Birth of Lord Ram in Maanavloka: the full story revealed by the immortal Lord Hanuman

After a short break, fifth session of the Charan Pooja started. The Yajmaan of this session was a Mathang man called Kshanak. Before he could be eligible enough to offer his Arpanam at the holy feet of Lord Hanuman, his soul had to be purified. Lord Hanuman bathed his soul with the following words of wisdom.

Lord Hanuman said, “O Mathangs, as I told you, Asurrahs don’t have their own bodies. They attempt to enter in any body-mind they can, and use it to fulfil their evil desires. They are cursed souls which are responsible for downfall of humanity from Satyuga to Kaliyuga. In Satyuga, they were trapped in AsurLoka which is located in an invisible layer above the surface of earth. Then they started ejecting themselves from Asurloka one by one and came down to MaanavLoka. This started happening in Tretayuga and their numbers in MaanavLoka have been growing ever since.

“Asurrahs are an unorganized force by themselves; they would cancel powers of each other and have nett zero evil effect on this world. But their master Shukracharya, who is enemy of Lord Vishnu, organizes the power of Asurrahs to destroy this world.

“On the other hand, Lord Vishnu mitigates the force of Asurrahs in order to save this world. If the need be, He Himself comes to MaanavLoka as an avatar and fights the force of Asurrahs.

“At one point of time in Treta Yuga, Shukracharya’s Asurrahs managed to capture an entire kingdom called Lanka. That means, body-mind of all citizens of Lanka were now driven by Asurrahs. The united force of Asurrahs was growing stronger

by the day. Their strength was reaching to a point that only Lord Vishnu could dismantle them. He had to take avatar as Lord Rama. And He had to do it fast.

“O Mathangs, as I earlier told you, to bring a life into existence, two things are required – (1) Fluid of Space and (2) Threads of Time. Lord Indra, who is God of space, manifests through body of the father and provides stream of fluid of space. Lord Kaaldeva, who is God of Time, manifests through body of the mother and provides the threads of Time.

“When an ordinary child takes birth, the Karma-Desire requirement is ordinary and therefore Lord Indra and Lord Kaala don’t have to be fully present to provide the required fluid of Space and threads of Time. In fact, only a very small fraction of them is enough to be present at the time of conceiving.

“But for birth of Lord Ram, they were required to be present fully so that they can conceive a life which can change the whole world.

“If Lord Indra had to manifest Himself fully in body of a man, that man had to be as powerful as Him. If Lord Kaala had to manifest Himself fully in body of a woman, that woman had to be as skilled as Him.

“One day, Lord Vishnu summoned them to VishnuLoka. He said to them, “O Indra, O Kaala, time is near for me to descend to MaanavLoka. O Indra, tell me name of a man who is qualified enough to play role of my father there. O kaal, tell me name of a woman who can hold me in her womb for 9 months.”

“Lord Indra replied, “Prabhu, there is this man called Dasharatha. He is the king of Kosala. He has unthinkable control over his senses. Due to which he has become so powerful that he can dethrone me anytime he wants. Despite being so powerful, he has never challenged my authority. He has used his powers only for the welfare of his kingdom and humanity. He is the man whose body is powerful enough to handle my full manifestation. Therefore, he is well qualified to play role of your father in Maanavloka.”

“Kaal Deva replied, “Prabhu, there is this woman called Kaushalya. She is wife of king Dasharatha of Kosala. How she experiences the world around her is unthinkable for humans. She can stop Time if she so desires. Her control over Time is so much that she can replace me anytime as Kaaldeva. But she has never challenged my authority. She has used her powers only for welfare of her kingdom and humanity. She is the woman whose body is strong enough to handle my full manifestation. Therefore, she is well qualified to play role of your mother in MaaanavLoka.”

“O Mathangs, now I will tell you what made king Dasharatha as powerful as Indra and what made queen Kaushalya as powerful as Kaaldeva.

