Baal Kaanda
12 - The excellences of Sri Rama and the greatness of His story
Chaupais
Description
The narrative of Rama is a lovely wish-yielding gem, and a graceful adornment for saintly wisdom. The hosts of virtues possessed by Sri Rama are a blessing to the world and the bestowers of liberation, riches, religious merit and the divine abode. They are true teachers of wisdom, dispassion and Yoga (contemplative union with (God) and celestial physicians (Asvinikumaras) for the fell disease of metempsychosis; parents of devotion to Sita and Rama and the seed of all holy vows, practices and observances; antidotes for sins, agonies and griefs and beloved guardians in this as well as in the next world; valiant ministers to King Reason,and a veritable Agastya* drinking up the illimitable ocean of greed; young lions residing in the forest of the devotee's mind to kill the herd of elephants in the shape of lust, anger and impurities of the Kali age; dear to Lord Siva (the Slayer of the demon Tripura) as a highly respectable and most beloved guest, and wish-yielding clouds quenching the wild fire of indigence.They are spells and valuable gems as it were for counteracting the venom of serpents in the form of sensuous enjoyments, and efface the deep marks of evil destiny contained on the forehead. They are sunbeams, as it were, dispelling the darkness of ignorance, and clouds nourishing the paddy crop in the form of devotees; trees of paradise, as it were, yielding the object of one's desire; easily available for service and gratifying like Visnu and Siva; stars as it were adorning the autumnal sky in the shape of the poet's mind, and the very life's treasure for the devotees of Sri Rama; a rich harvest of enjoyments as it; were yielded by the totality of one's meritorious deeds and sincerely devoted to the good of the world like holy men; sporting in the mind of the devotees as swans in the Manasarovara lake and purifying as the waves of the holy Ganga. (1-7)