Question: In Valmiki Ramayana, it is mentioned that Dasaratha Maharaja went to Svarga. When Lord Rama was to leave Lanka, Lord Siva came and glorified Rama. Dasaratha Maharaja also came down from Svarga to meet Rama and Laksmana and then went back to Svarga. My question is: Did Dasaratha Maharaja stay temporarily in Svarga and then went back to Vaikuntha?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
There are multiple replies to this question.
According to the commentaries on Sripada Madhvacarya’s ‘Mahabharata Tatparya Nirnaya’ written by the acaryas succeeding Madhvacarya, Dasaratha was in the assembly of Yama in Svarga Loka and returned to that assembly.
Here is the commentary, which states this: “Sri Rama wanted to bring Dasaratha, who was in Svarga Loka in Yama’s assembly. He wanted to give him ‘darshan’ and make him happy. Just as an ordinary human, He did not call only His father but all other kings and gave them His darshan to give them sense of fulfillment. He also called all the Devatas in Yama’s ‘asthana Mantapa’. Among all of them was Dasaratha Maharaja also. Then all of them were sent back.”
One lover of Ramayana replied as follows –
- A similar question was replied by Nanjeeyar, a disciple of Parasara Bhatta (Son of Kuresa) – “Why didn’t the father of Lord Ramacandra go to Vaikuntha but instead he went to Svarga?”
Response given by Parasara Bhattar was – “Be happy, he didn’t go to Hell for sending Rama to forest just to keep up his promise to Kaikeyi!” - The Lord responds according to the desire of His devotees. Two things are clear here. 1. Dasaratha was keen to keep his promise to his wife to avoid going to hell. 2. He wanted to go to heaven by following the truth. Therefore, both these desires were fulfilled by the Lord.
- In case of Hanuman, he was left behind (with four others) while the rest of His associates went with Lord Ramacandra. This was because once Hanuman expressed to Ramacandra “As long as Ramacandra Katha was chanted in this world, I would like to be there and hear that Katha.” Ramacandra reminded Hanuman of this in Uttara Kanda 108th Sarga, 28th sloka, before departing. Hence Rama told Hanuman to stay back in this world. (This was highlighted by Govindaraja).
- Those citizens of Ayodhya who left with Rama at the end were stationed at a place called Santhanika loka (this is close to Vaikuntha but still within prakrti). Later, from there those devotees practiced bhakti and attained the Sri Vaikuntha.
Another Ramayana scholar replied —
Yes, Dasaratha appeared along with the demigods after Ravana was killed. Although not explicitly spoken at that time, it is understood that Dasaratha eventually went to Vaikuntha since at the end of Ramayana, Valmiki says that all the associates did.
