Ramayana account of Sage Viswamitra's warrior power (Kshatriya balam) being easily nullified by Sage Vasishta using his divine radiance power (Brahmateja balam)

Last updated on 17th Sept. 2019

Recently in Kamala Subramaniam's Ramayana (abridged version in English), I read about the great battle between Sage Viswamitra and Sage Vasishta. As per Kamala Subramaniam's account, Viswamitra was a king named Kaushika earlier. As King Kaushika he goes to Sage Vasishta's ashram and eventually has a big fight with him and loses to him. Later Kaushika becomes a Sage, named Viswamitra.

As Sage Viswamitra he has another big battle with Sage Vasishta, where Viswamitra utilizes all the divine astras (weapons) he has gained from his Tapas (austerities) done to please Mahadev.

Sage Vasishta simply uses his baton, called Brahmadanda, to absorb all the divine weapons (astras) including the Brahmastra that Viswamitra attacks him with! Viswamitra is amazed at the power that Vasishta has in nullifying all these divine weapons simply by using his baton!

The power that Viswamitra used was the warrior's power (Kshatriya balam) which was easily nullified by Vasishta using his Brahma (godly/divine) radiance power (Brahmateja balam). Seeing this, Viswamitra is disappointed with warrior power and wants to instead gain Brahma (godly/divine) radiance power.

I looked for the corresponding shloka (verse) in a Valmiki Ramayana version available on the Internet. Here's the shloka from https://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga56/bala_56_frame.htm, which are Viswamitra's words:

धिग्बलं क्षत्रियबलं ब्रह्मतेजोबलं बलम् |
एकेन ब्रह्मदण्डेन सर्वास्त्राणि हतानि मे || १-५६-२३

Its English translation is given as:
Fie upon the might of Kshatriya, mightier is the might of Brahman's resplendence, only with one baton of Brahma all of my missiles are defused. [1-56-23]

Then Viswamitra decides to perform tapas (austerities) of the kind that will give such Brahma (godly radiance) power like what Vasishta has, instead of the power of divine weapons.

I am fascinated to see this passage in the Ramayana where the wise Sage Vasishta's power gained through control of senses and mind is victorious over divine weapons power wielded by Viswamitra against Vasishta in the past. Note that all these events are before, perhaps well before, Viswamitra comes to King Dasaratha's court to ask for Rama to go with him to fight the demons who are troubling him, and where (King Dasaratha's court) Vasishta is the royal Sage to Dasaratha.
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Given below is an exchange I had on related tweet of mine: https://twitter.com/RaviSaiIyer/status/1172819698263756800

Swagat S
@SwagatS43890072 wrote:
Replying to
@RaviSaiIyer
Sir there was also another story in which Viswamitra was ashamed of himself when secretly came to attack Vashista & heard d "Lauding" of Viswamitra by Sage Vashista....
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Ravi S. Iyer
@RaviSaiIyer
Yes brother. Bhagavan Sri Sathya Sai Baba used to say that story. If I recall correctly, I have heard Bhagavan say that in public Kulwant Hall discourse.
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Swagat S
@SwagatS43890072
Sir der r diff. occasions when Swami narrated 2 diff. stories to teach students lesson on Anger & EGO management from these ancient Sages

[Two pics of Sathya Sai literature text was attached to the tweet: https://twitter.com/SwagatS43890072/status/1173138003306237952. Readers may visit the tweet to see these pics.]
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Ravi S. Iyer 'Love'-iconed the above tweet.
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[I thank valmikiramayan.net and have presumed that they will not have any objections to me sharing the above small extract from their website on this post which is freely viewable by all, and does not have any financial profit motive whatsoever.]