“Very few people become skilled enough to know their destiny ahead of time. King Dasharatha and queen Kaushalya were among those few. When you know your destiny ahead of time, you can challenge the principles which drive this universe. You can make Indra fall at your feet and obey you. You can make Kaaldeva your slave.”

All the Mathangs were engrossed deep in the story of Lord Ram’s birth. It took them a while to come back to sense that Lord Hanuman had stopped telling the story and a mysterious silence had replaced his words. He stared at the faces of

Mathangs one by one: First Baba and Mata Mathang, then the Brahmanas, then the attendees, then Hotar and finally His eyes stopped at Yajmaan Kshanak.

He said to Kshanak, “O Yajmaan, you haven’t eaten anything since morning and you are sitting too close to the holy fire. You are going to faint.”

Kshanak shifted his position farther away from the holy fire. Lord Hanuman said, “You cannot run away from your destiny, Kshanak. I am telling you your destiny ahead of time. You are going to faint and then you are going to drink water. If you can successfully defy your destiny, Lord Indra will become indebted to you. Defy it if you can.”

Kshanak fainted after a few moments. Baba and Mata Mathang quickly attended him. They sprinkled cold water on his face and brought him to consciousness. Then they offered him water to drink. Kshanak was feeling very dizzy and thirsty. He immediately put the cup of water on his lips. When he was about to take a sip of water, he remembered Lord Hanuman’s words, ‘…defy it if you can.’

He threw away the cup of water. His throat was on fire. He screamed, “water… water… give me…”

Urva immediately brought another cup of water. When he was about to take a sip from that cup, Lord Hanuman’s words again gave him power and he threw away that cup. He wanted to scream but his throat had given up. He wanted to cry but his eyes were dry.

Another cup of water was brought to him but he showed tremendous willpower and threw it away. He crawled a little to reach a place where sand was wet and

buried his face in the sand. All the Mathangs were feeling the pain he was going through but Lord Hanuman was sitting on His Asana indifferently.

Kshanak resisted his thirst until it died. This show of willpower in a Mathang made Baba Mathang proud and brought a smile at Lord Hanuman’s face.

Lord Hanuman said, “O Kshanak, you were destined to drink water but you successfully defied your destiny. By doing this you have made Lord Indra indebted to you. I tell you how.

“Everything we consume through our senses is basically fluid of space- whether it is the food we eat, natural sceneries we enjoy watching, beautiful sounds we enjoy listening and so on. It all is owned by Lord Vishnu and the responsibility to distribute this fluid fairly to everyone is that of Lord Indra. He distributes it to you as per your destiny. When you refused water which you were destined to drink, Lord Indra actually failed in performing His duty as fair distributor. Now He has to compensate you for this.

“Refusing water is a very small task. If you keep on defying your destiny like this, and manage to refuse a lot of things coming your way, you can put question mark on Lord Indra’s ability to perform fair distribution of things. To compensate you for everything you refused, He would appear before you and plead you to ask him something as compensation. If you refuse that compensation offered by Lord Indra, His job will be in danger. Lord Vishnu would take a strong note of it and search for a better person for the job of Indra. If you are capable enough to become Indra, you can claim it.

[Setuu’s Note: This is the reason why fasting helps in desire fulfilment. When you refuse the food which is in your destiny, Indra deva becomes indebted to you and he then has to award you some compensation. He gives you what you desire at the time of breaking the fast.]

“You are definitely not capable enough to become Indra, but king Dasharatha was. But he never challenged authority of Lord Indra. Yes, he used to defy his destiny very often. But when Lord Indra would plead him to accept compensation, he would settle for it.

“It was a very common affair in the kingdom of Kausala. King Dasharatha would defy his destiny and Lord Indra would appear before him and say, “O king of Raghu clan, you have indebted me by not accepting what was destined for you. Therefore, I must compensate you. I beg of you, please ask something as compensation.”

“And then Dasharatha would reply, “O the mighty Indra, if you please, compensate me by providing everything in abundance to people of my kingdom. Let there be no scarcity of anything in my kingdom.”

