Currently Neil is playing the role of Lakshman in Zee TV Ramayan
Birth and family
With Rama
In Puranic scripture Lakshmana is described as the incarnation of Ananta Shesha, the thousand-headed Naga upon whom rests Lord Vishnu in the primordial ocean of milk (Kshirasagara). The Lord of Serpents, Sheshanaga was incarnated to the earth in the form of Lakshmana and during theDvapara Yuga, he incarnated as Balarama. He is said to be an eternal companion of Vishnu in all incarnations.
Lakshmana is part of the Mariyada Purshottamm, or The Perfect Man personified by Rama, by his unswerving loyalty, love and commitment to his elder brother through times of joy and adversity alike. He is an invincible warrior committed to virtue and the service of his brother. He never covets the throne of Ayodhya, nor hesitates from joining his brother in exile, even though he does not have to.
During the exile
Early in their exile Bharata enters the forest with the royal entourage to persuade Rama to return to Ayodhya and rule as king. Lakshmana initially mistakes his intentions; he jumps to the conclusion that Bharata was approaching with malicious intent. Rama, however, knows of Bharata's love for him and explains to Lakshmana that Bharata would never try to harm them.
Lakshmana serves Rama and Sita reverently during the exile, building them a home in the forest and devotedly standing guard during the night, and accompanying them on tiring journeys and long passages of lonely forest life without complaint or care for himself.
One day Ravana's sister Surpanakha sees Rama's beauty and desires to marry him. She takes on the appearance of an equally beautiful girl and goes towards Rama's hut. There she proposes marriage to him, but he declines, saying that he has vowed to have only one wife. She sees Lakshmana and asks him to marry her, since he is equally as handsome. He also declines, explaining that he cannot take care of her as he is a servant to Rama and has duties to fulfill. She is angered by their rejections, so she insults Sita and threatens to eat her. Lakshmana comes to Sita's defense and cuts off Surpanakha's nose in anger.
Lakshman Rekha
When Sita asks Rama to fetch the magical, golden deer for her, Rama asks Lakshmana to guard Sita and their home, and to take special care since he felt bad omens and sensed danger and evil. The golden deer is in fact the demon Maricha, who must distract Rama and Lakshmana away from the hut so as to allow Ravana to kidnap Sita.
When Rama kills the deer, even as he is dying, Maricha cries out in Rama's own voice, crying for Sita and Lakshmana to help him. Although Lakshmana knows that Rama is invincible and beyond any danger, Sita panics and frantically orders Lakshmana to go to Rama's aid immediately. Unable to disobey the frightened and panicky Sita, and genuinely beginning to fear for Rama's safety, Lakshmana goes out to search for him. He however uses his mystical power to draw the Lakshmana Rekha or Lakshmana's Limit, a perimeter line across the hut that Sita must not cross, and no other being save Lakshmana or Rama may enter uninvited. If any intruder enters, it will be instantly killed.
Sita however, out of compulsion of religious duty and compassion for a poor brahmin, who is actually the disguised Ravana, crosses the line to give him alms. Thus Ravana was safely able to seize Sita.
The Lakshmana Rekha has become a metaphor in situations where a certain limit must not be transgressed by human beings in any circumstance whatsoever.
Ramacharitamanas, the wildly popular North Indian rendering of story of Rama, does not feature the Lakshmana Rekha story in the Aranya Kanda. Neither does the original, the Valmiki Ramayana. However in Lanka Kanda of the Ramcharitmanas, (35.1) Mandodari rebukes Ravana on his boisterous claims of valour by hinting that his claim of strength and valour is shallow for he could not even cross a small line drawn by Shri Rama's younger brother Lakshmana.
