Rama Katha
Rama Katha
Venue: Bahrain
Date: April 15, 2016
Janaki Jivan Sita Mohan Rama
This short song talks about Sri Rama as Ayodhyavasi. We have Vrajavasi, Vrindavanvasi, Mayapurvasi. Like that there is also Ayodhavas. Vas means to reside. This residence is Ayodhya. Those who reside there are called Ayodhyavasis and Rama Himself is Ayodhyavasi.
ayodhyavasi rama
rama rama
dasharatha nandana rama
Dasharathanandana and Kaushalyanandana. Kaushalya’s name is not mentioned in this song.
sambhavami yuge yuge
And the purpose is patitanam pavanebhyo. Vaisnavas are also like that.
patita pavana janaki jivan
Sri Rama is a Janaki jivan. Janaki Jivan like Radha Jivan or Vishnu Priya Jivan. Rama is Janki Jivan. Rama is Patitapavan, but who is patita? We are in this material existence so that’s an indication. We must be Patita otherwise why would we be here. Patita means fallen, fallen from Ayodhya or Goloka. There is also Ayodhya up there. Above Vaikuntha is Saket Dhama. Above Saket or Ayodhya is Goloka. So Vrindavan is here, Gokul is here. Goloka is up there. Ayodhya is here and Ayodhya is also up there. So from somewhere up there we have fallen. Then comes Sri Rama then Sri Krishna and then Sri Krishna Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
jivane marane gati ara nahi mora
That is the spirit, I don’t know any other destination but you.
Radha Krishna prana mora or Sita Rama prana mora. Sita has her prannatha, Sri Rama.
patita pavana janaki jivana sita mohan rama
Sita Mohan is like Radha Mohan. Sita Mohan Rama means Sita attracts Rama, Rama becomes mohit. Sita is attractive and attracts the all attractive. She attracts the mind of Rama and Rama cannot survive without Sita.
Site! Site! When Sita was kidnapped by that rascal Ravana Rama just could not forget her. He was looking for Her looking for Her everywhere because He was Sita Mohan Rama and He did not stop and searched till His goal was to reach Lanka.
ayodhyavasi rama rama rama dasharatha nandana rama rama
Today is the day reserved as Rama Navami or the Appearance day of Sri Rama and the celebration is Lord’s Appearance which is going on almost closer to 10 lacs which is a million years. Lord appeared in Treta Yuga and we are here in age of Kali and between one whole age has passed – Dwapara Yuga. Dwapara Yuga, calculations goes on for million years. Dwapara Yuga is 86,4000 years duration. Kali Yuga is 4,32000 years so Dwapara Yuga is twice as long and Treta Yuga is three times and Satya Yuga is 4 times as long. So 8 lacs and 64 thousand years right there a big chunk and then 5000 years of this Kali Yuga and then some more years of Treta Yuga and hence the number close to 2 million years ago on this day Lord Rama appeared.
So the day was navami and the day was also Tuesday. Krsna appeared on Wednesday and Rama appeared on Tuesday at noon time because He is appearing as Suryavanshi. Surya is the king of the day and Chandra is the king of the night hence chandra is called Rajneesh, Rajni-eesh, eesh the master, Rajni is night – the king of the night. King of the night is moon. Dinesh, dina means day and esh is king. Dinesh is Surya. Krishna is Chandravanshi and Rama is Suryavanshi. Krsna has appeared in the kingdom of the moon, the ruler of night. Surya is ruler of day and Sri Rama is appeared as a Suryavanshi. He appeared in midday today but not this time, a few hours ago. We are sitting here with Bhagavatam and Sukadeva Goswami has recited Ramayana or Rama Katha also. Bhagavat Katha is not only Krsna Katha but also Narasimha Katha, Vaman Katha. Like that there is Rama katha in the 9th canto of Bhagavatam. Two chapters 10 and 11 are dedicated to Rama Katha, like a condensed Ramayana. We will just read a few verses from the middle of Bhagavatam 9th canto chapter 10 – the pastimes of Lord Ramacandra speaker is Sukadeva Goswami and the listener is Pariksit Maharaja and many other rushis, Rajasris, Maharsris and Devasris. They have assembled not in Bahrain but on the banks of Ganga. Any sacred river here? Bahrain, does it rain here? I don’t know the meaning of Bahrain, so no rivers here.
