The childhood of Lord Rama......

In the last story you read about the birth of Lord Rama after the yajna performed the by the King Dusseratha. As such the four princes began to spend their childhood in the royal kingdom with all the joys and luxuries. All the four princes were raised with great love and care. Rama, was especially beloved to the king and all the queens.

As the time progressed, the king realized that the princes should be send to the Gurukul for their education. Unlike our time, during those days a student had to go to the place of a Guru (usually in their Ashrams) leaving behind all the luxuries. The student had to live at the ashram and shall acquire knowledge from the Guru. Usually the Guru would teach them about the knowledge of mysterious weapons and shall train them to be a good warrior. On the other hand the Guru’s wife would impart them the knowledge of Vedas and other holy books and would enhance their worldly knowledge.

So Lord Rama along with the other three princes were sent to the ashram of Guru Vashistha and his wife Arundhati. Sage Vashista is a manasputra of God Brahma and is considered to be one of among the Saptarishis (seven great sages of the world). During their stay in the Gurukul, the four brothers lived a simple life of serving their Guru. They learnt to be disciplined, sincere and determine to receive true knowledge from their guru. They learned the knowledge of various vedic books and Upnishads.

Years later, the four princes returned to the kingdom after completing their education from their teacher. Once again the king and queen rejoiced on meeting their sons. But this joy couldn’t stay for a longer period. Soon after this Guru Vishvamitra came to visit the king and told him as to how the powerful demons were terrifying him and his kind in their ashrams. On hearing this, the king offered to go along with the sage and protect him from the demons. But Vishwamitra who knew of Rama being Vishnu’s avatar asked the king to look after his kingdom and demanded just  to send Rama and Laxman along with him. King Dusseratha was not ready for it as he thought Rama and Laxman were too young to fight such monsters along. However, Vishvamitra convinced the king and reluctantly the two prince were sent with the sage.

Vishwamitra presented Rama with several astras and sastras(divine weapons) to fight the demons  and Rama mastered the knowledge of all the weapons and their uses. He killed many demons like Taarika, Maarich, Subahu and liberated many sages from the fear of such demons who would otherwise hinder their yajnas and would torture them. Rama also freed Ahalya, the wife of Gautama Maharishi, from a curse. She was cursed to turn into stone by her husband after a displeasing incident. However, the dust on Rama's feet touched the stone and turned it back into a woman again. Gautama Maharishi was gratified that everything was back to normal again.

Eventually Vishvamitra was invited by King Janak of Mithila to attend the swayamvara of his daughter. Vishvamitra took the two princes along with him. Read next how Rama married princess Sita there.