Vyasa was telling Janamejaya how Rama came to keep this vow. Rama had killed the mighty Vali and given the fine kingdom of Kishkindha to his friend Sugriva, against the work that lay ahead, and there, on the mountain above Kishkindha, he and Lakshmana passed the four months of the rains with his mind on Janaki. He grieved aloud. “Kaikeyi has her wish. I will never go back to Ayodhya without Sita. The kingdom is gone, I am in exile, my father is dead and my wife is stolen; no one in our line has suffered as I have. She will die before she yields to Ravana, and if she dies, I die.” Lakshmana, who held to dharma, answered him with true words. “Give up this dejection. I will kill that vile rakshasa and bring Janaki back.” The steady, he said, are the same in adversity and in prosperity, and the small-minded suffer even in good fortune; union and separation lie in fate’s hands, and the body is other than the Self, so what is there to grieve? Bad times had brought exile and abduction, and good times would bring reunion; pleasure and pain both had to be lived through. Many monkeys would search the four directions; he would go himself and kill Ravana and bring Janaki back, or summon Bharata and Shatrughna with the army, or call on King Janaka; alone he could conquer gods and danavas; Raghu had conquered the four quarters with one chariot, and a man born in his line had no business grieving. Joy and sorrow turn like a wheel on its axle, and the faint-hearted drown. Even Indra had fallen on bad times, when the gods set Nahusha in his place and he hid long in a forest of lotuses; when time turned he had his seat again, and Nahusha, who had slighted the Brahmins and wanted Indrani, fell to earth as a python under Agastya’s angry curse. “So do not grieve in trouble. Keep the mind active and wait for the time. You are all-knowing, lord of the world, able to do anything. Why grieve like an ordinary man?” Consoled, Rama gave up his grief and was at ease. The two brothers took counsel on what to do next, and when they fell silent Narada, the sage among the gods, came down the road of the sky, playing his vina Mahati, adorned with svara and grama, and singing the Brihadrathantara saman. Rama, whose splendor knew no measure, rose at the sight of him, gave him the best seat, and honored him with arghya and padya, water for his hands and water for his feet; then he stood before him with folded palms, and sat down near him only when the sage gave him leave.
The Ramayana pages tell Rama’s whole story.
What Narada Revealed
Narada asked lovingly after the welfare of the downcast Rama where he sat with Lakshmana, and then he spoke. “Raghava, why are you grieving now like an ordinary man? I know that the wicked Ravana has carried Sita off. When I went to the world of the gods I heard that Ravana, deluded, blind to his own death, has stolen Janaka’s daughter. Rama, your birth itself is for Ravana’s destruction, and it is for that purpose that Sita has been taken.”
Then he opened the past. “In a former birth Vaidehi was the ascetic daughter of a sage. Ravana saw her at her tapas in the forest and asked her to be his wife, and when she refused him he seized her by the hair. She wished to be rid of the body his touch had defiled, and in her fury she cursed him on the spot: ‘Wicked one, for your destruction I will appear on the earth, born of no womb, as an excellent woman.’ With those words she gave up her body. This Sita, born of a portion of Lakshmi, is that girl, and Ravana has carried her off to the ruin of his own line, like a man who wears a she-serpent thinking it a garland. And you, Rama, were born in Aja’s line from a portion of the beginningless Vishnu, at the prayer of the gods, for this same Ravana’s destruction. Be steady. She cannot come under another’s power. Sita, devoted to the dharma of a sati, sits in Lanka meditating on you day and night. Indra himself has sent her, in a vessel, the milk of Kamadhenu, the cow of heaven who gives whatever is asked of her, and she has drunk that milk, sweet as nectar, and is free of hunger and thirst. I have seen that lotus-eyed one myself.”
The Counsel of the Navaratra Vow
“Now I will tell you the means of Ravana’s destruction. Keep the Navaratra vow, the nine nights given to the Goddess, with faith in this very month of Ashvina. The worship of Bhagavati in the Navaratra, by the rule of fasting and japa and homa, gives every siddhi; give the Devi her pure bali, offer into the fire one part in ten of your japa, and you will become fully powerful. Long ago Vishnu performed this vow, and Shiva, and Brahma, and Indra in heaven. A happy man should keep it, and a man in trouble should keep it above all. Vishvamitra, Bhrigu, Vasishtha and Kashyapa have kept it, there is no doubt of that, and so did Brihaspati, guru of the gods, whose own wife had been carried off. So keep it, for Ravana’s death and Sita’s recovery. Indra kept this best of vows to kill Vritrasura, Shiva to kill Tripura, and Vishnu on Mount Sumeru to kill the demon Madhu. Keep it by its rule, Rama, and shake off all sloth.”
