The king was very agitated and upset.
He turned to his trusted counsellor, Vasishta, for help. The counsellor
knew the prince Ram well for he was also the prince's teacher. He advised
the king to send Ram with Vishwamitra because he was confident that no
harm would befall the young prince. On the contrary, the prince would benefit
and learn many useful things in the time spent with the sage. He reminded
Dashratha that he could not break his promise and offend the great sage.
And so Ram left the palace of Ayodhya
to accompany the sage Vishwamitra. Prince Laxman insisted on accompanying
his older brother.
When they reached
Vishwamitra's hermitage in the forest, he showed them a huge arsenal of
weapons gifted to the sage by the gods as a reward for his severe
penance. An array of shields, spears, bows and arrows, tridents lay
spread out before their eyes. The sage trained Ram and Laxman in the
use of these mighty weapons.
The day of the sacred
ritual dawned.
Ram and Laxman kept watch day and night, without sleeping a wink.
Suddenly,
on the last day of the ritual, the sky darkened and two fierce demons
appeared. Ram crushed the first with a wind missile that hurled the
demon a distance of 800 miles. A flaming discus put an end to the
second demon. Laxman vanquished the lesser demons. Vishwamitra was
pleased and invited the young princes to go with him to visit King
Janak in the neighbouring kingdom of Mithila.
