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One day a mother bathes her son, adorns him, lays him in the cradle, and then bathes herself for the worship of the family deity. The house is Dasharatha’s, the mother is Kausalya, and the child is the one the guru named Rama near the end of the last episode. What she is about to find is a son in two places, asleep where she left him and eating when she comes back from the kitchen. After the finding come a smile and then his undivided form, with tens of millions of universes on every hair of it.
Before that day the episode gives the guru’s word to the king on what the four sons are, Lakshmana’s love for Rama‘s feet from childhood. The mothers who break a blade of grass at the sight of the two pairs. And the child himself, dark as a rain cloud, from the red of his feet to his crawl on knees and hands. Shiva tells Parvati how the Lord makes maya dance at the play of his eyebrow. After the vision come the mother’s plea that his maya never come over her again, the tonsure. A boy who runs from his meal with curd and rice on his mouth, the sacred thread and the guru’s house. And the lanes of Ayodhya where the men and women are stilled as the brothers go about. In the Ramcharitmanas this stretch of the childhood is Shiva’s telling, with what the mother sees at its center.
In Kausalya’s courtyard
The main figures in this episode
- Rama the child the guru has just named. He lies in Kausalya’s lap as Brahman under the power of love and bhakti. His body the verse describes from the red of his feet to the curls his mother dresses, and at his eyebrow maya dances. He is the son found asleep in the cradle and eating when his mother comes back. He smiles at his mother’s distress, shows her his undivided form, becomes a child again, and tells her not to tell it anywhere. He is the boy who does not come when the king calls him at mealtime and runs off from his mother. He comes covered in dust to his father’s lap, learns all learning at the guru’s house in little time, and is dearer than life to everyone in Ayodhya.
- Kausalya in whose lap the unborn Brahman lies. She sings his child-deeds and does not know night and day go by. She bathes him, lays him in the cradle, worships the family deity, and finds two children in two places. She thrills, loses her words, and bows with shut eyes. She fears that she has known the father of the world as her son, and entreats again and again, with joined hands, that his maya never come over her again. She runs to catch him by force when he will not come to eat.
- Dasharatha the king to whom the guru says that the four sons are the truth of the Vedas. He is one of the couple, as the commentary names them, under whose love the Lord does his child-deeds. In his courtyard he wanders. He calls him at mealtime and finds that he does not come. He laughs and sits the dust-covered boy in his lap.
- Lakshmana who from childhood knows Rama as his own benefactor and master and sets his love on Rama’s feet.
- Bharata and Shatrughna the two brothers between whom there is such love as is praised between a master and a servant.
- The guru Vasishtha, who gave the names after reflecting in his heart and tells the king what the four are. He later performs the tonsure rite and gives the sacred thread with the father and the mother. To his house Rama goes to study.
- Shiva and Parvati the teller and his listener. Shiva says the child’s crawl pleases him and turns to Parvati on the state of those who love Rama’s feet. The verse also names him as one whose life the four sons are, as one who did not find the end of the child his mother runs to catch. And as one of those who sang his deeds.
The names given, and the four they name
The guru gave the names after reflecting in his heart. The last episode ended on the fourth of them, Lakshmana, named by the guru Vasishtha. With the names given, he spoke to the king. “Your four sons, king, are the truth of the Vedas. They who are the wealth of sages, the all of devotees, and the very life of Shiva have found happiness in the rasa of a child’s play.” The commentary reads the truth of the Vedas as the supreme Lord himself. It adds that they have found it now, under the power of the love of the king and his people.
From childhood Lakshmana knew Rama for his own benefactor and master and set his love on Rama’s feet. Between Bharata and Shatrughna, the two brothers, there was such love as is praised between a master and a servant. Two beautiful pairs, dark and fair. The mothers watched their beauty and broke a blade of grass, which the commentary explains as a guard against the evil eye. All four were homes of good conduct, beauty, and virtue, and even so Rama, the ocean of happiness, was more. In his heart the moon of grace shone, and his smile, which enchants the mind, showed its rays. Sometimes in her lap and sometimes in the fine cradle, the mother fondled him and called him her dear little one.
