Rama walks out smiling

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Namaste. Come, sit with me again.

Last time, we stayed through a long and difficult night in Ayodhya. King Dasharatha had promised Queen Kaikeyi two boons long ago, and she asked for them at last. Bharata should be crowned. And Rama should live in the forest for fourteen years. The old king lay on the floor of her chamber until dawn, unable to speak.

Today, the sun comes up over a city that still thinks it is a festival day.

**

The streets of Ayodhya had been washed and sprinkled with water. Flags were flying. People stood on rooftops to see the prince go by. The minister **Sumantra** came to call Rama, and Rama came at once, thinking his father wished to bless him before the ceremony.

He found his father sitting beside Kaikeyi, pale and silent. Dasharatha said only one word, "Rama," and could not go on. So it was Kaikeyi who spoke. She told Rama about the two boons, and what she had asked.

Now listen to what Valmiki tells us here, because the whole story turns on it.

Rama was not angry. He did not argue. Valmiki says his face did not change at all, the way the moon stays lovely even as it wanes. Rama said to Kaikeyi, "So be it. I will go. My only sorrow is that my father did not tell me himself. If he had asked me, I would have gone gladly for Bharata's sake."

He bowed to his father, bowed to Kaikeyi, and walked out of the palace. The umbrella of royalty was held over him as he came out. He gently asked that it be put away.

**

Then he went to his mother.

**Kausalya** had spent the night in prayer for her son's coronation. When she saw his face and heard the news, she fell to the ground like a tree cut at the root. Rama lifted her up. She begged him to stay. She said she could not live without him.

And then there was **Lakshmana**. He was standing right there, and he was furious. He said the king had been foolish in his old age. He said he would stand beside Rama with his bow, and let anyone try to take the throne from him.

Rama did not raise his voice. He held his brother's hand and spoke to him slowly. He said, "Lakshmana, this is not Kaikeyi's doing, and it is not my father's. Something larger moves our lives. If I refuse my father's word now, what is my word worth? What will I teach the people I am supposed to rule?" Lakshmana listened. His anger did not vanish, but he put it down, the way a man puts down a heavy load.

Kausalya, too, at last gave her blessing. She tied a protective thread for her son and prayed that every direction would keep him safe.

**

Now Rama went to the one person he had not yet told. **Sita**.

He tried to prepare her. He told her the forest was hard. There were thorns and cold nights and wild animals. There was no bed but the ground. He asked her to stay in Ayodhya, to serve his parents, and to be kind to Bharata.

Sita listened, and then she spoke, and Valmiki gives her some of the most moving words in the whole Ayodhya Kanda. She said, "A father, a mother, a son, a friend, each lives with their own fortune. But a wife shares the fortune of her husband. If you go to the forest today, I will walk ahead of you and clear the thorns from your path." She said the forest with him would be dearer to her than a palace without him. She said she would not be a burden. And when Rama still hesitated, she spoke sharply to him, almost scolding him, and then she wept.

Rama held her and said, "I did not know your heart fully. Come. We will go together."

Lakshmana, of course, would not be left behind either.

**

Before leaving, Rama gave away everything he owned. There is a small story here in Valmiki that I love. An old, poor Brahmin named **Trijata** came to ask for help. Rama smiled and said, "Throw your staff as far as you can. All the cows up to the place where it lands are yours." The old man tied up his clothes, whirled his staff, and threw it with all his strength. It flew across the river bank and landed among thousands of cows. Rama laughed and embraced him, and said, "Do not be hurt. I only wanted to see your strength."

Even on the saddest day of his life, Rama had time for a joke with an old man.

Then came the bark garments that forest dwellers wear. Rama and Lakshmana put them on. When Sita held hers and did not know how to wear it, the court was upset. The family priest **Vasishtha** spoke up firmly: Sita had not been asked to go, and she should not be made to dress like an ascetic. And Dasharatha ordered that she be given fine clothes and jewels for all fourteen years.

**

Lakshmana went to say goodbye to his own mother, **Sumitra**. And she said to him words that families in India have repeated for centuries.

**रामं दशरथं विद्धि मां विद्धि जनकात्मजाम्। अयोध्यामटवीं विद्धि गच्छ तात यथासुखम्॥** *rāmaṃ daśarathaṃ viddhi māṃ viddhi janakātmajām | ayodhyām aṭavīṃ viddhi gaccha tāta yathāsukham ||*

"Think of Rama as your father Dasharatha. Think of Janaka's daughter as me, your mother. Think of the forest as Ayodhya. Go, my child, and be at peace."

**

The chariot left with Sumantra holding the reins. The people of Ayodhya ran behind it. Dasharatha came out barefoot and followed until the dust hid the chariot from him.

Many citizens would not turn back. They followed Rama all the way to the river **Tamasa**, and slept on its bank that night. Rama loved them, but he knew they could not live in the forest. So before dawn, while they slept, he quietly asked Sumantra to drive on, and to turn the chariot in a way that would confuse them. When they woke, they did not know which way he had gone, and they went home in tears.

The chariot crossed rivers and villages and at last reached **Shringaverapura** on the Ganga. Here lived **Guha**, king of the **Nishadas**, the people of the river and the forest. Guha was Rama's friend. He came out with food and gifts and said, "This kingdom is yours. Stay here." Rama embraced him and said he had taken a vow to live as a forest dweller, so he could accept nothing but a little water and grass for the horses.

That night Rama and Sita slept on a bed of grass under a tree. Guha and Lakshmana stayed awake, sitting by the fire and keeping watch, talking softly about Ayodhya. Lakshmana said, "How can I sleep when my brother sleeps on the ground?"

In the morning, Rama sent Sumantra back to Ayodhya with messages of love for his father and mothers. Then Guha brought a boat, and the three crossed the **Ganga**. In the middle of the river, Sita folded her hands and prayed to the goddess of the river to bring them safely home after fourteen years.

In a later and much loved telling, the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, the boatman **Kevat** insists on washing Rama's feet before letting him into the boat. That story is not in Valmiki, but it has become part of how many families remember this crossing, and it is a sweet one to keep.

**

**One thing to take with you.** Rama lost a kingdom in one morning and still found time to laugh with an old man and comfort his mother. The next time something is taken from you, notice who is standing near you, and be kind to them first.

In the next episode we reach the sage Bharadvaja, and the hill of Chitrakuta. And we return to Ayodhya, where a father's heart can hold on no longer.

**

**Credits (read out):** Written by the DharmikStudio team from the Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kanda, with a note from the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas. Narrated with an AI voice. If you hear a mistake, please use "Report a mistake" on this episode.

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• All episodes of Ramayana: Valmiki's story, told gently