Lord Balarama

Danagati Das
By Danagati Das 2.3k Views Add a Comment 16 Min Read

It so happened that Devaki had given birth to six children, and when she became pregnant for the seventh child, who was none other than the plenary expansion of Sri Krsna, known as Ananta Shesh, appeared within her womb. Devaki, overjoyed with happiness, for she knew that Lord Visnu had taken shelter with in her womb. At the same time, she was very sad for as soon as the child would be born, Kamsa will kill the child.

The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krsna could understand the heart of Devaki and the plight of the Yadu dynasty. He ordered Yoga maya, His internal potency, to take Ananta Balarama from the womb of Devaki and transfer Him to the womb of Mother Rohini who was in the Vrndavan. Mother Rohini was another wife of Vasudev but, because Kamsa was prosecuting all the members of the Yadu dynasty, Vasudev sent Mother Rohini to Vrndavan under the protection of his friend Nanda Maharaj.
Yoga maya under the instruction of Lord Krsna transferred Lord Balarama from the womb of Mother Devaki to the womb of Mother Rohini. There, He appeared in Vrndavan as Krsna’s elder brother.
One might question, but why as an elder brother?

In Dvapara Yuga, when Lord Rama had appeared, Lord Balarama had appeared as his younger brother, Luxmana. From the time of his birth, luxmana was serving His elder brother, Rama. He was constantly meditating on how to increase his service to Lord Rama and He was always anxious to serve Him.
After Lord Rama had gotten married to Sita Devi and brought Her to Ayodhya. She would long for quiet, intimate and confidential association with Her husband. She longed to serve Him. But, whenever Sita went to service Rama, Luxmana was already there serving Him. Luxmana used to guard Lord Rama and whenever there was something to do, He would immediately do it.

Sita Devi had become a little transcendentally ignored with this behaviour. She wanted to have that opportunity to serve Her husband. So, She approached Lord Rama and told him about Her dilemma. She asked Lord Rama to tell Luxmana to stay away, so that she may get the opportunity to also serve His Lotus Feet.

After Listening to Mother Sita, Lord Rama became perplexed. How can he ask Luxmana to stop serving Him. Luxmana had been with Him from the time they were born. And then How can he not let Sita Devi serve Him. He was put in a difficult position. So, He decided to take this matter up with His Guru Vasishta Muni.

He brought both, Sita Devi and Luxmana in the presence of Vasishta Muni and asked them to put forward their plight.

Sita Devi said “When I married Sri Rama in Mithila, I took a vow that I would serve Him 24 hours a day. I would never leave Him and I would always be in His service but I can’t even keep my vow because of this Laxman, He is doing everything.”

And Laxman said, “From the day I was born I was serving Rama like this. This is all I know. I have nothing else in My life. How can She take away My service?”
So Vasishta Muni had to try and satisfy everyone. So, he expertly explained that “Whenever Rama is at home in His private chambers, Sita should be in charge of all services and whenever He leaves His home and He goes out to fight battles or He goes to the state house, then Laxman should always be there to serve Him.”

Sita was very happy with this. But Laxman was not happy at all.
However, Laxman loved Sita as much as He loved Rama. She was the mother of His life. She was the Goddess of His life, and as the younger brother of Rama, Laxman had to constantly carry out His orders. And Rama gave Him very difficult orders as well.

One time while in the forest of Dandakaranya, Sitadevi saw this golden deer frolic in the woods. She was captivated by the deer and wanted Lord Rama to bring it to her. Lord Rama agreed and He asked Luxmana to take care of Sitadevi as He went to capture the deer. Luxmana agreed and Rama went off.

Soon Luxmana and Sitadevi heard the cries for help. It was Lord Rama crying for help. The Cry for help was not actually Lord Rama, It was the demon Maurica, he was disguised as the deer. He impersonated the voice of Lord Rama and asked Luxmana to come help him. Luxmana knew this was not Lord Rama but he was forced by Sitadevi to go and help Him. Luxmana tried to convince Sitadevi that it was not Lord Rama crying out for help, But Sitadevi was adamant. She used harsh words to persuade Luxmana to go.  Hearing the heart-piercing words, Luxmana decided to go and he invoked Agnidev mantra to protect Sitadevi.

As soon as he left Ravana appeared on the scene outside the home of Sitadevi and he kidnapped her by deceiving her as a brahmana.

Luxmana had met Lord Rama in the forest. Lord Rama asked Luxmana why did he come, and who is looking after Sitadevi?

Lord Rama told him it was the demon, Maurica that was crying out to lure Luxmana away from Sitadevi. Realising…Quickly they rushed to their home and saw that Sitadevi was gone. Lord Rama turned to Luxmana and expressed His heartfelt sadness that Sitadevi was gone.

One year later, after the battle between Lord Rama and Ravana, Sitadevi was rescued. The Monkey Army was bringing her on a palanquin to reunite her with her Husband. When Lord Rama saw her sitting on the palanquin, he told Luxmana to go and tell her that She should not be sitting on the palanquin and that she should walk.

Shocked! Laxmana thought “he wants me to go tell Her to walk. She is the Goddess of Fortune, and She must walk?”.

Luxmana protested but Lord Rama was serious. So Luxmana went and told Sitadevi to come down and walk. Sitadevi, did not mind obeying the orders of Her husband, so She got down and walked for the rest of the way. This pained the heart of Luxmana.

