Kauśalyā

Kauśalyā was the chief queen of King Daśaratha of Ayodhyā and the mother of Bhagavān Śrī Rāma. In the Putrakāmeshṭi yajña (the fire rite for gaining a son), she received half of the consecrated pāyasam (milk-rice). Through her, the fullness of Bhagavān Vishṇu came into the world as Rāma. She was a devoted queen who did daily pūjā (worship) to Bhagavān Vishṇu-Nārāyaṇa. Her great trial was Rāma’s exile. Her grief fills the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Through it she kept her dignity.

Her place in the palace

Kauśalyā was the senior mahishī (chief queen) of Daśaratha. She was the paṭṭamahishī, and her rank put her above Kaikeyī and Sumitrā in the palace. She was complete in her devotion to dharma and to her husband. She was known for her gentleness, her piety and her quiet strength. Her own worship was given to the mūrti of the household shrine. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapter 16.

She was also a deeply devoted queen of great inner strength. She did daily pūjā to Bhagavān Vishṇu-Nārāyaṇa and kept all the customary observances with care. Her rank as eldest and chief queen had not brought her happiness in Daśaratha’s reign. In later years the king’s affection leaned more towards Kaikeyī, and Kauśalyā bore this with patience. All her hope, love and pride went to Rāma. He was her whole world, and his coronation as Yuvarāja was the fulfilment of all she had waited for. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 14.

Mother of Rāma

In the Putrakāmeshṭi yajña, Daśaratha gave half of the pāyasam to Kauśalyā. It was the largest share, as befitted the senior queen. It was also the share from which Bhagavān Vishṇu would come down in his fullness as Rāma. She ate the pāyasam with devotion and conceived. Rāma was born from her womb on Caitra Śukla Navamī, under the star Punarvasu, in the Karkaṭa lagna (rising sign). The five planets Sūrya, Maṅgala, Śani, Bṛhaspati and Śukra stood in their signs of exaltation, a pattern of great auspiciousness. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 16–18.

Her trial

Her greatest trial came when Kaikeyī demanded Rāma’s exile. As mother of the crown prince, she was about to become mother of the king of Ayodhyā. Then, through another woman’s scheming, she became the mother of a forest ascetic sent away for fourteen years. Daśaratha died of grief, calling out Rāma’s name. Kauśalyā bore these blows one after another: the exile of her son and the death of her husband. These events are told in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa. Their root lies in the Bāla Kāṇḍa, in the yajña and the birth of Rāma.

On learning of the exile

Rāma came to her rooms to ask her blessing before he left for the forest. He had already accepted the exile with perfect calm. The news fell on Kauśalyā like the fall of her whole world. She wept bitterly and without holding back. She could not see how Rāma, who was all that a son and a prince should be, could be sent to the forest on the whim of a jealous co-wife.

In her pain she spoke as a mother in grief. She said she had borne Rāma with great hope. She had borne years of coming second in Daśaratha’s affection while she waited for this day. She had set everything on this coronation. Now, on the eve of its fulfilment, all was taken from her. She asked whether she might go with Rāma to the forest. She would rather follow her son to Daṇḍaka than stay in Ayodhyā without him. She also spoke bitterly of her place. She said it was useless to be a queen when the scheming of a maidservant could overturn a king’s plans. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapter 14.

Rāma’s counsel and her blessing

Rāma spoke to Kauśalyā with the same gentleness and clarity that he brought to every hard moment. He reminded her that dharma requires a son to honour his father’s given word. Pitṛ-vākya-pāripālana (keeping the father’s word) was the highest duty, and one who walks in dharma need not fear the forest. He told her that her grief would hurt him more than any hardship of the forest. He appealed to her knowledge of the śāstras and asked her not to add to his burden.

He also spoke to her of a wife’s duty to support her husband. Daśaratha was bound by his oath and had no choice. Kauśalyā’s anger or distress towards him would only add to the king’s sorrow, which was already too great to bear.

She was moved by the depth of his calm, the purity of his reasoning and the love that shone in his words. Kauśalyā rose above her grief enough to give Rāma her full blessing. She prayed that all the worlds be auspicious for him, that the dharma he walked protect him, and that he return safe and victorious. Her blessing was complete and from the heart, though her tears did not stop. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 14–15.

