Canto 1 - Boyhood
Bāla-kāṇḍa
Chapter 16: Daśaratha Benedicted
Text 1.16.30
प्रददौ चावशिष्टार्धं पायसस्यामृतोपमम्।
अनुचिन्त्य सुमित्रायै पुनरेव महीपतिः॥
pradadau cāvaśiṣṭārdhaṁ pāyasasyāmṛtopamam
anucintya sumitrāyai punar eva mahī-patiḥ
pradadau ca = gave; avaśiṣṭa ardham = remaining half; pāyasasya = of the pāyasa; amṛta-upamam = the nectarean; anucintya = after further thought; sumitrāyai = to Sumitrā; punaḥ eva = once again; mahī-patiḥ = the king.
After further thought, the king once again gave the nectarean remaining half of the pāyasa to Sumitrā.
[2] na te ’mbā madhyamā tāta garhitavyā kathañcana. (Rāmāyaṇa 3.16.37)
The king further considered that if the remainder was given to Kaikeyī, both of them would get an equal share and there would be no gradation between the elder and younger queens which is inappropriate. Kaikeyī was younger. Lord Rāma’s reference to her in the Araṇya-kāṇḍa (Canto 3) as the middle mother (madhyamā ambā) is with reference to King Daśaratha’s other wives [a]. Though she was dearest to the king, he was not partial to her in the matter of dividing the pāyasa on the grounds of Vedic dharma. Therefore, for the sake of maintaining the great honor of following dharma, he accepted the hierarchy of elder and younger. His queens [also] considered that they were treated equally (sammānaṁ menire).1
Bharata should be understood to be elder to Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna on the basis of the sequence of the eating of the pāyasa. Kaikeyī ate her portion of the pāyasa before Sumitrā ate her portions of the pāyasa. In some Purāṇas, Bharata appears younger to Lakṣmaṇa. This should be understood to refer to Rāma-līlā in other kalpas.
The bodies of Rāma, Bharata, Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna should be understood to have been caused by the pāyasa and not by a combination of semen and blood. This is because immediately after eating the pāyasa the queens are reported to have become pregnant. The Smṛtis also state, na tasya prākṛtā mūrtiḥ, “He does not have a material form,” and na bhūta-saṅgha-saṁsthāno deho ’sya paramātmanaḥ, “The body of the Supreme Soul is not a conglomeration of the physical elements.” The pāyasa was a form of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, filled with His six opulences.quote2 It should also be understood that the growth of Their bodies was not due to Their or Their mothers’ eating and drinking, but simply due to Their own desire.
NOTE. Rāmacandra, Bharata, Lakṣmaṇa and Śatrughna are four forms of the Supreme Personality of Godhead and as such possess fully spiritual forms, not material forms. Śrīla Prabhupāda expresses this feature of the Supreme Lord as follows in his purport to Bhagavad-gītā 13.15: “He is not contaminated by the material energy, because He is the Lord of material energy. In the Vedic literature we find that His whole embodiment is spiritual. He has His eternal form, called sac-cid-ānanda-vigraha.”