Bala Kanda, Sarga 3

Meaning

Having heard from Nārada, as aforesaid, the entire theme of the poem to be composed by him, promising religious merit and worldly prosperity to its readers and hearers and conferring supreme benefit in the shape of final beatitude, Vālmīki sought to discover directly through intuition a detailed life-account of that sagacious prince. (1)

Meaning

Sipping water as a purificatory rite, according to the scriptural ordinance, and taking his seat with folded hands on the blades of Kuśa grass with their ends pointing to the east, the sage sought to discover the exploits of Śrī Rāma through yogic power conferred on him by Brahmā. (2)

Meaning

By dint of that yogic power he was able to perceive directly and clearly in reality every detail in that state of absorption all that pertained to Śrī Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā as well as to Emperor Daśaratha, alongwith his wives and kingdom—how they laughed and talked and moved and whatever they did. (3-4)

Meaning

Likewise, he further directly perceived in order of sequence all that was enacted by Śrī Rāma, while roaming about in the forests in the company of Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā (his spouse), true to his promise. (5)

Meaning

Absorbed in deep meditation, that pious sage thereby saw, as clearly as one would see a myrobalan placed in one’s palm, all that had happened in the past in relation to Śrī Rāma, Lakṣmaṇa and Sītā as well as that which still awaited them. (6)

Meaning

Having seen all that in reality by dint of yogic power, Vālmīki, who was possessed of great wisdom, girded up his loins to render into verse the whole story of Śrī Rāma, the delighter of all. (7)

Meaning

The glorious sage Vālmīki composed in verse, as it was told earlier by the high-souled Nārada, the story of Śrī Rāma (descended in the line of Raghu) which discusses in a secondary way the subjects of Kāma, i.e., sense-enjoyment, and worldly prosperity and expatiates on the merits of the two other objects of human pursuit, viz., piety and final beatitude, and thus full of jewels like the ocean, attracts the ears as well as the mind of all by the musical ring of its verses and the profundity of their meaning, respectively. (8-9)

Meaning

The advent of Śrī Rāma, his superlative prowess, benevolence to all, universal popularity, forgiveness, amiability and the habit of speaking the truth; (10)

Meaning

many other wondrous episodes, e.g., the one relating to the descent of the holy Gaṅgā, told by Viśwāmitra in the course of his journey with the sage Viśwāmitra first to the latter’s hermitage and then to Mithilā in order to attend the selection of a husband by the princess of Mithilā in an assembly of suitors; his breaking the bow (kept by the king of Mithilā in an arena in order to test the suitors’ prowess), and the wedding of Sītā (Janaka’s daughter) and others (Urmilā and so on); (11)

Meaning

the vexed dialogue between Śrī Rāma and Paraśurāma over the breaking of the bow; a description of the extraordinary virtues of Śrī Rāma, son of Daśaratha; preparations for Śrī Rāma’s installation as the regent of Ayodhyā and the treachery of Kaikeyī; (12)

Meaning

interruption of the installation caused by Kaikeyī and Śrī Rāma’s exile to the forest; the king’s grief and lament and eventual departure to the other world; (13)

Meaning

the grief of the people of Ayodhyā and how those who followed him to the forest were made to return by being put off the scent; his dialogue with the chief of the Niṣādas and how the charioteer, who took Śrī Rāma, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa in a chariot to the forest under the king’s command, was sent back by Śrī Rāma after his meeting with the Niṣāda chief; (14)

Meaning

how he ferried across the Gaṅgā and called on the sage Bharadwāja, and his going to Citrakūṭa on the latter’s instruction; (15)

Meaning

his erection of a leaf-thatched hut at Citrakūṭa and taking up his residence there alongwith his spouse and younger brother; the arrival of Bharata and how he tried to persuade Śrī Rāma to return to Ayodhyā and accept his rightful heritage in the shape of the throne of Ayodhyā and how Śrī Rāma offered water to the spirit of his deceased father as his last obsequies to the latter;(16)

