Musings on #39 of Desikan's RG

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear bhAgavatOttamA-s,

 

I will take your permission to share just one more little 'loukika' thought

on the subject of "dignity of dying" in the 'Jatayu' episode.

 

About 5 Kms. south of Abu Dhabi in the warm, shallow waters of the Persian

Gulf there is a tiny island called "Futaisi". It is a god-forsaken island.

Nobody uses it.

 

"Futaisi" in Arabic denotes "stench" or "decay".

 

This island is so named because anybody who goes near it is repulsed by a

strange and offensive odour that seems to always emanate from its land-mass.

Nobody was able to explain this miasmic phenomenon until very recently.

 

A marine biologist finally solved the puzzle.

 

One still and humid night this marine-biologist was aboard his sea-craft

doing some experiments out at sea. He suddenly saw a very strange

mesmerising sight.

 

In the distance he saw a group of dolphins slowly swimming in the direction

towards Futaisi island. He quietly started his sea-craft and without making

too much commotion quietly followed the dolphins.

 

As he approached nearer he saw a sight which shook him to the roots of his

being.

 

He saw a mother dolphin painfully swimming with the caracass of its

young-infant slung on its back. The young dolphin probably had died at sea

caught perhaps in the propeller blades of some fishermen's trawler.

 

The group of dolphins, with the mother acting as a sort of "pall-bearer",

was swimming towards Futaisi island in a sort of solemn funereal procession

'carrying' the dead young.

 

The marine biologist reported, "In the middle of the night across the

expanse of the still Gulf sea I witnessed this strange and mystifying event.

I was moved by this great majestic sight of Death in the little-known life

of a family of dolphins. I felt like an intruder into a solemn rite. I felt

I was encroaching on their dignity. I could see that they were heading

towards Futaisi island whose beaches would be where the dolphins would lay

to eternal rest their young dead. I wanted to follow the funeral procession

and capture everything on my video-cam. But something, some Force greater

than mere human restraint, prevented me from doing so. Instead I took only a

few still-shots with my Canon and returned immediately to base. I had

finally been able to explain why Futaisi island stank so much. But more

importantly I had witnessed how ceremoniously, how gracefully a family of

dolphins handles the dignity of death. It was a moral lesson for me far

greater in worth than the discovery I had made of Futaisi's foul-smell."

 

Dear "bhAgavatOttamA-s', this article appleared in the "Gulf News" newspaper

some months ago. I could not help thinking again of Lord Rama and "Jatayu"

again in the "aranyAkAndam" Verse #39 of the Raghu-veera Gadyam of Swami

Desikan.

 

Can we ever say that the great truths of our ancient literature are not

revealed even in the 'loukika' world today as it exists at the end of 1996 ?!!

 

srimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

sudarshan