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Rama’s
acceptance of Lava and Kusha
by
Dr. Mukul Shri Goel
Rama waits for a few years before accepting his twin sons, Lava and
Kusha, who are brought up by Devi Sita in the forest and train with
Rishi Valmiki, the original author of the Ramayana. According to
Valmiki’s version of the story, Rama first meets his sons when they
sing his praise in his courtroom in Ayodhya. After hearing the full
storyline of the Ramayana from their mouths, Rama recognizes that they
are his own children. According to another narrative, the one in the Padma Purana, Rama
recognizes Lava and Kusha when they show their valor by defeating his
army, led by Shatrughna, in a battle. He then invites them to his
castle, where the twins sing his biography on Valmiki’s guidance and
mesmerize the entire kingdom.
The acceptance of Lava-Kusha is similar to the acceptance of Ganesha by
Lord Shiva. As the Shiva Purana says, Ganesha, created by Parvati from turmeric paste, had to fight a battle with his own father, Shiva,
before being accepted as his son. Just like Ganesha, who defeated
Shiva’s soldiers and all major gods, Lava-Kusha defeat their father’s
army and generals. Ganesha, in spite of getting beheaded later, won the
war solely due to his devotion to Parvati, his guru and mother, who had
given him a divine club to fight the opposition [1]. Similarly, Lava
and Kusha win their battle solely because of their devotion to their
mother, Sita, and their guru, Valmiki.
So, why does Rama, like Shiva, not recognize his sons as soon as they
are born? Does the all-knower really not recognize them? By delaying the acceptance of his own children, Rama probably makes his grace fair to Dhruva and
Prahlada, his child-devotees of the past, who had been accepted by him,
in the form of Vishnu, solely because of their bhakti, not because of
their birth in royal families. In order to sit on the lap of Bhagavan
Rama, Lava and Kusha too have to show their worthiness to the universe.
And this worthiness can only be displayed by the power of their bhakti.
In Bhakti Yoga, whether we, as spiritual beginners, recognize Rama and
his divinity is least important. In fact, no beginner knows Rama. And
even after turning into a realized saint, we may not fully understand
him. Though Lava-Kusha were trained by Valmiki, who knew Rama more than
any other rishi, they did not recognize Rama and their relationship
with him while learning the Ramayana that was composed and taught by
their guru. They found that Rama was their father only after their yoga
of bhakti progressed and Rama decided to accept them as a result of
their devotion. The twins successfully reached Rama through their firm
trust in their guru, who had already become Rama-immersed by
continuously chanting his name. This mode of spiritual advancement
strengthens a major principle of devotional spirituality: A guru who is
connected to Brahman and can connect a jiva to Brahman is
also to be trusted as Brahman.
In the second version of the story, Lava-Kusha win the battle against
their father’s army because of their immovable faith and trust on their
mother and Valmiki, who are both devotees of Rama. They continually
remember their guru during the battle and obtain weapons from their
mother, who also happens to be parashakti.
As a result, even the undefeatable Shatrughna, an incarnation of the
Sudarshan chakra, faints, though he is later revived by Devi Sita’s
grace. In this divine play, Lava-Kusha do not know their relation to
Rama when they block the horse from his ashwemedha yajna to
trigger the war. Yet, the situation sets a stage to indirectly test
their devotion to their guru and Sita-Rama, in which they are fully
victorious.
Interestingly, during this short war, Hanuman shows up to meet Rama’s
sons and have some fun. Hanuman does not take any time in recognizing
the twins. Because Hanuman’s grace is essential for the fruition of
Rama-bhakti, Hanuman blesses them for acceptance by Rama. Out of his
own grace, Hanuman voluntarily gets himself tied in the battlefield to
support Lava-Kusha. His divine play reconfirms that no Rama devotee in
the world can achieve dharma or moksha without the support of Hanuman.
Though the divine plan that Shiva designed to test Ganesha’s devotion
was slightly more challenging than that made for Lava-Kusha, it must
have been quite easy for Ganesha, for he is not human but
divine — an incarnation of Krishna himself [2]. Ganesha’s test had an
additional step, in which the trishul was flung upon him by his own
father. Though he could have stopped the trishul with his club, he
chose not to because of his immeasurable devotion for his mother, who
always presides as the deity of Shiva’s trishul [3]. When Ganesha, who
was fighting only to follow his mother’s order, displayed the height of
his bhakti by getting himself voluntarily beheaded by Shiva’s trishul
[4], he won Shiva’s affection along with the highest place in the
universe. Shiva, through this divine play, also made his son omkar-shaped [5].
After Rama “recognizes” his children, they no longer get to live with
their mother, who then returns to Prithvi (Mother Earth) to leave the
material world. In the midst of a tragedy, one can allegorically say
that once Goddess Sita hands over individual souls to Rama, the Supreme
Soul, her self-selected role as the nourisher, protector, and guide for
souls on earth, who all happen to be her children, concludes. But the
good part is that she continues to shower her grace on all beings as parashakti.
Notes
[1] Ganesha's club had been invoked with all shakti
that exists – including that of Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Kali.
[2] The Brahmavaivarta
Purana holds that Ganesha is none other than Krishna.
[3] This event is similar to the one in the Ramayana, where Hanuman
gets himself tied by the Brahmastra only to show respect to the deity
of the weapon.
[4] A traditional story says that Shiva had attacked Ganesha from
behind. But from a spiritual viewpoint, we can argue that Ganesha,
being omnipresent, could have seen the trishul from any direction.
[5] Even in modern pictorial representations, Ganesha is shown to
be omkar-shaped
due to his elephant-shaped head.
Copyright 2010 Mukul S. Goel
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