Meaning

how Bharata installed on the throne of Ayodhyā as the symbol of Śrī Rāma the pre-eminent wooden sandals that had the unique honour of being used by the divine Śrī Rāma and had been given by the latter to Bharata as a token of his affection and regard for his younger brother, and took up his residence at Nandigrāma, now a lonely retreat fourteen miles away from Ayodhyā; Rāma’s departure to the forest of Daṇḍaka (for fear of being approached every now and then by the people of Ayodhyā, now that they had come to know of his being there) and his killing the ogre, Virādha; (17)

Meaning

his visit to the sage Śarabhaṅga and meeting with Sutīkṣṇa, a pupil of the illustrious sage Agastya; Sītā’s meeting with Anasūyā, the wife of the great sage Atri, and the latter’s offering sandal-paste etc., to the former as a gesture of goodwill; (18)

Meaning

his visit to the sage Agastya and worship by the latter; his accepting a bow belonging to Lord Viṣṇu and presented by the sage considering him to be eminently fit to receive and wield it, especially for his future conflict with Rāvaṇa; Śūrpaṇakhā’s overtures for marriage to Śrī Rāma and her disfigurement at the hands of Lakṣmaṇa, who lopped off her ears and nose with a sword; (19)

Meaning

the destruction of the ogres Khara and Triśirā as well as of Dūṣaṇa and others and Rāvaṇa’s machination to carry off Sītā; the destruction of Mārīca, disguised as a golden deer, by Śrī Rāma and the abduction by Rāvaṇa of Sītā (the daughter of King Janaka, also called Videha); (20)

Meaning

Śrī Rāma’s lament over the disappearance of Sītā and the death at Rāvaṇa’s hands of Jaṭāyu, the chief of the vultures; the sight of and encounter with Kabandha (a demon without head and legs and consisting of a mere trunk with long arms and a huge mouth in his belly, his head and thighs having been forced into his body by a blow from Indra’s thunderbolt) as well as of the Pampā lake; (21)

Meaning

a visit to Śabarī (an ascetic woman) and partaking of fruits and roots offered by her by way of hospitality; Śrī Rāma’s raving over the loss of his spouse and his meeting with Hanūmān on the bank of the Pampā lake; (22)

Meaning

his arrival at Mount Ṛṣyamūka where the monkey chief, Sugrīva, was encamping in fear of his elder brother, Vālī, by whom he had been exiled and robbed even of his wife, and meeting with Sugrīva; his inspiring confidence in the heart of Sugrīva by kicking the skeleton of the demon Dundubhi to a long distance and piercing with one single arrow as many as seven palmyra trees standing in a row, and friendship with him; the combat between Vālī and Sugrīva;(23)

Meaning

the destruction of Vālī and the installation of Sugrīva on the throne of Kiṣkindhā; the lament of Tārā, Vālī’s widow; understanding with Sugrīva (that at the end of the monsoon messengers would be sent in all directions to trace the whereabouts of Sītā) and Śrī Rāma’s sojourn on Mount Ṛṣyamūka during the days of the monsoon; (24)

Meaning

the apparent indignation at the negligence of Sugrīva of Śrī Rāma, a lion among the scions of Raghu and Sugrīva’s mustering forces for being sent all over in quest of Sītā and despatching teams of monkeys in all directions and Sugrīva’s description of the various divisions and subdivisions of the earth for the information of the monkeys to be sent in search of Sītā; (25)

Meaning

Śrī Rāma’s handing over his ring to Hanumān; how the monkeys sent in search of Sītā in a southerly direction under the leadership of Aṅgada, the crown-prince of Kiṣkindhā, saw the cave of a bear and sat fasting unto death on the sea-shore in a desparate mood on their failure to get any clue to the whereabouts of Sītā and how they met Sampāti, the elder brother of Jaṭāyu; (26)

