Musings on Sita's "agni-pravEsam"#16

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Dear members and friends who are following this thread,

 

We will now take up for discussion the matter of "vAkya-" or "sabda-"

pramANa".

 

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At many points while reading Srimad Ramayana one might fail to notice the

unusually meaningful words the poet Sri.Valmiki puts into the speech of

Sri.Rama-pirAn. If we, as reverential readers, are not attentive or sharp

enough to catch those rare, fleeting words and phrases, there is every

likelihood of our ignorantly and mechanically moving on to the rest of the

epic after having inadvertantly passed up an opportunity to pause, sit

back, reflect on and savour a key moment of lucid revelation in the

narrative proceedings of Valmiki.

 

In the "sundara-kAndam", the reaction of Sri.Rama when He receives HanumAn

just returning to Kishkinda from the adventure of a reconnaisance tour of

Lanka .... the first reactions and utterances of the Lord on seeing Hanuman

then is an extremely singular case in point. We described in some detail

that scene in Musing # 11 and you may please re-visit it again just to jog

your memory.

 

"kimAha sItA vaidEhi brUhi sowmya puna-ha puna-ha I

pitAsumiva tOyEna singh~chanti vAkya-vAriNA II" (Valmiki V.66.8)

 

............He said.

 

"Tell me now.... once, twice, thrice ....and then again ("puna-ha puna-ha")

and again ...What were Her words?!! Tell me AnjanEya, now, tell me what

were Her words.... for it is those words that will revive me ....".

 

This is a very unusual reaction, isn't it?

 

A person has been separated from his spouse under violent and unfortunate

circumstances. The spouse has been abducted by a notoriously villainous

character. After several months spent in anxious search of her in the deep

jungles and valleys comes, at last, a messenger with news about the

spouse's whereabouts. Now what do you think would be the most natural

reaction of the husband on seeing the messenger?

 

I would say the first and the most spontaneous reaction would be : "Did you

see her? How is she?! Is she unharmed?! Unhurt?! Did you see any signs on

her.... signs of suffering, physical abuse, torture or violence?".

 

Sri.Rama's first words, on the other hand, were: "kimAha sItA vaidEhi brUhi

sowmya puna-ha puna-ha I pitAsumiva tOyEna singh~chanti vAkya-vAriNA I" !!

 

This statement of the Lord, "pitAsumiva tOyEna singh~chanti vAkya-vAriNA ",

virtually defies the spontaneous and the natural, the expected or the

predictable.... and from the point of view of a dramatist or playwright,

with any degree of keen sense for human emotion and behaviour, it would

also seem

downright incredible.... isn't it?

 

A few "shlOkA-s" later, we see something even more extraordinary!

 

Instead of proceeding to make eager and anxious inquiries about Sita's

state, condition, health or plight .... instead of asking Hanuman to

quickly report on such and similar findings of his from Lanka.... what do

we see Lord Rama instead doing ?!

 

We see Rama in that moment, suddenly and quite strangely, turn anxious and

fearful not so much for the sake of Sita condition as for His own !!

 

Look at Him speak out in the following verses:

 

"chiram jeevati vaidEhi yadi mAsam Dharishyathi I

na jeevEyam kshaNamapi vinA tAmasi-tEkshaNAm II

 

kimAha sItA hanumam-statvata-ha kaThamAdhya may I

EthEna Kalu jIvishyE bhEsha-jEnAturO yaThA II

 

maDhurA maDhurAlApA kimAha mama BhAminI I

madviheenA varArOhA hanumann kaThayasva may II " (V.66.10,14-15)

 

""Tell me what were Her words?... Tell me exactly ... what those words of

Hers were! For, I tell you, O HanumAn, it is those words which, like rain

drops on parched earth, will bring me back to life.... I beseech thee,

tarry not... Tell me what did She say? Do not keep anything back! Like a

desperately sick man depending on the medicines of the physician I grapple

now for my very life that depends on the words she spoke to you .... those

sweet words ("maDhurA maDhurAlApA kimAha mama BhAminI") the sweet words of

Hers that you now bring me!"

 

When you read the above verses, you can virtually hear the tremulous quiver

in Sri.Rama's voice.... the quavering despair too of a man gasping the

breath of near-death.... of a drowning soul clutching at a floating straw,

a twig, a leaf... at anything that might ensure a sudden reprieve and

survival... anything that will, at the last moment, avert a free-fall into

the

jaws of death, as it were....and save him too from perishment whose

imminence is a just a whisker of a moment away....!

