Naam Ramayana 2 – The Lord brings joy to everyone

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This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Thank you. Hare Krishna.
Hare Krishna. So we continue our discussion on the Naam Ramayan and we discuss the second part, second text in each session which is about going to be around 15-20 minutes. We will be discussing one verse which will have four names.
So approximately about four to five minutes per name. We will understand the name, understand its philosophical significance and the pastime associated with it and how that can help us remember the Lord and draw some shelter and strength and wisdom from that name. We will discuss this.
So the first name, first verse describe four names which describe how the eternal transcendental Lord descends in the domain of history. Now the practical aspects of his descent start in this next verse. So Mandana is one who adorns, one who decorates, one who makes more beautiful.
So Chandakirana Kula Mandana Rama. Lord Ram, he descends into the Raghu Kula is the dynasty. So Chandakirana refers to one who is effulgent, that is the sun.
So he descends into the Raghu dynasty, the solar dynasty. When the Lord descends into this world, depending on the role that he has to play, he appears in particular places. So the Lord does not belong to any dynasty.
The Lord does not come from any dynasty. All dynasties come from him. He is the source of everything and everyone.
Pitahamasya jagato mata dhata pitamaha. He is the source of everyone. That is at the transcendental level, it is because the transcendental descends as the historical.
So the transcendental level, he is the source of everything. But when the transcendence manifests within the domain of history, then at that time, that transcendental being manifesting as a historical being has a particular historical source. Just like there might be an author who may write a fiction and now the author is not found in the fiction usually.
But suppose there is a movie in which the director appears maybe in a small cameo role. Then maybe the director appears as a friend of so and so person or the relative of so and so person or whatever. Now actually the person who has made the novel like that they might also appear for a brief cameo role.
But the point is that person exists beyond. So similarly the Lord exists beyond and when he appears in a particular dynasty, in a particular family that does not mean he is restricted. His descent is not ordinary.
So broadly when he comes to this world especially if it is to curb the influence of demoniac forces, then he comes in a warrior dynasty, in a Kshatriya dynasty. Kshatriyas are those who are martial guardians of society. They fight to protect people from hurt.
Kshatrayate iti Kshatriya. Kshat is hurt. Trayate.
Those who protect people from hurt are called as Kshatriyas. So the Lord is transcendental but he often descends in a dynasty where he can play that Kshatriya role in the best possible capacity. So Krishna appears in the Chandra Vamsha, in the lunar dynasty.
Ram appears in the solar dynasty. These are two prominent dynasties in ancient Indian history. So Chandakirana, Kulamandana, Rama.
So at that time when the Lord appeared in the Surya Vamsha, so one of his name is also Surya Vamshi, one who descends in the solar dynasty. So when he appears thus, his purpose is to fulfil ultimately the purpose of maintaining cosmic order. At one level the king maintains cosmic order but the king, if something is beyond the power of the king, then the king prays to God, to the Gods.
The Gods can’t do anything and they pray to the Supreme Lord. So we discussed how the transcendental descends to the terrestrial. The celestial is in between.
The transcendental descends to the terrestrial level. When he descends, he appears in the Chandakirana, Kulamandana, Rama. He appears in the Raghu Vamsha.
And then when he appears in the Raghu Vamsha, how does he appear? There are specific parents he has. Shreemad Dashrath, Nandana, Rama. Shreemad Dashrath.
So Shreemad is a respectful way of referring Dashrath. Dashrath was a heroic warrior. He was so powerful that when he would fight, it would appear as if there are 10 chariots charging on the enemy.
It would appear as if they have to fight with 10 opponents. He could fight with 10 opponents. There were maharathis who could fight with many many opponents simultaneously.
And that is great. But in this case, he could also fight with many many opponents but he would fight with such speed that the opponents would feel as if, oh are we fighting with one enemy or are we fighting with 10 enemies. So Dashrath.
So he was a glorious monarch. He lived in a place called Ayodhya which was the capital of the Koshala dynasty. And when he was ruling, Nandana, Shreemad Dashrath, Nandana Rama.
Nandana means Lord Rama’s appearance gave him great joy. How great joy? Because Dashrath had been seeking a son for a very long time and somehow although he was trying, he had three primary queens. He had Kaushalya who was senior most and Sumitra was in between and then Kaikeyi.
Although all three were there but still somehow he was not able to have any progeny. And finally he performed elaborate yajnas. He had a long back story.
But eventually when he got a son and he got a son who was as illustrious as Rama. He was non-different from the supreme person. When he appeared, then Dashrath’s joy knew no bounds.
Normally a son gives joy to the parents. The son is virtuous then that gives even greater joy to the parents. And the son is as virtuous as Rama.
