Laxman did not sleep for the entire 14 years of Ram’s exile! Urmila, his wife, made a huge sacrifice to make this possible.
Urmila, the wife of Laxman, was ready to accompany him when he was leaving for exile with Ram, but he forced her to stay home. When in forest, Laxman wanted to protect Ram and Sita day and night and wanted to defeat sleep. He thus approached the Goddess of Sleep – Nindra – and asked her to overlook him for the next 14 years. Nindra commanded that someone else must sleep on his behalf to create balance, and Laxman asked her to consider his wife Urmila for this. Nindra went to the Ayodhya Palace and asked Urmaila if she would take up Laxman’s sleep, which she gladly did.
Urmila slept for 14 years, till the day of Ram’s coronation, and had it not been for her, Laxman would never have been able to slay Meghnath as Megnath was granted a boon that he could only be killed by Gudakesh: the one who defeated sleep!
3.Ram is the reincarnation of Vishnu, but who are his brothers reincarnations of?
As Ram is considered an incarnation of Vishnu, Bharat and Shatrughan are considered to be his Sudarshan-Chakra and Conch-Shell, while Laxman is considered to be his Shesh-Naag, Vishnu’s seat in Vaikunth (adobe of Vishnu or Brahmalok). As Earth rests on Shesh-Naag’s head, whenever Adi Shesh is angered, the Earth shakes. When in the courtroom of Janak (father of Sita), during Sita’s ‘swayamvar’, nobody could lift the bow of Shiva, Janak got upset and declared that the Earth is now devoid of strong men. This angered Laxman so much that the Earth started to tremble.
Laxman was later born as Balram, the elder brother of Lord Krishna. Laxman had complained that since he is born as the younger brother, he has to obey all commands of Ram and thus, his wish to be the elder brother was fulfilled when he was born as Balram.
4.A promise of Ram became the cause of Laxman’s death.
After Sita was consumed by Mother Earth, Ram knew that his duties on Earth were over and he decided to return back to Vaikunth, but that couldn’t be accomplished as Hanuman won’t allow Yam, the God of Death to meet Ram.
To distract Hanuman, Ram threw his ring in the underworld (Paatal) and asked Hanuman to procure it. Ram then invited Yam, but he put forth a condition that the conversation between them must remain unrevealed and if anyone intercepts the conversation, Ram would kill the person. Ram asked Laxman to guard the gate to ensure no one came in to intercept the meeting of Lord Ram and Yam.
In the meantime, angry sage Durvasa came in to meet Ram only to be halted by Laxman. Angry Durvasa warned that he would curse Ayodhya if not allowed to meet Lord Ram. Seeing the situation, Laxman decided to go and talk to Ram and hence intercepted the meeting. After this incident, to fulfil his brother’s promise, Laxman went to Saryu and gave up his life.
Laxman’s death before Ram’s was necessary as the Shesh-Naag (the seat of Vishnu) that was Laxman had to return first, before Vishnu returned to Vaikunth. Vishnu here was Lord Ram.