Vedanta Desika on Kakasura VruththAntham

[Guest guest]

Dear Prapatti Group Members:

 

Recently, I was reading the Ramayana and that brought back some recollections

of the KakAsura story, the nuances of which was wonderfully captured by Swami

Desika and which I was lucky to hear from Navalpakkam Swamigal. Swami Vedanta

Desika wrote a work called Adaikalapattu which is roughly the Tamil equivalent

of his more popular Nyasa Dasakam in sanskrit.

 

In the very first verse of Adaikalapattu, Swami Desika compares the efforts of

a sadhaka before Prapatti with those of Kakasura {Threen lokAn samparikramya

thamEva sharanam gathaha (Vide Ramayana), Yethdisaiyum muzhandru odi

ilaiththu vizhum kagam pol....}. Kakasura ran in all directions, but in vain,

to escape the Rama Banam. He sought the asylum of all the Devatas including

that of his father Devendra. But no one could offer him protection. In the

process of running, Kakasura accidentally realized one thing. When he ran in a

direction away from the Lord the arrow seemed to approach him closer and he

could immediately feel the ferocity of the Astram. On the otherhand, the

moment, he turned running towards the direction of the Lord the arrow kept a

distance from him assuming that this fellow might after all seek the

forgiveness of the Lord. Thus after having strayed far away from the Lord,

Kakasura intuitively realized the fortuitousness of running towards the Lord

and finally realizing his helpnessness he fell on the Lord's feet. Finally as

the story goes Kakasura got saved after a minor punishment.

 

But what a great upakAram Swami Desika has done for us. A simple story from

the vast ocean of Ramayana suddenly strikes us with great truths that was

latent in it. May our Acharya Sookthis continue to inspire us.

 

Vijayaraghavan