The all-pervading Brahman, stainless, without qualities, without diversion, the unborn, is in Kausalya’s lap, under the power of love and bhakti.
From the red of his feet to his lisping words
His body was dark, like a blue lotus and like a deep rain cloud, and in it was the beauty of ten million Kamadevas. Then the verse goes to his feet. They were red lotuses, and the light of their nails was as if pearls had settled on lotus petals. The marks of the thunderbolt, the flag, and the goad shone there, on the soles in the commentary’s placing. The sound of his anklets charmed the minds of sages when they heard it. A girdle was at his waist, three lines crossed his belly, and the depth of his navel was known to those who had seen it.
His broad arms wore many ornaments. At his heart was a tiger’s claw of very fine beauty. On his breast a necklace of jewels with its pendant and the footprint of a brahmin, whom the commentary names as Bhrigu. At the sight of them the mind was drawn. His neck was like a conch, his chin very handsome, and over his face lay the beauty of countless Kamadevas. He had two and two teeth, his lips were red, and his nose and the mark on his forehead were beyond describing. His ears were beautiful, his cheeks very fine, and his sweet lisping words were very dear. His hair was smooth and curly, the hair kept from birth in the commentary’s reading of the word. The mother had dressed it in many ways. A yellow frock was put on his body. “His going about on his knees and hands pleases me,” Shiva says. The Vedas and Shesha cannot tell that form. It is known to one who has seen it, even in a dream.
The doha closes the description. He is a mass of happiness, beyond delusion, beyond knowledge, speech, and what the commentary reads as the senses. He does holy child-deeds under the power of the supreme love of the couple. The commentary names them as Dasharatha and Kausalya.
At whose eyebrow maya dances
In this way Rama, the father and the mother of the world, gave happiness to the people of Ayodhya. Then the teller turns to his listener. “Those who have set their love on Rama’s feet, Parvati, this is their state, made visible.” The commentary fills in what the state is: that the Lord, under the power of their love, does a child’s play and gives them joy.
Shiva goes on. “Let one turned away from Rama make ten million efforts. Who can loose the bond of existence? The maya that has kept living beings, moving and still, in her power speaks her fear of the Lord. He makes her dance at the play of his eyebrow. Leaving such a Lord, say, whom should one worship? When one worships with quick wit given up in mind, deed, and word, Rama will show grace.”
In this way the Lord did his child’s play and gave happiness to all the people of the city. Kausalya took him in her lap and rocked him at times, and at times she laid him in the cradle and swung it. Immersed in love, she did not know night and day going by. Under the power of a son’s love, the mother sang his child-deeds.
Asleep in the cradle, and eating when she came back
One day the mother bathed him, adorned him, and laid him in the cradle. Then she bathed for the worship of the deity of her own family. She did the worship and offered the food, and went herself to where the meal had been cooked. Then the mother came back, to the place of the worship in the commentary’s reading. Coming there she saw her son eating. The commentary adds that what he ate was the food she had offered to the deity.
Afraid, the mother went to the child, and there she saw the child asleep. The commentary gives her fear its words: he had been asleep in the cradle, and who had brought him here and seated him? She came back and saw the same son there. Her heart trembled, and her mind would not steady. What she thought next, the commentary sets inside her mind. “Here and there I have seen two children. Is this a confusion of my wit, or some other special thing?” Rama saw his mother in her distress, and he laughed, with a sweet smile.
On every hair of the undivided form
He showed the mother his own wondrous form, undivided, and on every hair of it hung tens of millions upon tens of millions of universes. She saw countless suns and moons, countless Shivas and Brahmas. Many mountains, rivers, seas, earths, and forests. Time, karma, the qualities, knowledge, and nature. She saw also what had never been heard of.
