Naam Ramayana 13 – The Lord’s mercy doesn’t leave anyone out
Transcript
This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
nama ramayan so now when lord Ram entered into the forest, on the outskirts of the forest or the outskirts of the kingdom of Ayodhya was the kingdom of the tribal king Guha now from the point of view of the reigning orthodoxy of that times he was outcast but he had devotion to the lord he had devotion to Ram and Priya Guha so Priya Guha that Guha who was dear to Ram and to whom Ram was dear so so when he heard the pada of lord Ram is coming that lord Ram himself is coming out into the forest then he went out to welcome him with all his majesty he felt very fortunate that the feet of the lord was going to were going to anoint his kingdom and his palace and he welcomed the lord so soft, soothing feet those feet were honoured by him how did Guha honour those feet he washed them he treasured them and he served them in fact Guha when he heard about the intrigues by which Ram had been exiled he was distressed but he knew that such are the ways of politics in the royal settings and rather than getting agitated he said my dear lord oh Ram if you cannot live in Ayodhya my kingdom is there for you and you can stay in my kingdom I will offer my best opulence to you and I will try to serve you in every possible way and Ram smiled and he said I appreciate your hospitality oh Guha at the same time I have to honour the word of my father and the order that I have got is to live in the forest and living in a forest means actually living in a forest it is not just living outside the kingdom so Ram was not trying to cut corners Ram was not trying to do the minimum possible thing and somehow try to evade the full impact of the sentence that he had got so he was very strict with himself and he said I have been sentenced to live in a forest and I have been ordered to live in a forest and that’s where I will live if I live in your kingdom then I will not be honouring the word of my father so I am grateful to you for your hospitality but I cannot accept it and Guha heard this he was amazed to see how honourable was the Raghuvamsha prince was this young prince he knew he was a lord but still when he saw him acting in such an extraordinary way such an honourable way he was inspired and he said but still you have come to my kingdom and please give me the opportunity to serve you so if you cannot come in my in my house I will arrange for you to stay within my kingdom in a shed and he agreed and they arranged some hay and tried to make that as comfortable as possible and that was the first night when Sita whose body had never known austerity who had from her childhood lived in the comforts of the kingdom she she had to sleep on not in the comfortable bed in the palace but practically under the sky in a hut like shack on on hay but she graciously accepted that as a part of her duty to the lord and Guha’s eyes were filled with tears not only when he saw how Ram was duty bound to follow his father but how Sita was duty bound to follow her husband and Lakshman he was especially mortified by the turn of events by what he felt was a great injustice to Ram by which Ram had been exiled so he said all night I will stay guard and according to some later retellings of the Ramayana there was a sweet exchange of suspicion between Guha and Lakshman so Lakshman was thinking maybe this Guha is an enemy and maybe he will try to harm Ram at night now that he has seen the reigning Rahu prince unprotected without any army relatively defenseless he may try to attack and he said all night I will stay awake and I will guard and Guha said and on the other hand Guha felt that the sentence was for for the sentence was for Ram why has Lakshman come out with him does Lakshman have some designs in the kingdom and when Ram is in the forest he will be trying to finish off Ram is that why he has come so they were both in love with Ram and they wanted the best for Ram and that’s why they were suspicious of each other but then as the night passed and both of them were staying awake and guard for enemies they started talking and as they started talking then the intense love that both of them had for Ram that became evident to each other and then they became the best their relationship became sweet and intense they were separated in suspicion for the sake of Ram and then they were united in affection for the sake of Ram so that’s how actually actually Ram’s reciprocation with Guha demonstrates how the path of bhakti transcends conventional caste barriers so sometimes some people say caste is by birth and somebody who is a low birth is not eligible for doing religious activities but what to speak of doing religious activity Lord Ram demonstrated that Guha despite being of a lower caste was eligible to even host him directly although Lord Ram did not enter his house but practically it was his house it was a shed in his outskirts so in that way Lord Ram demonstrated the path of bhakti is open for everyone as Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita 9.33 that even those who are born in Papayomay and the lower species they can attain the supreme destination so the universality the sweetness, the compassion of Lord Ram’s pastimes of Lord Ram’s and bhakti to him are demonstrated in this his reciprocation with Guha and we too no matter how conditioned we may be no matter how obstinate our mind seems to be no matter how many times we slip and fall we should know that the doors of the Lord’s heart never close to us that those doors are only open and if we just keep chanting the holy name if we keep praying to him if we keep seeking his grace then by that persistent effort even the door of our heart will open even if it is locked it will open and the Lord will enter and he will he will be enthroned there and we as his living servants will live eternally and ecstatically with him thank you