Video 8

Ramayana 008 : Prince Bharata's Prudence

the good evening dear devotees of trinidad and tobago so we we are studying the ramayana ramayana is a story and that carries us with the beautifully and the way it has been presented it has been written and it is really really wonderful but at the same time we learn so many things from the ramayana that's why ramayana is so important for the hindus why we learn spirituality through the stories that happen truly happen in a family called raghu banksha raghu banksha is the clan of the rogue what is that spirituality truthfulness what is the spirituality keeping the vows and what is the spirituality completely detached from all these worldly appears but at the same time focused to perform the duties so that is the spirituality very simple but very profound so this we are studying through the stories and we know that in our last class we have discussed that how the three trusted people they the experienced messengers you know this is very very important the when the even today in the modern times also there are people who are representing a country and almost in every country having their own people in different countries they will be representing that particular country so you can imagine so here the three people that they chose siddharth bijay and asaki nanda these three they went with the very fast moving horses to the the king that is very that's called ke khoi the kingdom his name is kekai and the daughter of the kingdom of kikaya is kri kayi but the king was ashabati his father was ashabati so this is this k car is near our jalandhar the president-day punjab jalandhar so that is that ke koi so the risk to her there why with a with a message but look at it how things goes it should not go and say that the king has passed away over there and the king the sharatha is no more oh please come back he never said that he went with all gifts as if they are going to visit that place but at the same time they went with a message and the message very secretly for bharata why they didn't disclose that so we are learning the politics in politics you are not supposed to disclose everything because if the people come to know that the darsharata is no more and there is no king at this moment in that kingdom and the sri ramachandra the hero of that kingdom is also not there he is in exile so obviously the enemies will be tempted to attack so that is the reason so we are learning even the how the social and political things should be there so three people were chosen among so many and they were sent through direct paths that is inside the through the jungle but so that they can reach within one or two days and they they reached over there without without telling anything to the ashapati the king they rather give the gift and said we are very happy that and ashipati's daughter son bharata he was there visiting maternal uncle's house they told now now the bharata should go back there is nothing wrong but as the bharata was going back we can understand how rich it was the that country when they were going to bring back the bharata they took so many gifts the golden jewelries and many other things only three horses because they were carrying that they couldn't take much but when this young man bharat and his brother shatrika was coming back the king ashipati of kekai he gave lot of gifts friends why i am mentioning this only to remind us that india was prosperous in both the ways in the spirituality and also in the materialistic life they were having so much of rich rich that the goals and all jewelries and so it took nearly and so many the servants met servants elephants horses all they give the gift only that the child that son of the daughter was visiting when he's coming back so much of wealth so many gifts and suppose the king himself is visiting how much that means they were having so much now naturally so many people they cannot move fast it took seven days for them and they were coming following the main road it it seems there were very good road connections so they were coming on that horse-drawn chariots and all of them when they risked over there much before reaching the palace bharat a very intelligent person he failed something wrong in ayotta how the obviously in ayodhya the normal life was not there people they were somehow they were leaving because the king has passed away they were mourning so obviously bharata felt something wrong when he finally met his mother kiki he came to know from her that his father the king the shadata is no more and his elder brother sri rama and his wife sita and another brother lakshmana they are in jungle in exile for long 14 years what struck him most the cheerfulness of his mother the human character husband is supposed to be the king is no more she has become weirdo but even then because of her her selfish desire was fulfilled koike was very happy so to depict this that those who are thinking these particularly worldly possessions are very important even in that situation when the husband is dead all people are criticizing rama has gone into exile everything is in tupsi turvy but she was very happy and she was confident that the son bharata will also be very happy why because bharata is going to be the next king so she has prepared the whole thing the bharat will be very happy with his mother here though the mother was a greedy though the mother was cruel but we find the sun was completely different so it it proves that the spirituality doesn't depend on heredity it is all personal so this is also we can learn from this the what that when he was telling bharata never could imagine that his mother will be so cruel and greedy to crown his misery everyone was silently expressing their doubts about bharat's plan to grab the throne bharata could not believe his ears when he heard the most respected queen mother queen mother kaushallah saying oh dear bharata now there is a description the bharata came everybody was greeting him but everyone was silent but the body language as they say the bharata could feel that they are not at all happy with him though not opposing of course but not at all happy so bharata was feeling that everybody is doubting his purpose he has come back now he is going to be the king there must be that he and his mother planned all these things so that is the reason the king passed away rama and our brother lakshmana and his wife sita they have gone to the jungle so all these things happened the whole kingdom were thinking what is going to be to going to happen next in that