The son is Rama, the supreme lord himself, then the joy knows no bounds. So Shreemad Dashrath, Nandana Rama and then Kaushalya Sukhavardhana Rama. So Kaushalya for her, Sukhavardhana, he increased the joy in the life of Kaushalya.
So it is described over here that Lord Rama was the joy of Dashrath and he increased the joy of Kaushalya. So Kaushalya was the first queen of Dashrath and she longed to have a son but somehow she couldn’t have. In the royal dynasties where there was the principle of primogeniture, where the eldest son of the king would become the next king.
Having progeny was considered a very important responsibility. So when that was not possible, it led to a lot of confusion, lot of problems. Because who will succeed the king and the king and queen both had that sense of moral and social responsibility that we have to beget a child.
So when Rama was born, at that time the preceding it was a great sacrifice. So Dashrath Maharaj arranged for his priest Vashishtha Muni to perform a yajna and they got a very powerful Brahmin Rishaya Shringa who was completely pure and uncontaminated by any influence of the world to come to also co-preside over the sacrifice and when Rishaya Shringa came to Ayodhya for the sacrifice and he and Vashishtha they oversaw the sacrifice then at the end of it a celestial being appeared with a vessel that contained some sacred offering and that sacred sweet when the queens consumed it, they were blessed and their wombs became fertile and they had a child thereafter. So when Kaushalya had this child, basically they took the offering the payasam as it was called the payasam is split into two halves.
One was given to Kaushalya and one was given to Kaikeyi because Kaikeyi was very dear to Dashrath and both of them gave their halves, half of what they had to both of them gave a portion of what they had to Sumitra. So because Sumitra got two portions so she had two sons and Kaushalya and Kaikeyi got one half, one half. So what happened was they all both had one son.
So the exact proportion of splitting is described differently in different versions of the Ramayana which indicates it happened differently in different iterations of this pastime in different ages. But essentially Ram was born to Kaushalya, Lakshman and Shatrughna were born to Sumitra and Bharat was born to Kaikeyi and this way the palace which had no children at all now was filled with the joyful presence of not one, not two, not three but four children and the atmosphere became jubilant. Kaushalya Sukhavardhana Rama.
So as she saw her child growing, becoming virtuous, becoming glorious, learning all that was required to take up the royal responsibility as a prince and a king, her joy kept increasing and then Vishwamitra Priyadhana Rama. Vishwamitra Priyadhana, the treasure that was dear to Vishwamitra. Once when Ram was just barely a teenager, the great sage Vishwamitra came to the palace of Dashrath Maharaj and he was properly honoured and served by Dashrath Maharaj and he asked for a help.
He said demons are troubling me, they are disrupting my sacrifice and to guard me, guard my sacrifice I need help from you, I need your son Ram. When Dashrath heard this, he was aghast, he was devastated. He said Ram has never fought even a single battle till now, how in the wide world will he be able to face formidable demons.
I will send my whole army with you, I will come personally at the end of the army and I will fight against those demons but please don’t ask Ram to go. Vishwamitra was furious and he said I have come to ask some charity from you and you have promised to give charity to me and now you renege on your promise. He became angry and his anger caused alarm and terror among all the courtiers in Dashrath’s palace.
At that time Vashistha approached Dashrath and told him that Ram is the supreme lord and Vishwamitra himself is powerful enough to kill those demons. If he is asking Ram to come, he will bless Ram with knowledge of the appropriate weapons for his defense. Let Ram go.
So that Ram who was the treasure of the life of Dashrath was entrusted by the king to this sage. So Vishwamitra Priyadhana Rama. Vishwamitra said this is what I want and I do not want anything else.
So it was a great great sacrifice for Dashrath Maharaj to let go of Ram but when Vishwamitra took Dashrath, took Dashrath’s son Ram, his purpose was to bless him and to reveal his glories to the world. So as they were going to the forest through various places, Vishwamitra enriched Ram with wisdom telling him many stories of terrestrial and celestial and transcendental narratives throughout history and then just before they came to the sacrificial arena, Vishwamitra blessed Ram by giving him knowledge of extremely powerful weapons which could best the worst of demons. They were entrusted by Vishwamitra to Ram.
At one level Ram is the source of all power. He is the source of even the power of the weapons that Vishwamitra was giving him. However when the lord descends to this world, he doesn’t always manifest his divinity.
He acts according to the humanity of the role that he is playing for most of the time and thus here he acted as a prince who received gratefully the knowledge of celestial weapons that this great sage gave him. So just as when we treasure someone, we want to give them the best that we have. When parents treasure a child, they want to give the best inheritance that they can accumulate for their children.
So Vishwamitra gave knowledge of cherished powerful weapons to Ram and thus Ram became empowered to protect dharma and to destroy those who were the destroyers of dharma.