Hinduism and its text books have been a source of attraction for ages. There are thousands of stories and incidents available in Hinduism. The people well know some stories because they grow up listening to them from their parents. There are many cartoons to present to attract kids and give them good life lessons. There are many stories that we can't describe. Hinduism is full of these religious stories about the lives of their gods. One of them is the Ramayana, the story of Lord Rama's life as the 7th avatar of Lord Vishnu.
The Epic Story of Lord Rama: From Ayodhya to Lanka
Lord Rama, the 7th avatar of supreme god Vishnu, holds a special place in Hinduism. All Hindus know that when they need any help, Lord Vishnu comes to save them. Lord Vishnu was known for his helping hands; when needed, he took on different forms like fish, varha, vaman, narshingha, rama, Krishna, parashurama, and Buddha. This does not end here; if the gods need him, he also comes in the form of a tortoise. Also, one avatar of Lord Vishnu is yet to arrive; as mentioned in Ved Puran, Lord Vishu's 10 avatar god Kalki is likely to arrive at the end of Kaliyuga. Today we will know about Lord Rama's life, the most powerful avatar of Lord Vishnu.
Lord Rama is also known as "maryada purshotam," which means an ideal or honorable man. Lord Rama is known for his truth and promises because he never sidelined any words of his father and mother. He always stands for truth and never speaks lies. One of Lord Rama's notable qualities is his respect for elders; he always honors them and never crosses his boundaries.
All ten avatars of Lord Vishnu are legendary, with Lord Rama being seventh in this list. Each avatar has unique qualities—some are known for their peace and wisdom, while others are known for their courage. The story of Lord Rama has been known by the people for ages. His victory over the supreme demon king Ravana is famous worldwide. Lord Rama's act of defeating Ravana in his own city, Lanka, is a remarkable display of bravery. It is truly accomdable that a young man ended the terror of a ten-headed demon on his own soil.
Birth and Early life of lord rama
King Dhasrath, father of Lord Rama, was the ruler of Ayodhya, a city that is located on the bank of the Saryu River. King Dashrath has 3 wives named Kaushalya, Sumitra, and Kekaye. King has not had kids for many years, so someone tells him to worship Agni Dev (the god of fire), and Agni Dev gives him the blessings of 4 kids, respectively, 1 from Kaushalya, 1 from Keikaye, and 2 from Sumitra, naming Rama, Bharath, Laxman, and Shatrughana. Lord Rama is the elder brother of the other three. Their basic education was completed in the gurukul of Guru Vashistha. After that, they became educated and returned to Ayodhya.
One day, Guru Vishwamitra came to Ayodhya and said that a demon named Tadaka and her two children, Marich and Subahu, were attacking and killing other gurus during their religious activities and yagna. So Vishwamitra said that he needs Rama and Laxman to kill Tadaka and end her terror from people. At first, King Dushrath denied it, but then he agreed to send his kids with him. On his way to Guru's aashram at a location named Charitra Forest, Lord Rama killed Tadaka and ended her terror. Near Gurukul, Lord Rama killed Subahu, but Marich escaped.
The Exile of Lord Rama: A Journey of Duty and Devotion
One day, King Dashrath was having a chat with his minister about how he was getting old and wanted a new king, so the minister told him about Rama, and the king agreed to make Rama the new king of Ayodhya. The next day, Keikaye was doing makeup and getting happy about Rama. Suddenly, her servant Manthra told her that Rama was not good for the position of king and Bharat was the perfect candidate, and then reminded her about the remaining 3 promises that she had to take from Dashrath. At night on that day, Keikaye asked Dushrath that she wanted Bharath as king and wanted a 14-year exile for Lord Rama. King told Rama about this, and Lord Rama agreed, saying that Suryavanshi never broke their promise. Lord Rama, along with his wife Sita and brother Laxman, left the city for exile. From there, the real exam of Lord Rama started to kill Ravana.
At first, they have to cross the Saryu River; there is a boatman at the bank of the Kawat. At first, he denies taking them in his boat, saying that Rama has divine power and his feet will change his boat into stone, so he wants to wash Lord Rama's feet and drink the same water, and he does the same. After he gets satisfied, he helps them cross the river. After this, they all went to Chitrakoot and made a shed there and lived there for more than 11 years.
