01Kulaguru of the Ikshvakus
Vasishtha is a manasaputra of Brahma, born of his mind, and one of the Saptarishis whose stars turn round the pole. His wife is Arundhati; at a Hindu wedding the bride is still shown her star beside his. For generations he was purohita to the kings of the Ikshvaku line in Ayodhya. In the Ramayana he performs the namakarana of Dasharatha’s four sons and teaches them, and it is his advice the king follows when he cannot bear to part with Rama: let the boy go with Vishvamitra, who will give him the astras.
02The cow Shabala
Shatananda tells the old quarrel in Mithila. King Vishvamitra came to Vasishtha’s ashrama with his army, and the wish-granting cow Shabala fed them all. The king demanded her and tried to take her by force. At Vasishtha’s word she brought forth armies of Pahlavas, Shakas and Yavanas; Vasishtha burnt the king’s sons to ash with a single sound, and when Vishvamitra loosed every astra he had, Brahmastra included, the rishi’s staff swallowed them. Shame on a kshatriya’s strength, Vishvamitra cried; the strength of a brahmana’s tapas is the only strength. He went away to earn it.
03Counsel in Ayodhya
When Kaikeyi handed Sita bark garments to wear, Vasishtha turned on her before the court: Sita would not go as an ascetic, he said, and if Rama went, Ayodhya would go with him. At Chitrakoot he recited the whole line of the Ikshvakus from Brahma down, to show Rama that the eldest son rules, and still Rama would not break his father’s word. He led the coronation after the war. In the Uttara Kanda he tells his own story: cursed by King Nimi, he left his body and was born again of Mitra and Varuna.
The Yoga Vasishtha, a long dialogue of his teaching to the young Rama, is a separate work that tradition ascribes to Valmiki.