situation bharat arrived everybody was thinking that he is also in the plot now we have to imagine a man completely innocent never knew anything about the plan that his mother did but facing this problem in this situation how a person should deal we learn from bharata he was very calm and composed and he was behaving exactly that a man of knowledge should behave when the news naturally spreaded that the bharata has come back so the mother queen koshala the mother of sri rama chandra came over there to meet bharata kaushala is to love bharata very much all the three mothers used to love these four sons equally only now because of koike's this plan things have changed now kaushallah also doubted bharata the kushala now you hankered after the kingdom now enjoy it without any thorn look at it how she is talking you hankered for this position the king's position now that there is no one lakshmana and rama they have left shatripna is always very obedient to bharata so no problem for you so now enjoy it now please send me and sumitra to the forest where rama is now residing this is very clear in that that she knew she was blaming completely to bharata but saying in a different way the words of kaushallah the rama's mother struck bharata like a sharp arrow and he fainted at the mother koshala's feet after regaining the consciousness bharata said o mother i don't know anything about it i am innocent please believe me o mother you know well how much i love sri rama bharata was expressing when we hear these words of bharata we can understand the guideless person he's not using any twisted words he's using straight simple words to express his mind guideless person simple person the heart is completely pure and open and that is why bhagavan si ramakrishna said the only those who is having this simple heart can realize god the bharata is not blaming the mother he immediately understood it is obvious she has lost her son though also the bharata is in one way her son but her own son rama has left as a mother naturally she will react in this way how bharata is behaving she is the when she is complaining bharata could not bear that pain he fainted for some time and then after regaining he is telling these words you know how much i love sri rama i am innocent believe me mother then we find the bharata he is giving a list of the the misdeeds that brings us seen papa he's telling oh mother if i am telling you the lies then may the scene which one gets by he is giving the list not paying a worker after the work is done so look at it sometimes some people they make a contract with the people and mostly in you know that the developing countries it always happens and many other places where the rule of law is little less the rich people they will engage some poor people to perform some work and after all the work is over they won't pay them completely and sometimes in the developed country like america also we hear that you are supposed to pay according to the government rule so this much money but the rich people will want to do that they will say so this is the thing you have to agree to my contact so as because the poverty has because the need they work but that is a seen ramjandra's time that we can imagine this is considered as seen friends as i was telling the when we read ramayana that we learn so much from the ramayana and this is what the we are learning not being a worker after the work is done that is a scene and if i am telling you the lies may that scene occur to me that means it's a very big scene second the scene that befalls a king who does not govern well so that is also another scene sometimes some people they will grab the power but they don't have the capacity to rule they don't have the capacity to administer so they will not only ruin themselves then and there at the same time in the afterlife also they are going to suffer so that is also a scene considered as a scene if you are not capable to do that as a king you are not supposed to accepted responsibility so this we are learning third is telling the scene one reap by fouling drinking water drinking water is so important because all people they survive in animals birds each and everyone they survive on the drinking water and if someone is polluting that at the time of war sometimes the enemies they come and they mix the the things maybe some chemicals poison in the drinking water there's a great sin he near sin so he's telling that the scene the by fouling the drinking water then the scene one reap by calling with others about their faith and not only that those who are supporting and listening to that core they are also committing sin friends these are all really very interesting if we learn it from the ramayana and implement in our personal life and in the social life as they call all the time the faithful hindus they call about the rama raja the administration of the sri rama these are the things they should not have all this the king should be a just and capable king and people should be at that moral that whatever maybe i'm not going to poison the drinking water i am not going to fight with others about their religious faith and in the nowadays in the modern time on the basis of the faith we are fighting we are committing not only the heinous sin but those who are supporting and listening to that cult and also having committing the same scene so these are really really very interesting we learn from the ramayana the scene won reap by killing a woman a boy and an old person the one should not do that by killing the women because they cannot defend themselves a boy is a young child cannot defend and the old person cannot defend so you are not supposed to kill them these are the moralities high moralities we are learning from here the queen kaushallah cried out when the bharata was telling all this so i am telling you the truth if you don't believe then i am taking this oath if i am telling the lies to you then let all these scenes come on me and now the kosher queen kaushallah she regained herself and she cried out oh my son i i have no doubt on your piousness koshala sat down and took the head of the varatha on her lap and both of them were crying so this is the scene and slowly slowly bharata regaining the confidence of all others paratha could be they say that i am the king so everybody has to follow me obviously he could do that but he is not doing that he is slowly slowly regaining the confidence of each and everyone next day the family guru he came and that is where rishi vishwamitra the vishwamitra is considered