After Rāma’s departure

Kauśalyā’s grief after Rāma left was great and did not ease. She stayed at Daśaratha’s side through his last days. Both were worn down by sorrow, and the palace rang with lament. Sumantra returned after taking Rāma to the Gaṅgā. Kauśalyā questioned him eagerly about every detail of Rāma’s journey: how he looked, how Sītā was, what he said and where they slept.

Sumantra gave her comfort. Sītā moved through the forest with a glowing face and a light, happy step. She was without fear in Rāma’s company, as if the forest were her own home. Rāma walked the forest paths as he would walk the palace halls, calm and sure. These words gave Kauśalyā some peace. She also asked Sumantra to take her to Rāma in Daṇḍaka, for she could not bear to stay in Ayodhyā. In the end she stayed. The Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 57–60.

After Daśaratha’s death

After Daśaratha died of grief, Kauśalyā was a widow, without husband or son. Ayodhyā was sunk in mourning. Bharata came back from Kekaya and learned what had happened. Kauśalyā gave him the full account. She poured out her grief and told the course of events, from Mantharā’s scheming, to Rāma’s departure, to Daśaratha’s death. Bharata was overcome. He refused the throne and declared that he would restore everything to Rāma.

Yogāgni-nirgamana in the Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa

Rāma gave way to public blame and told Lakshmaṇa to take Sītā to the forest and leave her near Vālmīki’s āśrama. The three queens, Kauśalyā, Kaikeyī and Sumitrā, fell into grief. Sītā, the shining daughter-in-law of the palace for so many years, was gone. They could not understand how the righteous Rāma could do this to one so pure.

Rāma went to them in their sorrow. He sat with all three queens and, in the stillness of that grief, spoke to the depths of their awareness. He gave them a flash of jñāna-dīpti (the light of direct knowledge). In that moment the veil of māyā that had hidden his divine nature was lifted. The queens saw Rāma not as their son but as Jagadīśvara, the master of all the worlds, in all his shining sovereignty. The experience was complete and overwhelming.

The queens burst into a stotra (hymn of praise) to him, who stood before them as their child and also as the ground of all existence. Their words poured out of surrender and recognition.

They had seen the truth of his nature and let go of all ties to the human bond of mother and son. All three queens now chose to leave the earthly plane by yogāgni-nirgamana, the free giving up of the body through the inner fire of yoga. They entered deep meditation and drew their prāṇas (life-breaths) upward. In full awareness, in Rāma’s presence, they let the outer form melt into the inner fire. It was not death but moksha (liberation), a conscious return to the divine from which they had come.

Rāma himself performed the funeral rites for his three mothers with full honour and with the grief of a devoted son, even as he knew the truth of the liberation they had won. The Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Lava Kuśa Kāṇḍa, Chapter 8.

Jñāna through the cow’s call in the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa

The Manohara Khaṇḍa of the Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa gives another account of Kauśalyā’s liberation, one that takes place during Rāmarājya (Rāma’s rule) itself. Rāma had arranged adhyātma (spiritual) night teaching throughout Ayodhyā. During it, Kauśalyā heard a cow calling to its calf with the sound “ahaṃ”. This is the Sanskrit word for “I am”.

In the bright spiritual air of that night, the sound struck Kauśalyā not as an animal’s cry but as a word of Brahman. It was the mahāvākya (great saying) “Ahaṃ Brahmāsmi” (I am Brahman), carried in the cow’s call to her calf. The cow’s love for her calf, uttered in the primal sound “ahaṃ”, was the pure “I am” of consciousness knowing itself in its own expression. In a flash of jñāna-dīpti, Kauśalyā knew the non-dual nature of the self. In that knowing, she reached Vaikuṇṭha, the supreme abode of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Sumitrā and Kaikeyī won liberation through their own insights on the same night. The Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa tells this in the Manohara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 2.

Sources

• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Bāla Kāṇḍa, Chapters 14–18
• Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa, Ayodhyā Kāṇḍa, Chapters 14–60
• Tulasī Rāmāyaṇa, Lava Kuśa Kāṇḍa, Chapter 8
• Ānanda Rāmāyaṇa, Manohara Khaṇḍa, Chapter 2