Meaning

How Hanumān climbed Mount Mahendra in order to leap across the sea and eventually crossed the ocean and how again he saw and talked with Mount Maināka (son of Himālaya) that had emerged from the ocean at the instance of the sea-god; (27)

Meaning

how he was threatened by Surasā, who came disguised as an ogress, and Laṅkiṇī, an ogress by her very birth and how he saw and eventually brought about the death of the demoness Siṁhikā, who brought down flying birds by capturing them by their shadow, and saw the part of Mount Trikūṭa on which stood Laṅkā; (28)

Meaning

his entry into Laṅkā by night to avoid detection by the enemy and how he reflected all by himself on his future plan; his visit to the alehouse and looking round the gynaeceum of Rāvaṇa; (29)

Meaning

how he beheld Rāvaṇa as well as the Puṣpaka (his aerial car snatched from Kubera, the god of riches) and reaching Aśokavana (a grove mainly consisting of Aśoka trees), had a look at Sītā; (30)

Meaning

his handing over the ring of Śrī Rāma to Sītā as a proof of his identity and Sītā’s talk with him; how she was threatened by the ogresses appointed by Rāvaṇa to guard Sītā and bring her round and how Trijaṭā, a daughter of Vibhīṣaṇa, also placed by her side, saw dreams auguring well for Śrī Rāma; (31)

Meaning

how Sītā gave her own jewel for the head to Hanumān as a proof of his having met her and how the trees of the grove were destroyed by Hanumān in order to convince Sītā of his extraordinary might and ability to liberate her from Rāvaṇa’s captivity; the flight of the ogresses guarding Sītā and the destruction by Hanumān of the followers of Rāvaṇa, guarding the grove; (32)

Meaning

the apprehension by Rāvaṇa of Hanumān, son of the wind-god, and how he roared while setting Laṅkā on fire, how he leapt back across the sea and he and the other monkeys forcibly partook, in exultation over the success of their mission, of the honey collected in Madhuvana, setting at nought the guards of Sugrīva, to whom the garden belonged; (33)

Meaning

how Hanumān brought solace to Śrī Rāma by telling him of his having seen Sītā and handed over to him the jewel given to him by Sītā; How Śrī Rāma set out on an expedition to Laṅkā alongwith Sugrīva and his huge army of monkeys to recover Sītā; how they met the god presiding over the oceans in person at the sea-shore and (with his assurance to help) how a bridge was built across the sea by the monkey chief, Nala; (34)

Meaning

how the army crossed the sea (over the bridge so built) and besieged Laṅkā at night; the contact of Śrī Rāma with Vibhīṣaṇa (Rāvaṇa’s youngest brother and a great devotee of Śrī Rāma) and how he told Śrī Rāma of the ways and means of killing Rāvaṇa and others; (35)

Meaning

The death of Kumbhakarṇa, the younger brother of Rāvaṇa; the destruction of Meghanāda, the eldest son of Rāvaṇa and the crown-prince of Laṅkā; the disposal of Rāvaṇa and the recovery of Sītā at the enemy’s capital; (36)

Meaning

the installation of Vibhīṣaṇa on the throne of Laṅkā; how Śrī Rāma saw Puṣpaka, the aerial car belonging to Rāvaṇa, and flew in it towards Ayodhyā; his landing at Prayāga and meeting with the sage, Bharadwāja; (37)

Meaning

how Hanumān, son of the wind-god, was despatched in advance to Ayodhyā to meet Bharata and apprise him of Śrī Rāma’s return and the subsequent meeting of Śrī Rāma with Bharata; the festivities connected with the coronation of Śrī Rāma and how the whole host of monkeys was disbanded and sent away to their respective homes; how Śrī Rāma won the heart of his people by his loving rule and exiled Sītā, the daughter of King Janaka, also called Videha. (38)

Meaning

Nay, Vālmīki, the glorious sage, also described in his superb poem whatever deeds were yet to be performed on earth by Śrī Rāma. (39)