“As a result, the kingdom of Kosala was very prosperous.

“O Mathangs, I will give you one example and you will understand what kind of a man king Dasharatha was.

“When Lord Ram was banished to forest for 14 years, king Dasharatha started defying his destiny: He was destined to have proper food, but he refused to eat

food; He was destined to rule the kingdom until Lord Ram was to take over, but he refused to do so; He was destined to exhibit strength of his mind by accepting truth of separation from Lord Ram, but he refused to do so and broke down; and ultimately, there was still life left in his destiny, but he gave up his life.

“When he gave up his body, Lord Indra spoke to his soul, “O the king of Raghu clan, you have indebted me deeply by refusing to accept what was destined for you. I plead before you, please accept a compensation from me.”

“This time king Dasharatha asked, “O the mighty Indra, my son has gone to the forest to live for 14 years. Life in forest is extremely difficult. Sometimes one has to walk miles to get even sight of water. Sometimes, one doesn’t get even dry leaves to eat. O Indra, you are responsible for scarcity and abundance in this world. I ask you, that my sons and daughter-in-law who have gone to forest for 14 years, should never face scarcity of anything.”

“As a result, Lord Ram never had to use any supernatural power in jungle to get things of day-to-day use. He never faced scarcity of anything while he lived in the forest as an ordinary human being.

“O Mathangs, such was the greatness of king Dasharatha. That is why Lord Vishnu chose him as father to descend in Maanavloka in Treta Yuga.

“Queen Kaushalya was no less either. If king Dasharatha’s abilities matched that of Lord Indra, queen Kaushalya’s abilities matched that of Lord Kaal, the God of Time.” Lord Hanuman told.

At this point, a fruit popped out of basket kept on altar and landed right in the hands of Lord Hanuman. Young Mathangs giggled.

“O Mathangs, I have an apple in my hand. I want any of you to make this apple disappear from my hand. Here is the condition: You are not allowed to do anything to this apple.” Lord Hanuman threw the challenge at Mathangs.

A young Mathang called Urva stood up to face the challenge. He bowed to Lord Hanuman and said, “Prabhu, if I close my eyes and stop thinking about this apple, this apple will stop to exist at least for me.”

“Good.” Lord Hanuman said, “But can you make it disappear without closing your eyes. You have to look at the apple and make it disappear for you.”

Urva thought for a moment and replied, “O Lord, there is a certain knowledge in my mind. That knowledge identifies this thing as ‘apple’. If I can remove that knowledge from my mind, I won’t see this as an apple. I will see this as…”

“… as a random object.” Lord Hanuman completed Urva’s sentence and said, “Good. You have made apple disappear for you but the object still remains. You will see it as a random object. Can you make it disappear completely?”

“Yes, Prabhu.” Urva replied, “There is a certain knowledge in my mind which differentiates between an object and non-object; solid and gas; this colour and that colour; and so on. If I can remove that knowledge from my mind, I won’t be able to make out any difference between air and this solid object called apple. That means, this object will disappear for me.”

“Great.” Lord Hanuman complimented Urva and said, “O Mathangs, look what is happening here. Urva’s destiny is to see this apple in my hand right now. Lord Indra has done His job by producing this apple before Urva’s eyes. Urva’s eyes are open. But still, he is not seeing the apple. He is defying his destiny. But Lord Indra cannot be held accountable for this because He has done His job. Then who is to be held accountable for this?”

A Mathang girl called Urmi stood up and enthusiastically replied, “O lord, anything comes into existence because of two things: (1) Fluid of space which creates that object (2) Threads of time which hold print of that object. In this case, Lord Indra has done His job by creating this apple before Urva’s eyes but the print of this object is not reaching Urva. Therefore, threads of Time are not working here. Hence God of Time Kaaldeva is responsible for this defiance of destiny.”