as wise as the brahma the fast born that there are sometimes they say it is the vishyamitra from where the all the rishi lineage coming down the this rishi bishamitra said to bharata go prince now it is time to cremate the body of the king dasharatha make all arrangements for it the something has happened so obviously if we all go on crying we doubt some one should be there to take the other things that that vishwamitra as a guru guru of the whole clan the he came and he is guiding them now do this the naturally the bharat when he saw the dead body of his father the king and he cried like a child lamenting loudly oh father why have you banished sri rama is not hiding sometimes we see that the when the great personalities the prime ministers or the presidents or the that the king pastor be is very close his children or the wife publicly they are not crying i don't know why because the emotion they don't like to express but here we find the bharata publicly he is crying my father is dead so obviously that the emotion the love the bone the emotion for the father he is expressing it without any hiding anything what the people will think he is not bothering this is called simple heart simple mind the bharata he is crying and lamenting why have you banished three rama why is bharata again and again telling this the scene that he has mentioned a king should be perfect and bharata knew it very well sri ramachandra is the best person to be the king after the sharatha so he was very clear about it and this is called spirituality understanding my capacity i should take up the responsibility just because someone told just because an opportunity has come even i am not capable if i accept that responsibility i will not only ruin myself i will ruin the society too this is called courage moral courage even to say no on the face of the temptation the bharata that's why he was capable person and we will know afterwards those who have read the ramayana they you all know that he was very very perfect and capable person even then comparing with sri rama so he was telling this after the ten days after the cremation was done and everything was performed after the 10 days of the king's death then as a good son the bharata performed the shraddha ceremony the final rite ceremony that is the tradition of the hindus why we do this because we believe though the body we are leaving the body the atman the self which is residing inside the body whom we always call as the life it is there it is traveling it's not dead so that is the reason they always think that this self can feel there are many discussions are there on that so when they see these they always say that the right the performance that we do that is the way the children should do and bharata did the same thing after the 10 days the final rights bharata then then when we become monks we are hindus so obviously we are not we are not going to marry we won't have the children who is going to do the this final rights after we die so you know the system before we take the sannyasa we perform our own final rights beforehand before the death and we say to the lord vishnu the great god o vishnu i am going to take a new life it will be a new birth so please accept my the sradha the food that i will need when i die and that's because i won't have the progeny the children after me so i am performing it giving you keeping you as a shakti as a witness so the sannyasins before the sannyasa the last night of the brahmacharya they perform that whole night they say they cannot enter into any room because though we are having the body but they say you are ghost now we have not taken sannyasis and yes we will be in the next morning only and we have already performed our shraddha so what is the condition so we used to live under trees there a the plantain the their trees were there and we we lived over there there is this tradition of the belumont so one night they used to say oh you are all ghosts and they're jokingly then afterwards only in the next morning we go to our guru after bathing in the ganges then the guru gives us the new name and the new family tradition that we are known as satya yatta shiva this is the shiva means the auspicious is an auspicious life that you have got it's a new life in the sannyasa it's a new name also the sannyasa name so most of the time the sannesi sanyasins are not supposed to remember their past name even and forget about their past family relation these you one should forget about that but you know the modern time people cannot remember this so they will be calling by the previous name and they think this is we are very close so we are that is all so this is the system new name and new family tradition and what is that family for us it is we belong to that family so this is the way the sannyasa but the householders the children should perform so they perform that and all the food it goes to that particular soul not that he is eating as we eat while leaving no not like that but the smell of the food and looking at the food that is also satisfy their hunger so that is the way the people they do the swat the ceremony sometimes nowadays not understanding all this we refuse no we are not going to do this guru that my father has asked me not to perform father also never knew so before death he was also thinking i am modern person i am not going to do it but the tradition comes after a lot of practices of course some bad traditions also incorporated in the social body that we should understand and we should remove but the good traditions like this we are respecting the from this radha so that is we should also perform so if it is necessary and after all that bharata then declared that he will go to the forest to bring back sri rama his elder brother now here we find bharata so today's talk i have given this name the how this bharata it is the it is his prudence prince bharata's prudence that that what is that prudence he could feel that i should not be the king though there was opportunity everybody was asking but even then he was sticking to his own we will find that now all the mothers even the mother of sri ramachandra mother of lakshmana they all agreed all the ministers agreed the counselors they agreed people also agreed bharata could become the king no so that is no hypocrisy whatever i am telling i am truly feeling this we learn no hypocrisy i should be genuine to my thoughts to my deeds and to my words so here is he says after the final right he decided that he will go to the forest bharata persisted the elder son of