Thursday 27 October 2016

Killing of Lavanasura

One day Lakshmana came to Rama and said the sage Bhargava wanted to meet him. Rama asked for the sage to be brought in immediately and Lakshmana brought the sage and his disciples inside.
Rama bowed down and touched the feet of the sage.
The sage said he had come to express his grief. Rama wanted to know what was the trouble.

The sage said You have killed a might Ravana but there is one who is equal to Ravana. Earlier there was a daitya called Madhu who was a great devotee of Shiva. Shiva had given Madhu a weapon. If Madhu had the weapon in his hand, no one could defeat him. Madhu's son, born of Ravana's sister, Kumbhanashi, inherited the weapon. The son, Lavanasura, is tormenting everyone. Help us by killing him. If Lavanasura has the weapon in his hand, no one will be able to defeat him. Let me tell you more. The king Mandhata, king of Ayodhya, in the olden days wanted to take over the heaven, Seeing him come, Indra fled. The Gods asked Mandhata to take half the ocean and rule over it, to which Mandhata refused saying he wanted the whole heaven. The Gods decided to teach him a lesson. They said Mandhata needed to first conquer earth before approaching heaven. There was a rakshasa called Lavana. If Lavana was defeated then Mandhata could come and talk about conquering heaven.
Mandhata first sent a messenger to Lavanasura but the messenger was driven away. Seeing this, Mandhata attacked Mathura, the kingdom of Lavanasura. Lavanasura attacked Mandhata with the weapon of Shiva and Mandhata was killed.
This is the Lavanasura who had killed an ancestor of yours. Please kill him and help us.

The three brothers stood near Rama. Shatrughna said to Rama - You and Lakshmana have fought many battles. Please permit me to go and kill Lavana. Rama agreed. He said Killing Lavana, claim the kingdom of Mathura as yours and become the king of Mathura.

Shatrughna started on his journey. On the way, he stopped at the ashrama of the sage Valmiki and bowed down to the sage. At that time, Sita gave birth to two twin sons. He asked his disciples to keep it a secret and Shatrughna should not get to know about this. After Shtrughna left, the sage asked the sons to kept on salt and kusha grass. Seeing the boys, the sage named them Lava and Kusha. The boys began growing up in the ashrama.

Going back to Shatrughna, he reached the ashrama of the sage Bhargava and wanted to know how to kill Lavana. The sage said Lavana goes hunting in the morning and leaves the weapon of Shiva at home, That is the time to kill him.

Shatrughna and his army waited for Lavana. They saw the rakshasa return with his kill. Shatrughna attacked Lavana. Lavana tried to go and bring his weapon but Shatrughna taunted him saying Lavana wanted to run away. Hearing this, Lavana decided to fight. Using a arrow of Vishnu, Shatrughna killed Lavana. As soon as Lavana died, the weapon of Shiva vanished.

Shatrughna then setup the kingdom of Mathura.

After that he started on his way back. He again stopped at the ashrama of Valmiki. There he heard two boys singing the song of Ramayana. Shatrughna wanted to know who these boys were. Valmiki said they were his disciples and he was teaching them the song.

Shatrughna then left for Ayodhya. He went and told Rama about the killing of Lavana. Rama was very happy to hear that. 

No comments:

Post a Comment