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Lord Rama in Navadwipa

Om Vishnupad 108 Tridandi Swami Sri Srimat Bhakti Sravan Tirtha Goswami Maharaj ki Jai !!


In Dwapar yuga, during their fourteen years' exile in the forest, Sri Rama, Sita and Lakshman spent some time in the island of Modadrumadwipa in Mayapur.

At the time of Rama-lila there were many huge banyan trees there and Laksmana built a hut for them. It was a very charming and attractive place. The holy Ganga flowed nearby. There were many mango trees and cuckoo birds singing.

Bhagavati Sita-devi and Sri Rama were very pleased to be there. Lakhan Lal diligently constructed a charming cottage for them to stay in.

One day, Sri Ramachandra was lost in thought and smiling at a distant memory. Sita-devi became curious and asked “Why are you smiling?” Lord Rama explained, “This place is extremely dear to me. In the future, in Kali-yuga, I will appear here as Krishna Chaitanya. I will accept sannyasa and leave my mother and wife weeping. My wife will weep in my mother's arms."

Sita-devi asked, “Why will you do this? What happiness is there in giving unhappiness to your wife and your mother?” Lord Rama explained, “Beloved one, prema has two aspects: sambhoga and vipramlambha, or meeting and separation. Without separation, the pleasure of meeting cannot be relished. Unless meeting and separation both occur, it is not possible to relish the mellows of prema-rasa. In this pastime too, when we return to Ayodhya, I will have to send you to the forest, and we will be separated for the rest of our lives. I shall have a golden Deity of you made and worship it.”

It is the Lord's nature to reciprocate with His devotees' love. Rama then said, “Later, when I appear as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, instead of you going to the forest and I worshipping your golden Deity, I will take sannyasa and leave home, and you will be left behind and worship my Deity. You will appear as Sri Visnupriya, my consort and worship me.” This love-in-separation mood is very relishable.

Sita devi desired to see an image of the Lord as a sanyasi. Lord Rama then made a deity of Sri Chaitanya. It is said, Sita devi empowered Rama to do this by placing Her hand on His shoulder.

Later when Sita, Rama and Laksmana returned to Ayodhya, a washerman there raised a doubt about Sita’s chastity – because she had lived for such a long time in Lanka, the abode of Ravana. To set an example for the entire society, that even the wife of a king should be beyond reproach, Lord Rama asked Laksmana to take Sita to the ashram of the sage Valmiki and leave her there. At that time Sita-devi was pregnant, and later she gave birth to two sons – Lav and Kush in the ashram.

Neither Lord Rama nor the other residents of the palace saw them as they were growing up. They stayed with their mother at the Valmiki ashram, who taught them how to sing the pastimes of Lord Rama (Ramayana) – up to the part where Lord Rama abandoned Sita. The two boys did not know that Sita was their mother or that Raja Rama was their father.

As Lav and Kush grew up and learning the art of reciting the Ramayana in that beautiful way, Lord Rama was in Ayodhya. He told his Gurudeva, Vasistha Rishi, “I wish to perform a sacrifice.” Vasistha replied, “It is impossible. A married man cannot perform a sacrifice in the absence of his wife. You will have to call back Sita.”

Lord Rama could not accept this proposal. He asked, “Is there any other way?” Srila Vasistha replied that he could marry again and take another wife. Lord Rama rejected that proposal as well. Then Vasistha said, “Have a golden Deity of Sita made and with her by your side, you can perform the sacrifice”. Lord Rama then had a golden Deity of Sita made, who was so beautiful that it looked exactly like her. He installed the Deity himself by prana-pratistha ceremony, and alongside that Deity he performed the sacrifice.

When Lav and Kush reached the age of about nine years, they went to Naimisaranya (near Ayodya), where Lord Rama was performing a Rajasuya sacrifice. At that time they sang the Ramayana in such a wonderful and heart-touching way that everyone present was struck with wonder.

Lord Rama wept bitterly. Laksmana, Bharata, Kausalya, Kaikeyi, Sugriva, Vibhisana and everyone else who heard their recitation were awestruck. They thought, "If Rama had sons, they would have been just like this." Weeping bitterly, they experienced the sweet sorrow of separation.

When the boys finished their recitation, Lord Rama told Laksmana to give them a reward and to inquire about their identity. Laksmana approached and asked them, “O charming brahmacharis, please accept this donation of gold coins and inform us who you are and who are your mother and father.”

The two boys replied, “We live in the ashrama of Valmiki Rishi. There is very sweet water and so many flowering mango trees there. All the necessities we require are there. We have no need for these gold coins. Also, we are the disciples of Valmiki Rishi, so if you ask who our mother and father are, this is against the principles of religion. According to religious principles, the brahmachari and sanyasi have no material mother or father. The father is guru and the mother is mantra. You should not ask this question."

All were impressed by the boys' perfect character. In the meantime, Sita-devi back in the ashram was wondering, “My sons have been gone for so many hours now. Where are they? Why are they so late?” After some time, they returned, quite late at night, and Sita asked them, “Where have you been all day?” They answered, “We have seen something quite astonishing. We went to Naimisaranya and there we saw a king performing a great sacrifice. There was a golden Deity sitting next to him who looked exactly like you. The only difference was that you speak and this Deity did not speak.”

When Sita-devi heard these words from her two sons, she began to weep and thought to herself, “The King has abandoned the Queen, but Rama has not abandoned Sita.” Her two sons looked at her and wondered, “Why is our mother crying?’

In the meantime, Lord Rama could understand, “Those two brahmachari boys are my sons.” He told Raj-rishi Vasistha, “Please send for Sita-devi and Lav and Kush. They should return here. Sita can perform some activity whereby all the citizens of Ayodhya will have evidence that she is completely chaste.” Sita-devi was sent for, and she entered that assembly holding the hands of her two sons – one on each side – her face downcast and hidden under her veil.

Lord Ramachandra addressed her, “O Goddess! I have no doubt about your purity, but please do something so that the residents of Ayodhya and everyone will know for all time that you are as pure and chaste as before.”

Sita-devi closed her eyes and prayed to Mother Earth, “O Prthivi-devi, O my dear mother, if in my life I have never even let the shadow of another man cross my thoughts; if I have never had any relationship with any man other than Lord Rama, with my body, mind and words, then kindly accept me back in your bosom. Ravana touched me once, when I was helpless (Ravana had caught hold of Sita’s hair as he was kidnapping her), but not after that.”

As soon as Sita-devi said these words, the earth opened up and Prthivi-devi, the predominating goddess of the Earth appeared there, sitting on a golden throne. She extended her arms and gathered Sita-devi in her embrace, and then that golden throne sank back into the earth. The earth closed, and Sita-devi disappeared forever.

Lord Rama became overwhelmed in separation. Weeping, he became like a mad man and forgot everything. He took his bow and arrow and aimed his arrows at the earth. He said, “Return my Sita, or I will burn you to ashes.”

Valmiki Rishi came forward and pacified Lord Rama. He said, “I have written up to here – not further. Now it is the time that your manifest pastimes in this world come to an end. Don’t be perturbed. You should know that Sita-devi has returned to Saket-dhama, the transcendental eternal Ayodhya in the spiritual sky, and she is waiting for you there. Now, wind up your pastimes and return to her there.”

In this way Lav and Kush became the kings and remained in this world, and Rama left for the eternal Ayodhya dham in the spiritual sky.

 

Siya-var Ramachandra Ki Jai !!

Pavan-suta hanuman ki Jai!!

Jai Jai Sri Radhey !!