Book 3: The Story of Marriage of Lord Ram with Sita: English narration of the classical & timeless story based on Ram Charit Manas, Janki Mangal, Ram Lala Nahachu, Geetawali, & Adhyatma Ramayan.

by Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia

This is the 3rd Part of the Omnibus Edition of the 3-Part Book titled “The Story of Lord Ram’s marriage with Sita”. This is a lengthy story spanning five classical books, viz. Goswami Tulsidas’ (i) Ram Charit Manas, (ii) Janki Mangal, (iii) Ram Lala Nahachu, (iv) Geetawali Ramayan, & (v) sage Veda Vyas’ Adhyatma Ramayan. Since the real joy would come with delving deeply into the story without cutting corners for sake of brevity, allowing one’s self to leisurely enjoy its beauty and charm that are nectar-like—and also because I wished to present to the reader a detailed account of the entire event in a chronological manner and exactly as they are narrated in the original texts, while doing my best to explain the text in a fine manner and endeavouring to bring out many subtle meanings and nuances that are not apparent and would be missed if I had attempted for brevity in my narration to shorten it—this volume became so thick that it needed Three Books to do justice to the story itself. All the Three Parts of this Book have the original Text along with their verse-by-verse Roman Transliteration which is followed by a detailed exposition in English with further notes. Book 3 has four Sections as Section 1 has the entire text of the story from Tulsidas’ classic narration of the event in his book titled “Janki Mangal”. Section 2 similarly consists of the entire text from Tulsidas’ short book called “Ram Lala Nahachu”. It pertains to a specific ritual known as “Nahachu” in which the groom’s hairs and nails are trimmed just before the actual marriage ceremony. Section 3 is a wonderful and elaborate narration of the story from “Geetawali”, an exquisite ‘Book of Songs’ in which Tulsidas has written the story of the ‘Ramayan’ (the story of the life and times of Lord Ram) using the pattern of writing of verses that are set to different ‘Ragas’ (notes, tunes and modes) of Indian classical music so much so that the story of Lord Ram’s marriage with Sita acquires a magical charm and a special aura of divinity around it as it can now be sung melodiously to the various tunes of Indian classical music with a liberal dose of devotional quotient infused in it. Section 4 presents to the reader a different take on this story from “Adhyatma Ramayan”, an ancient classical composition in Sanskrit by the legendary sage Veda Vyas. It deals with this story with a different perspective and tells the reader many facts not dealt with by Tulsidas. Taken all in all, it’s an exceptionally charming story that captivates the mind and the imagination of the reader, and holds him or her in its thrall. It’s a wonderful and rare collection of eclectic classical texts that will give the reader an opportunity to enjoy this story from different perspectives. The ‘KINDLE’ version of this book is available at www.amazon.com/kdp/

559 pages, Paperback

Published April 15, 2017

About the author

Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia decided early on in life to renounce the comforts and pleasures of the material world, remain a bachelor, and serve his beloved God, Lord Ram, in whatever little way he can. The charms of the material world lost their temptations for him. So, after the demise of his father in 1985, he left home for good, and came to take shelter with his Lord Ram at Ayodhya during the same year.

Ajai is working as an In-Charge/Manager of the world famous temple of the holy city of Ayodhya, called the ‘Kanak Bhavan Temple’. He has been working in this temple ever since 1987. He has, meanwhile, taken a vow of not leaving Ayodhya for the rest of his life, come what may.

Leading an austere life with simple habits, Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia spends his time preparing English versions of rare scriptures (detailed briefly below), thinking that perhaps this is the holy mission for which his soul took up residence in the gross body of his, alongside serving the Lord lovingly and to the best of his abilities, and doing service in the world-famous temple of Ayodhya known as ‘Kanak Bhavan’.

Ajai’s view is that his life is well spent and a privileged one inasmuch as it has been used to serve the Lord in whatever humble way he could do service. This belief and assertion do not have any negative connotation whatsoever in the sense of his being proud or haughty in the slightest, but Ajai feels that if he does not declare so he would be failing in his moral obligation to at least acknowledge his indebtedness and gratefulness towards his dearest and most beloved Lord God, Sri Ram, who has gone out of His way to pick up this humble man lost in the fearfully stormy, a wildly choppy and the howling ocean of life that had tossed and tumbled him like a boat left on the high seas, and which is on the verge of capsizing, to seat him safely and securely where Ajai finds himself at present, and granting him peace and contentedness rarely available to others!

Vocation and Works: Ajai is an author who has selflessly and with dedication written books in English with the aim to translate, explain, interpret and comment in detail upon voluminous classical Indian scriptural texts in simple English language with the intent of making them and their profound wisdom and knowledge accessible to modern society across the globe.

Classical Indian scriptures such as the Upanishads and the various versions of the Ramayana are ripe with spiritualism, wisdom and metaphysical philosophy, but unfortunately they are restricted to a handful of scholars and book-shelves of libraries and not easily accessible to the modern world mainly because of the language barrier and lack of their availability in a modern format. The same thing applies to the devotional literature produced by the great saint-poet-scholar of medieval India named Goswami Tuslidas whose classics are the beloved choice of the masses in India.
So his endeavour is to present to the world in simple readable English these classics so that the world of today can access these texts easily and benefit from the ancient wisdom of our wise and enlightened sages. He does this as a mission of his life and as a service of his Lord God, and not at all for money and any other consideration.

Finally, my heart-felt sense of gratitude and thanks to all my readers, friends and well-wishers who have shown their affection and encouragement to me in this endeavour of mine which is a virtual solo trek to my destination.

My Books are available from www.amazon.com (kindle version) + www.createspace.com (printed version).

With warm greetings and thanks:
Author Ajai Kumar Chhawchharia:
Email: (i) < ajaichhawchharia@gmail.com >
(ii) < ajaikumarbooks@gmail.com >
Website: < www.tulsidas-ram-books.weebly.com >
Facebook: < www.facebook.com/ajaikumarchhawchharia8 >
Google+: www.plus.google.com#AjaiKumarChhawchh... Linkedin.com: < www.linkedin.com/AjaiKumarChhawchharia