RAMAYANA FOR CHILDREN, CHAPTER 64

                                         RAMAYANA FOR CHILDREN—CHAPTER 64

                                                            VISVAMITRA AND RAMBA

Indra said, “You should render the celestials a great service. You must beguile Visvamitra. And you should inspire desire in him.”

“This great sage Visvamitra is a terrible man to approach,” said Ramba to Indra. “He will let loose his wrath upon me. It would be frightful to bear. That is why I am afraid to go. Please excuse me from the task.”

Indra calmed the trembling Ramba. “Don’t be afraid, Ramba. Perform as I say and you will come to no harm. I will stay with you. I shall take the form of a Cuckoo. And I will sing with heart-ravishing notes. It will be springtime. The God of Love shall be your assistants. You assume a dazzling form. Display all your charms. And thus lure away Visvamitra’s heart from his austerities.”

Ramba was the loveliest of the Apsarasas. She had radiant smiles and alluring glances. She set about to shake the equanimity of the fiery ascetic.

The sweet strains of the Cuckoo fell on Visvamitra’s ears. And he raised his eyes and saw the witching Siren, Ramba. Her voice was a delicious music. And her compelling beauty roused strange feeling in him. But there was a dash of suspicion in him. Before long he found out that it was a ruse of Indra. It was to shake his resolve. His anger blazed. And he cursed Indra.

“You are a wicked woman. Do you seek to draw me away from my meditation? Do you want to shake my resolve to shed desire and hate? For ten thousand winters, you will drag miserable existence. You will be a living corpse. You shall remain that way until a fitting Brahmana shall raise you from your misery.”

After speaking thus, Visvamitra was sad. He was unable to check his anger. But Ramba had become a shapeless stone. Love and Spring, her helpers, vanished into thin air.

Visvamitras temper robbed him of his spiritual power. And he was very sorry for having failed to curb his anger. He raised his hands aloft and uttered a mighty vow: “Never again I will give way to wrath. Never shall I speak. I will even hold in my breath. I will trample down my rebellious senses. And I will dry up this withered body. Until I attain through the force of my austerities, the coveted rank of a Brahmana, I will continue so.” With a renewed spirit he set himself to carry out his vow.