VAMANA Dvadasi — Unknown fun facts
Laugh and learn books has a base-line (that is actually its lifeline), “Ek slok ek joke” which is blessed by the greatest humourist who moved on this earth, Lord Krishna. We all know Krishna was mischievous & playful. Was He attached to humour also? How much? That is the subject of another blog. At present our question is, can we say the same thing of Lord Rama? Except that He played with words with Surpanaka to avoid her when she proposed to Him, we do not see any humour associated with Lord Rama. Yet, we have an instance where Rama’s talk we can take in a lighter vein, as a sort of funny one.
I can hear the murmur of my readers: Everything looks alright, what is the connection of Vamana Jayanti here? I am coming to that. Vamana avatar is so famous that many people know it in detail. So I am giving some commonly unknown details only in this blog. For complete story of Vamana avatar click here: http://laughlearnbooks.in/blog/lord-vamana
Mahabali was a rakshasa or daitya. He was the grandson of Prahlada who was a favourite devotee of the Lord. This was due to his ananya bhakti. This earned him a boon that the Lord would not kill any of Prahlada’s descendants.
The divine descent of the Lord Vamana took place on the day of Sravana Dwadasi (also known as Vijaya Dwadasi). The Lord chose to be born to Sage Kashyapa and wife Aditi. Aditi was performing a penance to get back the lost glory and kingdom to her son Devendra whose wealth was usurped by the Asuras led by Mahabali Chakravarthy. This was possible because Sukracharya performed the Vishwajit yagna for Bali Chakravarthy. The weapons that came out of this yagna were used by Bali against the devathas led by Devendra. Hence the Lord had to take this avatar to quell Mahabali. Lord grew to be a pious Brahmana boy. His sacred thread ceremony was performed in the hermitage of Sage Kashyapa. The sun god taught him the Gayatri Mantra, Brishaspti gave him the sacred thread, Dyuah an umbrella, Bhoomadevi, a deer skin and a sacred staff. Kubera gave the Lord a golden “Kamandala” to ask for alms. Now the Lord looked at himself with satisfaction but was surprised to see Goddess Lakshmi comfortably seated in his “Vakshasthala”. As this would be a hindrance to the purpose for which the avatar was being taken, he asked Lakshmi to step down and remain aloof until the avatar purpose got achieved. She refused and so he put the deer skin across his chest, so that Sri Lakshmi is not seen by others.
Thus dressed, the Lord proceeded to the sacrificial hall of Mahabali, where the Brugus were performing Aswamedha Yagna on the northern bank of the sacred river Narmada.
Normally the Lord has to be invoked before any yagna is performed. But here the Lord Himself comes uninvited but with ulterior motives.
Everyone knows what happened thereafter.
Unknown facts by Jokoparishi Hare Krishna Chandrasekaran #1:
In threta yuga, Brahma Rishi Vishwamitra took Lord Rama and Lakshmana, the young boys along with him to protect his yagnya which was conducted in the forest. During their travel, the rishi, every night, before sleeping, used to tell stories of avatars of Lord Vishnu. When he came to Vamana Avatar, Rama asked a nearly funny question, which nobody ever thought of earlier. He asked, “Swami, you told us that the handsome Vamana boy came with an umbrella. When Vamana grew as Trivikrama, did the umbrella also grew that big? I do not know what answer Vishwamitra gave, but I myself am at a loss to reply that smart question.
Unknown facts by Jokoparishi Hare Krishna Chandrasekaran #2:
After sending Mahabali to rule Sutala loka, the Lord Himself promised to stand guard with his mace. This was out of his daya (kindness) to Prahlada and Mahabali.