The Priest of Ayodhyā

Generation after generation, Vasiṣṭha stood beside the kings of the Ikṣvāku line as their priest, and with him they won the earth and offered their great sacrifices. He was the priest of King Daśaratha, and of his son Rāma.

When Rāma was still a boy, Viśvāmitra came to Daśaratha's court and asked for Rāma to protect his sacrifice from the rākṣasas. Daśaratha could not bear to let his son go, and went back on his word, and Viśvāmitra rose in anger, so that the whole earth shook and the gods were afraid. It was Vasiṣṭha, Viśvāmitra's old rival, who spoke up for Viśvāmitra then. You were born in the line of the Ikṣvākus like a second dharma, he told the king. You must not abandon dharma. You are known in the three worlds as a man of dharma. Having promised, you must not refuse. Let Rāma go. Armed or unarmed, the rākṣasas cannot touch him while the son of Kuśika guards him, as no one can touch the nectar that fire guards. This man is dharma in bodily form, the greatest of the strong, the first in wisdom, the very home of austerity. He knows weapons of every kind in all the three worlds, as no other man knows them or ever will, neither god nor seer nor asura. He knows everything that has been and will be. Have no doubt about letting Rāma go. He could destroy those rākṣasas himself; he asks for your son for your son's own good. And Daśaratha, his mind at ease, gave his son to Viśvāmitra.

When Daśaratha died, of grief for Rāma, whom he had sent into exile in the forest to keep a promise of two boons he had once made to Queen Kaikeyī, and with Bharata, Rāma's younger brother and Kaikeyī's son, far away in Kekaya, the brahmins and ministers gathered and turned to Vasiṣṭha, and it was he who sent swift riders to bring Bharata home. Tell him only, he said, that the priest and the ministers ask after his welfare and that urgent business awaits him at home. Do not tell him that Rāma has gone to the forest or that his father is dead. When Bharata came and sat stricken with grief, Vasiṣṭha said to him, Enough of grief, prince. Perform the last rites for the king, and Bharata did, and wept over his father's body, and Vasiṣṭha spoke to him again: Let all the rites for the king be done calmly, and without delay.

Afterwards Vasiṣṭha gathered the whole assembly and spoke gently to Bharata. Dear child, King Daśaratha has gone to heaven keeping dharma, and has left you this rich earth. Rāma, true to his word, has not left his father's command, as the moon does not leave its light. Your father and your brother have given you this kingdom. Enjoy it, and be consecrated without delay. But Bharata wept in the assembly and rebuked the priest. How could I take the kingdom from Rāma? he said. The kingdom and I myself belong to Rāma. You should speak the true dharma here. And he set out to bring Rāma back.