Part - 7

Wedding of Sita, Daughter Of Janaka

Janaka, the King of Mithila,

A close friend of Dasaratha.

In a sowing ceremony held,

Ploughed a chosen field.

He saw amidst a nearby shrub,

A new born beautiful female babe,

And took her, as a father childless,

A gift from Mother Earth priceless!

To the palace, he brought her.

Sita, the lovely, he named her,

Adopted as his own daughter,

Proud of being her lucky father.

When she reached the ripe age,

Almost ready for her marriage,

Janaka searched for an alliance,

Of a most suitable lovely prince.

He arranged for a competition.

To eligible princes sent a notification,

That she was for the hand of a prince

Who stringed the Shiva's bow once.

Princes of all the countries

Came and gave their tries,

But miserably failed to lift,

Bend or even slightly move it.

This brought worry to Janaka,

While the Sage Viswamitra,

Along with Lakshman and Rama,

Were nearing the city, Mithila,

On the way, an Ashram they saw

Of the revered Sage Gautama,

But none there was to be seen,

The Sage told them the reason.

Indra fell in love with Ahalya,

And in disguise as Gautama,

He had an undesirable union,

What she could have forsaken.

Indra tried to run away,

But the sage on the way,

Thro’ his inner eye view

What happened, he knew.

As a Gautama’s curse for his act,

His manhood total, he had lost,

And for the crying-pleading wife,

She had to live an invisible life.

He told that she be freed,

Back her visible life restored,

When the blessed feet of Ram

Touched the floor of the Ashram.

When Ram entered the site,

Ahalya appeared in their sight,

Gautama, by then, came there.

As a purified wife, he took her.

On their onward journey,

Towards the city roadway,

They went ahead slowly,

For the Royal ceremony.

King Janaka’s joy knew no bound,

At the sight of the lads he found.

He was so happy to give them

Both a hearty warm welcome.

At the king's humble request,

And at the Sage’s behest,

Ram bent, with ease, the divine bow,

But as a surprise, it broke into two.

Janaka offered the hand of Sita,

As a trophy for the winner Rama!

Dasaratha soon joined them,

For their marriage to perform.

What a pomp and show it was,

Beyond one’s description and guess?

Thus ended the Holy wedding of Sita-Ram,

With people hailing “Jai Janaki Ram!”

It was the design of the Heaven,

That Goddess Lakshmi be born

As Sita to marry Rama incarnation

Of God Vishnu, in this Holy mission.

Even today, there goes a belief,

That a Hindu unmarried gets a relief,

Once he or she reads this in Ram’s life,

Gets married soon as husband and wife.

 ~Rajaram Ramachandran~

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