[Setuu’s Note: The example of a movie theatre can help you understand this. The projector is Indra as he projects fluid of space to create objects. The movie screen is threads of Time managed by Kaaldeva. If there is no screen, projector won’t be able to show you the movie. This world is a movie which not only can be seen and heard, but can also be touched, smelled, interacted with, and so on.]

Lord Hanuman said, “O Mathangs, Urmi has explained it very well. From childhood itself, human beings keep accumulating a knowledge which is called illusionary knowledge. With this knowledge you identify things around you and say, ‘this is apple, this is orange, this is air, this is space, this is object, this is black, this is white’ and so on. This knowledge doesn’t help you rise towards God. It keeps you engaged in this illusionary world. That is why it is called illusionary knowledge. Lesser you have it, the better.

“If you can make this illusionary knowledge vanish from your mind, the illusionary world around you will disappear. Queen Kaushalya was skilled enough to do that.

“For example, in afternoon of a certain day, the queen Kaushalya’s destiny was to enjoy beauty of a rose garden. Lord Indra did His job and queen came to the garden where there were roses of many varieties. But the queen did not see a single rose. From her mind, she had dropped the illusionary knowledge which would have helped her identify roses from other objects.

“She could drop her illusionary knowledge anytime and everything around her would disappear. Then Kaaldeva would appear before her and plead, “O queen, your destiny right now is to see roses around you. Lord Indra has successfully created the rose garden by His fluid of space but I am not able to make impression of that on my (screen of) threads of Time. This is happening because you have dropped your (illusionary) knowledge. I have failed in performing my duty. Please allow me to compensate you for this.”

“O Mathangs, if queen Kaushalya wanted, she could challenge authority of Kaaldeva. Lord Shiva would take notice that His manager Kaaldeva is not able to do His duty. (Kaaldeva manages threads of Time which are owned by Lord Shiva) Then He would appoint a new Kaaldeva.

“But queen Kaushalya never tried to dethrone Kaaldeva. She would always settle for compensation offered by Kaaldeva. She would say, “O Kaaldeva, when someone commits a sin knowingly or unknowingly, you record it in the form of impression on your threads of Time. Then the sinner gets punished in future. In my kingdom, no one commits sins knowingly. I want you to erase records of all the sins unknowingly committed by my citizens. That is what all I want in compensation.”

“So queen Kaushalya always used her skills for welfare of her people. She was so powerful that Kaaldeva would kneel before her and plead. But she never misused her powers. That is the reason Lord Vishnu chose her as mother to descend in Maanavloka.

“O Mathangs, for Lord Ram to take birth, Lord Indra had to manifest fully in the father (king Dasharatha) and Lord Kaala had to manifest fully in the mother (queen Kaushalya). When Shukracharya got to know that Lord Vishnu is planning to descend to Maanavloka, he started his evil attempts to stop Lord Ram’s birth. There was only one way to do that: He could distract either Indra or Kaala so that they fail to manifest fully through the father and mother respectively.

“Shukracharya’s Asurrahs had full control over citizens of Lanka but Lanka was very far from the place where Lord Ram was planning to take birth. There was not even a single person in the kingdom of Kosala who could be vulnerable to Asurrahs. But Shukracharya found a person in nearby kingdom of Anga, who was not only vulnerable to Asurrahs but also powerful enough to challenge Indra. That person was a renowned sage called Vibhandaka.

“Vibhandaka was a noble man but he had a weakness. He could never see someone suffering. Shukracharya exploited this weakness of Vibhandaka and infected his mind with an Asurrah.

“Shukracharya took form of an old weak man and went to the Ashram of Vibhandaka. He said, “O noble sage, give me something to eat. I have no children and I am myself not able to earn my food. My wife has also not eaten anything since last 2 days.”

“Vibhandaka became very angry, not at the old man, but Indra. He gave everything he had in his Ashram to that old man.

“Vibhandaka was skilled in the method of defying destiny to make Indra Deva kneel before him. When old man left, Vibhandaka started defying his destiny and forced Indra to appear before him for giving compensation.

