Lakshmana, The Devoted Brother Of Rama

May 1977, Summer Course 1977, Brindavan

Published English.

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Even if one can repeat word by word the contents of the and the , even if one has the capacity to compose attractive poems, if he has no purity of mind, he is sure to be ruined. What other greater truth can I convey to you?

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Man may be born with cruel qualities; but such a person, by contact with good people, by living with good people, in a good environment, can change his qualities. It is in this context that it has been said that of all the living things that are born of a mother’s womb, to have a human birth is the most difficult thing. Even if bad qualities come to man by birth there are ample opportunities for him to get rid of such bad qualities by contact with good people. But by good fortune, is one who had good qualities by birth; and he so controlled his senses that he had acquired further good qualities. He was a person of good conduct and good thoughts and was always ready to obey ’s orders. He was ’s son. From his very birth, during his childhood, he never knew separation from . was such that during the first two days after his birth, he was not taking food and was crying for the sake of . , the mother and , the father, wanted to know what was the reason for this incessant crying of . and were trying to give him various kinds of medical attention. They tried many , and ; but in spite of all that, ’s crying did not diminish at all.

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When this news was conveyed to , the , he thought for a moment and tried to under-stand the situation by his divine vision. He saw that the cause for this situation was the physical separation of and , and he advised that they both be made to sleep in the same cradle.

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Thus, when took to the mansion of and put him in the same cradle where was sleeping, not only stopped crying, but also began to take food and began to enjoy the bliss of the company of . To , separation from was as distressing and troublesome as the joining with was blissful.

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From that day, was following as if he was ’s shadow. could not sleep for a moment when was not present. would not eat if was not present. Wherever he went, he was always following , as if he was ’s shadow. Devotion to was so intense in that he filled his heart with a feeling that everything that was present belonged in reality to .

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When was banished to the forest, asked for two boons. The first one was, her son should become the king, and the second was that should go to the forest and live there as a for fourteen years. There was no place for in these two desires of . But when was preparing for the journey, also accompanied . He also wore clothes of bark in the same manner. Looking at the kind of clothes was wearing to go to the forest and the kind of appearance that had, also decided that he should wear similar clothes and have a similar appearance.

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For all the fourteen years in the forest, conducted himself, as if he was one with . He was spending all his energy and time in taking care of and serving and . Truly, if was not present, how would and have spent their lives? This important role of was beautifully described by in his narration of the . described that when was returning victoriously to with his flag flying high, the people of were reverentially saluting the flag and the pole on which the flag was flying. This description of has a significant inner meaning. The pole here signifies . The pole is as important as the flag. In fact, if the pole did not exist, the flag cannot fly at all. Thus became the steadfast support for and . In this story of , while the Lord in human form was playing the role of , had also a very important role to play. The entire life of was devoted to obeying the orders of . However, on two occasions, knowing that what he was doing was wrong, had to disobey the orders of . The first occasion relates to the incident when appeared as a deer and when was being pursued by , they heard the voices of asking for ’s help and calling to . What were the orders gave on this occasion? was to remain and protect . On that occasion, spoke very harsh words and she even threatened by saying that if would not go, she would commit suicide by burning herself.

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On that occasion, listening to the harsh words of , felt that if he would not leave and go, some harm may come to her. In order that may not harm herself, he disobeyed ’s orders for the first time.

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The second occasion: a difficult situation arose when was in the family-way in an advanced stage. It became necessary for him to take into the for-est. He did not like to do this and yet he took her into the forest. This he did just for obeying ’s orders. Again, on the occasion when returned from and when she was preparing to jump into the fire to prove her innocence, was asked to prepare the fire. Although did not like to do this, he did prepare the firewood for the test, just for obeying the orders of . Whatever difficult situation it may be, he always followed the orders of .