She saw maya, strong in every way, standing very afraid with her hands joined. She saw the living being whom that maya makes dance, and she saw bhakti, which looses that being. The commentary places maya’s fear before the Lord, and reads the loosing as a loosing from maya. A little earlier Shiva had told Parvati that the Lord makes maya dance at the play of his eyebrow. Here she is seen making the living being dance.
An entreaty with joined hands
Her body thrilled, and no word came to her mouth. She shut her eyes and bowed her head at his feet. Seeing the mother full of wonder, Rama became a child again.
She could not make a praise. She felt fear, and the verse gives the fear in the first person: “I have known the father of the world as my son.” The Lord reassured his mother in many ways, and said: “Do not tell this anywhere. Listen, mother.” Again and again Kausalya entreated him with joined hands. “Never again, Lord, let your maya come over me.”
In the vision maya’s hands were joined in fear. Now the mother’s hands are joined, and what she asks to be kept from is maya. At his birth, too, she had joined her hands to praise him, and had asked him to leave the four-armed form and do a child’s play.
Called to eat, and in a hurry to play
The Lord did child-deeds of many kinds and gave his servants great joy. When some time had gone by, all the brothers grew, and they gave happiness to the family. The guru went and performed the tonsure rite, and the brahmins again received their fee in plenty. The four tender princes went about doing deeds of the greatest enchantment, without end.
He who is beyond the reach of mind, deed, and word wandered in Dasharatha’s courtyard. When the king called him at mealtime, he did not come. He would not leave the company of the children. When Kausalya went to call him, the Lord ran off, step by tottering step. He of whom the Vedas say “not this,” he whose end Shiva did not find, the mother ran to catch, and by force. He came with his body covered in dust, and the king laughed and sat him in his lap. He ate with a restless mind. Finding his chance he ran off this way and that, squealing with joy, curd and rice smeared on his mouth.
The child-deeds were very simple and handsome, and Sarasvati, Shesha, Shiva, and the Vedas sang them. Those whose minds are not dyed with these, the verse says, the creator made deprived.
The sacred thread, the guru’s house, and the princes’ games
As soon as all the brothers were of a boy’s age, the guru, the father, and the mother gave them the sacred thread. Rama went to the guru’s house to study, and in a little while all learning came to him. He whose natural breath is the four Vedas, that he should study is a great marvel. In learning, humility, virtue, and conduct the four were skilled, and the games they played were all the games of kings’ play. Arrow and bow shone in their hands, and at the sight of their form everything that moves and everything that stands still was charmed.
The lanes where the four brothers go about
In the lanes where all the brothers went about, every man and woman was stilled. The commentary reads the stilling either as going slack with affection or as stopping where they stood. The doha gives the city’s side of it: to the people of Ayodhya, men and women, old and young, Rama was dearer than life.
The lanes of Ayodhya were last seen on the day of the birth, mired with musk, sandal, and saffron. Now the four brothers go through them.
The mother who adorns him, and the mother who entreats him
The mother fondles him in her lap and in the cradle and calls him her dear little one. She dresses his curly hair in many ways. She rocks him and swings him, does not know night and day go by, and sings his child-deeds. She bathes him, adorns him, and lays him down. When he will not come to eat, she runs after him to catch him by force.
Between those scenes her hands are joined. She has seen two children where she left one. Then a form with tens of millions of universes on every hair, and maya in it standing afraid with joined hands. Her fear then is that she has known the father of the world as her son. Her entreaty, made again and again with her hands joined, is that his maya never again come over her.
The king laughs and takes the boy in his lap. The guru says what the four are, performs their tonsure, and with the father and the mother gives them the thread. The city holds him dearer than life. The mother who adorns him and lays him in the cradle is the mother who entreats him with joined hands, Kausalya.
Source: the Gita Press edition of Tulsidas’s Ramcharitmanas, Balkand, doha 198 to 204, read with Hanuman Prasad Poddar’s Hindi commentary.