Rama said, “You know everything. Tell me by rule who that Devi is, what her power is, where she arose, what her name is, and what the vow is.” Narada said, “Listen, Rama. That Devi is eternal, sanatani, the Adya Shakti; she fulfills every wish, and her worship removes every trouble. She is the cause of Brahma and of the gods and of all beings, and without power lent by her no one can so much as stir. She is the creative power of my father Brahma, the sustaining power of Vishnu, the destroying power of Shankara, and that auspicious Paramba is every other power as well. Whatever exists anywhere in the three worlds, sat or asat, who but this Devi could be the cause of its arising? At the start of creation, when there is no Brahma, no Vishnu, no Shiva, no sun, no Indra and no gods, no earth and no mountains, that nirguna and auspicious Para Prakriti sports with the Supreme Purusha. Then, becoming saguna Shakti, she first creates Brahma and the rest, gives them their powers, and fashions the three worlds. A being who knows that Adishakti is freed from the bond of samsara. She is the form of vidya, the first cause of the Vedas and their revealer, the supreme, and she must be known. Brahma and the gods have imagined her names past counting, after her qualities and her deeds; how many can I tell you? From a to ksha, by every joining of vowel and letter, her names have no end.” Rama said, “Tell me the rule of this Navaratra vow in brief. I will worship Shri Devi by rule, with faith, this very day.” Narada said, “Make a pitha on level ground, install Bhagavati Jagadambika upon it, and fast nine days by the rule. I myself will be the acharya in this, for my zeal in the work of the gods is great.”
The Boon of Durga, Rider of the Lion
Rama took Narada’s word as true. He had a fine pitha made and installed Ambika upon it, and when Ashvina began he worshiped Bhagavati on that excellent mountain, keeping the vow. Fasting, he performed the homa, the offering of bali and the puja by the rule, and the two brothers completed with love the vow Narada had taught them. Well worshiped, at midnight of the Ashtami, the eighth night, Bhagavati Durga, riding her lion, gave them her darshan in person. Pleased with their devotion, standing on the peak of the mountain, she spoke to Rama and Lakshmana in a voice deep as a cloud.
“Rama, I am pleased with your vow; ask whatever boon is in your mind. You are born in the pure line of Manu from a portion of Narayana, and at the prayer of the gods you have come down to kill Ravana. Long ago, as the Fish, you killed a dreadful demon and protected the Vedas, wishing the gods well. As the Tortoise you bore Mount Mandara on your back, so that the ocean was churned and you nourished the gods. As the Boar you held the earth on the tips of your tusks and killed Hiranyaksha. As Narasimha you protected Prahlada and killed Hiranyakashipu. As Vamana you became Indra’s younger brother, tricked Bali, and accomplished the great work of the gods. Born of Vishnu’s portion as Parashurama, son of Jamadagni, you made an end of the kshatriyas and gave the whole earth to the Brahmins. And now, at the prayer of all the gods, whom Ravana oppresses sorely, you have come down as Rama, son of Dasharatha. These mighty monkeys, born of portions of the gods, will be filled with my power and will be your helpers. Your younger brother Lakshmana, a portion of Shesha, will kill Ravana’s son Meghanada. Have no doubt of this. Worship me again with supreme faith in the Navaratra of spring. Then kill the sinful Ravana and rule in happiness. When you have ruled the earth for eleven thousand years, you will go again to the world of the gods.”
Vijayadashami and the Bridge to Lanka
With these words Bhagavati Durga vanished where she stood. Glad at heart, Rama completed the vow, performed the Vijaya puja, the worship of victory, on the Dashami, the tenth day, gave gifts of many kinds, and set out. With the army of Sugriva, king of the monkeys, and with his younger brother beside him, famed, his wishes fulfilled, Rama, Lakshmi’s lord, impelled by the supreme Shakti herself, reached the shore of the sea; there he built the bridge across it and destroyed Ravana, the enemy of the gods.
What came of it Vyasa had already let a Brahmin tell, in the story he gave Janamejaya just before this one. There a Brahmin of good vows teaches the vaishya Sushila this same Navaratra, the worship of Bhagavati with havana and the feeding of Brahmins, recitation of the Veda and japa of her mantra, and tells him that no vow on earth is greater than it, that it always gives knowledge and moksha, increases happiness and offspring, and destroys enemies completely; and for proof he gives him Rama, fallen from his kingdom and burning in the fire of separation, who kept this vow on the Kishkindha mountain. By its power, the Brahmin says, Rama built the bridge over the ocean, killed the mighty Ravana, husband of Mandodari, with Kumbhakarna and Ravana’s son Meghanada, won Sita back, made Vibhishana king of Lanka, and returned to Ayodhya to a kingdom free of every thorn; so Rama of measureless splendor won great happiness on earth by the power of this Navaratra vow. Whoever hears this excellent account of the Devi with devotion, Vyasa says, enjoys many pleasures and attains the supreme state. There are many other Puranas, vast ones; none of them equals this Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana, and that is his settled conviction.
Source: Shrimad Devi Bhagavata Mahapurana (Gita Press, Gorakhpur)