Bal Kanda
Analysis
Today we’ll talk about the 16th chapter of the Bāla Kāṇḍa. In this chapter, the process of Rama’s descent is described. The story says that when King Dasharatha, desiring a son, completed the Ashvamedha and Putrakāmeṣṭi yajñas, a huge radiant being appeared from the fire-pit. In his hand was a golden plate containing divine pāyas (sweet kheer), covered with a silver lid. The being said, “Know me as a Prajāpati-being from the realm of Prajāpati. This pāyas, prepared by the gods, grants offspring. Accept it and give it to your worthy queens. When they eat it, they will conceive and bear many sons.” The king took the pāyas and went to the inner chambers. He gave half to Kaushalya, half of the remaining half to Sumitrā, then from the quarter that remained, half to Kaikeyī and the rest again to Sumitrā.
When we read this story, many questions arise: a radiant being emerging from the fire, the golden plate, the pāyas, its silver cover, the promise of sons, and Dasharatha’s unequal distribution among his queens. These questions suggest that merely reading the story is not enough—it hides many deeper truths. Our task is to uncover these hidden meanings. Indian thinkers say that all our scriptures—Ramayana, Mahabharata, and others—are composed in a special symbolic style. To understand their meaning, we must grasp both the hidden truths and the style itself.
This symbolic style means everything in the story is expressed through symbols taken from daily life, so familiar things point toward unfamiliar truths. For example, the “golden plate” mentioned here refers to something we know, but it symbolizes something subtle—the Hiraṇyakośa, the golden sheath within us. We know what a plate looks like—round, bright, golden—so we can imagine a similar shining form within. The purpose of symbolic style is that inner knowledge is too subtle to express directly, and even if stated plainly, we wouldn’t understand it. Like when explaining something unknown to a child, we use symbols. A traffic signal is also a symbol—red means stop, green means go—no one has to say it aloud. Similarly, scriptures use familiar symbols to point to inner spiritual truths.
The seers may also have used symbols to safeguard spiritual knowledge, locking it with symbolic keys so that only worthy seekers could open it. Those who devoted their lives to study found the keys and opened some of these symbolic locks. I too learned this style under the guidance of such teachers and dived into the great scriptures—Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Bhagavata Purana—to draw a few drops of understanding, which I shared in my books Rahasya and Ramayana Rahasya. Through this exploration, anyone who studies deeply can learn to open these symbolic locks. It’s not difficult—only practice is needed.
Now, before entering the process of Rama’s descent, we must understand its meaning. “Rama’s descent in Dasharatha’s house” doesn’t mean what we usually think. Each person is a union of soul and body: by the presence of the soul, the inert body functions, and through the body, the soul expresses itself. The soul is the conscious energy—called spirit, ūrjā, energy, or Rama. And this soul is who I truly am—not the body. Real spirituality begins when we truly know, “I am the soul, not this body.”
However, our mind, where this understanding must be stored, is full—filled with worldly desires and impurities. When the mind is cluttered, knowledge cannot stay. Just as a glass already filled with another drink cannot receive water, a mind filled with vices cannot receive self-knowledge. To let this awareness settle, the mind must be emptied of cravings. A pure, empty mind allows the truth “I am the soul, not the body” to descend and stay. The descent of this self-remembrance into a pure mind is what the story calls Rama’s descent in Dasharatha’s house. Dasharatha means the pure mind, and Rama’s birth within it means the arising of self-knowledge within.
The Ramayana, therefore, begins on a very high spiritual plane. When self-knowledge descends within, we gain the strength to overcome our inner demons—lust, anger, greed, attachment, and ego. Rāvaṇa symbolizes our own ego seated in the subconscious mind. Only by knowing our true nature as soul can we destroy it. Emptying the subconscious of its impurities is liberation itself—moksha. A person established in self-knowledge acts for the highest good of all, and such living is what we call Rama-rajya.
Now let’s understand the process of that descent described in the 16th chapter. When Dasharatha (the pure mind) performed the Ashvamedha and Putrakāmeṣṭi yajñas—meaning he continuously purified his mind and longed deeply for self-knowledge—his consciousness became a fire-pit of knowledge. From this fire of awareness arose a radiant thought: “You are conscious energy, not the body.” This luminous realization is symbolized by the radiant being emerging from the fire. The story says the being came from Prajāpati’s realm, meaning that the arising of such divine insight involves not just the individual mind but also the cosmic mind—universal consciousness—assisting in that awakening.
In the being’s hand was a golden plate containing pāyas covered with a silver lid. These are three key symbols: the golden plate, the pāyas, and the silver lid. The golden plate represents the Hiraṇyakośa, one of the six inner sheaths of the human being—Annamaya (physical), Prāṇamaya (vital), Manomaya (mental), Vijñānamaya (intellectual), Hiraṇyakośa (golden), and Ānandamaya (blissful). The pāyas represents the Ānandamaya kośa—the blissful soul within. Because the blissful soul lies inside the golden sheath, the story says “in the golden plate was pāyas.”
Why pāyas? Because it’s made of milk and rice—milk symbolizing pure consciousness and rice (akṣata, the indestructible grain) symbolizing the soul that never perishes. Thus pāyas represents the union of the eternal soul and the blissful consciousness within us. The silver lid represents our ignorance and forgetfulness that cover this inner bliss. Silver tarnishes with time, just as ignorance clouds our awareness. The blissful soul remains within our own Hiraṇyakośa—within the heart-cave (hṛt-guhā)—but is hidden by the silver lid of ignorance.
Next, the radiant being gave the pāyas to Dasharatha to distribute among his three wives—Kaushalya, Sumitrā, and Kaikeyī. In mythology, “wife” symbolizes “śakti,” power. Thus the three wives represent the three powers of the pure mind: Kaushalya as knowledge-power (jñāna-śakti), Sumitrā as action-power (kriyā-śakti), and Kaikeyī as feeling or will-power (bhāva/icchā-śakti). In an impure mind these powers lie dormant, but in a pure mind they are awake and active. When the mind assimilates truth, it does so through these three powers. Assimilating knowledge is Kaushalya “conceiving”; applying it in action is Sumitrā “conceiving”; holding it as a deep feeling or will is Kaikeyī “conceiving.”
In this context, the “desire for a son” means the desire for a spiritual quality. When Kaushalya (knowledge-power) assimilates the truth “I am the soul,” Rama (self-knowledge) is born. As soon as this awareness arises, the power of action (Sumitrā) gives birth to Lakshmana—the realization that “I am the creator and controller of my thoughts.” The same action-power also gives birth to Shatrughna—the power to destroy waste or negative thoughts. Finally, when the feeling/will-power (Kaikeyī) awakens, it gives birth to Bharata—the realization that I am filled with the seven divine qualities of the soul—peace, joy, love, power, purity, knowledge, and bliss—and must share them with all.
Thus the distribution of pāyas reflects the hierarchy of these powers. Kaushalya receives half (because self-knowledge is primary), Sumitrā receives two portions (as both Lakshmana and Shatrughna arise from action-power), and Kaikeyī receives one portion (as Bharata arises last from feeling-power). The unequal distribution is not partiality but a symbolic representation of the natural order of awakening—knowledge first, then right action, then sharing of soul’s virtues.
So the story of Dasharatha’s three queens receiving the pāyas and four sons being born is not about literal sons but about four spiritual qualities: Rama (self-knowledge), Lakshmana (mastery of thought), Shatrughna (power to destroy negativity), and Bharata (sharing of virtues). When self-knowledge awakens, these three qualities arise automatically. There is no injustice in the unequal sharing—only a profound spiritual symbolism showing how inner awakening unfolds.