sri suka uvacha
khatvangad dirghabahus ca
raghus tasmat prthu-sravah
ajas tato maha-rajas
tasmad dasaratho bhavat (SB 9.10.1)
So he wants to bring Dasarath, Sukadev Swami wants to bring Dasaratha in the picture. He wants to talk about Rama so no Dasarath, no Rama. So Dasarath appeared at the end of the sloka.
dasaratho abhavat
Prior to him many others had appeared in the dynasty Khatvanga, Khatvangad from Kathvanga appears Dirghabahu, from him appears Raghu
raghus tasmat prthu-sravah
From Raghu comes Prthusravah, from Prthu comes Aja and the son of Aja is Dasaratha and son of Dasaratha is Jai Sri Rama. It is not only Sri Rama we will be hearing who else appeared from Dasarath.
tasyapi bhagavan esa
saksad brahmamayo harih
amsamsena caturdhagat
putratvam prarthitah suraih
rama-laksmana-bharata
satrughna iti samjnaya ( SB 9.10.2)
That Brahmamayo Hari is full of Brahma, is Parabrahma. Parabrahma appeared and He is also sakshat Bhagavan. Parabrahma is Bhagawan Hari. Hari is one who steals away our suffering that is also Hari Hari Gaur Hari Sri Rama Hari. He takes away our suffering, our birth, death, old age and disease. He is a thief. He steals all these things and makes us free and makes us Pavana. He makes us pure so that Hari brahmamaya amsamsena, expansion of expansion plenary portion.
chaturdhagat putratvam
That Hari, saksad Hari appeared in four forms as four sons of Dasaratha.
prarthitah suraih
Demigods were begging and appealing, ‘My Lord Dear Lord, this is the time. Please have mercy upon us also. Please appear. So they are praying to the Lord Who has responded to the prayers of the demigods. Demigods are praying for Lord’s advent and they know this is the right time because what had happened was –
yada yada hi dharmasya
glanir bhavati bharata
abhyutthanam adharmasya
tadatmanam srjamy aham
Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time I descend Myself.
Bhagavatam also said earlier end of the 1st canto,
dyutam panam striyah suna
yatradharmas catur-vidhah (SB 1.17.38)
What is adharma? What are adharmic irreligious principles?
So dyutam there is gambling. You must understand there is a decline in religious principles and the dominance of irreligious, people are not drinking caranamrita anymore and drinking sharabamrita or even chaiamrita. You must understand this is irreligious. If there are slaughter houses and India has become biggest exporter of beef. This is irreligion. Even India indulges in irreligious principles. Give us petrol take beef in exchange. This is the predominance of irreligion or prostitution, illicit sex or illegal sex. So these are the four places five thousand year ago, King Pariksit allowed Kali to reside.
Kali was showing his ugly face and was beating the cow and trying to attempt to kill the cow, and King Pariksit had a sword in his hand and he was ready to slaughter the killer of the cow to establish the principles of dharma.
dharma-samsthapanarthaya
On the behalf the Lord the King represents the Lord. This is his job description – to establish Dharma. So the saintly king as he was, he was trying to stop that. Kali begged for forgiveness and was given four places to stay dyutam, panam, stiyah and suna these 4 places. Kali had a hard time finding such places 5000 years ago and now we have hard time finding places where there is no meat eating.
Probably only vegetarian restaurants Govindas in Bahrain may be others, not many are turning up. They going ending up in another restaurant, other places where there is meat eating, Whenever such situations arise then the Lord makes His appearance. So the Demigods have taken note that this is what is happening a million years ago, towards the end of Treta Yuga. They are praying to the Lord to please appear.
