Tattva

Brahmarshi Vishvamitra, Sanskrit for “friend of the whole world,” is one of the most venerated rishis or sages of ancient Bharat. He is also credited as the author of most of Mandala 3 of the Rigveda, including the Gayatri Mantra. The Puranas mention that only 24 Rishis since antiquity have understood the whole meaning of, and thus wielded the whole power of, the Gayatri Mantra. Sage Vishvamitra is supposed to be the first, and Sage Yajnavalkya the last. His ashram or research laboratory was very close to my birthplace Patna, or as it known back then, Patliputra. Vishwamitra was the greatest politician, the greatest scientist and the greatest visionary Bharat has ever had.  

The Greatest Visionary
He fully succeeded in his vision to bring Ram Rajya in which no one was poor, no one was distressed, everyone was living in peace, and tranquility prevailed all across Bharat. Vishwamitra’s vision was to see every corner of Bharat without the fear of terror spread by evils from which had overshadowed the whole country. Ravan, the king of Lanka, had terrorized the whole civilized world. His terror groups had their wings spread till the northern regions of Bharat. Vishwamitra had a great vision to free the whole country from terrorism spread by Ravan and his groups, and he had a fool-proof plan to succeed in his vision.

The Greatest Scientist
Suppose terrorists or thieves attack our houses and we all had to take up arms and start fighting. What would happen? “Chaos.” We have police or military departments to protect our citizens. The jobs of different departments are clearly defined and distinguished. Similar social arrangements were there during the time of Vishwamitra too. He understood and followed the system very well. Vishwamitra wanted to stop the demons such as Mareecha and Subahu from destroying his yagnya. As described in Ramayan, when Vishwamitra and his fellow sages were conducting their yagnyas, demons would come and blow out the fire, or drop bones of dead animals on them causing the yagna to be disturbed. The Ramayan has been written in simple and symbolic language, which could be easily understood and digested by ordinary people. An ordinary person thinks that, it was the law of the Yagna and that the rishis couldn’t kill anybody, couldn’t get into anger or couldn’t use weapons. But Vishwamitra wanted Ram to kill those demons. Any ordinary person would easily understand that killing something yourself or inviting others to kill doesn’t make much difference. By looking deeper into this theory, it can be easily understood that Vishwamitra, being the great and powerful scientists that he was, could easily have destroyed these demons. The Valmiki Ramayan has attributed discoveries of so many powerful missiles to Vishwamitra. Being a disciplined and rule abiding scientist, Vishwamitra knew his limits. He knew very well that the scientist discovers the missiles, but Kshatriyas, or the military, have the authority to use them. He can be compared to the scientists of today who are developing missiles. But you never hear of them using the missiles. They are not authorized to do so. Being the greatest scientist he transferred the technologies skillfully to the military under General Ram, so that they could be used appropriately.

The Greatest Politician
To achieve a vision like the one he had, Vishwamitra needed a powerful king who had great future. He found that in Ram. The Ramayan says King Dasharath had offered him the help to destroy the demons, but the great politician sage didn’t accept the offer of the dying king. He wanted someone like Ram who could accomplish his mission. Vishwamitra wanted to create Ram as the future king of Bharat. He knew Ram would go to the forest, so Vishwamitra wanted to create fear in the hearts of the demons and at the same time create great allies for the future King Ram. He wanted to see the rule of law all across the country which only Ram was capable of. His plan to create fear in the minds of enemies, the demons, worked very well when Ram killed Tadka and Subahu and left Mareech half dead. Through Mareech, Vishwamitra wanted to seed the message of fear in the minds of his strongest enemies, like Ravan and Kumbhakaran. In the Ramacharitmanaas, fear in Kumbharakaran’s mind was clearly visible when he talked to Ravan about Ram. The same fear was there with Kalnemi and others.

For winning a war against a strong enemy it’s important to form good allies and respect for yourself in the masses who can provide support in time of trouble. On the way to Mithila the sage took Ram and Lakshman to Sage Gautam ashram where his wife Ahalya lived in distressed condition. Ahalya represents the section of out-castes in the society. As per Valmiki Ramayan she had no rights to intermingle with the society. She had no social rights. Ram showed kindness to her and gave her a position in the society. Vishwamitra did this smartly to create respect for Ram in the lower strata of the society.

In Mithila, king Janak had set a very difficult condition to marry his daughter Sita. Kings, noble and evil alike, had assembled there to try their luck. As per one story, even Ravan had arrived there to try his luck to marry Sita and build strong allies like king Janak in the north. By taking Ram to Sita’s swyamvar and letting him break the Shiv Dhanus, Vishwamitra scared all the demons because nobody else could break it. Also because of this people that supported him went to him and people that didn’t support him also went to him, but because of fear. Vishwamitra was very successful in building up great allies for Ram in Mithila. The news of the Dhanush Yagna was spread all across the country. After Ram broke the bow, everyone from Bharat was either on his side or was shivering in fear. When Ravan went to Mareech to ask him to become a golden deer so that he could kidnap Sita, Mareech was scared because Ram had broken the Shiv Dhanus, an accomplishment impossible by most people. Mareech was scared of his strength.

Vishwamitra was a great visionary. He knew that Ram would have to fight many strong demons such as Ravan, Kumbakaran, Khar, and Dhusan, Vishwamitra wanted to train him and build up his power. Very skillfully he planted Ram as the great future king of Bharat. He was the most successful visionary Bharat has ever had.
The author of this article, Ayush Sharma, is 13 years old. He lives in Houston, TX.

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