One day, a monster sees Lord Rama while cutting the wood. She gets in love with Lord Rama. She offers Lord Rama marriage, but he denies it, saying that he is already married and she can ask Laxman for marriage, but Laxman also says that he will only marry her if Sita permits him. The devil Surpnakha gets angry and says that she will kill Sita. Laxman cut her nose and told her to return. Then she went to her brother Khara-Dushna for help; they agreed but got killed by Lord Rama and Laxman during the fight. then Surpnakha gets angry and goes to Ravan's palace for help, then Ravana decides to kidnap Devi Sita and marry her. He takes the help of Marich for all these. Marich became a golden deer and attracted Sita; then Sita told Rama to get this deer for her. Suddenly, Lord Rama arrived from the forest, and Sita said Laxman to go for help. then Ravana kidnapped Sita Mata and took her to Lanka.
Then Lord Rama and Laxman get the information about this from Jtayu, who tried to stop Ravana but failed. He said they should visit Kiskindha and take help from Monkey King Sugrive. Then Lord Rama and Laxman went on their way to Kiskindha, where they met Lord Hanuman. Then Lord Hanuman takes them to Sugrive's cave, but Sugrive tells them that he lost his army and crown to his brother Baali. First, he wants them back, and then Lord Rama helps him and kills Baali to get his crown back.
One day Laxman gets angry and visits the cabinet of Sugrive, saying that he doesn't want to help them find Devi Sita, then Sugrive makes 4 army visits in all 4 directions to collect information regarding Sita. After some days in the south direction, the team met with a big vulture bird; the bird was the brother of Jatayu. He saw with his eye that Sita was in Lanka at Ashok Vatika, sitting under a tree. After that, Lord Hanuman makes a jump towards Lanka and arrives there. Then, Lord Hanuman visits Ashok Vatika and says Sita Mata to come with him, but she denies. Then he ate some fruits from trees. Suddenly, a son of Ravan named Akshaykumara gets angry and arrives there to kill Hanuman but gets killed himself. Then Ravana's elder son, Meghnath, comes here to arrest Hanuman, and then he takes Hanuman to assembly to give him punishment. First, they want to kill him, but suddenly someone says that it is wrong to kill a visitor, and then they burn his tail. But Lord Hanuman was so intelligent he burned the whole Golden Lanka city. Then he arrived at Kiskindha and said, Lord Rama, that we have to visit Lanka to battle Ravana. then at the bank of the sea, Lord Rama worshipped Lord Shiva with a shivlinga to help them make a way from the sea. Sedenly, the god of the sea came and said them to make a stone bridge in the sea with the help of two of their members, Nal and Neil. Then they made a bribe and arrived in Lanka to kill Ravana.
After some days, a brother of Ravana, Vibhishana, comes towards them, saying that Ravana thowns out him from the city. He is only a good demon who was a devotee of God and worshipped Lord Rama daily. One day Loed Rama sent Angad (son of Baali) to the assembly of Ravana to offer them that they should return Devi Sita; otherwise, they started war. They started moving towards Lanka. Ravana got angry and ordered to wake up his brother Kumbhkarna, who had been sleeping for the last 4 months and woke up once every 6 months. All the soldiers started to wake him up. He woke up and came to meet Ravana. Ravana described his full story. He told Ravana to return Devi Sita, but Ravana said he had to fight for his country. Kumbhkarna comes to fight Lord Rama but gets killed suddenly.
After all this, Ravana's son, Meghnath, gets angry and uses the shakti astra on Laxmana. Then Laxman falls on land. Vibhisana told Hanuman to bring Doctor Sushen from Lanka; he did the same. The doctor said that Laxman died after sunrise if he didn't get sanjivni buti from Himalaya. Then Lord Rama ordered Hanuman to bring Sanjeevni from Himalya, but Hanuman didn't know about that plant, so he brought the whole mountain with him. The doctor made medicine, and Laxman got okay. Then Laxman killed Meghnath and ended his terror because he was too powerful.
After all these, Ravana asked his brother Ahiravan, who was king of the underground world, to kill Ram and Laxman. One night Ahiravan came in the shed of Lord Rama and Laxman as Vibhisana. He kidnapped both of them. After this, Vibhisana told Hanuman the address of the Ahiravan kingdom. Lord Hanuman gets there, but at the entrance of his palace, Lord Hanuman meets a half-monkey and half-crocodile-shaped demon. After the introduction, Hanuman Ji gets to know that he was his son. After the meetup, Lord Hanuman defeted him and killed Ahiravana, then he took Rama and Laxman back on his soulders.
Now that all other demons have been killed, it's time for Ravan to fight with Lord Rama. He arrived to fight with Lord Rama. The first started, and it was too big. Lord Rama cuts his head, and suddenly a new head comes. After all this, Vibhishana told Rama to destroy his belly button. Lord Rama defeated Ravana and ended his terror. After this, Lord Rama made Vibhishana king of Lanka and went back to Ayodhya.
