conclusion-'paramapada-sOpAnam'

[Guest guest]

srimathE lakshmi-nrsumha parabrahmaNE namaha

sri vedanta desika guravE namaha

 

Dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s',

 

The 'pramANam' for Swami Desikan's 'paramapada-sOpAnam' -- especially for

the 5 'parianka-s' we described as 'vivEkam','nirvEdam','virakthi','bheethi'

and 'prasada-hetu' -- is clearly demonstrated in the character of Sri.Rama's

beloved brother in the Ramayana, Sri Bharatha.

 

In my personal opinion Bharatha, nothwithstanding the 'kshatriya' birth and

royal grooming of his in the great epic of 'Ramayana', is perhaps the

closest in resemblance to a true, humble and enlightened Sri Vaishnava. I

think he exhibited all the qualities that NarsiMehta extolled in his famous

lyric "vaishnava-janatO...".

 

Further, if we follow closely the story of the Ramayana, dear

'bhAgavatOttamA-s', it will become clear to us that Sri.Bharatha progressed

in life in exactly the same way as Swami Desikan, in his

'paramapada-sOpAnam', describes a Sri Vaishnava's spiritual odyssey on earth.

 

Sri.Bharatha returned to Ayodhya from a visit to his uncle's dukedom to find

the royal house of Ishvakus in a state of tragic disarray. The scheduled

coronation of his brother Rama had been revoked, his father was halfway on

the road to a sad death, the Crown Prince had been banished into the forest,

his mother Kaikeyi was strutting around as if the coup d'etat she had

engineered was the epochal moment in the history of the Raghuvamsha-empire,

his foster-mothers, Kausalya and Sumitra, already had on their faces the

shadow of the pall that darkens as it forebodes soon-to-become widows; and

above all, the people of Ayodhya -- men, women, children, street dogs and

stable-beasts -- were behaving as if they had all just been rendered

homeless by one gigantic storm of collective disaster !

 

And yet amidst all that political unrest, Sri.Bharatha knew that it was the

moment of a lifetime-opportunity for him, personally ! It was the moment

when he could have easily written himself into the glory of the history of

Ayodhya whose stewardship was virtually presenting itself then on a platter,

as it were, to him ! He could have in that moment paused and gazed into the

telescope of future History and seen himself as Emperor of the IshvAku

Kingdom, the most powerful, dazzling plenipotentate of those times,

presiding majestically over a great Empire ! That magnificent sight could

indeed have been enough to have seduced out all the vainglory of a Prince

with any ambition to ascend to a King's throne !

 

Let's not forget, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', that POWER, or the opportunity

for ABSOLUTE POWER, is said and known to kindle a strange kind of LUST in

the minds of men just as opportunities for carnal pleasure are known to

stoke the fire in their loins. Human history is full of such examples of

undeserving men seduced into POWER by the smallest opportunity for it that

came by their way. We know, too, from History, what tragedies such men wreak

on the affairs and destinies of peoples and nations when they grab and

exploit such prospects to POWER.

 

But our Bharatha, that gallant Prince of Ayodhya of that ancient age, was

not made, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', of the petty stuff of which such men in

our own times are known to be made of.

 

Bharatha was a 'vivEki' !!

 

He was a "vivEki" in the truest sense of the term as used in the

'paramapada-sOpAnam' !!

 

It was in BharathA's inherent nature to discriminate between Purpose and

Means. There was a fundamental strength in his whole personality make-up

which enabled him to distinguish, effortlessly and immediately, between what

his true existential purpose was and what only appeared to be so. He could

easily sense what were the things in life which promoted his advancement as

a human being and what were those that would veer him completely off-course

and away from his TRUE Destiny.

 

It was such remarkable ability of Sri.Bharatha, his 'vivEkam', which enabled

him to size-up and respond correctly to the chaotic situation then

prevailing in Ayodhya, when the entire Royal Court was looking up to him to

immediately take up the reins of power (from King Dasaratha) and establish

his writ of sovereignty.

 

If you go back to my post of 29 January, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', you will

recall that we described the 'vivEki' as one who, by his actions, exhibits

true awareness of the following:

 

a) the nature of truth ("satyam") and of error ("anartham")

b) the nature of good ("sat") and evil ("a-sat")

c) what promotes his spiritual progress and what retards it

d) what is the 'summum-bonum' of human existence on earth and

what only seems so;

 

Bharatha fulfills all the above criteria if you deeply consider, in the

light of his later actions in the 'AyodhyA-kAndam' :

 

a) He knew that simply because Kaikeyi had legitimately extracted from his

father the price of a past promise ("satyam"), she could not be said to be

right; because what is sometimes seen to be legitimate or legalistic is not

always moral ('anartham');

 

b) He realized that even if he took over the reins of power as King, and

with his own sterling individual qualities ruled Ayodhya competently, his

reign would never attain that high moral status of "sat" or 'sAttvic-ness'

that the rule of Lord Rama would naturally command;

 

c) He at once understood that the welfare of the Kingdom of Ayodhya lay not

so much in the hands of "Bharatha the King" as much as in the hands of

Bharatha, "fiduciary of Lord Rama".

 

d)And above all, Bharatha, understood very deeply that his life's mission on

earth would never be served by playing the part as "Ruler of Ayodhya";

instead he would do better to be known as the great one who, in spite of

being offered an Empire, renounced it willingly and cheerfully in favour of

its rightful owner! After all, as we all know, even the 14 years that

Bharatha did rule, by proxy, over Ayodhya are also commonly treated as part

of the famous 'rAma-rAjyA'; none ever mentions them distinctly as

"bharatha-rajyA" which, in truth, would not really be so inappropriate !

 

All the above reasons, dear 'bhAgavatOttamA-s', various scholars have

adduced to show us that Sri.Bharatha's glory in the pages of that great

epic, The Ramayana, rests primarily on his being a great 'vivEki' and an

extraordinary one at that --- and in the same lofty sense implied by Swami

Desikan in the first "step" of the 'paramapada-sOpAnam' !!

 

**********************************************

I had intended, dear friends, to make this my last post in this series. But

Sri.Bharatha's 'vivEkam' is in itself a subject of oceanic proportions !

 

I shall try to certainly make the next post my last where we will discuss

how Sri.Bharatha exhibited 'nirvedam', 'virakthi', 'bheethi' and 'prasada-hetu'.

 

srimathE srivan satagopa sri narayana yathindra mahadesikaya namaha

 

sudarshan