Musings on sita's "agni-pravesam" #18

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Dear members and friends who are following this thread,

 

"vedavEdyE parE pumsi jatE dasarathAtmajE

veda: prAcEtasAdAsitsAkshAt-rAmAyanAtmanA II "

 

The truth of the above Sanskrit stanza is evident nowhere else in the

Ramayana more strongly than in the "sundara-kAndam". Of the 7

'kAndA-s" of the epic it is the "sundara-kAnda" more than the others that

has captured the primacy and pride of place in the scriptural traditions of

India and its peoples.

 

The pre-eminent position of the "sundara-kAnda" in the religious life of

the peoples of India remains unshaken to this day.

 

In thousands of homesteads in India it is very common to come across

regular recitations being conducted of the 'sundara-kAnda' as even part of

daily worship and sacrament. If there are elders in your family you can be

sure they will constantly keep reminding the rest of the household about

the importance of doing "parAyaNam" of this particular chapter of the epic

as often as

possible. If not daily, one can be sure selected verses from certain

'sargA-s" of this "kAnda" will be recited on special domestic occasions and

events.

 

The family elders in fact will never tire of urging the rest of the family

to help keep the "sounds" or cadences ("Dhvani") of the "sundara-kAnda"

ringing as long as possible... and to keep them lingering about the house

constantly.... just as constantly as the sacrificial fires in the house of

a devout "agni-hOtri" would be kept ceaselessly aflame. "When the "sounds"

of the verses from the "sundara-kAnda"", you might often come across a

family-elder repeating,"When those "sounds" fill the air and spaces of our

home they create an "air", as it were, of auspiciousness everywhere.... and

they keep everyone's heart filled to the brim with a holy wholesomeness

hard to describe!"

 

It is not uncommon to find the "sundara-kAndam" also being prescribed in

family-circles as a standard, all-purpose, all-effective panacea for all

sorts of mental or spiritual ailments... a sort of "sarva-rOga-nivAraNi".

 

When our minds are troubled or unhinged, when the path of life is strewn

(as it often appears to most of us) with seemingly insurmountable

obstacles, when in the dark hour of a nameless despair we grope around for

the directions we must pursue in life..... Or when we encounter situations

(as we inevitably do in the course of life) of bitter separation,

estrangement or bereavement from those who are dear to us.... Or when we

silently suffer (as we again often perforce do in life) the anguish and

pain of some privation or loss ...Or when we have to bear the lonely cross

ourselves of some heavy burden which under compelling circumstance of

personal

state we are able to share with none in the world ...... In all such

situations in which we as frail mortals feel we have reached the end of our

spiritual tether....when we feel there is not a soul in the world to

commiserate with us.... In all such situations a patient and faithful

reading of the

"sundara-kAndam" will be readily recommended to us by the wisdom which the

ancient forefathers bequeathed to posterity through the sage counsel of the

living family-elder in our respective homes.

 

It is to be noted that of all the hallowed verses of the "sundara-kAnda",

the passages describing the encounter between Hanuman and Sita-pirAtti in

Asokavana and the unique, nocturnel dialogue they privately engaged in

while the rest of Lanka slumbered.... those particular passages, it is

believed,

possess a very special Vedic pungence ("nigama-parimalam") .... a pungence

so strong in muted suggestion of Vedantic/Upanishadic verity that they

simply have no parallel anywhere else in the Ramayana.

 

Now, the principal reason why the very sound of the verses of the

"sundara-kAndam" is held to be "auspicious and wholesome" is this:

 

Of the 7 parts of Srimad Valmiki Ramayana, it is in this one that the poet

has

employed almost numberless metaphors, imagery, allegory, suggestions and

'double-entendres' of Vedic Truth. It is believed that the hallowed

"veda-sabda"

---- at once sonorous and healing, revelatory and soul-uplifting in its

originally hymnal or incantatory form ---- that very ' veda-sabda' has

been in many

ways captured and reproduced by Sri.Valmiki in the graces and rhythms of

the poetic "sargA-s" that fill the pages of this wonderful "kAnda".

 

The great Masters of the past, our "purvAchAryA-s" like

Sri.Tirumalai-nambi, aver that it is no exaggeration to say the

"sundara-kAndam" is a virtual "vedArtha-samngraham".... an exquisite

epitome of both the Vedic "Word and Spirit"... of Vedic Form and Substance!