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Another occasion when he had to disobey the orders of was towards the end of ’s mortal life. , the God of Time, came to meet . Before he started conversation, he said that no one else should enter the room while they were conversing. So called and asked him to stand at the entrance and see that no one disturbed them. realised that this was a difficult task, and that only could do it effectively. At this time, when was standing guard, came and wanted to enter the room. , who was under orders to keep out visitors, told in great humility that as was in conversation with someone else, he should wait for a while. , however, became very angry and threatened to destroy , , and, indeed, the whole city of in a moment. then thought it better to let into the room rather than invoke his anger and get the entire city into trouble. In this manner, spent all his life in the service of and rarely disobeyed the orders of ; and even when he did disobey, it was only for the sake of others. All the work that he did was for the good of others.

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During the battle against , the fight between and lasted for three full days, after which, finally, was killed. came and embraced and said that he was as happy as he would be when he found . In the entire battle, the most difficult thing was to defeat . In fact, it was easier to kill . When saw that was victorious, he was overjoyed.

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To others like , frequently stated that it is very difficult to find a brother like . He has been telling and others, that the task which he has completed could be so handled only because of the presence of , and that he, by himself, could not have done it. If today, we want to understand the kind of relationship that should exist between brothers, we should take the example of from . However, these days, the inimical attitude between brothers is indeed very bad. One brother cannot bear the pros-perity of the other brother; they become jealous of each other and go to the extent of even killing each other. The sacred and good qualities of are be yond description.

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During all the years of his service to and , he was sitting at their feet and did not even look closely at ’s face. When was being carried away by over the Mountain, she dropped several of her jewels so that people could find them and convey the news to . When and became friendly with , he brought the jewels, which his followers had gathered and show-ed them to . At that time asked if he could recognise the jewels. said that while he cannot recognise the other jewels, he can certainly recognise those which wore on her feet. When asked how he could recognise these, he said that every morning he used to go and touch her feet; hence he was quite familiar with them.

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was looking at the wife of his brother as his own mother and was looking only at her feet. He never looked at her face. would always bend his head low if he found some other woman coming in front of him. was a person of exemplary character. The vision and the eyes of the young people today do not bend even if we bend them by force. If they use their vision for unsacred purposes, the disturbance of the mind will surely follow. The first important is to control our vision. had such sacred thought and mind. If only he is taken as an ideal example and we follow him, there will be no doubt of our own elevation.

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There is another example. On one night, when matters of state were being discussed, there was delay; and was returning home rather late. At the mansion of , , and were all alone and by mistake walked into ’s palace. When he saw sleeping, he realised his mistake and quickly rushed out and fell at ’s feet and prayed to him so that he could tell him how this mistake can be corrected and atoned for.

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had a pure heart by which he could consider entering a room where his brother’s wife was sleeping as the greatest sin which one could commit. Such ideals, at the present time, would not be seen even as rare examples. If the brother goes out on camp, the younger brother will be taking out his sister-in-law to the cinema. was a great individual who followed a code of conduct which would set an example to others. Although had a spark of divinity in him, this could come out and be seen only in the divine presence of . At all other times, when he was alone, he was like an ordinary person, in fact weaker than an ordinary person.

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Here is a small example. There is a stone from which you can produce fire. Even if such a stone is kept under water for a long time, it can produce fire when it comes into contact with another such stone. In the same manner, divine strength which is present in and blossomed forth only when they came together or when they were in the company of .

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When and were fighting; fell into a swoon. tried his best to carry away to . Although had all the strength, he could not move even a little. entered the scene and was uttering the name of . By hearing the name of , became so alive that could be carried on the shoulders of to the camp of . was one who had such an attachment to the name of that if ’s name was mentioned, ’s strength would reappear.

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used to display his strength only in the presence of human beings or , but would never display even a fraction of his strength in the presence of . had such noble and good qualities.

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During these few days, we have recognised and understood the great qualities of from the story of . We have also seen ’s ideals as examples for ourselves; and it is only when we have understood this that our lives can become good.