“Vibhandaka refused to take any compensation from Indra. He said, “O Indra, you have become arrogant. People are dying of hunger and you are enjoying the abundance bestowed on you by Lord Vishnu. I will not accept any compensation. I am going to continue defying my destiny until you are dethroned.”

“Lord Indra humbly replied, “O the learned one! I distribute the fluid of space to everyone fairly as per their Karma. If somebody is hungry, it must be because his Karmas don’t allow me to provide him food.”

““You are justifying hunger and scarcity with your silly knowledge of Karma? Disappear from my Ashram, you arrogant one! You don’t deserve to be Indra. You don’t deserve to be manager of Lord Vishnu’s fluid of space.”

“Vibhandaka’s mind had been infected with an Asurrahs. There was no point in reasoning with him. Lord Indra disappeared from there.

“Vibhandaka started defying his destiny aggressively. Lord Indra offered him compensation many times but he refused. Lord Indra could ignore it for some

more time, but at a time when Lord Vishnu was planning to descend to MaanavLoka, and Indra’s full manifestation could be called for anytime, Lord Indra could not afford the distraction caused by Vibhandaka.

“O Mathangs, when somebody challenges the authority of Indra, He sends His Apsaras to pacify the rebel. Apsaras are abundance personified. When they appear before someone, he ceases to be a rebel. He would accept anything offered to him. Even if they offer death, he would happily accept it.

“When Vibhandaka’s rebellious energies got pacified by Urvashi (the Apsara), Lord Indra pleaded before him, “O the learned one, please accept compensation from me for whatever you have refused so far during your attempts to defy your destiny.”

“Vibhandaka had accepted defeat from Indra but the Asurrah who had infected his mind was still there. Under the influence of that Asurrah, he asked, “O Indra, I want to father a child. You manifest through my body and let Kaaldeva manifest through Urvashi’s body, and beget me a child. That is what all I want as compensation.”

“O Mathangs, do you know why Vibhandaka got defeated? It was because of the illusionary knowledge. ‘This is ugly. This is beautiful. This is abundant. This is scarce. This is an ordinary woman and this is Apsara.’ All these identifications lead us into illusion. Had there been no illusionary knowledge, sage Vibhandaka would have seen Apsara as an ordinary woman.

“This illusionary knowledge starts building up in our minds from childhood itself. Sage Vibhandaka decided that he would father a child and raise him free from the illusionary knowledge and enable him to defeat Indra.

“Sage Vibhandaka named his child Rishyasringa. He isolated him from outside society and gave him minimum illusionary knowledge and maximum supreme knowledge.

“When child Rishyashringa would point to a flower, fruit, person, animal or anything and ask, ‘what is this?’, his father Vibhandaka would reply, ‘this is just a variation of the fluid of space.’ For Rishyashringa, everything was just a variation of fluid of space. He knew nothing about colours, smells, shapes or anything for that matter.

“Once child Rishyashringa spotted similarity between blue flower and blue sky and said, “There is something similar between these two.”

“His father did not tell him that the similarity was because of a thing called colour. He instead replied, “O Rishyashringa, similarity itself is just a variation of fluid of space.”

“Lord Indra started to fear now. He knew that if Rishyashringa grows up and starts threatening his rule, Apasaras would be ineffective. He ran to Lord Vishnu and said, “Prabhu, if you want to take birth in MaanavLoka, now is the best time. Because once this child grows up, he would start threatening me and I won’t be able to give my full manifestation required for your birth. If you take birth now, by the time this child grows up, you will also grow up in your Ram avatar. Then you can deal with him.”

“Kaaldeva was also fearing this child because absence of illusionary knowledge could enable him to enslave Kaaldeva also. He also pleaded Lord Vishnu to take birth immediately.

“Lord Vishnu knew that taking birth immediately would mean walking into trap of Shukracharya. Lord Vishnu was taking Rama avatar to mitigate the united force of Asurrahs which was centred in kingdom of Lanka. While Shukracharya was trying to pitch a sage (Vibhandaka) of Anga kingdom against Lord Ram. Having a sage on the evil side during lifetime of Lord Ram would have been a defeat of good in itself.