Then the Lord responded and Ramayan will describes this in detail. However at the time of putrakameshti yajna when Dasaratha Maharaja was performing a big sacrifice so that the Lord would be very pleased with him and he could have a son. It is a big sacrifice and all the demigods were invited to attend.
yam brahma varunendra-rudra-marutah stunvanti divyaih stavair (SB 12.13.1)
They all are offering their prayers also for the Lord’s advent. In fact the Lord appeared not as Sri Rama but appeared seated on Garuda. Wherever there is a yajna the Lord also appears there to accept the offering. At that time the appeal was made face to face and the Lord had promised that He will appear and perform His pastime for dasa sahastra dasa shatani cha. Ten Thousand -das sahastra and thousand- das shatani cha, cha means and. Ten thousand plus one thousand is 11 thousand years. We read this in Ramayan: “I will appear and I will perform my pastime on earth for 11 thousand years.”
Lord responded positively to the prayers of the demigods and He made His appearance as Rama Laksman Bharat Shatrughna ki jai. So Rama appeared today, What about Laksman? When did appear?
He also appeared today. Bharat also and Shatrughna also. Today is not only Rama Navmi it is also Laksman Navmi, Bharat Navami and Shatrughna Navmi. Three mothers gave birth to four children, simultaneously this was happening in the palace of King Dasaratha. Kausalya gave birth to Sri Rama and Kaikaiye gave birth to Bharat and Sumitra gave birth to Shatrughna and Laksmana.
During that Yajna the fruit of yajna, Kausalya and Kaikaiye received just one piece and Sumitra receives two times so she gave birth to two children. And then Rama is always with Laksman and they became two teams Rama and Laksman and Bharat and Shatrughna. They were close to each other. As little children’s they were placed on four different cradles but soon they would end up with two. Laksman would go and be with Rama and Shatrughna would go and be with Bharat. There is some special affinity, friendship and liking.
tasyanucaritam rajann
rsibhis tattva-darsibhih
srutam hi varnitam bhuri
tvaya sita-pater muhuh (SB 9.10.3)
So tasyanucaritam means Ramasya caritam and also called as Laksmanasya caritam, Shatrughnasya caritam, Bharatsya caritam. Oh! Rajan which king is this? King Parikshit, Sukadev Goswami is addressing Rajan King Parikshit.
tattva-darsibhih srutam hi varnitam
The knower of truth always recites the pastimes of these four brothers headed by Sri Rama. Sages always recite not only pastimes, but also the nama, rupa, guna, lila, dhama. Recitation of or kirtana means also recitation, kirtana means glory singing the glories.
Kirtaniya sada hari
That doesn’t mean only kirtana. Chanting of the name is also nama kirtana. There is also guna kirtana, lila kirtana. There is dhama kirtana of the Lord. The pastime, glories of holy name, glory of His glorious qualities, glorious pastimes, glorious abode and glorious devotees of Sri Rama. This is all being recited by risis, and sages those who know Rama tattva, Krishna tattva or Vishnu tattva.
janma karma ca me divyam
evam yo vetti tattvatah
tyaktva deham punar janma
naiti mam eti so arjuna (BG 4.9)
The Lord’s not only pastime, birth also, janma tattva, nama tattva, guna tattva, lila tattva, dhama tattva. There are so many tattvas, Pancha tattva. Don’t get confused tattva is true science. Sukadev Goswami says, “Tose tatvadarshis, the knowers of truth or those who realized the truth always talk varnitam. As you rajan can srutam,
sita patihe, Sita pati Sri Rama’s Charitam charitra tatvadarshis have been speaking varnitam and tvaya shrutam
Where in the next verse Sukadev Goswami has condensed the whole Ramayana. Some seeds ideas are there in one verse which covers kind of all the pastimes.
avatan nah
I will read end of the prayer first nah means all of us, May that Rama protect us, be pleased with us. You would also like Rama to protect you? Do you have life insurance, body guard and all kind of defence mechanisms? And Sukadev Goswami has already said about that,
deha apatya kalatradisu
They have so much faith in deha, strength of their body, apatya their offsprings, kalatra the wives, relatives, doctors, lawyer. This is the very beginning of Bhagavat recitation so much faith, in this kind of army – my body, my children, my desire, my army, my wife. I have wife but this is all asat. This is my army but his army is asat – fallible and will not help, specially at time of death. In a picture a person in Bombay opened his heart and a photograph of a Limca bottle appeared. It was not Sita Rama. Hanuman tore his chest and showed his complete faith is in Sri Rama only, but this person had a Limca bottle. And another person he was into coca cola. He was about to die and the family surrounded him> he only had a few more moments to go and then children were saying, “Daddy, Daddy please say Bhola at least say bhola.” They were Bhola devotees Shankar Bholenath. “Please say Bhola” The father did not say Bhola he only said coca cola. The last word taking shelter of coca cola thinking of coca cola, full of coca cola.
