Musings on #39 of Desikan's RG

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNe namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s',

 

Let us first examine how both Lord Rama and Jatayu exhibit, through their

actions in the 'araNyA-kAndam', what we have described as the "transcending"

of "sva-dharmA'.

 

We noted many postings ago that there is in the relationship between Man and

the Animal Kingdom a constant and "uneasy" undercurrent of fundamental

distrust towards each other. While both are very much part and parcel of

Nature's whole, each yet looks upon the other with anything but complete

trust. Man continually ravages the home of Animal; Animal either retaliates

or, as most often is the case, shuns the society of Man like plague and

withdraws ever deeper and deeper into forest-habitats.

 

This mutual antipathy is, for right or for wrong, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s,

part of the "sva-dharmA" of both Man and Animal. There is no gainsaying it

is stated indelibly in some unwritten and constitutional law of Nature that

man and animal can co-exist but only with extreme "unease" in each other's

presence.

 

It is in the context and dynamics of the above "sva-dharmA" that the

relationship between Lord Rama and Jatayu must be studied closely.

 

Just for a moment, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', look at the dramatic context of

the "araNya-kAndam", using the "Rt.Hon'ble Sastry Technique" (remember it?!) :

 

Lord Rama has arrived in the forest, with His Consort -- a Prince without a

Kingdom! A royal being reduced to un-royal circumstances in life by forces

outside his control. A noble character shabbily let down by his own people

and family !

 

A royal couple, Rama and 'Sita-pirAtti', now living off the land of the

forest, eating roots, herbs, fruits and wild brush !! A royal couple used to

sleeping in perhaps "King-Louis-XIV-sized" great beds in the Ayodhya palace,

now using tattered mattresses made of deer-skin to lie down on the

rough-hewn floor of a make-shift hutment in Chitrakoota !! A couple that

commanded several hundred retinues of royal servants, valets and courtiers

in Ayodhya, now having to make do with only one factotum viz. poor

Lakshmana, who too, in his own right, being of royal blood, yet reduced to

dire straits because of his blind love and total devotion for his elder

brother !!

 

Lord Rama, a Prince who had come to the forest in search of the peace and

tranquility unavailable in Ayodhya, but who, instead, encounters,

unfortunately, quite so often, the menacing violence of the jungle in the

form of Viradha, Trisiras, DUsana, Khara and other predatory denizens and

'rAkshasAs'(demons) of the wild!!

 

And to top it all, Lord Rama and "Sita-pirAtti", a royal and lovable young

couple--- (I sometimes can't help reminiscing, dear friends, of how adorable

Prince Charles and Princess Diana used to look about 10 years ago in their

happier days!)--- whose conjugal intimacy too is just about shattered by a

traumatic incident in which a wicked crow, "kAkasuran", makes bold to

perpetrate an act of moral turpitude on Her Majesty, Princess Sita !!

 

Imagine deeply all the above dramatic facts and situations, dear

'bhAgavatOttamA-s', in the depths of your mind, and then you will begin to

truly wonder how Lord Rama, after going through all that, could still

persuade himself to wholeheartedly and openly go forward to trust and

befriend another animal like Jatayu, which, after all, too, was a member of

an animal species no less vicious and bloodthirsty as any that roamed in the

'araNyA-s' that Rama and "pirAtti" called their home !!

 

It is said that trust begets trust. But the converse, dear friends, also

must be true i.e. distrust begets distrust !!

 

So isn't it indeed a marvel of "human" behaviour that Lord Rama, who had

encountered in the forest so much violence, danger, perfidy and viciousness,

could still manage to put all feelings of distrust, arising "naturally" out

of such encounters, aside and out of His mind and yet approach Jatayu with a

set of emotions in complete contrast to what might have been otherwise

expected of Him ("sva-bhAva" or "sva-dharmA") !!

 

It a miracle of "human" nobility, indeed !!

 

When He ought to have normally shown deep pathological fear Rama showed

utter friendliness; when He should have reflexively shown utter mistrust

Rama showed utter openness; when He ought to have been naturally vengeful

towards animals (as a result of the 'kAkAsuran' experience) He showed

absolute trust in Jatayu; when He should have been extremely, and

understandably too, wary of every wild creature in the forest He showed

supreme and relaxed confidence in a touching relationship with Jatayu that

grew and grew in richness every day since they struck up mutual acquaintance ?

 

If all the above "acts" of Lord Rama is not "transcendingsva-dharmA",

dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', tell me what else is ??? What greater lesson in

"transcendingsva-dharmA" do we need than what Lord Rama has shown us :

 

a) to offer trust even to those we have reason to distrust

b) to offer friendship even to those we have reason to fear

c) to offer goodwill even to those whom we imagine are not worthy of it

 

How clearer can personal example be, than Lord Rama's own, to show one that

one must, indeed, in life, always strive to "transcend" one's "sva-dharmA"

without actually giving it up ?!!

 

If only all of us followed Lord Rama's example of behaviour above, dear

'bhAgavatOttamA-s', would we perpetrate the barbarism we heap on nature and

the environment we do indeed today ? Would we fell forests simply because

they "eat" up living space for human settlements ? Would we mercileslly hunt

and kill rhinos just because some quack says their horns make good human

aphrodisiacs ? Would we empty the great oceans of its rich fauna simply

because we see it as hitherto unexploited and "easy" source of bountiful

food for growing human populations ? Would we dump our industrial-wastes

into the seas and rivers mainly because there is no place else for it in our

own societies ?

 

And would we able to really justify to our collective consciences that all

our above "adharm-ic" actions are not reprehensible ?

 

Can we truly shrug our shoulders and say casually , "Well, man does what he

needs to do for his well-being and progress. That is his "sva-dharmA". There

is nothing wrong in pursuing 'sva-dharmA', is there ?".

 

Think about it all deeply, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', and please let me know

what you all feel.

 

In my next posting we shall briefly discuss how Jatayu "transcends" its own

"sva-dharmA". After that we have to discuss transcending of

"sAdhAraNa-dharma" and "visEsha-dharmA".

 

God knows how long and how many more postings this is all going to take. I

personally feel I am being dragged slowly and surely into a quicksand of

intensely personal and religious experience ('divyAnubhavam') from which

there is no withdrawal or escape now. Please bear with me.

 

srimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

sudarshan