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All of us go through a phase of confusion in life for some reason or another. We arrive at crossroads where we wonder whether we should be listening to our hearts or our heads. At such times, values like truth and integrity conveniently take a backseat to help us remain cocooned in our comfort zones. We tend to listen to or follow counsel that suits our purpose as against what is right. The Ramayana holds a beacon light to clarify such situations.
King Dasharatha decided to coronate Rama. A strange turn of events took place. His favourite queen sought to redeem her long forgotten boons promised by him at the instigation of her handmaiden Manthara. Kaikeyi sought the exile of Rama for fourteen years and the coronation of her son Bharatha. Dasharatha was aghast by her unreasonable desires.
The king who took immense pride in the honour of the Ikshavaku dynasty and his personal integrity was shocked and angered by her stipulations. When she refused to budge from her stance, the king wept piteously and pleaded with her to retract her demands. He swooned on and off because of mental fatigue.
Finally he gave into her tantrums and granted her boons unwillingly.
The gratified queen summoned Rama to spell out her demands of the king. When the crown prince was informed of the same, he accepted the conditions without batting an eyelid to the chagrin of Dasharatha. He pleaded with his son to reject the unreasonable conditions.
He even suggested that he be imprisoned and the kingdom seized from him to overrule his arbitrary promise to his wife. Rama’s mother Kausalya, the inmates of the palace and practically every single person in Ayodhya was ready to support Rama if he decided to dishonour his father’s directive. Rama commanded that kind of love, support and trust amongst the lives of the people he touched.
However, the prince was staunch in his decision to carry out his father’s decree. He remained in exile for fourteen long years, although Kaikeyi herself requested him to return to the capital. His commitment to honour his promise and his conviction that truth is supreme made him successful against all odds. It endeared him irrevocably in the hearts and the collective consciousness of everyone who came to know of his noble qualities over the millennia.