Rama remembers Guha on His return to AyodhyA

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika Mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest Srivaishnavas,

 

Sri Hari Krishnan has joined our list. Thanks to Sri Hari Kirishnan for

heeding to my request for joining the list. As mentioned earlier, he has

been writing brilliantly in religion column daily:

 

http://www.chennaionline.com/festivalsnreligion/religion/religion389.asp

This one attacted me today while reading.(His everyday's post does attract

me too).

 

I have reproduced it for your enjoyment on this auspicious Ekadasi dhinam

(on orutthi magannAy piRandhu naaL)

 

That is the last scene where we see Guha talking and interacting with

others. He departs to Srngaverapura after accompanying Bharata to Rama and

after Bharata takes the sandals of Rama back to Ayodhya. He appears in just

four cantos (padalam) in the second book. There is no mention of him

anywhere after that, till we reach the end of Yuddha Kanda.

This happens in the Valmiki Ramayana. When returning from Lanka after

slaying Ravana and installing Vibishana as the king, Rama returns to Ayodhya

in the pushpaka vimana and stays for a while in Bharadwaja Ashrama. He

realises that the time of fourteen years have passed and Bharata and others

would be waiting for him and that it is necessary for someone to take the

message of his return, before he reaches Ayodhya, as they were getting

delayed in Bharadwaja Ashrama.

 

He therefore summons Hanuman to take the message of his arrival to Bharata.

Let’s see how Valmiki’s Rama starts his speech.

“Moving with all speed to Ayodhya, O jewel among monkeys, quickly find out

if people in the royal palace are happy. Reaching Srngaverapura (earlier)

communicate in my name my welfare to Guha, the suzerain lord of Nisadas, who

dwells in the woods. Guha will feel actually delighted to hear of me as

being safe and sound and free from anxiety. He is my friend, as good as my

own self.” (Valmiki Ramayana, Yuddha Kanda, Canto CXXV, Sloka 4, 5)

‘Go to Ayodhya and announce my arrival. But before that go to Srngaverapura,

inform Guha that I am safe and am returning.’ That is simply astounding. It

is this simpleton that Rama is thinking of - even after the passage of

fourteen long, long years - and attaching so much importance to him that he

wants the message to be taken to Guha first, even before Bharata.

It was Bharata who is spending anxious days at Nandigrama and it is only

natural that he gets the priority in receiving the message. But Rama the

merciful, Rama the boundless who is bound by a fragile thread, love and

devotion, feels that Guha should receive the message first. “He is my

friend, as good as my own self,” he says.

 

Let alone emperors. How many of us would remember a simple boatman who did

nothing in our lives, excepting showing devotion at a point of time, when

our lives move in turbulence, turmoil and travail for a long time - fourteen

years in the case of Rama, the last year and a little more being the most

excruciating of them. Just try to recollect the number of smiling

cabdrivers, friendly bus conductors and such other persons who came into our

lives for a while, did nothing more than expressing a deep devotion,

interaction with whom is limited to less than a week. How many of us would

give him the place of importance that Rama gave to Guha?

 

Guha is a very minor character. He does not contribute anything to the

development of events excepting that he is a boatman who ferried Rama and

Bharata across the Ganga. But Rama does not forget him and the special

relationship he developed with Guha. He wants to ensure that his devotee is

rid of all worries first, superseding the natural right that his devout and

devoted brother. That is something very extraordinary and may be it has a

lesson for us all.

 

Thanks for his excellent write up. May Lord Sri Rama Bless him..

Regards

Namo Narayana

aDiyEn dAsan

 

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