“Lord Vishnu replied to Indra, “O Devraj, to free sage Vibhandaka and his son Rishyashringa from an Asurrah, I am not needed. A noble soul from Vishnuloka would be enough to handle this task. I am needed only to fight the evil which is centered in the kingdom of Lanka.”

“O Mathangs, there are many noble souls in VishnuLoka who chose to serve Lord Vishnu instead of getting Moksha. There was a very noble soul called Shanta. Lord Vishnu sent that soul specially for the purpose of amending sage Vibhandaka and his son.

“Shanta descended in Maanavloka as daughter of king Dasharatha and queen Kaushalya. At one hand Vibhandaka’s son was growing in an isolated Ashrama, and on the other hand king Dasharatha’s daughter was growing in the palace of Ayodhya. While Vibhandaka’s son was growing to be a problem for the world, Shanta was growing to be solution of that problem.

“When Vibhandaka’s son Rishyashringa grew up, he started defying his destiny so as to challenge Indra’s rule. Indra appeared before him many times and pleaded him to accept a compensation, but he refused. Indra sent His Apsaras to pacify him but it did not work, because for him an Apsara was just another variation of fluid of space, just like anything else.

“Lord Indra was in deep fear. His authority was threatened and his usual methods of pacifying the rebel were not working. He went to Rompada – the king of Anga – and said, “O king, there is a young sage living in your kingdom. His name is Rishyasringa. He is obstructing me from performing my duties. You have to banish him out of your kingdom otherwise your kingdom will suffer because of his evil deeds. It is better to throw one citizen out of the kingdom than putting all the citizens in danger. I am warning you. There will be scarcity of everything in your kingdom if he doesn’t let me perform my duties.”

“King Rompada was in dilemma. He replied, “O Indra Deva, if I banish a sage out of my kingdom, it will be an unpardonable sin. My entire kingdom will suffer if I commit this sin. I cannot throw him out, please find some other way to pacify him.”

“Indra had no way left to pacify him. Rishyasringa weakened Indra like never before. Other citizens of Anga also started suffering. People started facing acute shortage of food and water. They prayed to Lord Indra. How could prayers help when Lord Indra himself was facing existential crisis.

“At this point, Lord Vishnu suggested the solution to sage Vishwamitra. The sage went to king Rompada and told him, “O king, your wife’s sister Kaushalya, who is queen of Kosala has a daughter. She is the solution of your all problems. Adopt

her and bring her to your kingdom. When she comes into your kingdom, she will realize purpose of her birth. Then she will do the needful.”

“King Rompada followed the advice of sage Vishwamitra and adopted Shanta. When Shanta came to know about young sage Rishyasringa, she immediately realized purpose of her birth. She went to the Ashram of the sage.

“O Mathangs, while sage Vibhandaka and Rishyasringa were infected by one Asurrah, Shanta had force of a thousand Surrahs with her. When she reached the Ashram, that Asurrah flee away from there.

“When sage Vibhandaka and Rishyasringa got freed from the Asurrah, they realized their mistake. They apologized to Lord Indra. When Rishyasringa was asked as to what compensation he would like to have, he said, “O Indra Deva, let there be abundance in the kingdom of Anga. Let no one suffer from any kind of scarcity.”

“Shanta not only freed Rishyasringa from Asurrah, but also decided to marry him so that Shukracharya could never even attempt to come close to him. By doing this, Shanta fulfilled her destiny.

“Now Indra Deva and Kaal Deva had no problems. Now they were fully available for birth of Lord Ram.” Lord Hanuman concluded.

Now that soul of Yajmaan Kshanak was purified by the wisdom showered on him by Lord Hanuman, Baba Mathang started proceedings of Arpanam for him.

This chapter of Lord Hanuman's Leelas ends here.