yam yam vapi smaran bhavam tyajaty ante kalevaRama
tam tam evaiti kaunteya sada tad-bhava-bhavitah
He went to coca cola loka – America. Sukadev Goswami had already said that only the Lord could help.
rama raghav rama raghav rama raghav rakshamam
Caitanya Mahaprabhu always recited that. So this verse is also a prayer for protection. May Sri Rama be pleased with me and once he is pleased, protect me and those who He is pleased with.
gurv-arthe tyakta-rajyo vyacarad anuvanam padma-padbhyam priyayah
pani-sparsaksamabhyam mrjita-patha-rujo yo harindranujabhyam
vairupyac churpanakhyah priya-viraha-rusaropita-bhru-vijrmbha-
trastabdhir baddha-setu? khala-dava-dahanah kosalendro vatan nah
The condensed Ramayan in one verse. Ramayan’s very first is chapter Bala Kanda. You heard Bala Kanda otherwise Ramayan has been recited by Valmiki Muni in seven kandas. As Bhagavatam has skandas and Mahabharat has Parvas, Ramayan has Kandas – 7 kandas. Bala Kanda, Ayodhya Kanda, Aranya kanda, Kishkindha Kanda, Sundarkanda and Yudha kanda and then Rama returns to Ayodhya that is Uttarkanda.
Bhagavatam has 18,000 verses and Ramayana has 24,000 verses compiled by Adi Kavi Valmiki Muni. Wonderful, powerful, beautiful scripture!
gurv-arthe tyakta-rajyo
For the sake of His father Lord Rama gave up the kingdom. He is about to be the crown prince and he gave it all up.
vyacarad anuvanam
He was wondering for 14 years from one forest to another to another including Dandakaranya. Then it says Lord’s Lotus feet were very tender. So how did He wander? A chariot was provided at the beginning but He also adamant. “Let me be a vanavasi not only in name. A vanavasi resides and walks around barefoot so that what Rama’s program.
padma-padbhyam priyayah
Sukadev Goswami says Lord’s Lotus feet where so soft and tender they could not even bear the touch of Sita’s hand. This means that Sita’s hand were too rough because the Lotus Feet were very soft.
patha-rujo yo harindranujabhyam
However during all this travel time and trying times many devotees helped the Lord but two have been mentioned specifically. Harindra was always helpful. Hari is monkey. Hari has another meaning Hari is monkey and Hari also means lion. Hanuman was a monkey under Harindra King. Sukadev Goswami says one personality was Hanuman and Anuja, anu means man to follow and ja means one who take birth. Rama took birth and Laksman also took birth right after, so Ramanuja is Laksman. Ramanujacarya is the incarnation of Laksmana. So he is called Ramanuja. Hanuman and Laksmana they were very helpful – assisting, giving relief to Sri Rama throughout his travel in different forest.
vairupyac churpanakhyah
There was time Shurpanakha on the Bank of Godavari panchvati. She was disfigured. Her nose was chopped out. She had gone to Lanka complaining to Ravana. That rascal Ravana who kidnapped Sita and that made Rama very angry.
rusaropita-bhru-vijrmbha
As he was looking for Sita and finally He met the monkey Army and others. Sugriva, Jambavan were at Rameshwaram waiting for the ocean God to come forward and help out how to cross. It was delaying Rama who became very furious. He built Setu and crossed Indian Ocean to reach Lanka.
khala-dava-dahanah
Then he killed and finally burnt that kalnayak Ravana who was killed. That killer of Ravana is described here as kaushalendraindra. The King of Kaushal the country called Kaushal and that is Sri Rama. Avatanah, may he pleased with us may He protect all of us, with that prayer we stop.
Jai Sri Rama