Remembering Bharata
Story so far…
The conversation between Shri Rama and Lakshmana continues , with the younger Raghava fondly remembering Bharata!
Read last week’s chapter here, before scrolling further!
https://bharatnarratives.in/itihaasa/ramayana/nityaraamasmaranam-222/
“Rama! Won’t our Bharata be doing a hard penance these days, adoring you? He has given up the kingdom and pride of becoming Ayodhya’s king with its various pleasures and sleeps on the chilly ground, eating sparsely.”
“Bharata will surely be getting up early to bathe in the cold Sarayu. How can he endure such discomfort, after being brought up royally?”
“Lotus-eyed and dark-hued Bharata knows Dharma and truth. He cannot bear humiliation and thus controlling his desires, he has given up all his pleasures out of his devotion to you. He has a lion-like waist and is a brave slayer of enemies.
“O Rama! though you are in the forests far away from him, Bharata lives a life of austerity and that great-souled one has refused ascent to heaven.”
“Boys do not take on their father’s attitude but their mothers’”, this is a well-known fact, but Bharata has proved this wrong.
“How can mother Kaikeyi, with Raja Dasharatha for a husband and gentle Bharata for her son, be cruel like this?”
Shri Rama then stopped Lakshmana, “Do not rebuke our mother Kaikeyi in any way, dear Lakshmana, but do go on talking of Bharata, king of the Ikshvaakus. I have vowed to stay in the forest, but I do long for Bharata’s sweet words and company. When will I see him again?”
Shri Rama, Mata Sita and Lakshmana reached the Godavari bathed there. Then they did their Sandhya and Tharpanas. Shri Rama shone like Rudra Mahadeva who sits on Nandi with his consort Devi Parvati.
