#137 Part 1 of How and Where eleven years of the forest trek were spent?

4-11-24
kvacit pari-daSan mAsaan
eka samvatsaram kvacit
kvacit ca caturo mAsAn
panca shaT ca parAn kvacit

4-11-25
aparatra adhikAn mAsAn
adhyardham adhikam kvacit
trIn mAsAn ashTa mAsAn ca
rAghavo nyavasat sukham.

4-11-26
tatra sam-vasataha tasya
munInaam Ashrameshu vai
ramataha ca aanukUlyEna
yayuH samvatsarA daSa.

These verses seem to be too insignificant, but they are very important.

ybrems
After my retirement, occasionally friends and relatives used to ask me: "What are you doing?" "How the things are going on?" "What news?" etc.

Initially, I used to reply saying that I was writing to news papers or working on vAlmiki rAmayana or mahAbhArata or writing vocabulary and English grammar blogs or studying the Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda so on and so forth.

Gradually, I understood that they were not interested in those things. They were/are interested to know whether I was making any money from that? Or whether I purchased some gold? Or whether I purchased some house-plots or flats? Or whether my bank balance was going up?

Then, one night I got a dream. I was replying them: "The significant things are-- hair has been growing. I have been going to the saloon. Nails have been growing. I have been trimming them with a good nail cutter. Beard has been growing. I have been shaving. We have been getting three milk packets everyday. We have been making coffee, sometimes filtered and sometimes instant. We have been boiling rice and eating it with brinjal fry. ..."

I started using this reply, on an experimental basis. The started laughing and leaving me alone.

Back to rAmAyaNa:
We shall, now see the gist of the verses quoted above:
4-11-24
rAghava (rAma) stayed there for ten months;
at some other (nearby) place - one year;
at another place - four months;
elsewhere another five months;
further elsewhere another six months;
another place one month;
at another place one and a half-month.

ybremMaintaining a diary or log book was not possible. Hence, these approximations were reasonable.


4-11-25
Staying there, and also in the hermitages of sages, in a favourable and comfortable manner, delectably and delightfully, ten years have elapsed.

4-11-27
rAma went to Sage SutIkshNa's cottage again. (ybrem: Presumably after ten years or as a routine of going around hermitages)

4-11-28

sa tam Ashramam Agamya
munibhiH paripUjitaHa
tatra api nyavasat rAmaHa
kamcit kAlam arindamaHa.

Rama Stayed at SutIkshNa's hermitage, being worshipped by Sages, FOR SOME TIME. The length of this time is not definite. We can reckon it as, say, one year.

4-11-40
RAma enquired from Sage sutIkshNa about Sage agastya's Ashram.

4-11-41

na tu jAnAmi tam desham
vanasya asya mahattayA;
kutra Ashrama padam puNyam
maharshEH tasya dhImataHa.

Asking sutIkshNa. "Owing to the vastness of forest, I do not know that place. Where is the hermitage of that astute and perspicacious Sage?"

ybrems
sutIkshNa's reply indicates the distance: 4-11-37: "yojanaani aashramaat taata yaahi catvaari" - 4 yojanas or 32 miles or approx. 50 km. to Agastya's brother's hermitage.


4-11-40: "tatra agastya aashrama padam gatvaa yojanam antaram". From there (Agastya's brother's hermitage, another yOjanam or 8 miles or 13 km. approx.).
Total 63 km. approx.

rAma stayed at one place for eleven years. He didn't know a a renowned Sage's hermitage situated just 63 kms. away?

In those days, there was no TV or internet around which persons could hang on, lying on their couches, munching chocolates or ham burgers or pizzas. One had to go out hunting for antelopes and deer. rAma and SIta didn't have any children which could have kept them too-busy. They were not running schools or businesses or hospitals. Both rAma and SIta were greatly interested in approaching sages with folded hands and seeking their blessings.

How did these eleven years melt away without at least inquiring about the whereabouts of agastya's hermitage?

May be: Rama was repeating his routine of the citrakUTa days i.e. handing over pieces of grilled meat to Sita's mouth and saying 'this is good, this is tasty, this is roasted red etc.', while LakshmaNa was massaging his OWN legs bruised and swollen in chases of deer/ANTELOPES and procuring water from river - while LakshmaNa was removing thorns from his feet with his sharp darts. The thorns might have pierced into feet while bringing firewood or palmyra leaves for thatching the hut or cutting bamboos.

