auspicious deed. This is a symbolic way of honouring the sage by elevating him to an
exalted stature of a ‘bright star’ and recognizing his stellar qualities.
He is regarded as the one who had created the Tamil language of South India. He
is accredited as being the author of several treatises on medicine, mysticism and
magic. One of his books is the ‘Agastya Sanhita’ which elaborately deals with
ritualistic forms of worship.
It is said that once sage Agastya and the noble king named Shankha had a divine
vision of Lord Vishnu at the banks of river Swami-pushkarni.]⁄UÊ◊∑§ÕÊ ◊ÈÁŸ’¡ ̧ ’πÊŸË – ‚ÈŸË ◊„U‚ ¬⁄U◊ ‚ÈπÈ ◊ÊŸËH 3H
rāmakathā munibarja bakhānī. sunī mahēsa parama sukhu mānī. 3.
The exalted sage narrated the divine story of Lord Ram in great detail, hearing which
Lord Mahesh (Shiva) found immense sense of contentedness, happiness and bliss. (3)
[Note—The wise sage Agastya knew that Lord Ram was very dear to Lord Shiva, and
therefore he concluded that the best way to please Shiva was to narrate Lord Ram’s
story in detail. When an honoured guest arrives, the host would try his best to please
him and entertain him. Lord Shiva was not an ordinary guest; he was the Lord of
creation, “Mahesh”, the ‘Great Ish—Great Lord’. Naturally therefore he should be
pleased with something that is the best, and nothing else was the ‘best’ than narration
of the divine story of Lord Ram.
From the perspective of the narration of the story of Lord Ram as narrated in the
epic book “Ram Charit Manas”, this communion between sage Agastya and Lord
Shiva forms the basis, the background against which the story was revealed.
As we would discover in due course of time, Sati was not convinced with
whatever Agastya said about the divinity and holiness of Lord Ram, and she
harboured her grave doubts just as Bharadwaj had his. Sage Yagyawalkya had chosen
this episode of Lord Shiva going to sage Agastya and the latter narrating the divine
story of Lord Ram in the presence of Sati to reassure Bharadwaj that he need not feel
guilty or ashamed at having some traces of ignorance in him because even Sati, the
Mother of creation and the divine consort of Lord Shiva too had her own doubts and
she too was eclipsed by the shadow of ignorance inspite of Lord Shiva, the greatest of
all the gods and the wisest among them, being her husband and even trying hard to
dissuade her from harbouring ignorance as this negative character undermines a
person’s nobility and wisdom. How Sati (Shiva’s wife) was swept off her feet and fell
prey to ignorance, and the consequences she faced will be narrated in due course in
this story—from Baal Kand, Chaupai line no. 1 that precedes Doha no. 50—to Doha
no. 64.]
Á⁄UÁ· ¬Í¿UË „UÁ⁄U÷ªÁà ‚È„UÊß ̧ – ∑§„UË ‚¢÷È •Áœ∑§Ê⁄UË ¬Êß ̧H 4H
riṣi pūchī haribhagati suhā'ī. kahī sambhu adhikārī pā'ī. 4.
As a return favour, the sage asked the Lord (Shiva) to enlighten him about the
pleasant and spiritually elevating virtues of “Hari-Bhakti” (devotion for Lord Hari, or
Lord Vishnu, the Supreme Being and Lord God of the world whose incarnation on
earth was in the form of Lord Ram).
Lord Shiva had been so pleased with the sage and so obliged by him (because
the sage had narrated the whole divine story of Lord Ram) that he told the sage the
characteristic features of “Hari-Bhakti” as desired, realising that the sage was eligible
to hear it. (4)