ter Avatara came forth
to show what a Kshattriya king should be. The Kshattriyas abusing their
place and their power were swept away by Parashurama, and, ere He had left
the earth where the bitter lesson had been taught, the ideal Kshattriya
came down to teach, now by example, the lesson of what should be, after the
lesson of what should not be had been enforced. The boy Rama was born, on
whose exquisite story we have not time long to dwell, the ideal ruler, the
utterly perfect king. While a boy He went forth with the great teacher
Visvamitra, in order to protect the Yogi's sacrifice; a boy, almost a
child, but able to drive away, as you remember, the Rakshasas that
interfered with the sacrifice, and then He and His beloved brother
Lakshmana and the Yogi went on to the court of king Janaka. And there, at
the court, was a great bow, a bow which had belonged to Mahadeva Himself.
To bend and string that bow was the task for the man who would wed Sita,
the child of marvellous birth, the maiden who had sprung from the furrow as
the plough went through the earth, who had no physical father or physical
mother. Who should wed the peerless maiden, the incarnation of Shri,
Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu? Who should wed Her save the Avatara of
Vishnu Himself? So the mighty bow remained unstrung, for who might string
it until the boy Rama came? And He takes it up with boyish carelessness,
and bends it so strongly that it breaks in half, the crash echoing through
earth and sky. He weds Sita, the beautiful, and goes forth with Her, and
with His brother Lakshmana and his bride, and with His father who had come
to the bridal, and with a vast procession, wending their way back to their
own town Ayodhya. This breaking of Mahadeva's bow has rung through earth,
the crashing of the bow has shaken all the worlds, and all, both men and
Devas, know that the bow has been broken. Among the devotees of Mahadeva,
Parashurama hears the clang of the broken bow, the bow of the One He
worshipped; and proud with the might of His strength, still with the energy
of Vishnu in Him, He goes forth to meet this insolent boy, who had dared to
break the bow that no other arm could bend. He challenges Him, and handing
His own bow bids Him try what He can do with that. Can He shoot an arrow
from its string? Rama takes this offered bow, strings it, and sets an arrow
on the string. Then He stops, for in front of Him there is the body of a
Brahmana; shall He draw an ar