Volume
The Message Papers
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The Prophetic Life
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Sub-Heading
Rama
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The Message Papers
The Prophetic Life
Rama
Then we come to the life of Rama. Young Rama came from the abode of Vashista, his teacher. He lived with him in the forest, in the solitude, and saw little of the palace life of his father. No sooner was he married, according to the custom of Hindus to marry early in their lives, then he was sent to vanuasa; which means "the sacred exile" of twelve years, away from home. In the tradition of the Hindus we do not read of such a thing happening before or afterwards. It was only in the case of Rama. It is not true that there was a custom of the Hindus and especially of the kings that the prince should be sent to vanuasa for twelve years.
By this I wish to explain to you how destiny has from the beginning taken in hand souls who were going to be the servants of God. One can imagine: a child who was a son of a king and who was sent first to the holy man Vashista in his simple abode in solitude, where he lived the most simple life till he was grown up. In his early youth, no sooner was he married than he was sent to the forest. The difficulties of forest life were not enough. To add to those difficulties Sita was sent with him and then was taken away by Ravana to make the trouble complete, that there should not remain one little possibility of pain that he did not experience. For a prince it would have been quite enough to be in the forest, to live on leaves and flowers and fruits and to wander about without a roof over his head in the sun and storm and rain. But it was meant that the test should be complete.
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