the family should ascend the throne when all these people came not only that even their family guru bashista bashishta also said the you should become the king after becoming the king you better go in search of rama and whatever you like to do why bashishtv was telling this and for two things one to judge bharata whatever he is telling is it true to that the temptation to become king is really very very difficult to overcome secondly he was looking from the another point of view that if the king is not there then the kingdom will be very weak if the king is not working then what will happen administration will break down what the king does gives the decision that is the work of the king he doesn't go physically and doing he gives the decision who will give the decision the very important things all other people they will make the all the planning but the final decision should be given by the king and if the king is not proper and not present at that time what will happen so this is the way slowly the administration breaks down and once the administration breaks down in the society it's very difficult to again to reveal that because naturally it goes like a the snowball then collecting more and more snow and becomes a huge and huge so that's why being the advisor and the guru the preceptor of that particular kingdom and the family raghuvansa the bashist was asking him to accept the kingdom not only washish to all the ministers but the bharata persisted why because bharatan knew that nothing is going to happen the kingdom was so well protected then no one will dare to attack so then that is why he decided to go fast to rama and pray to rama and if he becomes the king rama made out that is the prudence the prince bharata's prudence this is the prudence though the rama is god to us but we should understand when the things were happening a brother is thinking about the thought of another brother though they like each other they love each other respect each other but at the same time what the rama will think he is coming as a king so he has already accepted the kingdom then why is coming to me so that is the reason he never accepted that so this is very simple thing we know that bharata never accepted the kingdom and he went in the meantime satrugna the brother of lakshmana he found that lady mantara mandra was very happy because manthara she counseled the the queen kaikei kaiki was a very good lady young lady not understanding all these things but the mantra and she told that's why one should be very careful about the frames those who are very close to the person because all the close people always talk about others and give suggestions and if we accept that then this may be like the quickest case koiki was because the mantra came all the way from her father's house so mantra was very close to kaiki mantra is to look after all the good beings of the koike the quincy depended on her and what she told this is an opportunity in the beginning as we have discussed quickly was not at all unhappy when it was declared that rama is going to be the king rather she was all right but the mantra told are you not understanding that this is an opportunity you are missing the king promised to you that whatever you will ask he will give to you this is the opportunity you must ask the kingdom for your son and as your son should be free from any challenge and the rama should go into exile that was our planning became naturally the victim of that because she could not control the temptation as a mother she wanted to see our son as a king but this is the lady now everybody knew it shatrugna who was also away with the bharata came back with the bharata and then came to know about all this suddenly found this lady and she was trying to collect the information what is happening what the bharata is doing who are the people so she came very close to the varatha's quarter shuttrunna found her there and grabbed her drag her and told bharata please permit me i am going to kill her and when she was going to kill her naturally this made servant was trying to take the name of the kaikei the queen and to save her the kuiku also came we can imagine she came over there and the shattrugna became he was just like the fire and she never respected the kriki also that time and used some wrong language about the kriki quickly understood that he is not going to listen to me friends from these we can understand these p type of people it was very normal for killing the women or the servant and killing people so that was normal in the society that's why even the son he was a son to this lady too and he was abusing and before her was ready to kill this mantara but that then quickly understood the only one person who can save the sheet went to running to bharata and took shelter please save me bharata and save my the servants also my people now this is the prudence of the bharata bharatawin looked at his brother the his brother just like lakshmana both of them they were built like their characteristics was like that they were very angry and when he became angry he lost himself satra bharata didn't argue didn't say anything only said this is very interesting he said to shatrukhna if you kill a o man the rama will never talk to us he'll stop talking to me talking to you so immediately became very composed and released mantra why so this is the greatness of sri rama see rama was establishing dharma what is that dharma what is the righteousness that one should not kill a woman one should not kill a boy a child defenseless people those who cannot defend should not be killed rama is imposing this social law in that society that means it was rampant it was in vogue the rama said if anyone is killing the woman i am going to punish him if anyone is going like that like the rama always were protecting the women the respect for the women in the society sri ramachandra established we know many others so we will come to all the stories also afterwards the here the bharata the moment he said rama is not going to talk to us if you kill this lady immediately shatrukhna came to came back to his senses he released the mantra and that that is the way then we find that the he is preparing he is going how he is preparing that is also very unique another he is going to ramachandra who is in the forest but when he is going he asked all the people to get ready and he told that each and every one should be ready and go let the artisans prepare my way for the forest my way for the foreign could go all alone in the forest or with satra but he is