(To continue in part 2)

006, Lakshmana builds and Rama stays

3-15-21, 3-15-22, 3-15-23, 3-15-24, 3-15-25
Sanskrit verses
Aranya Kanda
Chapter 15
Parn`aashaalaam suvipulaam
tatra samghaata mrittikaam
sustambhaam maskarair diirghaih
kruta vamshaam sus`oobhanaam

Shamii s`aakhaabhihi aastiirya
dhrud`haa paas`aavapaas`itam
kusha kaas`a s`araih parn`aih
suparicchaaditaam tathaa

Samiikrutaa talaam ramyaam
cakaara sumahaabalah
nivaasam Raaghavasya arthee
prekshan`iiyam anuttamam

Sa gatvaa Lakshman`aaha shriimaan
nadiim Godaavariim tadaa
snaatvaa padmaani ca
aadaaya saphalah punar aagataha.

Tataha pushpa balim krutvaa
shaantim ca sa yathaavidhi
darshayaamaasa raamaaya
tad aashrama padam krutam

Suvipulaam = big,
samghaata mrittikaam = dug up mud
sustambham = good pillared
maskarair diirdhair vamsair = long bamboos
kus`a kaas`a s`arai parn`ai = grass blades and leaves
suparichchaditam = well covered
samiikruta talam = well levelled ground
ramyaam = enchanting
cakaara = made.


CONTEXT
Sita, Rama and Lakshmana were in the forest. Lakshmana built a cottage with mud, bamboo poles, palm leaves and creepers and invites Rama and Sita to stay.

GIST
After building the cottage, Lakhshmana went to the river Godavari, bathed in it, and brought lotus flowers from it. Having performed housewarming rituals, he went to invite Rama and Sita.

BLOGGER'S VIEWS- ybrem 1
*If Lakshmana was doing all the hard work and manual labour, what was Rama doing?
*Was it not his duty to help his younger brother?
*(After Lakshman`a showed the cottage, Rama appreciated it, hugged Lakshmana and praised him.)
*Was the relationship that of a master and a servant? The employer may hug the servant, when the work is good or pat on his back. But he will not lend his helping hand.

*At 2-55-14, when R-L-S (Rama, Lakshmana, and Sita) have to cross the river Yamuna, Rama helped Lakshmana in preparing a big raft made of bamboos, straw etc. There was some sharing.

*For one reason, we should appreciate Lakshmana. He did not kill hares or pigs for sacrifice in the housewarming ceremony (S`aanti).

*The Godavari described here may not be the large river Godavari which flows in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, on the banks of which Nasika Triyambaka and Bhadrachalam - Parn`a s`aala are situated. This may be Sapta Godavari, near Chitrakoot in Madhya Pradesh.

The river is very likely to be GUPTA GODAVARI which is near Chitrakuut`a.

ybrem 2 added on June 7, 2012.
It is not clear, why rAma's brother bharata totally abandoned or ignored his elder brother's welfare, after taking his footwear, as proxy authority to rule ayOdhya. Sita-rAma-and lakshmaNa in the forest were exposed to numerous risks like wild animals, fires, floods, demons and what not. bharata should have sent some persons to shadow his brothers, help them when necessary or protect them from attackers. daSaratha or vaSishTha or kaikEyi did not bar him from doing such small favors to rAma. Not helping was not a part of forest-exile rules.

Had bharata sent such persons/soldiers, they would have helped lakshmaNa, in raising the thatched hut (called parNasAla).

ybrem 3 added on June 7, 2012.
I (this blogger) had some first hand experience in building thatched huts. Time-frame: 1962 to 1968 March. My boyhood. I was between 12 and 17. We were too poor to buy or hire a brick-walled home, as my father was unemployed and we were suffering to get our two meals a day. My father obtained on lease a small piece of site, @ Ind. Rs. 3/- per month, on which we raised a single-roomed bamboo-hut of 10 x 12 size. My parents, I and my four younger brothers were living in that. I remember, I helped my father in digging the trenches for erecting the poles, tying the bamboo framework with ropes, and covering the structure with palmyrah leaves. For one year, we had walls of 5 ft. height, made of split-bamboos. Another four years, we had mud-walls. Every alternate year, we had to replace damaged palmyrah leaves with new ones and weave the roof again. It was not a pleasant work to start with; but at the end of the day's work, some sense of satisfaction and accomplishment was felt.

I was studying IX to XII standards during the period, with lot of English, Mathes, Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Zoology to handle. Anxiety of getting admonished by teacher for not doing school-home-work, used to make me resist my father's requests to assist him in the real-home-work.

This childhood experience, makes me to write with empathy praising lakshmaNa. In those days, I used to feel why my father's younger brothers were not helping him. Of course, they were at far-off places. Of course, they might have had their own problems. This expectative-thinking makes me to comment on bharata's not sending help to rAma. Temple preachers speak so much about bharata's love towards rAma and vice versa, and advise us to live like those so-called ideal brothers.