bali told Rama that it was an injustice to kill him like this. Rama asked him about the injustices he did to Sugreev by snatching his wife, but in the end told Bali that in the next birth, Bali would kill him in the same fashion. After Bali’s death, Sugreev became the king of apes and he prepared a large army of monkeys to find Sita.
When they reached the shores of the sea, Rama sent Hanuman to Lanka to find Sita. Hanuman had the power to fly. Hence, he flew to Lanka and reached Ashok Vatika where Sita was kept under strict observation. While Sita was alone, Hanuman approached her and showed her the ring of Rama as his identity, and reassured her that she would be freed soon. To show the demons a glimpse of his powers, Hanuman started devastating Ashok Vatika, which was the favorite garden of Ravana. Soon, the soldiers of Ravana started to fight with Hanuman. Hanuman killed many soldiers and knights of Ravana.
In the end, Indrajeet (son of Ravana) caught Hanuman and brought him before Ravana (although Hanuman could have easily defeated Indrajeet, he did not do so as he wanted to meet Ravana). Ravana insulted Hanuman and ordered to kill him, but Vibhishan, brother of Ravana intervened and requested Ravana to not kill him. Ravana agreed but ordered his soldiers to put the tail of Hanuman on fire and leave him. Hanuman flew with his burnt tail and put the whole of Lanka on fire. He doused the fire on his tail in the sea and returned to Ram.
Lanka was an island and hence such a huge army couldn’t reach there through boats only. Hence, Rama decided to build a bridge to Lanka (this bridge is still there in the sea). Army of Rama reached Lanka. Next, to avoid war, Rama sent Angad, son of Bali, to Ravana as his ambassador and requested Ravana to free Sita and other men who were in his captive. Bali and Ravana were good friends. Ravana rejected the offer and opted for war.
Vibhishan was a noble person and he advised Ravana to free Sita as she was a married woman. He also told him that Rama was not an ordinary man but was an incarnation of Vishnu, but Ravana did not believe him and threw him out of his life. Vibhishan then joined hands with Rama and provided vital information to Rama about Ravana and his army.
Ravana was a ten-headed demon who was very powerful. He was a very cruel and misanthropist person. He had raped many women and killed many innocent people. He had kept thousands of men and women as his slaves in Lanka. He had gotten a boon from Lord Brahma that he could be killed only by a human. He had defeated all demi-Gods. As he was very powerful, no ordinary human could kill him. That is why Vishnu had incarnated as a human to kill him.
Ravana’s army was full of valiant warriors but they proved to be ineffective against Ram’s men like Hanuman, Sugreev, Angad, etc. Soon, Indrajeet, son of Ravana, who had defeated Indra, jumped into the war. He created the illusion of killing of Sita in front of Ram.
Rama considered it as if it was real and started grieving. Indrajeet took the opportunity and threw a special arrow called Veer Ghatini Shakti towards Ram, but Laxman came in the way and got wounded. The only solution to cure Laxman was the Sanjeevani herb, which was thousands of miles away on mountain Dronagiri. Hanuman flew to Dronagiri but could not identify the herb, so he carried the whole mountain on his right palm and reached back to Lanka. With the help of the Sanjeevani herb, the life of Laxman was saved.
After that, Indrajeet started Nikumbhila Yagya in a secret temple. After the success of this Yagya, he was going to become invincible. Hence, it was necessary to kill him before the completion of the Yagya. Hence, Laxman and his men secretly entered the temple and killed Indrajeet. It was a very big blow to Ravan as Indrajeet was the finest warrior of his army.
Then Ravana decided to wake up his brother Kumbhakarna who used to sleep for six months and eat for the remaining six months of a year. He was hundreds of feet tall and gigantic. When he entered the battlefield, he started killing the army of Rama like insects. This feared Ram’s men and they started running here and there. Then, Rama intervened and killed Kumbhakarna with divine weapons.
After this Ravana realized that Lord Rama was truly not an ordinary person, but now he was way ahead and there was no way to turn back. He decided to enter the battle. Ravan fought furiously with Ram’s army and killed many of his men. Ravan had a vessel filled with Amrit (nectar) in his naval. Therefore, even after getting severely wounded, he used to rejuvenate. Vibhishan told Rama about this secret vessel and instructed him to break that vessel. Then, Rama targeted Ravan’s naval and broke the Amrut Kumbh. Thus, Ravan was killed by Ram. The day on which Rama killed Ravan is celebrated as Dassera (Vijayadashami) by Hindus.
After the war was over, Lord Rama freed Sita and other humans who were working as slaves for Ravan. Sita had to undergo Agni Pariksha (fire ordeal) to prove her chastity, which she did successfully. Rama declared Vibhishan as the king of Lanka and returned to Ayodhya in Pushpak Viman (an airplane) with Sita.
He received a grand welcome from the people of Ayodhya. This day is celebrated as the Gudhi Padwa festival by Hindus. Rama then became king of Ayodhya. Rama received news from his spies that the people of Ayodhya were not happy with his decision of accepting Sita after she spent some time in Lanka alone. Hence, Rama banished Sita. Rama was unaware of the fact that she was pregnant at that time.
Laxman left her in a forest where she gave birth to Lav and Kush in the ashram of sage Valmiki. Lav and Kush were unaware of the fact that they were sons of King Rama. Even Rama had no idea about his sons. Sage Valmiki composed Ramayana and taught Lav and Kish to sing it. They were very good singers and used to sing it in a mind-boggling fashion. When they sang it during a ceremony organized by Rama, Rama became gloomy while listening to the part of Sita’s exile.
Valmiki then told him about his children and introduced Sita to him, but Sita was again asked to undergo a fire ordeal. Hence, she preferred to vanish on the earth. She called mother Earth to get her inside. The earth opened up and she vanished into it (according to another story, Lord Rama organized Ashwamedha Yagya. The horse of Ashwamegh Yagya was stopped by Lav and Kush. They defeated Ram’s army. Then when Rama came to fight with them, Sita intervened and told Rama that those were his children).
After some years, Yama, the god of death came to meet Lord Rama and told him that his work on the earth is over and he should end his life now. Hence, Rama committed suicide by drowning himself in the Sharayu River.
Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rama
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