Durvasa, Rama, and Lakshmana In the Uttara Kanda of Valmiki's Ramayana, Durvasa appears at Rama's doorstep, and seeing Lakshmana guarding the door, demands an audience with Rama. At the time, Rama was having a private conversation with Death disguised as an ascetic. Before the conversation began, Death gave Rama strict instructions that their dialogue was to remain confidential, and anyone who entered the room and saw or heard them was to be executed. Rama agreed and entrusted Lakshmana with the duty of guarding his door and fulfilling his promise to Death. Thus, when Durvasa made his demand, Lakshmana politely asked the sage to wait until Rama had finished his meeting. The sage grew angry and threatened to curse all of Ayodhya if Lakshmana did not immediately inform Rama of his arrival. Lakshmana, in a dilemma, decided it would be better that he alone die to save all of Ayodhya from falling under Durvasa's curse, and so interrupted Rama's meeting to inform him of the sage's arrival. Rama quickly concluded his meeting with Death and received the sage with due courtesy. Durvasa told Rama of his desire to be fed, and Rama fulfilled his guest's request, whereupon the satisfied sage went on his way. Rama was overcome with sorrow, for he did not want to kill his beloved brother, Lakshmana. Still, he had given his word to Death and could not go back on it. He called his advisers to help him resolve this quandary. On Vasishta's advice, he ordered Lakshmana to leave him for good, since such abandonment was equivalent to death as far as the pious were concerned. Lakshmana then went to the banks of the Sarayu, resolved on giving up the world through Yoga. Unseen by anyone, Indra took him to heaven.
Legacy
Lakshmana is revered for his absolute devotion to Rama. His performance of his duties as a younger brother is considered to be a sacrifice and superiority of character as such duties are especially hard to do in adverse conditions. Lakshmana's life symbolizes the duties of a man to his elders and superiors, and how greatly valued is seflessness in a man's character.
While he is generally considered to be rather short-tempered when compared to Rama, Lakshmana is also considered an important element of Mariyada Purushottama, displaying great courage and presence of mind when Rama becomes distraught, angry and desperate over the loss of Sita ' in an uncharacteristic display of desperation, a furious and almost hopeless Rama, not knowing of Sita's fate or whereabouts, is suddenly about to fire a weapon capable of bringing vast devastation of life; Lakshmana stops Rama, calms him down, explains to him that the world is not responsible for their separation from Sita, and consoles and encourages his righteous brother, while giving him support and strength to keep looking for her.
When Sita's jewels were given back by Sugriva to Rama, Rama lamented Sita's absence, remembering the jewels she used to wear. Lakshamana then gave Sita's toe-ring to Rama in order to aid his grief. What was implied is that he has never looked beyond the toe of Sita. As a great respect to the discipline followed by Lakshmana, the great Tamil poet Kamban made the statement on his character that "a great person never looks desiringly upon another's wife."
As per Ramanand Sagar's Sampoorna Ramayan it is depicted that: Laxman is also known for slaying 3 of Ravana's sons the mighty warriors Prahast, Atikay and Indrajit all 3 of whom were renowned warriors in their own right especially Indrajit Who had won renowned fame for his battle prowess. He is the only man to have survived the attack of The "Shakti Spear" thrown By Indra.
When Lord Shiva was asked by Devarishi Narad as to why the Lord was not disturbed by the fact that Laxman had been gravely injured by Indrajit, Lord Shiva answered the sage by saying that Shesha had the power to imbibe both Halal(poison) and Amrita(nectar) and as such could not be affected by the Shakti spear, but because the shakti spear was given to Indrajit after he pleased Mata Shakti with his penance. So out of respect for Mata Shakti, Laxman accepted the attack of the "shakt spear" on his chest.
The city of Lucknow was reportedly the ancient capital of Lakshmana and known as Lakshmanapura.
It is sincerely believed by the Vaishnavism a sect of ancient Vedic Hindu religion, that Aadi Sesha the divine snake over which God Vishnu resides took incarnation as Lakshmana, later as the great Vaishnavaitic saint and philosopher Sri Ramanuja, later once again as Sri Manavala Mamunigal as he is the embodiment of ultimate service to lord Almighty Sriman Narayana
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