not going he is going with each and every one why the priest will go the mothers will go ladies will go the cooks and all so that he will take the whole kingdom along with him to ramachandra will say look they all have come to request it is not only me each and every one has come but when all these ladies will go the queens and the ladies of that family how they will go protection is necessary so it was obviously the carpenters the woodcutters the expert diggers the builders the cobblers the cooks the makers of the machines and the people acquainted with the geography all was the first batch they went in the form so when a king goes to attack other other country these are the group they go fast then they will be making the way for the next one then the bharata will go and going with all the other his soldiers we will come to know that the bharata then asks the sumantra to fetch his car soon and he tell the captains to draw up the forces in marching arri why if necessary he can fight back the enemies who are planning to attack the country so he is ever ready going with that that is the prudence that is the intellect leaving everyone in the kingdom if bharata alone could go then obviously it was all right very simple bharata putting the very simple dress as the rama in that in those days he were used to use not the king's dress bharata also put on that simple dress of a mandicant but at the same time going with all the power of the king or preparation of the king if anyone is trying to attack the king in absence of the king over there or the protector bharata was ever ready to fight back to protect the kingdom so this is the prudence and he is taking all the mothers so they will also know he is taking with him all the gurus all the counselors ministers so they will see for themselves even if the rama is not coming back bharata i think it is not written over here that he was sure that rama who was the embodiment of truthfulness and who has given the word to his father the i'll be in exile will never come back but even then she was taking all these people almost the whole country was going and the whole description is wonderful the people they were so happy thinking that they are going to bring back the sri ramachandra even the soldiers who were going their wives were throwing their flower pattles on them you were going for a good job that that way people were thinking and you will bring back the sri ramachandra again the country will be happy we all will be happy etc the bharata was taking all people with them so we i when i would read i was wondering why so many people he and shatrukhna maybe with other two three people they could go but he was taking each and every one the elephants the horses and the chariots the we men the cooks each and everyone is going so this is the bharata is progressing the fast he made the on the journey he first made the guaca you must be remembering that the gu he was the chandala chandala means that his work was a little different though he was the leader of all that clan the gohaka they used to prepare the shoes from the skin of the dead animals they used to sell the meat in the market they used to use the boat to cross the river this type of the social work they used to do that was their livelihood they were also cultivators their king was kohaka friends last time also i mentioned again i feel the sri ramachandra went and embraced this guwaka rama was the prince and he now we know he was the vishnu himself the god himself he is going and embracing so-called low-cost from our presented viewpoint a caste shudrak and this guhakar he embraced and called him his as friend is he not giving a teaching to us those who follow the ramachandra those who think the rama is their god their ideal shall we not learn from the ramachandra's way of teaching that he was embracing the gohaka who was so that that way so-called law cast and now some of us i'm sorry to say still don't learn from this though we say that we are the followers of sri ramachandra but we are behaving completely different way we are not even shaking hands forget about the embracing shaking hands with the so called low caste who are low-cost just they are doing their duties that's all ramachandra he declared that he is my friend guaca was my friend he stayed in his house and then ate from his hand this guwaka was the person but you have to go because that is the way rama also crossed the river and he reached over there seeing this huge army the old people they are coming kuwaka told his people to get ready to fight with them if they are going to harm the qrama they should fast face me and us and we should develop the the first in a protection for sri ramajandra that was the love for ramachandra he was not knowing the bharata so when before meeting the bharata he prepared his people if necessary we have to fight with this great army of the sharatha friends now it is almost time the we will next month again so one after another that he is going on meeting people and finally going to ramachandra and we are finding that in the whole society there was not poverty people were happy richness was there rich people was there very rich merchants were there very courageous heroes the the shatria heroes were there brahmins were they are very truthful people and at the same time ordinary people who are also there but no poverty in that way that is the picture of the our society at the time of sri ramajandra but misunderstanding about the spirituality and misuse of the physical strength all that was also there so that is why sri rama chandra is imposing that the shatrias particularly those who used to use their weapons to protect the society should not misuse their weapons to punish their own people to kill their own people for their own ego so that is what sri ramachandra was teaching slowly we will learn and ra this bharata and his whole team met the our kohaka and how gohaka is talking with them understanding the truth and then helping them we will learn and then after the worker the bharadwaja rishi the famous bharadwaja many of all the hindus they have their family the tradition bharata the bharadwaja gotra so that bharadwajar rishi we will learn that in our next class thank you if you have any question or anything then otherwise we will chant from the sri ramachandra and we'll conclude let us chant the ramachandra's name a few times and we conclude jairam sriram jai means the glory glory to ramachandra glory to ramachandra jairam sriram jai jai ram jai ram sriram [Music] [Music] thank you very much