PENANCE

To-day is Ram-navmi. This is the birthday of lord Ram. Ram is the character in the epic Ramayan whose actions and behavior are always constant. He never crosses the social rules and always follows our culture. The first poet of the universe, Walmiki has written the first epic Ramayan in shlokas (poems). There is no pollution of other brains or literature in the epic. Walmiki was a great saint. He had done hard penance. The epic was written by his intuition developed by the penance. Being the first granth (epic), it is very original.
In this book, penance has been given much importance. Vashishtha is brahmarshi due to tough penance. Vishwamitra’s penance is unparalleled. Previously Vishwamitra was a king. Once, he went to the forest for hunt. It became too late. He with his armies reached a hermit’s hermitage. This was sage Vashishtha’s cottage. He welcomed the king and his armies. He had a cow ‘Kamdhenu’. This always fulfilled the requirement. Due to her, Vashishtha offered grand food and other all items required to welcome a king. Vishwamitra was surprised. When he came to know about Kamdhenu, he wanted to take the cow to his palace. He begged but Vashishtha refused. Then, he tried to snatch the cow by force. This made Vashishtha angry. Infinite no. of armies appeared from Nandini’s (kamdhenu’s) mouth. Vishwamitra’s all armies were killed. He felt too much humiliated. He saw brahmarshi’s power far greater than that of king. He went to the forest to perform penance to have the power of brahmarshi. He became the greatest self- mortificator.
Bhagirath’s penance is well known. He brought Gangajee by his tough self-mortification. According to Walmiki one can avail everything by penance. Lakshaman became able to kill Meghnad only due to his penance. Ravan, Kumbhakaran, Meghnad and all giants became so powerful due to their self-mortification. Ram was himself a great performer of penance. In the forest, he visits infinite sages who were always performing penance. ‘Brahmachargen tapsa devamrityumupagamat.’
Students get success due to hard studies. Without hard labour we can get nothing. There is no substitute of labour. Everything is possible by hard and continuous labour. All inventions are the result of hard labour of intelligent persons.