 

We see Lord Rama is, in that dramatic moment, in very dire and mortal want

of....not

Sita Herself...not news about Her or Her whereabouts... or about Her state

or

plight....What He is, in His own words, most in dire need of is Sita's

"vAkya"... Her

"word"... Her "utterances"... "Her speech" !!!

 

It is indeed extremely significant that Lord Rama in this poignant scene

asks Hanuman to reproduce to Him, carefully and repeatedly, just the mere

"words of Sita".....""kimAha sItA vaidEhi brUhi sowmya puna-ha puna-ha I

pitAsumiva tOyEna singh~chanti vAkya-vAriNAI" !!

 

It is precisely at this momentous point in the story, too, that the

phrase...."vAkya-vAriNA".... in the context of Sri.Rama's feverish

references to it as the virtual elixir that will instantly BREATHE LIFE

into His dying spirit....it strikes us then that the "vAkya" referred to

here by Sri.Valmiki is, allegorically speaking, nothing but

"vEda-vAkya".... the hallowed Word of the Vedas.... the "sabda-pramANam" of

the eternal 'sruti-s' !!

 

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Now, you may well turn around to me and ask,"Why should it peculiarly

strike you so?". What is the thread of association... if there is one at

all... what is the conceptual thread which ties together the 2 themes: one,

the desperate, plaintive cries of Rama about "vAkya-vAriNA" and, two, the

idea of the Vedic "sabdam", the Vedic Word ?

 

That thread of association is, quite simply, this .... and it is again

essentially Vedic

in nature and conception:

 

In the vedic tradition it is believed that the "LIFE-BREATH of the

"paramAtman" ...who is an eternal living Reality... His life-breath is in

the Vedas itself. That "paramAtman" too, like us,

CANNOT "live" without breathing, so to say!".

 

In the BrhadAranyaka Upanishad (2.4.10) there is a wonderful passage which

testifies to the fact that the Vedic Word ("sabda") is verily "the vital

breath" of

"para-brahmham". Conversely, it is said that the breath of "Brahmhan", the

very act of His respiration, constitutes the Vedas:

 

"sa yathA'rdraidhAgnerrAbhyAhitAtprthagdhUma vinischarantyevam vA are'sys

mahato bhUtasya nihsvasita-metadyadrgvedo yajurvedo sAmavedo tharvAngirasa

itihAsa purAnam vidyopanishadah slokAh sUtrAnyanuvyAkyAnAni

vyAkhyAnAnyasyaivaitAni nihsvasitAni I"

 

Now, the chief meaning of the Upanishad "vAkya" above is that the Rk, Yajus

and

the Sama Vedas are the very BREATH of "para-brahmham". The word

"nihsvasitam" is used... and it clearly means "vital breath".

 

Now, if it were so, and the Upanishad is right ... as we implicitly believe

it is always right...and indeed, too, if Lord Rama cried out to Hanuman to

quickly tell Him what Sita's words were ("vAkya-vAriNA") .... as otherwise,

a minute longer, He would no longer revive to life.... now if all that were

exactly so... then is it not reasonable for us to conclude that Sita's

"vAkya"

was verily Rama's "vital breath".... the very elixir of life that would

instantly

revive Him like rain-drops enliven a parched tract of earth?

 

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On a careful consideration of all the above matters, can we not with a

certain amount of assurance, therefore, make bold to say that Sita's words

..... Her

"vAkya" which Sri.Rama-pirAn desperately yearned to hear from Hanuman ....

were Her

words not "veda-sabda".... "vEda-vAkya" in themselves?

 

And if we do indeed deem Her word, Her "vAkya" to be "veda-sabda" in

itself.... does it not follow naturally that Her Word, in a deeply

allegorical but essential sense, could be nothing but the Truth .... since

the Vedas

themselves see and speak nothing but the eternal Truth? ("vedAhamEtam

purusham mahAntam...etc!")

 

And finally, could one such as Sita, whose very word constituted

"vEda-vAkya"... the eternal Verity of the Vedas ... the very "life-breath",

the "nihsvasitam" of Isvara....could one such as She, in Her own person and

morals, ever be un-Truthful ?!

 

Impossible....unthinkable... is it not ?

 

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We will continue in the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

sudarshan