Musings on "araNyA-kAndam" of Desikan

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

 

Lord Rama is "caught", as it were, by Swami Desikan in Verse#28, being in an

unusually chirpy and sunny mood !! We examined this elated mood of the Lord

in my last posting through the phrase "jhangamapArijAtha" which seems to

suggest that Rama was unceasingly exuding a magnetic CHARM wherever he went

about in the Dandaka groves.

 

Now I say, dear 'bhAgavatOttama-s', that the Lord was in such a wonderfully

expansive mood because He was, at THAT POINT OF TIME in Dandaka, in deep and

rapturous Love. For the FIRST TIME in His life, perhaps, the Lord seemed to

have realised the true depths of His amorous feelings for his bride,

"Sita-pirAtti". The well-springs of latent Love erupted forth, throbbed in

His Heart and spread so much Romance and Goodness all around Him that He

couldn't help feeling "giddy with Love" (to use a modern idiom!); He

couldn't help it all, really, if it showed in His face or even in mere

bodily movements; He couldn't also help it that the "glow of romance" He

felt deep within Himself all rubbed off on the lovely Dandaka environs He

and His beloved Consort roamed in !!

 

It is that idyllic exuberance of the true and heady lover, which the Lord

certainly was, that I think is captured by Desikan, the leonine poet, in

Verse#28!!

 

Now we need to understand why the Lord felt so exhilirated. And it is easy

indeed given the dramatic context of the 'Raghuveera-gadyam' towards the end

of the 'ayOdhyA- kAndam' and more specifically from Verse#23 through Verse#26.

 

Let us pause for a moment and re-trace our steps to three singular stanzas:

 

Verse #23 : bharadwAjashAsana parigrhIta- vichitra- chitrakootagiri-

kattathata ramyAvasatha!

 

Here the verse describes how the Lord built for Himself and His darling

bride a beautiful cottage atop a secluded hillock in the verdant woods.

 

Verse #25 : praNatha bharatha makuttathata sughattitha

pAdukAgrayAbhishEka nirvarthitha sarvalOka yogakshEma !

 

In this verse is recorded that Lord Rama performed the "pAdukA" coronation

of Bharatha and completed thereby the legal and constitutional formalities

related to delegation of those powers needed by his brother for effective

political governance of Ayodhya.

 

Verse #26 : pishitaruchi vihita durita balamathana-thanaya

balibhuganugathi sarabhasa shayana thruNashakala

paripathanabhaya chakitha sakala suramunivara

bahumatha mahAsrasAmarthaya !

 

In this verse Swami Desikan describes the pathetic fate that summarily

befell Kakasuran, the sinful crow, for casting covetous and ravenous eyes on

"pirAtti's" flesh.

 

Dear 'bhAgavatOttama-s', we have now firmly and clearly identified the

dramatic context of stanza #28 in the 'aranyA-kAndam', as contained in the

above 3 verses of the 'ayodhya-kAndam'--- and all from the same 'gadyam'!!

 

We can now proceed to use the "Rt.Hon'ble Sastry Approach" to examine how

the 3 verses provide the basis for the great theme of "love" that the

"giddy" Lord Rama demonstrated in the Dandaka woods and as revealed by Verse#28.

 

We shall do so in my next posting.

 

srimathe srivan satagopa sri narayana yatindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

sudarshan

 

 

 

 

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha