Dear All,
So, all the other 3 children were also named by the preceptor as Lakshmana, Bharatha and Shatrugna.
In childhood itself, Rama blessed none other than his own mother Kausalya with glimpses of His divine existence.
Swami writes on the same, thus:-
"........One day, she bathed Rama and Lakshmana; she applied fragrant smoke to their curls in order to dry them and perfume them; she carried them to the golden cradles; she sang sweet lullabies and rocked them to sleep. When she found that they had slept she asked the maids to keep watch and she went into her rooms, and prepared the daily food offering to God, in order to complete the rites of worship. She took the golden plate of food and offered it to God. Some time later, she went into the shrine in order to bring the plate out and give a small quantity of the offering to the children.
What was her surprise, when she found in that room, before the altar, Rama sitting on the floor, with the offering before Him, eating with delight the food she had dedicated to God! She could not believe what her own eyes told her! Kausalya wondered: "What is this I see? Do my eyes deceive me? Is this true? Can it be true? How did this baby which was sleeping in the cradle come to the shrine? Who brought it hither?" She ran towards the cradle and peeped into it, only to find Rama asleep therein!
She assured herself that hers was but delusion; she went into the shrine to remove from there the vessel of payasam she had placed before the idols. She found the vessel empty! How could this be, she wondered! Seeing the child in the shrine might well be a trick of the eye; but, what about the vessel being empty? How could that be an optical illusion?
Thus she was torn between amazement and disbelief. She took hold of the vessel with the remnants of the offering and hastening to the cradle, stood watching the two babes. She could see Rama rolling something on his tongue and evidently enjoying its taste; she was amusingly watching his face, when lo, she saw the entire Universe revolving therein. She lost all consciousness of herself and her surroundings; she stood transfixed, staring with dazed eyes, on the unique panorama that was revealed.
...............The childhood of Rama was a simple but sublime part in his life. Very often, forgetting that He was her child, Kausalya fell at His feet, and folded her palms before him, knowing that He was Divine. Immediately, she feared what people would say if they saw her bowing before her own child and touching Its feet in adoration.
To cover up her confusion, she looked up and prayed aloud, "Lord! Keep my child away from harm and injury". She used to close her eyes in contemplation of the Divine Child and begged God that she might not waver in her faith through the vagaries of His Maya (power to delude). She was struck by the halo or light that encircled His face. "
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Dear All,
While reading the above part, it appears as if Swami is not writing about Rama but about His own child hood.
Exactly like Kousalya, it is recounted in the life history of Swami that His grandfather and then later, His mother Easwaramma also used to prostrate / touch His feet in reverence and then hurriedly went away from there!
Avatar, when descending on the earth, start revealing their divinity / powers from stage to stage, to few chosen ones until time comes when the entire world (in the Yuga in which they incarnate) gets to know of their Divine powers and Divine essence.
Fortunate are they who can recognize and realize the divine essence of Avatars at an earlier stage itself. Even for others, the call is, "BETTER LATER THAN NEVER".
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