Ramayana of Vedavyasa According To Devi Purana (Mahabhagavata with Rama Kavaca)

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Culled from Devipurana by sage Veda Vyasa, this epic of Lord Rama brings alive the greatness of the divine cosmic goddess known as Durga who was actually responsible for the slaying of the 10-headed demon king Ravana of Lanka by Lord Rama. It established and lays down the foundation for goddess worship as well as of the well known and popular festival of Dusahara. In India which is observed during the auspicious nine- nights called the Navaratra during which Goddess During is worshipped throughout the country.

This Ramayana describes in detail how Goddess is to be worshipped during this period, besides enumerating the sacred hymns dedicated to her and used by the eternal Vedas, Brahma the creator, visnu the sustainer, Siva the concluder, and even by Lord R. ma himself to pray to the great cosmic Goddess and pay obeisance to her. A priceless gem of ancient Indian heritage, culture and tradition, this Ramayana glorifies the great cosmic ‘Sakti’ aspect of creation which is practiced in India even today. The book also has, in a separate appendix, the hymn known as ‘Rama Kavaca’, literally meaning the impregnable shield or amour that protects the devotee if he invokes Lord Rama with these verses. The make readable for those not knowing the language by their transliteration in English, and the main text in English has diacritical marks to authenticate the pronunciation of Sanskrit words. This makes these volumes a veritable for the English reader.

Ajay Kumar Chhawchharia born on 8th August, 1955 in burdwan district of Wast Bengal, is a humble and unpretentious bachelor, who has dedicated his entire life to the service of Lord Ram. At present he is residing in the holy pilgrim city of Ayodhya (U.P. India) since 1985.

Preface

The prodigious and erudite sage Veda Vyasa-the genius who classified the four Vedas into present-had penned, inter alia the eighteen Puranas and the eighteen. The present book Devi Purana (Mahabhagavata) Ramayana has been culled from a major sub-Purana title Devi Purana (Mahabhagavata).

It is said that even after writing the huge collection of voluminous scriptural texts unmatched anywhere in the world; Veda vyasa did not find peace at heart. So he went to the upper-reaches of the Himalayas to meditate. There he heard a divine voice ordaining him to write the Mahabhagavata. The voice followed by a divine, supernature vision in which, on the behest of the four Vedas which resided with the creator Brahma in a personified from, he had a divine vision of the holy feet of the cosmic Goddess, and these feet consisted of a divine lotus with thousand petals. This entire Purana was inscribed on them. The sight vanished and when Veda Vyasa regained his worldly consciousness, the divine lotus its inscriptions survived in his Photostatic memory, and he plunged head-on to write down what he saw. Thus, this Purana was revealed to him and he wrote it down for posterity.

Essentially, this Devi Purana (Mahabhagavata) extols the virtues and omni-potency of the omnipotent, omnipresent Goddess who represents the stupendous powers and dynamism of the cosmic energy which is creative and sustaining on the one hand as well as destructive on the other.

The narration was first done by Lord Siva to sage Narada, then by Veda Vyasa himself to his disciple Jaimini, and finally by sage Suta for the benefit of 88,000 sages assembled at the pilgrim site of Naimisa-Aranya with the purpose of hearing all the voluminous tomes of spiritual literature continuously at one place.

Ramayana constitutes of the diving, holy, purifying and glorious story of Sri Rama as an incarnation of Lord Visnu in This would to rid it from the burden of vile, vicious, evil-mongering and cruel tyrants, such as the demons headed by their chief Ravana, and consequentially restore peace, demons and righteousness in this world. This story of Sri Rama is contained in Cantos 39-49 of this great Purana. It highlights how and why Lord Visnu worshipped the goddess, the divine Mother, and established the tradition of the observance of the Navaratra festival (i.e. the religious period of nine nights of the bright lunar fortnight in the Hindu month of Asvina, corresponding roughy to end September and beginning of October) culminating in the Dusahara festival which marks the killing of Ravana by Sri Rama, symbolizing the triumph of good over evil.

Briefly, this marvelous version of Ramayana describes the legendary story of Lord had worshipped goddess Durga- who was a manifestation of the cosmic mother goddess representing the stupendous forces of Nature that always restored the balance whenever Righteousness and evil for forces became ascendant, suppressing goodness, righteousness and noble virtues in their wake- and had invoked her blessings in order to be slay the sinful, evil and pervert demon king Ravana, the ten-headed one. The ten days when the goddess was worshipped by Lord Rama are commutated as the Navaratra or Dusshera festival. This Ramayana described that worship in detail.

As is the usual norm with any Puranic text, the great metaphysical, theological and spiritual doctrines are intricately woven into the text itself, lending it a divine fragrance. Another interesting thing in this Ramayana is that specific dates have been mentioned for important milestone events-such as Sri Rama’s departure forest of bridge over the ocean to reach Lanka, dates when he worshipped the great goddess, commencement of war, its progress, killing of Ravana and other important demons etc, this in itself is unique because specific are not to be found in other stories of Rama. Besides this, chapter 8 describes why Brahma, the creator, had lost this fifth head (verse nos. 34-51), and chapter 2 verse nos. 59-66 describe the basic reason why the goddess decided to kill Ravana. Such feature makes this book very interesting.

These two festivals- Navaratra and Dusahara – are observed throughout the length and breadth of India, with the ‘Durga Puja’ being another name for the Navaratra in certain parts of the country when Goddess Durga, who is a personification of cosmic energy and divine force of nature, is worshipped to commemorate the victory of Lord Rama over the demon king Ravana.

I must share with my esteemed readers-though most hesitantly and with the greatest –the miraculous why that book in the present from came into existence. Though it might seem incredulous, but it so happened that I woke up on the 1st day of the bright lunar fortnight of Asvina of the year 2006 with a clear recollection of the previous right dream when it had appeared that I had to stop also other works and do this Lord’s work first-and that also within the timeframe of nine days, i.e. the Navaratra period! I was greatly stumped and stunned, totally dumbfounded and stupefied because I wasn’t prepared for it and the time was very short. It was like a divine instruction ordering me to catch the train at a short notice, without prior preparation ordering me to catch the train at a short notice preparation and time for putting my hose in order.