Vikhanas is the name of a sage who had emanated from Lord Brahmā’s nails: ye nakhās te vaikhānasāḥ. ye vālās te vālakhilyāḥ. His teachings are referred to as vaikhānasa-dharma. This is the dharma of the vānaprasthas whose vows include the vow of brahmacarya.

Now, one may question, “Did Rāmacandra accept the entirety of vānaprastha-dharma or just a portion of it? It cannot be the former, for it is inappropriate for a vānaprastha to accept gārhasthya, that is, gṛhastha life. A person who has progressed to an āśrama and returned to an earlier āśrama has climbed and then fallen down; so he is definitely criticized [in the scriptures]. It cannot be the latter, for if a gṛhastha accepts the unique regulations of the vānaprastha-āśrama such as knotting one’s hair, he would become a traitor to his āśrama like a brāhmaṇa faithless to his own branch of Vedic knowledge [which is forbidden].”

The answer to this question is as follows. No. Acceptance of particular restrictions by means of a duly deliberated resolution to carry out the [dhārmika] instruction of one’s father does not contradict [the principles or details of Vedic dharma], just as the acceptance of sannyāsa-dharma by Yudhiṣṭhira and others, for it has been stated that one’s desire born out of a duly deliberated resolution [to follow a particular instruction of the Vedic scriptures] is [also] considered to be dharma: samyak-saṅkalpajaḥ kāmo dharma-mūlam idaṁ smṛtam.¹

Sahāyam (“assistant”) indicates that Guha assisted Rāma, Sītā and Lakṣmaṇa in crossing Gaṅgā. In some manuscripts, sakhāyaṁ appears instead of sahāyaṁ indicating that Guha was Rāma’s friend.