 

 

The "aggregate of effects" of such verses as remain composed in the

"sundara-kAndam".... I mean the aggregate of tonal, metric, phonetic,

semantic, not to mention the effects on the complex of our physiological,

motor, sensory and nervous systems as well as on the conscious and

subliminal layers of our psychology ... the total impact on mind,

intellect and soul .... the aggregate of all such effects produced by

constant reading or recitation of the "sundara-kAnda", it is believed, is

sufficient to promote in us the same level of heightened consciousness

which long years of relentless "vedAbhyAsa" are said to have induced

amongst the great "rshi-s" of yore and helped them attain the acme of

Vedic insight into Truth.... the same "para-brahmi-c" Truth we saw

described in the celebrated lines of the "purusha-suktam" as :

"veEdahamEtam purusham mahAntam, Adityavarnam tamasas parastAt....".

 

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

If you reflect deeply about it you will not fail to be impressed by the

fact that the philosophical loftiness of the "sundara-kAnda" actually

revolves around a single, almost commonplace event in the larger drama of

the Ramayana. That event, if you were to describe it in a single pithy

line,

is this and this alone:

 

"HanumAn sailed forth to Lanka and returned to deliver the "Word of

Sita" to Sri.Rama!".

 

In plain words, nothing more and nothing less ....indeed !

 

And yet .... and yet for having brought Him merely the "Word and Message of

Sita".... "vAkya-vAriNa" ..... we see Sri.Rama crowning Anjaneya with rare

and most glowing encomiums ... the sort which He bestowed on none others in

the entire Ramayana :

 

"krutam hanumatA kAryam sumahaDhruvi dushkaram I

manasApi yadanyEna na shakyam DharaNItalE II " (VI.1.2)

 

"What another man cannot even begin to think of in his conception, that

this Hanuman has indeed performed for Me !"

 

"idam tu mama dInasya manO Bhuyaha prakarshati I

yadihAsya priyAKhyAturna kurmi sadrusham priyam II

 

"Esha sarva-svaBhutastu parishvangO hanumataha I

mayA kAlamimam prApya dattash~chAstu mahAtmana-ha II " (VI.I.13-14)

 

"I cannot think of a fitting reward to give you, O Hanuman, you who have

brought me this heavenly "Word" (the "vAkya-vAriNA" of Sita) ! But I can

give off Myself to you, My dearest One ! Here is my body.... take it !

Here it is! It is all yours! I shall embrace you warmly, tightly with it...

I will hug you to my bosom!!"

 

Dear members and friends, now what more could Hanuman want in all the 3

worlds?!

 

To be gathered into the arms of the Almighty Himself and .... enveloped

into the endless beatitude of "mOksham" on earthly soil.....!! What an

experience, indeed !!!

 

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

 

Thus, we see how the Vedic "sabda", the Vedic Word incarnated as it were in

the poetic graces of Valmiki's "sundara-kAnda", was gathered from Asokavana

by Hanuman, from the very "sounds of the sweet speech" of Sita-pirAtti

("maDhurA

maDhurAlApA kimAha mama BhAminI "!), and conveyed to Sri.Rama just in time

to resuscitate Him from a state of grievous debilitation caused by the long

period of separation from Sita .... a period during which He suffered the

deprivation of that Vedic "vital-breath" the "brhadaranyaka

upanishad" describe as "nihsvasitam" of the "parE pumsi".....

 

It was for the "Word of Sita"... that incarnated form of "Veda-sabdam" that

was restored to Him ...it was for "Her Word" that Lord Rama rewarded

Hanuman with the experience of "mOksham-ic" bliss on earth.

 

It was the "Word of Sita" ... verily the eternal "vedic pramaNa" --- the

unsullied, unblemished Truth of Her own pristinity ---- it was that "vAkya"

which resuscitated Lord Rama .... in exactly the same manner as we saw it

being explained above, a recitation of the stanzas of the "sundara-kAnda"

resuscitates us from the afflictions of our own earthly condition and

adversity.....

 

We will continue in the next post.

 

adiyEn dAsAnu-dAsan,

sudarsan