When Sitadevi finally arrived before Lord Rama, he rejected Her. He turned to Luxmana and told him, that he can not accept her back.  When Sitadevi hears this,

she cries out loud. “if I knew You were going to deal with me like this, why didn’t You tell Me this a year ago. There wouldn’t have to be this big bloody war with so many millions of people killed. I would have committed suicide last year. Had I known You didn’t want Me back. There is no point in Me living anymore.”

Then Sitadevi turned to Luxmana and told him that he should gather woods for a fire. She told him that She will end her life, if Lord Rama does not accept her back. Luxmana petitioned to Lord Rama but the Lord told him, to just do what Sitadevi tells him to do. So Luxmana gathers all the woods. While He is collecting this wood, He is weeping. He is crying. He is in utter distress. When he gathers all the woods and placed as if He was creating a funeral pyre, Sitadevi told him to lite it.

Luxmana looked at Rama and Lord Rama nodded in agreement. Luxmana with tears in His eyes lit the fire. And Sitadevi entered the fire.

Later on in Ayodhya while Lord Rama was travelling through the kingdom, disguised as a commoner, he heard a conversation between a husband and wife. The wife had spent the night at her sick father’s house and had come back in the morning. Lord Rama heard the man say:

You expect to me to be so foolish as Rama to have an unchaste woman like you live in my house?” So, when Rama heard this, He was thinking, “For the dignity of the kingdom there can be no suspicion about Me.”  

He came back to the palace and instructed Luxmana to take Sitadevi to the forest and leave her there. Luxmana protested but Lord Rama insisted that he takes her and leave at the hermitage of Valmiki Muni.

Again, Luxmana had to follow the orders of His Brother, so he told Sitadevi that he is going to see the great sage Valmika Muni and that She should also come. As he drove the chariot, tears rolled down his face. His heart pained as the horses pulled up at the entrance of Valmiki’s asrama. As she climbed down, Sitadevi noticed the tears on Luxmana face. She asked why was he in such a painful position. Luxmana barely able to speak, he told the Goddess of Fortune that She has been banned for life by her husband and that He asked him to bring her and leave her at the hermitage of Valmiki Muni.

Sitadevi again accepted the banishment of her husband and stayed at the asrama of Valmiki Muni. As Luxmana drove back to the palace, he took a vow that in his next incarnation, He will appear as the elder Brother of Krsna. In that incarnation I will serve Krsna as in a parental position, Vatsalaya. In this way I can get away from doing what I don’t want to do.

When Lord Rama had come back after killing Ravana, everyone in Ayodhya was congratulating Lord Rama. He was glorifying Lord Ramachandra for the wonderful act of killing Ravana.  At that time the great sage Agastya Muni said that all the credit goes to Luxmana.

Everyone was surprised and asked how is this possible that the credit goes to Luxmana. They all said that it was Rama that actually killed Ravana and brought back Sitadevi.

Agastya Muni said that Ravana’s son Megnath was invincible and no one could defeat him. He was so powerful that not even the demigods could do anything to him. So conquering Ravan would have been impossible if Megnath was alive.  But this Ravan’s son Megnath was killed by Luxmana.  Luxmana was the only one that could kill him because he was a perfect brahmacari.  And not only was he a perfect brahmacari, but for fourteen years he did not eat anything.

Lord Ram asked How is it possible when Sitadevi was there and a perfect brahmacari means one who does not look at a face of a women. Agastya Muni then replied that in all those years Luxmana never looked at the face of Sitadevi. All the time he used to look at the feet of Mother Sita.  Luxmana confirmed what Agastya Muni was saying.

Then Lord Rama said “you said that for fourteen years Luxmana never eat anything.  But every day I used to give him a fruit”.

Agastya Muni then told Lord Rama to asked Luxmana what he did with the fruits. Luxmana then said that when Rama gave him the fruits, he kept it in the forest and did not eat them.

Lord Rama sent Hanuman to see if those fruits are in the forest. So Hanuman went into the forest and he brought all the Fruits back.  Everyone was so pleased that Luxmana did not eat for fourteen years. But Lord Rama wanted to make sure, so he counted the fruits. After counting all the fruits he found that five fruits where missing.  He then asked Luxmana how is it that there were five fruits missing. These five days you must have eaten.

Then Luxmana replied that those five days Lord Rama forgot to give him the fruits.  Those five were,

  • the day you got the news of Dasaratha’s death,
  • the day Sitadevi was stolen,
  • The day he (Luxmana) was struck by Shaktisev,
  • The day Rama went to Patala Loka (lower regions of the Hellish planets) to kill Mohi Ravan,
  • and the day Sitadevi was tested in the fire. 

These were the five days that Lord Rama never give Luxmana fruits and thats why five fruits were missing. Thus everyone started to gloriy Luxmana. Lord Rama then became very moved and touched by Luxmana and He told him that in the next incarnation Luxmana can take birth as His elder brother. So in this way Lord Balarama appeared as Lord Krsna’s elder brother.

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Danagat das is a disciple of His Holiness Partha Sarathi Das Goswami. He joined Iskcon in 1993 after reading Science of Self-Realization. He stayed as a brahmacari at Sri Sri Radha Radhanath Temple of Understanding for 8 years When he left the tenple, he started his career in the radio industry. In 2005, He joined LotusfM, an predominantly Indian Radio Station, a branch of the SABC. After 15 years at SABC, He landed a position as Station Manager at a community radio station and then at a campus Radio station at the Mangosuthu University of Technology in Umlazi. He know has a weekly show on Hare Krsna Community Radio on Saturday from 7am to 9am. He also runs his own Radio Training Academy.
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