Lord Ram, the great king of Ayodhya along with his sons, Luv
and Kush ruled the land gracefully for many years. He was a great ruler and
brought prosperity and delight in the life of people on earth. But his absence
was being felt on the Bishnulok. The gods through many messengers and
themselves had already prayed the lord to return. Goddess Laxmi had already
returned to Baikuntha by engulfing her avatar as Sita into the earth. The gods
planned many measures to execute the avatar and pave the way for Lord’s return
but Hanuman didn’t let any of those to succeed. He was always there to protect
the lord. The gods had become very weary and asked help from the lord himself.
The Lord agreed that it was time for his return and assured the gods that he
shall be back with his queen in Baikuntha soon.
One day Lord Ram summoned Hanuman and asked him to search
for a ring he lost. He showed him the crack in the earth where the ring had
fallen into. Hanuman scaled down his size to the smallest and entered into the
crack to find the ring. Long before he realized it was actually a path to
Nagalok. Nagaraja welcomed him and showed him and showed him a huge pile of
rings. Hanuman not losing any time, quickly started searching on them. He was
surprised to realize the first ring he picked to be his lord’s ring and so was
the second and the third. He was confused and turned towards the Nagaraja for
answers. Nagaraja replied, “All these rings are the lord’s ring. This is not the
first time the lord has sent his dear friend to fetch his rings. It has
happened millions of times. Here you came to find the ring and there your Lord
dies. This is how it is.” Hanuman realizes the Lord’s plan prays, “Jai Shree
Ram.”
The gods anticipate the opportunity and send Kaaldev in an
avatar of an old sage to Ram’s palace. He reaches to the grand hall of the
palace and asks Lord Ram to speak in private. Lord Ram complies to the request
and takes the old sage to his room and ask Laxman to guard the room and not to
let anybody come in. Doing against the King’s order would amount to death
penalty. Once the lord was in the room with the sage, Kaaldev transforms into
his form tries to persuade the lord that it was time to return to Baikuntha. As
Laxman is guarding the doors, Sage Durbasa arrives and asks to meet the King.
Laxman doesn’t let sage to go in as he is bound to follow the orders. Sage
Durbasa known for his hot temper gets enraged and threatens Laxman that he
shall curse both Ram and Laxman for this act. Laxman gets in a great dilemma.
He has to follow the orders of his King but cannot get his beloved brother Ram
cursed either. So he decides to go inside himself, inform the King about Sage
Durbasa’s visit and rather get a death penalty for himself instead. As Laxman
enters the room and interrupts the conversation of Lord Ram with the Kaaldev,
Ram realizes that he will have to punish Laxman with a death penalty. Instead
Ram decides to exile Laxman ask him to leave the country and never come back, which
was considered as brutal as death penalty back then. Laxman cannot comprehend
the idea of being far from his brother so decides to die. He enters into the
Sarayu river and transform into the Seshanag and disappears. As Ram hears the
news, he realizes that it’s time for him to leave the earth as well. He
handovers the kingdom to his sons and sons of his brothers and enters into the
Sarayu river. He transforms into Lord Bishnu as he disappears into the river.
