The Story of Breaking Shiva's bow (Sarga 66-67)

Today we’ll talk about the story of the breaking of Śiva’s bow. Everyone has heard it, but in the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa a few additional, symbolic details are included precisely to explain its inner meaning. We’ll try to understand those symbols—and through them, the import of breaking Śiva’s bow.

This is in Bāla Kāṇḍa, sarga 66–67. Sītā’s birth is told there, and so is the breaking of the bow.

The story says: once Rāma and Lakṣmaṇa, along with Viśvāmitra, went to Mithilā to witness King Janaka’s sacrifice. There they expressed a wish to see Śiva’s bow. Accordingly, a team of five thousand sturdy warriors somehow pushed and dragged in the great chest in which the bow was kept—an eight-wheeled coffer. With Janaka and Viśvāmitra’s permission, Rāma grasped the bow in the middle, lifted it, and set the bowstring on it. The moment he drew it to his ear, the bow snapped. Janaka rejoiced, for he had declared that whoever could lift Śiva’s bow and string it would marry his unborn-of-woman daughter Sītā. Many kings had tried to raise the bow to win Sītā, but none could. That is the narrative of breaking Śiva’s bow.

Alongside it, another account is added, purely to signal a deeper point (otherwise it wasn’t strictly necessary here): In former times, Dakṣa performed a sacrifice but denied Śiva his share. Śiva grew angry, destroyed the sacrifice, seized this bow, and threatened the gods. When the gods appeased him with praise, Śiva gifted the bow to them; later they deposited it as a trust with Devarāta, eldest son of Nimi. This is the background of the very bow Janaka shows to Rāma and Viśvāmitra. Naturally the mind asks: What is being conveyed through this story?

We must understand each symbol. First, what does Śiva’s bow mean?

The Purāṇas speak of two archetypal bows: Śiva’s bow and Viṣṇu’s bow. Here the focus is on Śiva’s. The meaning: every person is of the nature of Śiva—that is, of the Self. But forgetting this innate Śivatva, we take ourselves to be only the body, and from that comes body-identification and ego: “I am this role, this position—engineer, doctor, boss; this is me.” Attachment to such roles and the pride that accompanies them form the egoic mind. This egoic mind is what is called Śiva’s bow. By contrast, the non-egoic mind—when one knows oneself as the Self and uses the body as an instrument—is termed Viṣṇu’s bow.

Why call it a bow? Because a physical bow is the base from which arrows are launched toward a target; likewise the mind is the base from which our intentions (arrows of resolve) are shot toward goals. Hence “bow” is used for the mind: the ego-laden mind as Śiva’s bow, the ego-free mind as Viṣṇu’s bow.

Earlier we saw that Sītā, born of the earth, signifies our pure, sanctified mind—purity of thinking. When do we gain that purity? Only when this bow is lifted—that is, when it is taken out of where it lies. The story says Śiva’s bow lay in an iron chest; it must be taken out and strung. Symbolically: if we want a pure mind, we must lift out ego from our personality and throw it away. In short: purity arises only when ego is removed.

To help us grasp this fully, the text gives five signs:

(1) The iron chest with eight wheels, shoved by five thousand heroes.
Why an iron chest (not silver or gold)? In Purāṇic symbolism, iron corrodes, silver tarnishes, gold remains untarnished. The iron chest stands for our impure personality—within which the egoic mind (Śiva’s bow) is stored. The eight wheels? Our personality is eightfold prakṛti (as in the Gītā): space, air, fire, water, earth, mind, intellect, ego. And the “five thousand heroes” pushing it? We have five vital airs—prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna, udāna—with countless functions. They keep this personality moving. So: within our eight-element, life-powered personality, the egoic mind lies enclosed like a bow in an iron chest.

(2) The Dakṣa-yajña backstory.
Dakṣa’s sacrifice means work done to gain skill/efficiency (dakṣatā). “Not giving Śiva a share” means: in our striving for efficiency, we forget the Self. Forgetting who we really are, we become proud: “I am the doer, I am the capable one.” That is ego. “Śiva lifted the bow” = ego arose. Then “Śiva gave the bow to the gods”: the senses and faculties (the “gods” within the body) also become colored by ego—not just the mind, but intellect and senses too.

The gods then entrusted the bow to Devarāta, son of Nimi. Nimi points to blink/closing–opening of the eyelids (nimeṣa–unmeṣa). When a child is born and its eyelids flicker, we know life-force has made the body active. Yet the life-consciousness is unseen; only the active body is seen. Because the power is unseen and the body is seen, from birth we receive a ready-made body-ego—“I am the body.” That inherited ego is the “bow placed in Devarāta’s care.”

(3) Janaka’s vow: to win Sītā, the bow must be lifted and strung.
To gain purity (Sītā), one must lift Śiva’s bow out of the chest and string it. Lifting it = bringing ego out of the personality. Stringing it = acting accordingly—ordering one’s conduct in line with ego’s removal, not merely professing it.

(4) Many kings tried to lift the bow and failed.
Who are these “kings”? They symbolize our noble qualities—service, charity, acceptance, surrender, etc. However excellent they are, they cannot by themselves uproot ego. You cannot dissolve body-pride by service alone, nor by charity alone.

(5) Only Rāma lifts (and breaks) the bow.
Who is Rāma? Self-knowledge: “I am the conscious Self; this body is my instrument; I, as master, must keep mind, senses, and intellect under discipline.” When one is established in Self-knowledge, only then can one lift the egoic bow out of the personality and truly attain purity of thought (Sītā). Therefore Rāma alone can “win Sītā”: only from Self-knowledge does lasting purity arise.

Sītā appears first—from the earth, i.e., from this “earth-body” when we plow with knowledge. Then who weds that purity? The non-egoic mind (Rāma) unites with it. When they are joined, the story of inner life proceeds as the Rāmāyaṇa describes.

So, understand “breaking the bow” clearly: it means casting out ego from the mind. To do that, we must stand in Self-knowledge—a point we’ve been returning to ever since Rāma’s birth in the narrative. The five signs establish the meaning: the iron chest, the eight wheels, the five thousand pushers, the Dakṣa-yajña episode, the failure of many kings, and finally Rāma’s lifting and breaking—not splitting a wooden bow in two, but shattering ego so that it no longer remains.